Nob scowled. «Aye, master, but I will miss the fighting if I go now.»

Blade scowled. «Go, man! This moment.»

The man grumbled but he went, riding off to the left flank under cover of a shallow ridge. Blade pulled his steed around and nodded at Edyrn. «Let us get into.the square. They will be on us soon enough.»

The Guards, by marching left and right flank, had completed the formation of a hollow square. The ranks parted to let Blade and his officers ride in, then closed in again. Blade leaped to stand on his saddle and study the formation. He nodded in approval at what he saw.

The files were three deep. First a rank of kneeling men with long cruel pikes, then a rank of javelin throwers and last a rank of bowmen. All of them, in addition to their special weapons, carried short heavy swords and daggers. Inside the square, near Blade and the other mounted men, was a small party of slingers now engaged in counting and grading their jagged lava rocks. Blade looked them all over, and sighed. If only he had more of them! If only he were not so hopelessly outnumbered he would have risked a pitched battle with the Samostans and forecast victory: But wishes did not make it so. He must stick to his original plan.

The Samostan cavalry by now were deployed in a crescent before Blade's square. Trumpets shrilled and banners fluttered, but they did not attack.

Edyrn touched Blade's arm. «They want a parley. Yonder comes Lycus, their commander. I know something of him-a cruel man and a skilled warrior. Shall I order the slingers and bowmen to open fire? If we kill Lycus they may leave us alone.»

Blade shook his head. «No. I do not want them to leave us alone. I must see,how your Guard fights and now is good a time as any-and I have use for this Lycus. Pass the word that he is to be left to me. To me alone!»

Edyrn looked puzzled, one of the few times he had done so, and rode off to execute the order. Blade spurred nearer to the ranks and watched a burly horseman leave the Samostan line and gallop toward the square. He held up both empty hands to signify peace and reined in just short of the line of pikes. Blade rode toward him, the black prancing and skittering as it threaded through the ranks. One of the bowmen, sighting his weapon, grinned up at Blade as he passed.

«Let me have a shot, sire. I can bring him down from here, or you may skin me else.»

Blade smiled and shook his head. «Later-later. I will fill your craw with fighting.»

The Samostan officer called Lycus stared curiously at

Blade as he cantered up. Blade returned the stare with in terest. This Lycus was a powerfully built, thick-chested brute. His helmet, with its nose and ear guards, boasted the long blue feathers of Samosta. The shield on his left arm bore the snake with its tail in its mouth and the le, — , Ister.

I Act for God. Blade's lips quirked in a half smile-he hoped to test that theory in reverse. Would the god of Hectors act for him.

Lycus sat easily in the saddle, one foot out of the stirrup and dangling. His right hand rested lightly on his sword hilt. He showed his teeth like a wolf as Blade rode up.

«You are the stranger called Richard Blade?»

Blade met the cold stare with one of his own. «I am. What is your business? Why do you parley instead of fight?»

The man's chest armor strained as he bent to laugh. «I'll fight you, never fear. Unless you are a coward, or a more reasonable man than I have heard, and heed the message I bring you.»

«What message?»

«From my master, Hectoris himself. He has great admiration for you, Blade, but is no friend. You must understand that-I make no false pretenses. But any man who can thwart him as you have is of interest to Hectoris. He wishes to meet you.»

Blade smiled faintly. «And I him.»

Lycus fingered a lantern jaw. «Then it is simple enough.» He gestured at the Guard in its square. «Disband your men. Let them surrender their arms. They will be well enough treated. And cease all destruction in Patmos, for it is this which angers Hectoris most-he does not want to. conquer a desolated country. You will be treated as an honored guest as long as you choose to remain and there will be high office for you if wish to serve Hectoris. Izmia, she who is called the Black Pearl, will keep her suzerainty and all close to her will be favored. She will still be spiritual ruler of Patmos and her caverns will be respected as sacred to her.»

Blade nodded. «And who will actually rule Patmos? The traitor King and Queen-Kador and Smyr? Or perhaps Juna?»

He had little doubt that this Lycus had been sent to seek him out and strike a bargain. Hectoris did not want to fight unless he must. Blade glanced at the sky. It was looking more ominous by the moment.

The Samostan officer saw Blade's glance and must have gathered its meaning, but he said, «Kador and Smyr have been executed. They were traitors, sure enough, and plotted against Izmia, but they made a botch of it. Their plans were known to Izmia all along, and they could not even hold you captive. Hectoris does not abide bungling.»

«And what of Juna? It is said that she was taken with Kador and Smyr to the safety of your master's ships-has she also been executed?»

For now, to carry out his vow to Izmia, he must again possess the person of Juna. He did not know how he would do it, or if it could be done, but he had promised Izmia and he 'must try.

Lycus slapped his thigh with a hairy knuckled hand and laughed. «It must be true, then, what the spies have said of you and Juna? You have tasted the favors of a goddess and wish to taste again, eh?»

Blade's mouth tightened but he refused to be drawn. He would settle accounts later. He said, «You do not answer my question, man.»

Lycus made a fist and scowled. «Do not use that tone with me. Or that term. I am a captain in the.army of Samosta.»

Blade smiled. «Forgive me, Captain. But I still await an answer. What of Juna?»

«She is on the command ship of Hectoris and welltreated, though not as a goddess. Surrender and be friend to Hectoris and I have no doubt that he will be generous and give you Juna.»

Blade already knew this from his questioning of Ptol. Just as he knew that the Samostan army, as hard and efficient as it was, was a war-weary army of veterans who longed for peace and the fruits of weary years of campaigning. Blade was counting a great deal on this.

Abruptly he changed tactics. In a cold voice he said, «Hectoris has had my message? He is aware of my challenge?»

Lycus nodded. «If you mean the rumor that has spread, that is shouted from the shores by your beggars who will not fight, if you mean the talk that is meant to corrupt good Samostan soldiers, I say yes. Hectoris has heard it. And ignores it.»

Now was a time for guile, for cunning. Blade managed a look of surprise. «Ignores it? How is this? I have heard many things of Hectoris, but never that he was a coward. Is he afraid to risk single combat with me?»

Lycus put a hand to his sword hilt again. «Hectoris is afraid of nothing.»

Blade, mocking, pointed to the snake on the man's shield. «Nothing at all? Not even the god for whom he acts?»

«Not even his god! But why should he fight you, Blade? What gain could he have of it?»

Guile. Blade put sorrow and sweetness into his smile. «Hectoris gain? I say only his death at my hands. But you, Lycus, and all the men of the Samostan army, they would gain. Gain life, for even if you do overwhelm us in the end you know that many will die. We will die hard and you will win nothing but a ruined country and piles of corpses. I hear that Hectoris has had you at the wars for twenty years-a,pity that when it is over your men will find not women and wine, but only death. The life of a common soldier is as precious to him as that of a general is to him, Lycus. If you doubt it ask among your men.»