Hirga screamed in frightful joy. She threshed around on the bed and screamed and screamed and the sound filled the room and ripped at Blade's nerves. He was gripping the swordhilt so hard that his fingers cramped. He pushed against the door. It gave a bit. He must go in, he must kill the thing, end this foulness, for he could stand no more. Casta would know this. It was so planned. Bit by bit he was fraying away Blade's nerves, whittling at his courage.

The thing was gone. Blade pushed into the room and went to the bed. Hirga lay fainting, her face in repose again, her eyes dull and heavy-lidded, her mouth swollen and pouty. Moisture glistened in her pubic hair and trickled down her inner thighs. She did not seem to know he was there.

Blade glanced at the floor. A few scales. The foul smell was fading. Yet another illusion? No. This had been real. The creature had been there, just as it had been in the cavern cubicle before, and in the palace bedroom. Hirga was in bond to it, slave to it, to Casta's abominable creation.

Hirga opened her eyes and stared up at Blade. They were a soft and sleepy green and yet now they begged.

«Blade. You saw?»

«I saw.»

«Do you understand?»

Blade shook his head.

«Casta,» she told him with a weariness in her voice now. «He devises it and his priests obey-in the crypts below they copulate with beasts and so produce monsters. Half animal and half men-of many sorts. Casta seeks to produce a race of monsters with brute strength and small brains so he can control them and, through them, all of Zir and, eventually, the world.»

«The intent is not new to me,» said Blade. «The method is. But what of you, Hirga? Does your body have you so in thrall? Must you be Casta's creature always?»

Hirga rose on an elbow and looked at him. The green eyes pleaded. «When the desire, the madness comes over me I cannot help myself. But when the creature has come and gone I am, for a little time, satiated, and can think for myself. Now is such a time. So I beg a favor of you, Blade. Grant it to me and I will help you as much as I can-I will warn you of what lies ahead, though you must fend for yourself, and I will tell you of a way out of the maze should you live to use it.»

Blade felt mingled pity and revulsion. «And what is this favor, Hirga?»

«Kill me, Blade. Cut off my head and take it with you. It may be of some help when you meet Urdur.»

«And who is Urdur? Or what?»

Hirga began to weep. «A monster born of monsters. Casta mated a male with a female monster and they begat Urdur. He is Casta's familiar and guards him, and now that you have come this far into the maze you will meet him. If you can kill Urdur you will have defeated Casta. I do not think you can, Blade, but you cannot go back. Now, before the madness comes over me again, I ask you to kill me. I am vile and loathe myself beyond bearing. I grow old. Soon I will be a hag and Casta will use me to breed his monsters. And I have no courage to kill myself.»

Blade stepped away from the bed. «Find it, then. For this I cannot do.»

She was at his feet, clutching at his knees, begging with tear-filled eyes. «I beg it. I beg it! Please, Blade. It is no stain on you and a favor to me. Promise me this and I will tell you of the secret way out. There is only one. Without this knowledge you will die in the maze, even if you kill Urdur. Even if you slay Casta. The crows will wait until you are weak from hunger and thirst, dazed from searching a way out, then they will creep up and slay you. I know this.»

Blade stared long into the green eyes and saw truth there. She did wish this thing.

«Tell me of the way out, Hirga.»

«You promise to kill me?»

«I promise.»

«You were in Casta's private chamber?»

«He nodded.

«Then you saw a fire?»

«Aye. He sat before it.»

«Beneath the fire, when you scatter it, is a grate that can be lifted out. A hole leads into a passage and the passage out to the Plain. When the tomb is sealed, as it now is, it is the only way out.»

He believed her. He looked down at her and fingered his beard and knew that he must do her this kindness.

Hirga still knelt before him. «Do it quickly, Blade. Before I lose courage and become mad again. Before my body lusts again.»

He stroked the gleaming red hair. «Close your eyes, Hirga. Be at peace. It will not hurt.» «I thank you, Blade. Farewell.» «Goodbye, Hirga.»

Chapter 16

Beyond the bed was a door. As Blade approached it, the door swung open. Blade laughed and strode through and into a passageway. He carried the head of Hirga in his left hand, gripping it by the long red hair. In his right hand his sword was ready.

The passage sloped upward. Light gleamed at the end of it. The odor came again, fetid and obscene but somehow different. Worse. Blade hurried up the ramp.

He halted before a vast iron door. From a tube over the door the voice of Casta was whispering.

«Greetings, Blade. I had not thought you would get this far. I miscalculated my control of Hirga. You are a warrior and a man such as I have never seen before. All this I admit. It is a pity that we must quarrel. Do not enter this door, Blade. Wait in patience until I come to you. We will talk as reasonable men. With your brain and strength and courage, and with my secrets, we can rule the world together. As equal partners. Think on it, Blade. Wait. Do not go through the door.»

«Can you hear me, priest?»

«I can hear you.»

«Then hear this. I will pass this door. I will seek you out. I will kill you. Take my advice and, since you are a priest, pray.»

Laughter came from the tube. «I am sorry, Blade. I would not have you dead. But there is no cure for a fool.»

Silence. Blade waited. Silence. He kicked the iron door with his foot and it swung open.

He was in a den of some sort. Dim light came from torches all around. There was earth beneath his feet instead of stone and he trod in a mess of dung before he saw it. One corner of the den was in deep shadow. Something moved there and the sound that came out of the dark chilled his bones. A visceral, a gut-rending sound, a swallowing and bone-crackling sound. The creature was eating. Urdur?

Blade stood uncertain. So far the thing paid him no mind. He saw skulls littered about and bones and bits of corpses here and there. Did it feed on cadavers or live men?

He knew that he could not stand up to this horror for long. He was human. He must have at it, put all to the test, get it over with. Each moment he delayed, his courage seeped away. Blade had never known fear as he knew it now. And he had not yet seen the creature.

He picked up a skull and hurled it into the dark corner. «Come out, Urdur! Come out and be killed.» His cry echoed around the den. Did the thing know he was there, could it understand?

Something moved in the shadows. There was a dragging, a scrabbling sound, as though some beast pulled itself through mire. Blade ran a step toward it and halted, sword poised, swinging the head of Hirga in his left hand.

It emerged into the light.

The human brain-who better than Blade knew the tricks it could play. As he gazed at Urdur his memory fled back in time and dimension and he caught at a fragment from Hamlet.

… I could a tale unfold whose lightest word would harrow up thy soul. . freeze thy blood. . make thy two eyes start. . and each particular hair to stand on end.

Every hair on Blade's body was risen. Death touched his neck with icy fingers. He took a step backward, then another.

Urdur slithered toward him. It was half serpent, half dragon, with the head and fearsome teeth of a tyrannosaurus. Four-inch teeth glittering like daggers. Scores of them. Scythe-shaped claws on short, armored legs. Thick scales covered it, plates that would dent his sword-but for the underbelly. There the flesh was a putrid white, puffy and slack. The underbelly! That was his only chance.