«But-«

«You will obey.» Tressana made a pointed gesture at the guardswomen all around. Some of them now had their bows in their hands. Curim growled something which it was probably well nobody understood, mounted his rolgha, and rode off. When he was out of sight Tressana dismounted, held on to her stirrup for a moment, then turned to Blade.

«Blade of England, why did you take it upon yourself to deal out First Justice to the archer?»

«I did not take it upon myself, Your Grace. It was thrust upon me by the fool himself.» He pointed at the dead man.

«You could have stepped aside and let him slay Curim.»

«Then I would have been guilty of Curim's death.»

«This worries you, after Curim sought your life by treachery?»

«If I let him die, his men would want my blood, and there are many of them. Why should I make more enemies than necessary?»

«Blade, I could still almost believe that you lied about not being of Elstan. They have a way of fighting without weapons much like yours. But to defeat three of our guardsmen-well, even if you are not of England, you are certainly of no land under any sun which has ever shone on Jaghd or Elstan.» She laughed again and rested one hand lightly on Blade's shoulder. She had to reach up rather a long way to do so.

At this point one of the guards collapsed on the grass, overcome by the heat. The doctor hurried forward to help him, and behind the doctor came Sikkurad. He also looked as if he would like to faint, but his voice was steady.

«Your Grace, the gods have shown us that Blade is not of Elstan, and that Curim is-«

«Never mind Curim, Keeper. You are claiming your reward for proposing this test of Blade?»

«Yes.» Blade noticed that unlike Curim, Sikkurad was able to meet the queen's eyes. «I would ask Blade to take guest-right in my house, while you find a place for him.»

«Such a warrior should be a guest among warriors, not in the house of a Keeper.»

«He should also be at a safe distance from Curim, at least for a month or so.»

«That also is true. But-«Blade half expected her to say, «But you will obey.» Instead it was the queen who looked away, and the Keeper who looked at Blade.

«Will you accept my house and all within it for a month, Lord Blade?»

«I will.»

«Good.» He hurried off, to help the doctor with the sun-stricken soldier. The queen's back was still turned to Blade, and he risked a quick look at Jollya. She seemed to feel his stare and turned slightly to look back at him. Unmistakably, she winked. Blade smiled, and resisted the temptation to laugh.

He might have rejected Tressana's friendship or even made an enemy of her by accepting Sikkurad's hospitality.

On the other hand, he suspected that he would learn more, and be in less danger, in the Keeper's house. Sikkurad could certainly answer most of his remaining questions about this Dimension, and the Keeper's guards seemed to be honorable men even if Curim, their captain, was not.

He also looked forward to seeing more of Jollya.

Chapter 9

Neither Sikkurad nor his daughter turned out to have as much time for Blade as he'd hoped. Sikkurad's duties as Keeper of the Animals forced him to travel all over Jaghd, although he hated riding and groaned aloud at the thought of a day in the saddle. As for Jollya, rumor said that the queen was finding all sorts of new errands for her, to keep her away from her father's house and thus away from Blade.

Blade had plenty of time to listen to this rumor, and to all the others going around. He had nothing to do, in fact, but eat four meals a day, run, swim, exercise, and get back the rest of his strength. After a week of this he was becoming irritable from sheer boredom. He would cheerfully have taken one of the servant girls to bed, or gone into Sikkurad's library of books, scrolls, and parchments to start learning about Jaghd on his own. Unfortunately the servant girls were curiously reluctant to approach him, although he heard admiring comments about him when they thought he wasn't listening. The library was simply forbidden territory, guarded by six or eight of Sikkurad's household fighters who were as deaf as fence-posts to all Blade's arguments.

Without the rumors, Blade might have started feeling that he was simply in another, more comfortable, prison. Instead he was able to put the rumors together into a picture of how things were going in Jaghd. He could have done a better job if he'd known a little more about the history of this Dimension, but he could be sure of one thing: Jaghd was getting ready for war against Elstan.

There could be no other explanation for all the tales of rolghas and draft animals being gathered, metal hoarded for weapons, new soldiers recruited and trained, hard bread and salt meat piled up high in the storehouses. If half these tales were true, the war might even break out while Blade was still in this Dimension.

That explained why everyone was so ready to see spies under every bush and behind every door. It didn't explain how the army of Jaghd was supposed to get over the mountains that lay between it and Elstan. Blade had seen just enough of the mountains to agree that they were completely impassable to any large body of men. The only other ways to invade Elstan were by boat up the Adrim River, or through the forest of Binaark itself.

The Adrim was navigable only two months of the year, and in those two months the Jaghdi and the Elstani did all their trading. The rest of the year it was either too shallow, too fast, or jammed with ice which flowed down from the river's source in the mountains. An army coming up the Adrim would find the Elstani ready for it. After a month or two it would be completely cut off from its homeland, trapped by the water level, the currents or the ice. The army would have no supply source and the Elstani would only have to hold out for that month and a little longer, then round up the starving survivors of Jaghd's fighting men. The fact that the Jaghdi were all cavalry and that their rolghas ate ten or fifteen pounds of meat a day made matters even worse.

As for marching through the forest of Binaark-no one had ever led an army through it. The killer plants were dangerous enough to a man on foot, where a single slip could kill him. But an army of men, even though they were armed, equipped, and trained until they had at least a fighting chance against the killer plants, could never make it through the forest. Any army would need baggage and draft animals, as well as untrained servants, teamsters, and laborers. A Jaghdi army would need thousands of rolghas. There was no way of getting all these vulnerable targets past the killer plants. Sending an army into the forest of Binaark would make the Charge of the Light Brigade look sensible. A third of the army would die among the killer plants, a third would die of starvation and disease, and the Elstani would hit the survivors over the head as they staggered out of the forest.

The idea was ridiculous. There was no other word for it.

Sikkurad finally called on Blade late one hot afternoon, when Blade had just finished running two miles. The sweat was pouring off him but he knew he had all his strength back now.

«Lord Blade, I would speak with you;«said the Keeper. «In my library.»

«I would like to bathe before I-«

«Your life may hang on what I have to tell you.» Sikkurad's voice was low, so that only Blade could hear him, and his face was even paler than usual. Jollya had a tan any fashion model would have envied, but her father remained as pale as a mushroom no matter how much he rode in the sun.

The Keeper's words were so melodramatic that Blade would have laughed if it hadn't been for the man's tone and expression. «Something to do with the queen?»