These were Elstani jewels, the color of rubies but harder, set in a necklace of heavy gold links, wide bracelets, and two massive earrings. Blade knew how heavy the gold was. Once Tressana made love to him wearing nothing but the Queen's Jewels, and it was three days before the bruises from the bracelets and necklace healed.
At the bottom of the stairs was a whitewashed room. On its far wall was a large map, and under it a wooden table and a chest. Blade looked at the map, and saw that it showed all the known lands of this Dimension. Then he saw a thick red line running from Jaghd to Elstan through the forest of Binaark. A second line ran up the Adrim, but Blade didn't pay much attention to that. He knew where he was now. This was Tressana's War Room.
«So it's war against Elstan,» he said mildly. «Forgive me for sounding like an idiot, but how are you getting through the forest of Binaark?» If she was willing to bring him here, she'd hardly hold back any secrets, including possibly the one he wanted to know. Blade was taut with anticipation by now, but hoped he was concealing it better than the queen.
Tressana explained her war plans as she moved about the room, unwinding her turban, taking off her bracelets and necklace, finally undoing her bodice and sitting on the table bare to the waist. Her nipples were taut, but Blade wasn't sure if this was sexual excitement or the chill of the underground room.
The Jaghdi would strike at Elstan with two armies. One would march through the forest of Binaark, under the protection of amulets filled with the synthetic scent which would defeat the killer plants. That army would be mostly cavalry, with only enough men on foot to clear trails and protect the camps. The second army would sail up the Adrim, just as the Elstani would expect. That army would be mostly infantry.
«The Keepers will send their guards, and the cities and towns will send their watchmen,» Tressana said. «That will keep any rebellions behind me from growing strong.»
«Will these men fight?» asked Blade.
«Oh, well enough. But they won't have much to do. The rolgha riders will do most of the work.»
In the valleys between the forest of Binaark and the Adrim lay what little there was of Elstan's farmland, and several of its richest mines. The valleys offered few obstacles to a well-trained rolgha. If the Jaghdi cavalry swept along them all the way to the Adrim, the Elstani would shortly be starving and weaponless. Their army defending the river would be taken in the rear and destroyed. The Jaghdi coming up the Adrim would have no supply problems because even if they were cut off, they could either be supplied by the Jaghdi cavalry or march home through Binaark.
«The war may be over within a month of the time our first rolgha sticks his nose out of the forest,» said Tressana gleefully. «In fact, I suspect half the Elstani will die of surprise before a weapon touches them. It's never been any secret that they call the forest a gift from the gods, to keep them from having to become warriors. Well, we of Jaghd are going to show them that the gods can take back gifts from people unworthy to use them.» Blade didn't like the shrillness he heard in Tressana's voice as she said this.
The queen slid off the table and came toward him. The desire in her eyes was plain, but so was the bloodlust. For a moment Blade had the sick feeling that if he had to look longer into those eyes he'd fail at the crucial moment. To play for time he caressed Tressana's throat and breasts, then stopped as she put her hands on the waistband of her trousers. He let go of her, went to the map, and ran his finger along the valleys between the Adrim and the forest.
«Are you sure it's safe to send all your cavalry just riding straight for the river?» he said, frowning in what he hoped was a convincingly anxious manner. «The Elstani could do a lot of damage even if they only rolled rocks down the hillsides.»
Tressana hooted with laughter, then looked apologetic. «No, I wasn't laughing at you, Blade. You show you've got a good head for war. It's just that we've known about that problem for years, and also what to do about it.»
She joined Blade at the map and he lifted her so she could reach a spot on the map with her finger. «Here, there's an ideal place for a camp. High cliffs at our back, and a river on the other three sides with only one ford. There's room for twenty thousand rolghas and we won't even need to tether them! We'll camp there, send out the riders, and bring in all the prisoners we can.»
«And then?» Blade had a sudden cold feeling that he knew. The bloodlust in Tressana's eyes was growing stronger, not weaker.
«For every man of ours they kill, we'll kill one of theirs. Send them to the killer plants, feed them to the rolghas, burn them-we'll think of other ways. All except the Masters. They stay alive until they've told us everything they know. Anybody who kills one of them before that answers to me.»
She wriggled out of his arms, sat on the table again, and jerked off the trousers. Then she lay back, legs apart. «Now, Blade, now!» A shudder went through her, as if she were already close to her climax from thinking about the destruction of Elstan.
Blade suppressed a groan, took off his trousers, and did his duty. He actually managed to do it twice. By the time Tressana took him a third time, she was shrieking and laughing and crying out in triumph as if their lovemaking were actually causing Elstan to crumble before her eyes. Blade's movements became a little mechanical, but fortunately Tressana was too far gone to notice.
Chapter 13
The first thing Blade did when he and the queen returned to her rooms was to make love again. The bloodlust was out of Tressana now, and she was warm and tender, falling asleep peacefully afterward. Blade wished he could remember her like this, when she looked hardly more than twenty, innocent and lovely. Unfortunately he couldn't leave the Elstani at her mercy, and that meant bringing in the Keepers no matter what they might want to do to her. He'd do his best to save her life and perhaps her throne after that, but no more.
So the second thing he did was go back to his own rooms at the other end of the building and wake up Lorma. The queen didn't expect him to stay with her after she fell asleep. He crouched in the darkness, using the moonlight to scratch a coded message on Lorma's collar. Then he buckled it around her neck, told her, «Find Jollya,» and watched her scramble out the window and drop to the ground as quietly as a ghost.
The third thing Blade did was to fall into bed and go to sleep.
Lorma was back the next morning, with the mark on her collar that showed Jollya had read Blade's message but that indicated nothing else. Blade didn't worry. Most of what would happen from now on was in the hands of the Keepers. It was back to waiting for him, unless he and Jollya were lucky enough to be able to talk privately sometime soon.
Within a few days Blade was less happy about the waiting. Planning for the war was out in the open now, and Tressana had picked Blade for one of the most demanding jobs.
With fifty picked cavalry, he was to move into the western fringes of the forest of Binaark. All his men and animals would have scent amulets to protect them from the killer plants. They would find the best way of hacking a trail for rolghas and wagons through the forest. When the rest of the army came up, they would teach what they'd learned to the trail-cutting parties on foot, and also guard them at their work. Blade, not Curim, would have the honor of being the first man in Jaghd to take the scent amulets to war.
«It will probably make you enemies,» said Tressana. «It's certain that every fighting man of rank in Jaghd except Curim had hoped I would choose him. Also, it will take you out of my bed and even out of my reach for a time. But there is a time for taking pleasure and a time for thinking of the work to be done.»