«How many people will I have under me?» Blade asked. So far, the plan didn't seem to present any immediate danger to Kaldak, but he wanted to be sure. «If I'm going to have to search each city in the Land from tower top to cellar-«

Feragga laughed, spraying beer into Blade's face. «Don't worry, Blade. We've got maps of at least a dozen of the cities, showing where all the Oltec is hidden. Those Lawbound fools have been sitting on treasures for centuries. That proves how unfit they are to hold it. In Doimar we've gone beyond the Law, and that proves we're the destined rulers of the Land!» Feragga seemed to be feeling the beer.

«You didn't have a map of Gilmarg, did you?» said Blade. He was fishing for more information about those maps.

Feragga grunted like a pig. «No, worse luck. If we had, we'd have stripped that storeroom empty long before you led the Kaldakans to it. Oh, well, we'll dig up that building you dropped on it someday, and we've got plenty of other maps.» She laughed. «Would you believe we even have one of Kaldak?»

«I'll believe it if I see it,» said Blade, trying hard to make a joke of the matter.

«You will, you will. You might as well start studying those maps while you're studying the machines. You've got to have something to do at night besides take slave girls to bed.» She punched Blade in the shoulder. «I'm not jealous. I know you've got enough manhood to have some left for me. So don't look so worried about that.»

Blade wasn't looking worried. He was trying desperately to hide his excitement. Feragga was offering him a map showing all Kaldak's hidden Oltec! That could save months in preparing the city for war, if he could get back there with the information. From now on, that was going to have to be his main goal-that, and making sure Kareena was not left to die horribly.

Feragga reached across the table, gripped Blade by both shoulders, and pulled him toward her as easily as if he'd been a child. He wound up with his face buried between her breasts. Then she ruffled his hair with one hand and kissed him on the forehead. It was rather like being kissed by an affectionate bear.

«This won't be our night, Blade,» she said. «When you've done your work with the machines-ah, that will be the time. We can celebrate making you Captain of Oltec properly. Good night and skilled hands.»

The ritual wish for anyone working with Oltec was Blade's dismissal. He left quickly, trying to stagger convincingly as if he'd drunk more than he actually had. It would do no harm if Feragga thought he was too drunk to remember all she'd said to him.

It would do even less harm if she kept her promise not to take him to bed until he'd finished his work with the Hovercraft. If she did it before then Nungor's jealousy could still wreck everything. If she waited, Blade didn't plan to be in Doimar, let alone ready to warm her bed.

He and Kareena would be either dead or on their way home to Kaldak.

Chapter 17

For the next few weeks, Blade would have been happier if he'd been triplets. There was too much for any one man to do. Fortunately Blade knew what to do in this sort of situation. He sat down and divided all the work into what absolutely had to be done before he left Doimar, dead or alive, and what it would be merely useful to do. That shrank the work down to what one man could do, as long as the man had the constitution of a horse and the ability to go for weeks on end with three hours' sleep a night. Blade qualified. Otherwise he'd have been dead years ago.

By day Blade practiced with the Hovercraft, not only operating it but also learning to maintain and repair it. He knew this could possibly give the Doimari knowledge they would afterward use against Kaldak. On the other hand, Blade needed the knowledge to be reasonably sure of escaping. The Sky Masters built their machinery to last, but the Hovercraft was still centuries old. It would do him and Kareena no good if it broke down ten miles outside Doimar.

The controls of the Hovercraft were so simple that Blade could operate it without being able to read the instruments. Unlike the waldoes, though, the Hovercraft was nothing for a child to handle. Even Blade needed all his training and reflexes to control it at high speed. He felt as if he was driving a sports car across slick ice, and didn't even try to push the Hovercraft to its limits. It would easily buzz along at eighty miles an hour, and at that speed it would leave everything in this Dimension far behind, including the waldoes.

The Hovercraft was designed on the modular system. When something broke, you simply pulled the whole piece out and shoved in a new one. With five other Hovercraft to cannibalize for parts, Blade had no trouble getting the sixth into nearly perfect condition. He also hoped to immobilize the other five by stealing parts from them. The Hovercraft could easily carry the radios the Seekers needed for their relay system. If none of the Hovercraft left behind ever moved again, it would be much safer for Kaldak.

That was Blade's day. Most of his nights were spent studying the maps of the cities of the land. He secretly made two copies of the map of Kaldak and hid each one in a different place in his suite. Then he set himself to the task of memorizing the locations of all the Oltec storerooms under Kaldak, so that if he had to escape without the maps the information still wouldn't be lost. When he wanted it that way, Blade's memory was nearly photographic.

The nights he didn't spend studying maps were spent making love to slave girls or sometimes free women of Doimar. Rumors of his silver loinguard were spreading, and many women seemed convinced that the penis it protected must be something special. Blade was always willing to do his best to prove the point, as amusing as he found the notion. Very few women seemed to go away unsatisfied.

In fact, it was the kind of satisfaction Blade gave some of them which brought on the crisis.

Another blood-red sunset was tinting Doimar outside Blade's window. Another company of infantry was training in the courtyard three hundred feet below. This time they were practicing hand-grenade throwing. Blade heard sharp explosions as the grenades went off behind walls of piled earth and stone. Sometimes he heard screams as a grenade went off prematurely in someone's hand. If Blade hadn't known already that the armies of Doimar were going to march soon, the training he'd seen these past few days would have convinced him. Nungor and Feragga didn't seem to care if they killed a third of their infantry as long as the other two-thirds were properly trained.

Blade decided to treat himself to a good night's sleep for once. There were no women coming tonight, the Hovercraft was about as ready as it ever would be, and he'd memorized all the information about Kaldak's Oltec anyone was likely to need during the war. He drew a cup of beer from the barrel in the corner of the bedroom, drank it, then started taking off his clothes.

He'd stripped down to the loinguard when he heard the sound of many feet shuffling outside the door. Then he heard a furious knocking, with fists, spear butts, sword hilts, and clubs. It sounded as if the people out there were rioters who wanted to break down the door. He grabbed his sword but didn't worry about his clothes.

Feragga's voice cut through the din outside. «Stop it, you fools! I wouldn't blame him if he killed the first half-dozen if you burst in on him this way!» Blade smiled. He'd been planning to do exactly that if the Doimari had come to arrest him. Apparently they hadn't-or at least Feragga hadn't.

Her voice came again. «Blade, we mean you no harm. But we must have your silver loinguard.»

«My-silver loinguard?» said Blade. He wasn't playing for time; he was honestly confused.