Then the Hovercraft was heading straight down the aisle. They passed through the doorway into the next room and down its aisle, until the ramp to the surface appeared ahead. Blade gave the propeller more power as they hit the ramp. Then five more guards appeared at the top of the ramp, two of them with their lasers already raised.

«Down, Kareena!» Blade roared. He flung the Hovercraft up the ramp straight at the guards, wishing he had a machine gun mounted in the bow. He needn't have worried. The sight of the Hovercraft charging them was enough to defeat the guards. They scattered without firing, although not before one pulled the pin out of a grenade and dropped it on the concrete. It rolled down the ramp and went off abreast of the Hovercraft. The machine leaped and the roof of the cabin struck the roof of the vehicle building so violently that the top hatch was torn away.

Blade fought the machine back under control as the roar of the wind and the whine of the propeller and fans filled the cabin. Then he saw Kareena pulling herself painfully up to the open hatch with one hand, holding the grenade in the other. In the best war-movie tradition she pulled the pin with her teeth, then pitched the grenade into the middle of the fleeing guards. As the explosion cut them down she practically fell back into the cabin, her face pale but her teeth bared in a positively devilish grin.

«That was a foolish thing to do,» said Blade. He would have said something stronger, but he needed all his concentration to steer the Hovercraft past the mangled remains of the guards. If a large piece got caught in the lift fans-!

«You wouldn't think so, if you'd been stinking and hurt down where I was as long as I was,» she said sharply. «And I won't take any more orders from you. You can't knock me out again, either.»

«Then what are you going to do, Kareena?» The last of the guards' remains was behind them now, but they were still a good distance from the open streets, let alone the open countryside.

She laughed grimly. «I won't kill you. I promise you that. Or at least I won't kill you until you've helped me kill at least a few more Doimari.»

«All right,» said Blade. He steered for a moment with one hand, while handing her the laser rifle with the other. «Just don't shoot off our own propeller. I don't particularly want to get killed at all, but I'd rather be killed by you than by the Doimari!»

She laughed again. At least they seemed to agree on something. Blade concentrated on getting the Hovercraft onto a main street. The moment he found one leading the right way, he gave the Hovercraft almost full power. The staring faces of the few people abroad at night turned into white blurs. Gravel rattled like shotgun blasts on the hull and once Blade heard the whipcrack of a laser. The fans and propeller still whined as steadily as if they were fresh from the factory.

The Hovercraft was doing at least sixty miles an hour when it hit the Loga River to the south of Doimar. It went halfway across before Blade got it under control, but that was an advantage. Now they were out of rifleshot from the city, and he doubted if there were any mortars or waldoes alerted yet. He straightened the Hovercraft out and accelerated again, ignoring the cloud of spray which nearly blocked the view ahead. Out here on the open river they had plenty of room.

The Hovercraft was hitting nearly seventy miles an hour when the last lights of Doimar disappeared in the darkness behind it. Blade slowed down to take his bearings, then absent-mindedly bent over to kiss Kareena. Instantly her eyes flared open and her hands turned into claws. Blade suspected that even now he'd lose an eye if he touched her. «Get some sleep, Kareena,» he said roughly, then turned back to the controls.

He didn't blame her for looking at him that way, and he wondered why he cared so much that she did. Nonetheless he knew that if the light didn't come back into her eyes before he left this Dimension he would feel his victory was incomplete.

Blade, you are getting much too soft in the heart or the head or both for this kind of work.

Lord Leighton would tell him that. Even J might do the same. But neither of them would ever have to meet Kareena's haunted eyes.

Blade kept the Hovercraft on the river until dawn, following the route he'd planned after looking at the Doimari maps of the Land. The shortest route home to Kaldak lay through rough country. The Hovercraft might not be able to get through at all, and it would certainly be slowed down so much that the Doimari pursuers might catch up.

So Blade was taking the long way home, down the Loga River which flowed past Doimar to Lake Mison, across the lake, and then over the plains to the south of the lake into Kaldakan territory. As the crow flies, it was three times as long as the other route, but the Hovercraft wasn't a crow. On the water or on the plains Blade could use its speed freely.

There were still dangers, of course. If the Hovercraft broke down or ran out of power, Blade and Kareena would be a long way from home. Before they could walk back to Kaldak, the war might be over and Kaldak no more than a mass of smoking ruins.

A second danger on this route was the Tribes. Doimar had no settlements more than fifty miles downriver, and no city at all claimed the shores of Lake Mison. The Tribes roamed there freely, fishing, hunting, and fighting with each other. They sometimes respected the power of the cities' armies enough to leave their citizens alone, and sometimes killed them on sight. Blade hoped they could avoid the Tribes entirely. He and Kareena would be around Lake Mison for only a day or two, so their chances would be good.

Blade sent the Hovercraft racing down the Loga with an easy mind. Beside him Kareena gradually fell asleep in her couch, while the sky to the east turned gray with the coming dawn.

By the time it was full daylight, they'd reached the mouth of the Loga. Lake Mison stretched out before them, so wide at this point it was impossible to see the far bank. The rising wind was also kicking up whitecapped waves four or five feet high.

Reluctantly Blade decided against taking the Hovercraft out to one of the small islands in the middle of the lake. They'd be safer from the Tribes there, but they'd also have to battle the waves. Even if they didn't run into trouble on the way, they might find themselves stranded on the island until the wind died.

He turned the Hovercraft onto the hard beach running south from the mouth of the river and increased speed again. Kareena woke up, asked what he was doing, listened to his explanation, and fell asleep again. Blade was happy to leave her alone. Sleep would be better for her than anything he could do now.

Blade headed south along the lakeshore until he was sure they were far beyond any territory the Doimari ever visited. Then he ran the Hovercraft up onto the grassy hillside above the beach, cut the power, and woke Kareena. She shook herself, climbed out, and stood in the long grass. The wind from the lake sent her hair streaming out behind her. Blade alternated between watching her and heating some emergency rations on the hotplate under the control panel. Otherwise he was prepared to wait, then listen to whatever she would say to him whenever she wanted to say it. Only after that would it make any sense for him to speak.

The hours of Kareena's silence still tested Blade more than some of the battles he'd fought. She moved around as stiff-limbed as a wooden puppet, her mouth tightly shut but her eyes wide and staring. It looked as though she wouldn't believe she was safely out of Doimar until she'd taken in every detail of the landscape. She drank some water but refused to eat or show an unnecessary inch of skin. She kept her boots on and made a hood for her face out of a spare piece of cloth. She even insisted on walking a hundred yards away from the Hovercraft to empty her bladder. Blade didn't care for her taking that risk, and said so.