by Джеффри Лорд
So they demonstrated the great wands. In Blade's now well-trained hands, one of them whiffed a couple of condemned criminals into the usual red mist. That opened a good many eyes among the Leopards. Bryg-Noz's descriptions of Nris-Pol and his ambitions opened a good many more. Within a couple of days, at least the warriors of the Leopards were enthusiastic advocates of war.
«In fact,» said Blade to Bryg-Noz one evening, «I have the feeling there's more to their wanting war than meets the eye.»
«How?»
«They tend to feel a little-well, downtrodden-being this much under the rule of women. I think they see this war as the best chance they'll ever have to get out and do something on their own.»
«Perhaps. But their wanting war doesn't make any difference. The Council of Leaders has to give its unanimous consent, and so far they haven't even invited us to speak before them.»
The long-awaited invitation came a few days later, but produced nothing. Bryg-Noz and Blade went before the Council of Leaders. They presented the same case they had already presented a dozen times before to the ten women, the youngest barely thirty, the oldest a wrinkled but sharp-witted crone who must have been well past a hundred. All ten listened politely, but the Principal Leader apparently spoke for all of them when she said:
«We will consider this idea. It is a great departure from all that has gone before. Though we do not bow to the War and Peace Wisdom here in the Tower of the Leopard, we do consider what will be good for our tower. And we cannot say at this moment whether what you ask will be good for it. Come again in time, ask again, and perhaps you will receive an answer.»
Needless to say, Bryg-Noz flew into a towering rage-as soon as he was out of the council room. Blade spent a good deal of time in calming him down. Finally he got some wine into the Serpents' leader, and then some more wine, and then still more wine. Before too long Bryg-Noz was in a state where he would have praised the War and Peace Wisdoms if Blade had asked him to. Instead, Blade suggested that perhaps they didn't need to wait for the Council of Leaders to approve everything.
«I don't see why I can't sit down with some of their warriors and make plans, at least. After all, we're going to need completely new tactics and weapons to storm a defended tower. That's never been done before, has it?»
«N-n-no.»
«I don't even know if they have what we'll be needing,» Blade went on. «I can find that out in a few days, and tell you what I've learned.»
«I-think-that's an excellent- hic! — idea.» That was all the agreement Blade got before Bryg-Noz had to make a dash for the bathroom, but it was enough.
So Blade spent the next several days talking with the warriors and workers of the Tower of the Leopard, and inspecting their work chambers. He knew that preparing this war was going to be almost easy, compared with some of the jobs he had done in Dimension X. He did not have to train a corps of fighters almost from scratch, nor reinvent weapons lost for centuries, nor train warriors in their use. He did not even have to build most of what he needed. Practically all of it was already on the racks of the work chamber. Heavy metal stakes, mallets, lengths of the incredibly light and tough lifter cord, chemicals to make smoke-it was all there.
Blade would have liked to introduce the bow, but decided against it. To be sure, the lifter cord would make excellent bowstrings. But to make bows and arrows and then train any reasonable number of warriors to use them well would have taken a good deal of time. And time was what they did not have. Every morning when Blade went out on the balcony to gaze toward the Tower of the Serpent, he was a little more surprised not to find two-thirds of it missing.
However, there was plenty of time and plenty of material to make thousands of six-foot pikes. Each man in the attacking force would carry a bundle of a dozen or so on his back, and hand them out to the Low People of the Serpents. They would be used by completely untrained men and women, and they would give Nris-Pol one more thundering great headache. A man armed with one of them would not, of course, be equal to a warrior with a sword. But he could certainly keep anyone armed with an administering wand at arms' length.
While Blade was setting up the war, Bryg-Noz had not been idle in political matters. A week after the first council meeting, the two men got together again over more wine and compared notes. Bryg-Noz seemed happy again, as far as Blade could tell.
«We've almost done it, Blade. Eight out of ten of the leaders will vote for war and give us free call on the resources of the Leopards.»
«What about the other two?»
«One is simply slow to make up her mind. Everybody says she'll vote for war when she does.»
«She'd better hurry up. Nris-Pol isn't going to sit and wait forever.»
«She will. The other eight are all pressing her to decide. It's the tenth one who's the problem. Ye-Jaza, the youngest one. She's incredibly stubborn and short-tempered. Nobody dares try to influence her, for fear she'll vote against everything they want to try for the next twenty years.»
«Is there anything to do about her?»
Bryg-Noz raised his eyebrows and looked at Blade. «Possibly. You are fairly-able-with women, are you not?»
The question so obviously had something to do with the matter at hand that Blade did not resent it. He nodded.
«They say that Ye-Jaza is-at thirty-a virgin. Now the tale goes that a woman is apt to be much influenced by the man who makes her a woman, if you follow my meaning.»
Blade shrugged. «It is quite often just that-a tale. It depends on the man and the woman.»
«Stop playing games, Blade!» Bryg-Noz took a deep breath. «Would you be willing to try seducing Ye-Jaza, and seeing if she will listen to you afterwards?»
Blade nodded. «I think the word is 'try,' however. If she's that stubborn and bad-tempered, perhaps that's why she's still a virgin. And suppose she takes it into her head to charge me with rape? That's a capital offense in the Tower of the Leopard, the way treason was in the Tower of the Serpent.» Blade drew the edge of his hand across his throat.
«I know,» said Bryg-Noz. There was a forced lightness in his voice as he added, «But didn't you once say you were the most expendable man we had?»
«I did,» said Blade. He couldn't deny it. But he could wish he had had the sense to keep his mouth shut on that occasion.
Chapter SEVENTEEN
Blade had only seen Ye-Jaza once, at the meeting of the Council of Leaders. That brief glimpse had given him no clues as to her character. He remembered a small, slender woman, with a thin, almost bony face, and a mass of blue-black hair worn long like a young girl's. Not at all what Blade would call attractive, but definitely not ugly either. She had seemed to be staying remote and distant from the discussion. He suspected that she was a woman who knew her own mind much too well to be susceptible to any such simple-minded strategy as Bryg-Noz had proposed. But try as he might, Blade could not see that there was anything better they could do-at least without waiting indefinitely for Ye-Jaza to make up her own mind. They did not have time for that kind of waiting.
They did not have it, because Nris-Pol's position in the Tower of the Serpent was growing stronger each day. About every third day the underground group remaining in the tower sent over a messenger, and the messages always told the same story. Nris-Pol was strengthening the guards, and assigning to them warriors loyal to himself. Nris-Pol had caused seven prominent warriors who opposed him to be degraded to the Low People on false charges of treason and violations of the Wisdoms. Nris-Pol had caused four women who spoke against him to be sent to the pleasure chambers. Nris-Pol had done this, Nris-Pol had done that, Nris-Pol, Nris-Pol — always Nris-Pol.
One day Blade exploded in frustrated fury, «What the devil is Queen Mir-Kasa doing about all this? Can't she do anything against Nris-Pol?»
«She can keep herself alive,» said Bryg-Noz shortly. The strain was telling on him even more than it was on Blade. The lines in his face were growing deeper each day, and even his hair seemed to be growing grayer. «And that is
about all she can really do. Unless-«
«Yes?»
«Unless she guesses what we are planning and what Nris-Pol is planning. She might-she's no fool. And if she does, she might be waiting for us to attack, so that we and Nris-Pol can destroy each other.»
Blade nodded. «Leaving her in complete command of the Tower of the Serpent-or what's left of it.» He shrugged. «If she knew what we were really planning, that would be very short-sighted of her. But I don't suppose she knows about our plans for raising the Low People.»
«I hope not,» said Bryg-Noz grimly. And there they had to leave the matter.
Fortunately, good news came before Bryg-Noz's hair had turned entirely white. Ye-Jaza invited Blade to a private dinner in her chambers.
«Marvelous!» said Bryg-Noz. «You can begin making an impression on her now. But for the Wisdoms, don't move too fast!»
«Didn't you say I had a way with women?» said Blade sourly. «Then leave this to my judgment.» Reluctantly, Bryg-Noz agreed.
In fact, there was no opportunity to move fast or slowly at that dinner. It was «private» only in the sense that there were no more than a dozen people there. They seemed to be there principally to provide an audience for Ye-Jaza, however. If she had been silent and remote in the council meeting, she was certainly not that way at the dinner. Her mouth hardly ever closed, except to chew her food, for the space of two whole hours. This might have been deadly dull, except that she at least had a well-stocked, even brilliant mind. Her conversation would have been fascinating if there hadn't been so bloody much of it! There was no opening all evening for Blade to do anything but sit back and be part of the passive audience for the autocratic hostess.
Bryg-Noz, who had let his hopes rise unreasonably high, was greatly downcast by Blade's report.
«Isn't there anything you could have done?» he implored.
«Certainly,» snapped Blade. «I could have snatched Ye-Jaza from her chair and raped her on her own dining table in front of her own guests in the middle of her own tableware. But that wouldn't have done us any good. There was nothing I could have done that would have helped us.»
Bryg-Noz glowered at Blade, but kept his peace. At least he had enough sense to let «the one who fights the bull» do the job the way he saw it.
In any case, four days later Blade got another invitation to one of Ye-Jaza's parties. There were only six people this time, and Blade found at least one of the openings he had been looking for. Something Ye-Jaza said reminded Blade of something he had encountered on his own travels elsewhere in Dimension X. Breaking into a pause in Ye-Jaza's flow of words, he began telling anecdotes of those travels. He had always been a reasonably good conversationalist, but now he knew he had to rise to unusual heights.
He succeeded. Before Ye-Jaza had her mouth empty and was ready to start talking again, Blade had the other four at the table listening entirely to him. And this time it was to him that they listened for the remaining two hours of the dinner party. The four were obviously fascinated. Ye-Jaza glowered for a few minutes-being shut out of the conversation at her own dinner table was something new for her. Then she stopped glowering and started listening. Gradually her expression changed, and began to show interest, then fascination, then finally even a little awe. When the party finally broke up-hours after it was supposed to-Ye-Jaza's eyes followed Blade out the door with unmistakable interest.
This was all very well as far as it went, but that was not very far. Fortunately there was no more bad news from the Tower of the Serpent for several days. Nris-Pol had apparently done as much consolidating of his position as he thought he needed to, at least for the moment.
Then on the fifth day two things happened. Blade received another invitation from Ye-Jaza, this one sent by messenger and written on perfumed paper. And word came from the Tower of the Serpent that Queen Mir-Kasa had appointed Bryg-Noz's younger brother Kir-Noz to be Queen's Steward. Bryg-Noz was in a sweat of anxiety over this, although he could not really say whether it was good news or bad news.
«A little of both,» he finally said with a sigh. «If Mir-Kasa can appoint somebody with so little love for Nris-Pol, she must not yet be completely helpless. And Kir-Noz will be a good man to have giving orders to her guards and standing between her and the ambitions of Nris-Pol.
«But that also makes him Nris-Pol's first target, doesn't it?» said Blade.
Bryg-Noz nodded wearily. «Yes. Nris-Pol's next move will be my brother's death sentence. It cannot be otherwise. Before Nris-Pol is ready to move, we must be.» Bryg-Noz did not add any urgings to Blade this time. He knew that Blade was moving as fast as he could.
Blade nearly moved all the way to his goal that same night. When he arrived in Ye-Jaza's dining chamber, he saw that the table was laid out for only two people. And a large bottle of what both looked and smelled like wine stood in the middle of the table.
Ye-Jaza appeared a moment later. When she did, Blade wondered who was planning to seduce whom. She wore a gown of shimmering black and green threads that flowed around her slender limbs. As far as Blade could see, she wore nothing at all under it. Her hair was piled high on top of her small head, and a thin gold circlet shone against the blackness of the hair. She seemed slightly ill at ease, and there was a definitely strained note in her voice as she welcomed Blade and told him to sit down.
The meal came on, course after course, spicier than usual. This inevitably produced a lively thirst, and that was where the wine bottle came in. Blade saw that Ye-Jaza was drinking twice as much as usual. He held himself back, carefully not keeping pace with her.
Gradually Ye-Jaza's eyes began to sparkle as they had never done before, her movements became quick and lively, and her laughter louder and more prolonged. Her speech did not become slurred, but it flowed less readily. For the first time the conversation actually flowed back and forth between the two of them, instead of being a monologue by one or the other.
Blade became more and more aware of Ye-Jaza's real physical attractiveness as the meal wore on. And he became less and less able to keep his eyes off her. It was particularly hard to do this when she leaned back in her chair, and the outlines of small but well-formed breasts appeared under her gown. There was definitely nothing else covering them except that gown.
Dessert came, and with it a second bottle of wine. Ye-Jaza's laughter now occasionally faded out in a girlish giggle. Her dignity had almost entirely fallen away. Or had she perhaps let it drop deliberately?
But nothing further happened, and he decided it was best not to make anything happen this time-unless Ye-Jaza asked for it. He rose to leave, taking great care where he put his feet. He weighed nearly twice as much as the woman, and had drunk barely half as much wine. But it had been strong wine.
Ye-Jaza rose also, tottering slightly on her high heels, and keeping her face straight with obvious difficulty. She came around the table toward Blade, coming closer and closer until she was just one step beyond the reach of his arms. Blade stood motionless, waiting for her to take that last step of her own free will.
She took it, and slowly his arms closed around her, pulling her gently the rest of the way against him. He saw her slim white throat contract several times as she swallowed rapidly. Suddenly there was a glaze of sweat on her high forehead. Blade's hands ran down to the small of her back, fingers playing a gentle rhythm along her spine. Then they rose and stroked the sides of her neck, from just below the small neat ears down to the shoulders of her gown. Definitely she had nothing on under the gown. Blade could feel the warmth of her body striking through the threads, and soft round limbs pressing harder and harder against his. Genuine desire was in him as he moved his hands down lower, over the gentle upper curves of her breasts.
Her throat contracted again, and this time her breasts rose also as she took in a deep breath. «N-n-no,» she said. It seemed to Blade that she was talking more to her own body, denying its urgings, than she was to him. She took another deep breath. «I-you don't-not-this-«Between
the wine and the arousal she could barely talk coherently.
She did not back out of Blade's arms. Instead he let his hands fall away, and stepped back, looking straight into her eyes as he did so. They seemed larger than ever before, and they were filled with tears. «I'll be back,» he said softly, as he turned to go.
Outside Blade took a deep breath of his own, and let it out in a sigh of relief. The physical attraction was there, and so were the responses of Ye-Jaza's unawakened body. But she still had to decide whether to let that body wake fully, or try to club it back into its sleep. He wondered how long it would take her to decide.
Bryg-Noz was waiting in their chambers when Blade returned. He was obviously as excited as a schoolboy about something. But he could not help noticing the expression on Blade's face.
«Did you-?»
Blade held thumb and forefinger about half an inch apart.
«This close.»
«Do you think you can do it the next time?»
«How the devil should I know?» exploded Blade. «Women are unpredictable creatures at best. Those who are still virgins at thirty are more so than most. Besides, what makes you think that simply one night with me will make Ye-Jaza my slave? It may take weeks even after I reach my first goal, damn it!»
Bryg-Noz sighed. «I know, Blade. In my head I know all of these things, but in my heart-«He shrugged. «There is important news from the Tower of the Serpent. Nris-Pol has organized a war with the Tower of the Ox. He is sending out one hundred warriors.»
Blade's lips pursed in a silent whistle. That was by far the largest war party he had ever heard about. The usual war party was the forty he had seen his first day in Melnon; occasionally there were fifty or sixty. But a hundred?
«Who are they?» he asked, his voice sharp.
Bryg-Noz looked bewildered. «What do you mean?»
«I mean-are they all of Nris-Pol's own faction, or are they his enemies, or is it a mixture, or what? That makes a difference-an enormous difference.»