«So far I have seen no reason not to trust her,» said Blade in a carefully level voice. «Do you see any reason to disagree with me on this? If so, speak out now, in private. Let us settle this between us before we take our plans before the council. There is already enough muttering about Silora and me without you adding to it.»
«That is true,» said Rikard slowly. It was the slowness of a man weighing his words very carefully, not the slowness of a man reluctant or disagreeing. «But I will say this-neither of us should be prepared to risk the whole people, everything, on what she says. Is that not so?»
Blade had to nod. «What are you thinking of, exactly?»
«I cannot know that until you finish explaining your plans, father. So go on, and I will not raise the matter of Silora again.»
The Looter war machines were equipped with radio receivers and direction-finding gear that could give warning of the arrival of a Looter force in Tharn and the course to follow to reach it. Silora knew how to operate this equipment, and had showed Blade the same.
«With these devices, I will know when the Looters arrive and where they are. Silora and I will fly directly to the Looter camp. On the way she will prepare the superbomb to explode. We will sneak in low in the darkness, and drop the bomb on the Looter machines. This should destroy most of them.»
«And if it does not?»
«Then obviously we must be ready. But if only a few war machines survive, it will not be too serious. We have four of the Looter machines ourselves, and more of our people can learn to fly them. The Looters will not know that our rays do not work. They will think we can use our machines against their soldiers if they use theirs against ours. Their mercenaries go into battle against people like us wearing much metal, so they also would be afraid of the purple rays.
«I see,» said the king. «And with the machines destroyed, the Looters will be easy to fight?»
Blade shook his head. «There may be several thousand of them. They are well-trained and they will fight bravely. They have large pellet-throwers that can match the range of our bows and small dart-throwers that are deadly at short ranges. They also have helmets, armor, and swords and knives they can use well. If several thousand of them come, there will be a greater battle than was ever fought against the Pethcines, let no one doubt that. But I think we can win if we prepare and equip ourselves properly. It will help greatly that the explosive bombs are now ready.»
It was nearly dawn before Blade finished explaining to his son what the people would have to be ready to do in the battle against the Looters. King Rikard seemed to have no more doubts about Silora's trustworthiness. The questions he asked were those of a warrior taking the measure of an enemy and a leader responsible for his followers. That was a great relief to Blade.
Finally, as the eastern sky began to turn pale, King Rikard stood up and drained the last of the great leather jug of beer that had stood beside him through the night.
«Father, I will speak for all of your plans and schemes and say nothing against Silora if you will speak for one plan of mine.»
«What plan is that?»
«The moment the Looters arrive, all the children and all those too old to fight will go down into the Gorge. They will take food, clothing, weapons, tools, seeds, and written records of all the knowledge of the people, including what you have taught us about the Looters. There are caves down in the Gorge where ten times ten thousand of the people can hide so that the Looters will never find them. Those who go down into the Gorge will enter the caves and stay there until the Looter War is over, one way or another.»
Blade laughed. «I will speak with pleasure for that plan. I was going to suggest something like that myself, if there was a place where some of the people could hide from the Looters.» He rose and embraced his son. For a long moment they stood looking at each other, then Blade turned and went out into the courtyard of the King's House.
The hard-packed earth was damp with dew and the eastern sky was rapidly getting lighter. A cool breeze blew up over the New City from the Gorge. Blade stretched and stretched, until every knotted muscle was extended to the full. Then he headed toward the chamber he shared with Silora.
Chapter 24
The people threw themselves into preparing to fight the Looters with an enthusiasm that surprised even Blade. Part of it was their desire to please Mazda. More of it was the joy everyone felt at being able to strike a deadly blow at the Looters, a blow that might end their threat for good. This joy was all the greater because when the people's fighters rode out to battle this time, they would all be going. No one who could fight would be left behind.
This was perhaps the biggest gamble of the whole war. If the Looters did come to the battlefield with a strong force of war machines and were willing to risk using the purple ray, the people could be slaughtered. But without bringing out the whole three thousand fighting men and women of the people, there was no chance of inflicting a truly crushing blow on the full strength of the Looters. Blade wanted to smash the Looters-especially the mercenaries-not just defeat them.
Most of the people shared Blade's desire, but did not know all his reasons. Vengeance for their dead and a desire for peace in the future drove most of the People onward. Blade had another reason, one Silora gave him.
«If all the mercenaries are destroyed by your people here in Tharn,» she said, «Konis will be free of them. It can start on its own road back to civilization, and perhaps I can even go home.» Her eyes filled with happy tears at the thought.
Blade put his arm around her to console her but said nothing. It was a lovely fantasy-saving two dimensions for the price of one battle. But he suspected it was only a fantasy. From what Silora had told him, Konis was too far gone to have much hope of clawing its way back up to civilization, in spite of dimension doors and war machines. They had let the barbarians take over, barbarians they had created themselves. If there was any hope at all for them, it probably lay much farther in the future than it did for Tharn.
But it was obvious that Silora wanted to go home to Konis in spite of that, to take her chances there with her own people, to live and die there. Blade made up his mind that he would do everything he could to see that she got her wish, or at least everything that he could do without danger to the people.
A month passed, a month of furious training and making weapons and explosives, of stocking the refuge caves down in the Gorge, of packing up tools and seeds and written records ready to go. Three of the captured war machines were also hidden down in the Gorge. Their pilots were trained on them down there. One remained on the plateau, carefully disguised. Silora tuned its receivers to pick up the signals that would tell of the arrival of a Looter expedition. For the first few days she spent most of her time in the machine listening for that signal. She worked herself close to collapse listening, so Blade set up a regular rotating watch in the machine, reliable fighters trained by Silora to recognize the signal.
But it was Silora herself who came to Blade in the darkness one night to shake him gently awake.
«Mazda, the signal has come. The expedition is in Tharn. A large one, as we expected. I have never seen so many strong signals.»
«Where are they?»
«No more than two days' ride away, I think, and almost straight east.»
«Good.» Blade rose and started pulling on his clothes.
«Go quietly to the King's House and give them the message. Then join me at our machine.»