She drew aside an ornate hanging and Blade entered the little cavern. It was well furnished with bolsters and rugs and in a corner was a large tub carved out of black stone. From a bung set into the wall came steaming hot water. A large and roguish-looking character, with a patch over his left eye, looked up from sprinkling salts into the bath. He gave Blade a wide and toothless grin. Most of his front teeth had been broken off at the gum line.

«Aye, master, it is good to see you recovered. That was a hot enough brawl, for a time, and the rascal fetched you a good clout on the sconce afore I put my iron through him.»

He glanced past Blade at the movement of the drape. «Who 'twas brought you here, master? A pretty little Gray thing by name of Ina?»

Might as well get it over with, Blade thought. He studied the big fellow, arms akimbo, scowling. The man wore the leather and metal armor of a foot soldier. On his shoulders were black tabs-the black pearl insignia.

The man was a bit too familiar, Blade thought, and no harm in putting him in his place. He made his voice harsh: «Izmia tells me that it is forbidden`to cohabit with Gray women. You will not do so. And what is that you pour in 'my bath?»

Nob, for so Blade supposed the servant to be, dropped his lantern jaw and stared at Blade. He looked at the salts he was still pouring into the steaming water, then back at Blade. He gulped and appeared to choke on an Adam's apple obscured by whorls of dark stubble. At last he found his tongue.

«It be naught but a potion to make ye smell pretty, sire. What did ye think-a magic to rob ye of manhood?» And Nob again showed his guns in an uncertain grin.

Blade nodded and began to disrobe. «Fair enough, but keep in mind what I said about women.»

Nob rubbed a hand over his scarred face. «Oh, aye, of course, master. 'Twas nothing but a bit of fooling, like. But yon Ina, she did smile on me-and not many does on old Nob-and I thought that-«

«Don't,» said Blade curtly. «Now I will bathe whilst you lay out fresh things. I will talk and you will listen and, when called on, answer me to the point. This is understood?»

Nob was wide-eyed and his jaw still hung askew. He nodded. «Aye, master. But for one thing-what is the word you used to me? This cohabit-what do it mean?»

Blade told him. Nob roared and slapped his leathernclad leg. «Do it now! By Juna's golden tits! I would never have called it that in a million years-but once you have the meaning of it there is no doubt. I mean to say, sire, it is the doing of the thing that is important and not the calling of it. 1-«

«You will shut up,» Blade said calmly. He kicked away a pile of blood- and sweat-stained clothing and stepped into the steaming tub. Ahhhhh-it was goodt

Nob finally got his mouth closed and handed Blade a box of fragrant powder. «For scrubbing, sire. Or so Ina tells me. And plenty of hot water, as you.see. Comes from the volcano, it do, and if a man does not temper it with cold it will scald-«

Blade repressed a smile. Instead,he frowned and said, «You are still talking too much. I said for you to Usten.» He balled his massive fist and showed it to the man. «Or must I convince you with this?»

Nob was arranging clothing and armor on a table. He shook his head as though in sorrow. «You are not yourself, master. I feared as much-for after taking that axe blow on your head, and sleeping all this time, I did not think ye would come so quickly to be well again. I-«

«Silence!» Blade's bellow set the door hanging to waving. He made a sign to the astounded Nob and dropped his voice. «Look to see if there are any listeners.»

Nob snatched a long sword from a rack in a corner and swept the tapestry aside. There was nothing.

«Now listen,» Blade commanded. «And hold your loose tongue.»

He told Nob what had happened to him. The man's eyes grew wide again and his jaw fell farther aslant than before. But when Blade had done talking, and after a moment of frowning and scratching his from, Nob smiled and said, «So there is no great harm done, sire. You are well and 1 remember all that happened. From the day we met in Thyme and-«

«Thyme? Tell me of it. I have no recollection.»

Nob sank to a stool and shook.his head. «None at all, master? Not even of Juna?»

Blade scrubbed beneath an arm. «Who is Juna? Or, should I say, what is Juna?»

Nob stared at the floor, his big gnarled hands dangling between his legs. He shook his head sadly. «A horrible and misbegotten blow it were, sire, as could make you for-

get Juna! Aye-I am more glad than ever that I killed the bastard that gave it to you from behind.»

Blade was washing his hair now and he winced as he touched the sore spot. Half to himself he said, «If the blow was such a bad one, and I took it from behind and off guard, I cannot understand why I still live.»

«Aye, master, I can answer that.» Nob was all agrin. He went to a closet and brought back a battered helmet. The crown was bashed in but the metal was unbroken.

«I took it off a Samostan corpse,» Nob explained, «and begged that ye. wear it. For ye had none of yer own. Aye-those bastard Samostans make gobd helmets and armor. That ye must give them. No helmet of Patmos, nor even of Thyme, would have taken such a blow and kept ye alive.»

Blade took the misshapen helmet from Nob and examined it closely. The plume, shaven to a mere tuft, was blue and the insignia, the medallion in front, was of a snake with its tail in its own mouth. There was a stirring in the curdled mists of Blade's mind and for a moment the circled serpent nearly had meaning. Then it vanished. He read aloud the legend beneath the snake.

«Ais Ister.»

He frowned at Nob. «What meaning has it?»

Nob scowled in his turn. «Hectoris is not one to hide his brag, master. `I Act for God'-that is the meaning of it.»

Blade held out a hand as he let the helmet drop and roll on the floor. «A towel, if you please. `I Act for God.'

Hmmm you are right, Nob. This Hectoris, whoever he may be, is not a man of becoming modesty. I would like to meet him one day.»

Nob bent his big body and laughed. He could not stop. He laughed and laughed and Blade, who had come to like the rascal so soon after rediscovering him, did not know whether to laugh also or curse him. He did neither and waited for the spell to pass.

«You will meet him,» Nob could say at last. «No fear there, master. We have sent his scouting party running in defeat and disgrace, and we have taken his pet priest, and in the bargain you sent him such a message of defiance as no man could hear without his ears scorching. And Hectoris is a proud man and nothing has ever stood before him-as ye know from what happened to Thyme when you and I first met and-«

Blade held up a hand. «That,» he said, «is just what I do not knowl Try to get it through that thick pate of yours-I remember nothing. Tell me. Tell me all of it.»

Nob looked at him. His jaw was hanging again. «Aye, master, I suppose I must. But it is a long story and there is little time-our lives and that of Patmos is in the balance, or I do not love Juna's Reece, and Hectoris will not bide his coming. But I will-«

«You will be brief,» said Blade fiercely. «Now get to the matter. Everything that is important, nothing that is not important, and from the beginning. Briefly!»

Nob did not do so badly, for Nob. Scarce an hour had elapsed before Blade knew all that he must. Some of it appalled and frightened him. Of some of it he was proud, and of a very little he was ashamed. But one thing was certain-he had set a great many wheels in motion and now time flitted away and he had best look lively or those very wheels would crush him.

When he had heard Nob out he said, «Go find Edyrn and ask him to meet me in the place where Ptol is kept. As soon as may be. Then see that Izmia receives this message-that I will see her when I can and I cannot say when that will be. Repeat that.»