Liberator Of Jedd rb-5

by Джеффри Ллойд

  Blade admitted that he had not yet made the acquaintance of the little girl in question. This was not very strange, he added, since events were rushing at such a torrential pace.

  Gath bowed and did not wholly succeed in repressing his smile. «You are strange here, Sire, and know little of Jedds. The Golden Princess, our Mitgu, is not such a child as you seem to think. But you must see for yourself. I will arrange it at once. Is there anything else you wish of me now?»

  Blade glanced to where Nizra still paced in the shadows. «Only that you summon six good men, whom you trust, and post them about me before I leave this place. And that you pass this on to the other captains — there will be a council of war tonight in the house of Nizra at two hours past sundown. I want all the captains there, including yourself. You will be responsible for the safety of all.»

  Gath saluted with his sword. «All shall be done.»

  «Then my hand to you again,» said Blade. They shook hands once more and Gath left. Blade and Nizra were alone in the chamber with the corpse of the old woman.

  Nizra spoke first. «I feared all this, Blade, but went against the warnings of my mind. I thought to use you and instead I have been used. It will be a lesson to me, if I live to profit by it.»

  Blade was silent, watching the Wise One continue his pacing.

  «What of it, Blade? Am I under arrest, then? Am I to be killed or kept prisoner?»

  «None of those,» Blade said curtly. «So long as you make me no trouble and do not plot against me. I need you, Nizra, as much as I ever did. I need your wisdom and your vast knowledge of this city and the Jedds. Give me freely, without stint or self-interest, of that wisdom and knowledge, and we will get going. Until my work is done and I must go from here. After that I cannot help you and you and the captains must have it out. Until that time, if you do not play me false, I will be your friend. But understand one thing — I am leader. I alone give orders.»

  Nizra came into the light of the tapers near the bed. He glanced across the withered corpse at Blade and a faint smile touched his tiny mouth.

  «To all this I agree, Blade. Because I believe you when you say that you will go soon. So, as I am no fool— despite having been made to look like one this past hour — I will wait and bide my time. When the time comes I will handle the captains. So much for all that.

  «And now — this trek you speak of to the north. To the Shining Gate and the land of the Kropes. It is ill-advised, Blade. Worse, it is an impossible madness. The Kropes have held the Jedds in thrall since time forgotten. To so much as approach the Shining Gate is sure death for all of us.»

  «I know nothing of this,» said Blade. He nodded to the dead woman. «But it was her wish, and she was not as senile as you thought, Nizra. But I will listen and then decide. Tell me of the Kropes, Nizra, and of this Shining Gate.»

  Nizra made a little bow and for once could not hide the bitterness and hate that boiled in that huge skull. «As you command, avatar.»

  Blade smiled calmly. «Yes, Nizra. To all purposes I am the avatar. It was you who named me so, remember?»

  «To my sorrow.»

  «The Kropes, Nizra! The Shining Gate.»

  Nizra told him. Blade listened with dismay clotting like lead in his chest. But he shook it off. It was simply another impossible task and he had, since the forays into Dimension X began, gotten quite accustomed to doing the impossible.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Richard Blade and Gath strode through the narrow streets of Jeddia. Two of Gath’s stalwart soldiers were in the van, two behind and a man on each side of them. They made their way around a death cart halted before a large inn. Blade was on his way to his first audience with the Child Princess Mitgu, she whom the folk of Jedd called the Golden Princess.

  Blade glanced at the corpseburners carrying out three victims of the plague, a child and two women. He looked at Gath. «You will give orders that no more death carts are needed. All corpses are to be left in the houses, where they will burn with the rest of the city. Find some other employment for the corpseburners — use them as you will.»

  «Yes, Sire.»

  A burst of crazy laughter came from a house as they passed. Gath doffed his helmet and wiped his face with a cloth. «At first I doubted, Sire, but now I see that you are right. The sooner this accursed city is burned the better.»

  They approached a tall wedge-shaped building, of the usual stone and wood, but much finer than even Nizra’s house. Here Mitgu lived and here she had summoned Blade to visit her. It had been an order, not a request, and Blade smiled when he heard it. He must not forget that, with the old Empress dead, Mitgu was the new Jeddock. He had begun to look forward to the meeting — never before had he had dealings with an imperious little girl of ten. It would, at least, be a different sort of confrontation.

  Gath, on Blade’s orders, had posted a strong guard around the home of the little Princess. A junior officer saluted with his sword as they passed and both Blade and Gath returned the salute. They paused at the door and Gath sent the sentry away for a moment.

  Blade studied his chief aide. «You are mindful of my orders about Nizra?»

  Gath said, «I am, Sire. He is not to be harmed, unless on your explicit orders, and he is never to go unwatched. My spies are busy, Sire, and they are good men. Nizra may do what he will and go where he chooses, but he will always be watched. My men report to me on the hour.»

  Blade nodded in approval. «Good. But remember that he is not called the Wise One for nothing — and I daresay his spies are as good as yours. Probably he has more of them. When did you see him last?»

  Gath grinned. «I left him in his house, Sire, after I had disbanded his guard of honor and taken their weapons. To tell truth he did not look too unhappy, and there was a great coming and going of men. Spies, no doubt. Would you have me stop this traffic? It would be easy enough to do.»

  After a moment of hesitation, Blade said, «No. I want to give him rein, see what he will do. So long as I know what he is doing I can see no great harm. So carry on as before, Gath. Do not impede him in any manner unless he threatens me or the Child Princess. This is understood?»

  «It is, Sire.»

  «And now,» said Blade, «I must go and meet your little Princess.» He twitched his swordbelt around and straightened his helmet. He had changed his robe for a soldier’s tunic over which he wore a highly burnished breastplate. Short trousers of fine cloth and high-laced sandals completed his dress.

  Gath was staring. Blade laughed and said, «I am a little nervous, to tell you true. How does one handle a ten-year-old? But I will cope. How do I look, Gath?»

  Gath saluted with his sword. «Just as I would have you look, Sire. Like my leader.» He saluted again and stepped back. «I wish 30U fortune with the Child Princess, Sire, but only remember this — words sometimes lie, and among us Jedds a ten-year-old is not exactly a child. Not yet a woman, perhaps, but not a child.»

  Blade thought of Ooma and wondered. He had put her age at fourteen or less, and still marveled at her experience and skill in lovemaking. Was Ooma even fourteen? His doubts came back.

  But a child, a girl, of ten? Surely she could present no problems. All he had to do was humor her and win her confidence, show her that he was honest and meant her only good. Yet he was faintly uneasy as he went into the house and mounted a stair to an upper chamber where he was awaited.

  He approached an ornate door. A middle-aged woman, dressed all in black and wearing an iron chain much similar to that of Nizra, bowed to him and opened the door.

  «The Princess Mitgu awaits you, Sire.»

  Blade halted and looked at the woman. «I would be alone with her. This is understood?»

  «It is understood, Sire. You will not be interrupted.»

  Blade stepped into the chamber. It was spacious and very dark except for two tapers gleaming at either end of a large cushioned seat. Rugs and pillows were scattered all about and there was a taint of incense in the room. Blade halted and gaze
d around. Where was this Child Princess, then?

  A close-cropped head of golden hair appeared from behind the divan-like seat. The tapers sparked and reflected themselves in that smooth poll and a pair of wide-set and narrowed eyes studied Blade. For a moment he was shaken, thinking himself the butt of some outrageous joke. This was a boy!

  The voice, high and dear and lilting, was that of a girl. «I wanted to see you first,» it said. «That is why I hid and spied when you entered. All of Jedd whispers of you, Sire.»

  Blade, one hand on his swordhilt, bowed low and was silent. He did not really believe his eyes, Blade who had been in so many dimensions and had seen sights that few men in his own world could believe.

  She had come around the divan now and was confronting him and matching him in silence while each studied the other. Her poise and bearing left no doubt that she was a Princess born. Her flesh — and she displayed a great deal of it — glowed with a coppery-yellow translucence that seemed to give color to the tapers. Blade had the fleeting impression that he could see her fine bone structure trimmed beneath the satiny flesh. This illusion soon passed and his throat dried and his hands were moist in the palms and he, of all men, felt and admitted a fine trembling in his knees. This was youthful beauty incarnate. He had never seen its like before and knew that he would never see it again. And also knew, that if he married this child, he would be powerless to restrain himself from consummating the marriage. Already his groin tingled and for just a moment Blade felt shame.

  «Yes,» said the Princess Mitgu. «I will call you Sire. I was not sure I would, but now I see that I must. You look like a Sire. And I think I will marry you. I was not sure of that either, but now I will. You are the handsomest man I have ever seen and not at all like the Jedds. That is a pity in a way, because all the captains will be jealous and make much trouble for you. But that cannot be helped, I think.»

  Blade felt like a fool and supposed that he looked a bit like one. Had his mouth been hanging open?

  He bowed again and said, «I have much to learn, Princess. I did not know that you had been courted by any of the captains.» It was true. Nizra had said nothing of this, nor had Gath mentioned it. He wondered if it meant new complications, new jealousies? His plate was full enough as it was.

  Mitgu cocked a tiny finger at him. «Come further into the light, Sire. Sit with me and we will talk and make ourselves known to each other. A girl should know something of the man she is to marry. And I would have you tell me of great-grandmother. How did she die?»

  «She died well,» he told her. «Well and in peace. And it was her wish that we marry, Princess, not mine. I promised her, else I would not be here now.»

  Her face, with its small, perfect features, reminded him of a copper rose. The corners of her red mouth turned down. «I loved her, even though she was often stern with me. I would have been at her bedside, but it is against Jedd law for the young to watch the old die. A stupid law, I think, as so many things in Jedd and Jeddia are stupid. But now that you are here, and to be my husband, all that will change. Come, I said. Sit with me.»

  Sweat trickled down the back of Blade’s stalwart neck. She came to him and took his big hand in her tiny one and led him to the divan. She wore very little, just a vestige of white bra over her small, virginal breasts and the miniest mini-skirt Blade had ever seen. The skirt barely sufficed to cover her and Blade would not let himself look at the slim golden legs beneath the skirt. They were long, perfection in form, and in exactly the right proportion to the compact little torso above them. He could almost have spanned her waist with one hand. But it was the odor of her that most intrigued Blade. And made him extremely nervous.

  If it was perfume he had never known any like it. Indeed he did not think it was perfume — it was the clean and uncloyed scent of a well-scrubbed child, a girlchild just hovering on the brink of womanhood. Her tender flesh glowed at him, emanating a warmth and a fragrance and, yes, a golden color that made his face redden and his own flesh sticky with sweat. Richard Blade was finding out things about himself — things that he did not really want to know. Was he really this much a lecher? For honesty bade him admit that he was sexually excited, but this fragile and lovely child had aroused him almost beyond bearing. Yet bear it he must. At least until after the marriage. Beyond that he did not dare to think.

  Mitgu pulled him down beside her on the divan. She took one of his hands in both of hers and laid it on her bare leg. Electricity seared through the big man and he made a final effort. He sat bolt upright, took his hand back and put on a most solemn visage.

  «We will speak of marriage later, Princess. Plenty of time for that. I came to inform you about my plans and to know if they meet with your approval.»

  A formality, but one he deemed necessary. This girl was now the nominal ruler of the Jedds and, though he meant to go through with his plans in any case, it would be easier with her cooperation. He told her of his plan to burn the city and trek to the north.

  She was watching him closely. Her eyes, sloe dark and in startling contrast to the golden head with its boyishly cut hair, were tip-tilted at the outer corners and when she smiled with her mouth her eyes smiled too. They smiled now at his attempt to be formal. She squeezed his arm and laughed at him, gold and silver notes that tinkled through the great gloomy chamber.

  «You are afraid of me,» she crowed. She clapped her hands in glee. «You are like all the captains, except that you do not go down on bended knee. But you are like them all the same — you think I am a little girl who must be given sweets and humored.» She moved away from Blade and twisted lithely on the divan to face him. Blade was permitted to gaze for an instant between those girlish golden thighs, to explore a silken, coppery cavern where lurked a fuzzy golden shadow. Mitgu wore nothing at all beneath the brief skirt. His heart thudding, his breathing strained, Blade tore his glance away from that virginal target. He felt dizzy and his head spun. Sweat drenched him. He did not understand this — never had he suffered such an onslaught of unbridled animal lust. And for a child of ten! He stood up, conscious only that he must get out of this place before he lost control.

  Mitgu clapped her hands again, unmindful of his torment, and laughed at the big man towering over her.

  Suddenly she sobered, frowned and extended her hand to him again. «I am sorry, Sire. And I did not speak true — you are not at all like the others. But I would have you know that I am not a child, not a little girl. I am a woman.»

  Blade, having got well away from the divan and the temptations there, paced a few steps back and forth and then faced her again.

  «Are you, then? A woman?» Blade had won his battle now and felt calmer. His look, still in self-defense, had a hint of coldness and mockery in it.

  «If this is so,» he continued, «and you are indeed a woman and no child, then you will understand that I am a man and you will know what is in my mind.»

  The sloe eyes narrowed at him for a moment and she laughed again. With one supple movement she twitched off the tiny bra and flung it aside. She gazed down at her breasts, then up at Blade.

  «See, then. Are these the breasts of a little girl, a child?»

  To Blade, of Home Division, they were indeed the breasts of a child, of a tender and unsullied girl verging on womanhood, and therein lay his greater agony. Her breasts were small and plump and perfect rounds of flesh unspoiled by fondling. Coppery mounds as soft as the flesh of inner thigh. Moving now to her breathing, trembling with hie of their own, tipped with pink buttons of erectile tissue now responding to her inner excitement.

  Mitgu put her little hands under her breasts and cupped them and lifted as if to offer them to Blade. She caught her breath and with a half sigh, half gasp, repeated, «Are these the breasts of a child?»

  Blade stood tall, his shadow etched by the tapers and falling across that golden little body. As he could cover her, then and there, if he wished it.

  Mitgu trailed her fingertips across her nipples, then extended her arm
s to Blade. «Would you kiss me, Sire? And so find out how much child I am?»

  He had taken a step toward her when the door was flung open and the lady-in-waiting entered. Mitgu squealed and disappeared behind the divan. Blade, feeling like a man who has seen the axe begin to fall and then been reprieved, yet turned on the woman with a scowl. An order was an order!

  «I was not to be disturbed—»

  The woman bowed low and her voice quavered as she nervously fingered her chain of office. «I know, Sire, but there is one who insists. He would not be turned away. He is a cornet, sent by Gath himself, and he has news of the greatest import. He threatened to kick in the door and enter unless I—»

  «Enough,» Blade said gruffly. He brushed past her without a backward glance. But he thought he heard a subdued giggle from behind the divan and his face grew hot. That had been a near thing. But one thing he knew — in future, if he had a future in Jedd, he would treat Mitgu as a woman. She was right. She was no child.

  The young Jedd waiting for him in an anteroom was one of Gath’s sublieutenants. Blade recognized him vaguely and spotted the polished iron cornet around the man’s throat. The little iron half-moon was engraved with a large G. This was one of Gath’s men, right enough.

  As Blade strode toward him, the young officer saluted with his short sword, then touched the blade to his chest armor over his heart. «I am Sesi, Sire Blade, sent to you by the Captain Gath on an affair of the utmost importance. The Captain is busy elsewhere and could not attend you in person.»

  Blade crossed his arms on his chest and nodded. Smiled encouragement. «Then out with it, Sesi. What is this great news?»

  The cornet, a stripling with a few chin whiskers and very light gray eyes, met Blade’s glance for a moment and then looked away. He stared hard at the floor in concentration. Here, Blade thought, was no great intellect. This Sesi would never be a captain.

  «I am to give you this message word for word,» the young officer said. «It comes from the Captain Gath as given to him by another. But first I am to tell you that the message was delivered by a fat man.»