Blade gave him a look. «Are you sure that it is coincidence? Is it such a bad time for them, for- Kador and Smyr? Is it not possible that they intend to betray Patmos from within? And what of Juna in all this? You seem reluctant to mention her, Edyrn. Why? Has Juna come to some harm?»

By now they had left the prison complex and were marching across far-stretching fields of loti. Cybar was behind them. Blade, glancing back, could see the shining silhouette of the palace against the sunset. It was quiet. None moved but themselves and a few Gray People working in the fields at late tasks.

Edym gave a command and his men flung themselves on the ground to rest. Nob looked at Blade, then did like-

wise. Edyrn took Blade to one side and spoke most respectfully.

«There is much I do not know, sire, and much I could not tell you ever if I did know. All that has happened has come suddenly and caught us unready.»

Blade sniffed at the perfumed air, bearing a slight tang of salt now, and listened to the omnipresent music from the kiosks; he watched the drugged Gray People toiling in the fields and thought it not at all strange that Patmos had been caught off balance. Unready, as Edyrn put it. Blade doubted if Patmos had ever been ready.

Edyrn continued, «Jung, as near as I know, is safe in the palace, though under arrest. There is much political in this that I cannot explain at the moment, sire.»

Blade nodded agreement and fondled his sword hilt. «I agree. Forget everything else but this force of Samostans. Where are they and in what strength? Who leads them? What are their intentions? Have we men enough to handle them?»

Edym gave him a strange smile. «Some of those questions I can answer and some I cannot. But first you should know, sire, that we were most fortunate and have taken a prisoner-a prisoner I am sure you would like to question.»

Blade scowled. His first elation was passing and he had hunger pains again. «No riddles, Edyrn! Who is this prisoner? And why is it so important that I must question him personally?»

Edym slapped his thigh and laughed. He called to his men, then bowed to Blade and said, «His name is Ptol, sire. We caught him seeking to sneak into Cybar in the dress of the Gray People. Are you answered, sire?»

Blade laughed and nodded. He was answered indeed. Ptol! As Nob would say-by the Goddess Juna's golden assl Ptoll The fat little priest himself. The lisper. Caught trying to get into Cybar. Must have been heading straight for the palace. Blade could smell it. Another sell-out was in the making. Treason and treachery. How could he stop it? What could he and Edym and Nob and a few others do against the barbarian horde, the tough soldiers,

of Hectoris? Blade had seen the fall of Thyme-he knew the mettle of the Samostans.

So did the king and queen-thus the treachery. Hectoris had probably promised them their thrones if they aided in the overthrow of Izmia. Not that he would keep his word when the need for them was past.

And Juna? What of her? Why should he, Blade, worry about.her? His own life was at stake.

Edyrn had waited patiently, unspeaking. Blade said, «Where is this Ptol?»

Edyrn smiled. «A mile from here, sire. Near our lookout point. Shall we go and have a look at him?»

Blade's look was grim. «I care not so much to look at him, Edyrn, as to hear him speak. He lisps and he sprays spit this way and that, but I think there is much he can tell us.»

They were on the move again. Edyrn said, «He is defiant, sire. He knows that I am only a captain and he keeps demanding to be taken to a: higher up.»

«Does he, now?» Blade nodded. «I think we can arrange that.»

Edyrn went to the head of his troop. Blade fell back to be alone. Nob, seeing the expression on his face, gave him a wide berth.

Blade knew that the time had come. Time to move in and take command of the situation. He must be head man, must seize and use all the power he could, as speedily and effectively as he could. It was a tried and true technique and the only way to survive in Dimension X.

He stopped and drew the broadsword and examined it. The last rays of sun glinted red along the shining steel. He closed his great hand about the cold hilt until his knuckles were white.

Blood! So be it. Perhaps his own. But there was no other way-no other way in this strange world he must contrive to live in. Or die in.

He came awake and was aware of warmth, of a fire flickering somewhere in the vast cavern. He thought the cavern floor trembled occasionally as there came a rumbling roar from afar, and sometimes over' the drift of incense he caught the acrid odor of volcanic ash. He was only dreaming, of course, for he was safe in bed in his Dorset cottage. The real nightmare would not start until tomorrow-when he must journey to London and meet J and Lord L and go once again through the computer into Dimension X. Yes. It was a dream. And yet….

She came out of the shadows near the fire and stood looking at him. A giantess, as tall as Blade himself, and naked but for bits of cloth at breasts and pubis. Her hair was pure silver and her wide-spaced eyes were amber torches flaming in a face of such beauty and purity of feature that Blade could not comprehend it. This must be a dream, as palpable and fleshly as it seemed, for no such beauty existed in the real world, or ever would. He kept his eyes closed, but for slits enough to watch her, and saw her flesh glisten and glimmer and appear to change color as she drew nearer. He could not name her flesh color and it did not matter-tawny, brown, dark, yellow? All those, and yet none of those, and as she bent over him, her perfect breasts hanging to brush his chest, there was a flash of pale fire in that burnished flesh and for a moment she appeared to burn.

He became aware of the music then-where had he heard such music before? — and her deep voice blended with the music and there was the sweet oiled smell of her and the rake of her nipples on his bare chest.

«Blade? Richard Blade? Do you wake?»

He kept his eyes shut and his breathing regular. This was a dream, nothing more, and yet suppose it were not!

Suppose some wild impossible thing had happened andHer laugh was soft. «I think you feign, Richard Blade, but no matter. There is little time for us, for you must fight and I must go to meet my Weird, but there is yet time for you to pleasure me.»

She touched him and Blade knew it was no dream. This was reality. Just what reality, and how and why he had come to it, he did not know. But he did know what must have happened-he was in Dimension X. He had left Dorset and gone to London and had been put through the computer. And did not remember a thing about it.

The woman.had not spoken again. She was intent on the business of the moment. Blade kept his eyes tight shut and tried to think-if anyone could think at a time like this.

Her hands were soft and skillful and she crooned a little song as she fondled and stroked and caressed and kissed. At last she had him to her satisfaction and she threw a long slender leg over him, placed him to her exact wish, and straddling, came down with a little exhaled sigh. She was narrow and tight and moist and there seemed no end to her cavern.

It was surely a strange love-making and Blade, man of the world and of many dimensions, sensed that he would never see or know the like of this woman again. If indeed she was a woman. At the moment he was not entirely sure. For if he was once again in Dimension X, and he was sure that he must be, she 'night be anything-fairy, demon, succubus or witch, Lilith, Thais, hag spirit in lush fagade, carnality incarnate, or mere female having a last orgasm before the well was dry.

There was no end to it. She bent over him, her breasts heavy on his face, and sank deeper on him with every thrust, her amber eyes wild as she adjusted and engulfed his flesh peg and her strong muscles sucked and milked at him until Blade was near to crying out. Yet he kept silence.