Along with the extra work came something far more welcome-extra freedom of movement. Before the battle Krog had been just sufficiently uncertain of Blade's loyalty to assign him a pair of guards. Now these were removed. The Blue Eyes were too short of fighting men to spare any watch-dogging for a man who had proved his loyalty to the gang as completely as even the suspicious Krog could expect. Blade was no longer half a leader, half a prisoner. He was Krog's trusted right hand, and he could give orders with Krog's voice and do what he pleased.
Among the things Blade decided to do with his newfound freedom was to see Narlena. Nevertheless, such an undertaking needed careful planning. There was no longer Krog's distrust to worry about. But there was certainly Halda's. Eventually the day came when Narlena was out on a slave working party a few streets west of the courtyard. It was Krog's idea to start cleaning up some of the nearby buildings and enclose them with a wall.
As Blade passed by, sword swinging at his hip, Narlena moaned and began staggering about and holding her stomach. The two fighters guarding the slaves moved toward her with expressions on their faces that Blade didn't like at all. He strode forward and raised his hand and voice together.
«Hold! That is the slave Narlena, is it not?»
The guards nodded.
«She is of particular value to Halda. The lady would not be pleased if anything happened to her. I will take her back to the tower myself.» He reached out his hand and Narlena lurched toward and up against him. Half-carrying her as she staggered along, he retreated out of sight around the corner of the nearest building.
Once Blade was sure that the guards were out of both sight and earshot, he nodded to Narlena. She straightened as much as her gaunt and weary body would allow and looked into Blade's face as if she could not believe it was real. One hand, small to begin with and now thin and grimed from many weeks of heavy labor, came up and stroked his cheek. He let his hand rest lightly on her hair, cut close now and caked with filth and sweat, and said, «You are doing well, Narlena.» The lightness was in his voice, not his heart. He wasn't sure that she wouldn't break down if he showed too much sympathy. And they had too much to talk about in the short time he could spend taking her back to the courtyard.
She bit her lip for a moment to stop its trembling and then replied with an equally forced lightness, «Not as well as you are, Blade.» Then her face froze as cold and hard as a glacier. «I want to stay alive so that I can kill Halda someday» The flare in her eyes was savage.
Blade nodded. An incredible change had come over this Dreamer girl during her captivity to make her say such a thing. She was no longer weak or interested in keeping life at a distance. She was no longer a Dreamer, at least not a Dreamer of the kind that had fled to their vaults a century before.
«Good,» he said. «But first you are going to have to escape and warn Yekran and Erlik of Krog's plans. Do you know the way back to your vault from here?»
«Yes. But I cannot escape now. If I escape when you are taking me back to the tower, Halda and even Krog will suspect you and kill you. They-«
«They will not kill me. I am too important to Krog's plans. And he-«
«He can do nothing if Halda chooses to strike silently and by surprise. She keeps silence before you because you can understand her and be warned by what she might say. But the slaves are only animals to her. She says things about you in front of them, dreadful things. Not in front of me, but the other slaves talk and I hear them.»
Again Blade nodded, but reluctantly. The idea of passing up a perfect chance for Narlena's escape simply to avoid risk to himself was revolting. But how great was the risk? He remembered that «accidental» spear during the battle and had to admit that Narlena might be right.
«All right,» he said finally. «But you must remember that I cannot get away until you do. Halda will have you tortured to death otherwise. You must escape as soon as you possibly can. I will have one of the new people bring you extra food and water, so that you will get some of your strength back.»
«Yes,» she said in a small voice. «Do that. But be careful. Please.» And she put her arms around him. He held her for a minute. Then he told her to act sick again. Once more staggering as though she could barely stand in spite of Blade's support, they made their way down the streets to the gate and the courtyard. The gate guards waved them in without stopping, for they recognized Blade. But as they crossed the courtyard Blade looked up and saw Halda's face appear in a window on the third floor. Even from a distance it was easy to detect the suspicion and hostility that spread across her face. Blade knew that he had now offered the challenge to Halda. It was now a race between Narlena's escaping and Halda's taking up that challenge.
Blade spent the next week in a continuous fever of worry and anticipation; worry that Halda would strike, anticipation of finding a moment for Narlena's escape. Three of the women he trusted most among the new people were given the job of sneaking extra food to Narlena. Even from a distance he saw that she was losing some of the wild-animal gauntness of the slaves. He did his own work with more energy and enthusiasm than ever. Krog would have no cause for suspicion and discontent, and be himself would have every excuse for collapsing limply into bed at night. As the days passed without a word or a move from Halda, Blade began to wonder, then hope, and finally suspect that she might allow what he was doing for Narlena to pass unnoticed. Perhaps she no longer cared.
Another damp, hot night that seemed to be all too common during the Puran summer had settled over the city. Lightning flared dimly in the clouds to the north, promising rain and silhouetting the towers of the dead city. Blade was fighting to keep from yawning as Krog rambled on about his visions of the future of the People of the Blue Eye. Not that Krog's visions were so dull or so unpleasant. But Blade had heard them all before. At the end of a long day of training the new fighters every muscle and nerve in his body was crying plaintively for rest.
His muscles and nerves snapped fully alert as the curtains of the chamber whipped open. Halda and four fighters Blade recognized as members of her faction burst into the chamber. Each pair of fighters was carrying a woman bound hand and foot. Blade recognized one of the ex-slaves who had been feeding Narlena and then with a cold chill of fear in his stomach, Narlena herself.
Halda's hand chopped downward like a sword blade. The fighters dropped their burdens facedown on the floor. Blade heard the girl whimper in pain. Narlena was silent even when Halda kicked her in the ribs where she lay. Then Halda stepped forward toward her father and glowered at him.
«Father, this slave has been getting extra food-and the other slave has been bringing it-«
«She is not a slave but a free woman of the People of the Blue Eye,» snapped Krog. «Release her at once.» His hand was on his sword hilt, and so was Blade's. For a moment Halda seemed ready to launch herself at her own father, with the four fighters at her back taking on Blade. The tension in the room hung like a smelly fog. Then the moment passed, and Halda and the fighters stepped aside as Krog went over to the woman, cut her bonds, and raised her to her feet. He left Narlena lying where she had fallen. Then he turned to Halda. «Now, daughter, what do you wish to tell me?»
Halda took a deep breath to get her temper firmly under control. Then she said in the clipped tones of a fighter, «The woman was bringing food to Narlena. She said that Blade had asked her to do it. She did it because of his good treatment of the ones who were slaves.» Even now Halda balked at calling the woman one of the People.