Their goal was a bridge that had once carried a high road running from north to south, a few miles west of the city. If the Wakers had blocked it off, however, Blade planned to swing still farther west until the walls of the gorge dropped down into level country. Then they could easily swim or ford the river. But he hoped they could use the bridge. The faster he got back to the Dreamers and warned them of Krog's plans, the, happier Blade would be.

They slipped down the last few hundred yards toward the riverbank as cautiously as if they had been stalking a Waker gang amid the ruins of Pura. In the gathering darkness Blade could see Narlena only as a shadowy form. But the sureness of her step as she moved along beside him was a vivid contrast to the cringing and trembling girl he had led out into the open country for the first time so many weeks ago.

A hundred yards from the entrance to the bridge Blade stopped and motioned Narlena down flat on the ground. Then, sword held ready, he stalked forward. He groped for a firm and silent footing at each step, senses on hair-trigger alert, suspicious of any sign of a hostile presence. If Krog's men were lying in ambush, he could at least give Narlena a chance to make her way into the safety of the darkness and then west and across the river. Step by step now, with longer and longer intervals between steps, the bridge twenty yards away. .

A sudden eye-searing glare of light as a dozen blue-white beams leaped out of the darkness and pinned him to the spot. Blade's sword leaped high in an instant, and he whirled around, his dazzled eyes trying to make out behind the glare what sort of enemy he faced. Who in Pura could turn night into day like this?

All but one of the lights died, and out of the suddenly returning darkness came a familiar voice. Unbelievable, perhaps, here and now, but unmistakable.

«Blade! Welcome back!»

«Yekran! Is that really you?»

The brawny figure of the Dreamer fighter loomed out of the darkness. Two thick solid arms reached up and clapped Blade on the back.

«Of course it's me, you idiot. Is Narlena-?»

«Still alive and well, and with me.»

Blade turned his head toward the darkness behind him and shouted, «Narlena, it's Yekran and some other Dreamer fighters. Come on!»

He turned back to Yekran on legs shaky with the release of tension and shook his head. «All right, Yekran, I believe you. But what the devil are you people doing out here?»

«That's a long story. Let's be on our way home, and I'll tell you on the way. We don't wait around out here even now.»

Chapter Seventeen

As the Dreamer patrol swung along the south bank of the river at a pace that would have done credit to Waker fighters, Yekran told Blade of what had been going on among the Dreamers. Part of the story Blade had already guessed. The simple fact that a Dreamer patrol was operating many miles from home and several miles out in the open country beyond Pura made it clear that the Dreamers had gained much skill and selfconfidence since he had been captured. They were no longer afraid of the open countryside but could move about it with confidence and pride.

But there was a great deal more that Blade did not understand-starting with the glaring lights that had sprung at him out of the darkness. Yekran was surprised at Blade's lack of understanding.

«Surely in your home world where you are all Wakers, you must often need to travel about after dark? Do you not use such things? We took a glow-bulb and put it on the end of a long stick. On the other end of the stick we put a cylinder of marconite. Then we connected the marconite to the bulb with wires. Now we can carry daylight with us wherever we go. I do not think the Wakers will like that.»

«You haven't used the lights on them before?» asked Blade.

«No. This night was the first time we tried them out. We wanted to wait until we had many of them. That way they would he a surprise to the Wakers when we first used them in battle.»

Blade nodded and grinned. Yekran had accidentally hit on one of the basic rules for using secret weapons: don't spring them on the enemy in penny packets. Hit him hard with a lot of them at once.

But there was more. The vaults were opening by the score each night now, and more than a hundred Dreamers were coming in each week. There were now more than a thousand of them in the enclave that Yekran's fighting bands had made safe from the Wakers. Nearly five hundred of them were old enough to be trained as fighters, and nearly two hundred had already been trained. The rest could at least throw spears and stones down from the walls that had been built around the enclave. The walls were made of rubble, dragged into place and piled up by the muscles and bare hands of men and women who realized that their city might rise again. It covered a square two blocks on a side near Narlena's vault.

«You gave us that hope, Blade,» said Yekran in a voice full of emotion. «Perhaps there was only a little that we needed to do to save Pura. But we did not think that we could do even that much until you came to our world and showed us that it could be done. Without you this work would never have been started.»

Blade was silent. In light of all that the Dreamers had done since he had been captured, he had begun to wonder if they had really needed him. Had he been wasting his time and risking his life here in Pura without any need to do so? But in light of Yekran's tribute he felt slightly embarrassed.

He swallowed and said with as much lightness as he could, «Perhaps. But if I led, you and your people certainly followed me at a run!» He shook his head.

«What else have you done while I was with the Wakers?»

There were numerous tales of large and small fights, sometimes against such unlikely odds that even the Dreamers' better discipline could not bring them victory but mostly success or at least a draw. There were more peaceful achievements, also. There had been trips into the forests south of the river to bring back wood for the fortifications and new buildings and to hunt fresh meat and fish. The food machines were still working and producing most of the Dreamers' food. But many of them were developing a taste for fresh meat.

«Just like the Wakers,» said Blade with a grin.

Yekran's face froze for a moment; then he nodded and broke into a grin, too. «Just like the Wakers, yes.»

The Dreamers now knew a good deal about the habits of the Wakers from the large number of Waker prisoners in the enclave. There had been much talk of making them slaves, the way the Wakers had done with the Dreamers. Those Dreamers who themselves had been Waker slaves were particularly set on vengeance. What did Blade think should be done with them?

«I think they ought to be treated well. Given work, yes. They should not be allowed to wander about where they could betray us, but they should not be made slaves. There should be no more slavery in Pura.»

«Perhaps,» said Yekran. The idea was new to him but apparently not completely unpalatable. «But what about the Dreamers who were once slaves? They hate the Wakers in a way even I cannot believe.»

«Tell them this. If the Wakers know they will be made slaves when the Dreamers rule Pura again, they will fight desperately. It will be a longer and harder battle to win Pura back. But if they know that they can surrender and live fairly well even under the Dreamers, they will not fight so hard.»

«That makes sense,» said Yekran, nodding.

«It does,» said Blade. «There is a Waker leader, the one we were all so worried about, named Krog. He has very much the same idea about treating his Dreamer prisoners.» Blade quickly told Yekran about Krog, his abilities, and his plans for Pura.

When Blade had finished, Yekran's face was grim. «That man Krog is even more dangerous than we had thought.»