Alsin saw the other riders had dropped back a little and pulled his horse up close to Chenosh. «Your Grace,» he said formally.

«Yes, Marshal?»

«You will doubtless be wanting to hold a ducal audience, as soon as possible. But I would like a talk with you alone first.»

«You will have my ear, Alsin. It is the least you deserve, after all you have done. As long as you mean nothing against Lord Blade.»

«Nothing at all, Your Grace.»

Blade stepped away from the bed as the women finished laying Miera out. With her shorn head concealed by a cap and the pain gone from her face, she looked more like the woman he'd known than she had since her wounding.

He was no longer feeling sorry for himself. Self-pity was basically a futile emotion, and one he drove out as fast as he could. There were also a great many more people in the Duchies worse off than he was, thanks to this war. It was time to do something for them.

He'd start with Sarylla. She was standing at the head of the bed, making sure that her assistants did everything right. She was now as determined to see Miera properly buried as she had been to save her. But she'd used up the last of her own strength nursing the girl. If she didn't rest it would soon be a question of her funeral. She'd also need some money, and since Blade would be getting a handsome share of the day's loot…

A knock sounded on the door to the stair, then a voice said, «Lord Blade. It is Duke Chenosh. May I come in?»

The women stepped hastily aside as the young Duke entered, followed by Alsin and Lord Gennar. Chenosh stood by the bed for a moment, his lips moving in a short prayer to the Fathers. Then he turned to Blade. His face was a mask which the older man didn't even try to read.

«Lord Blade, Marshal Alsin and I have decided that the Duchies must follow a new path. Handryg cannot be trusted, and Fedron is dead. So we cannot offer our allegiance to either Kingdom. We must found a Kingdom of our own.» The mask broke, and Blade saw in Chenosh the look of a man who must walk a tightrope over a bottomless canyon in order to save his life.

«We must found a Kingdom of our own,» he repeated. «So I am going to proclaim myself King. King of the Realm of the Crimson River. And my first act as King will be-«

«To proclaim Marshal Alsin as the new Duke of Nainan,» said Blade, interrupting without thinking.

Chenosh laughed at the surprise on Alsin's face. «Are you sure he doesn't read men's minds?» he said. Then he nodded.

Blade would have knelt to both men, but his knees were too stiff. «Your Grace,» he said to the Marshal. «If you are going to be giving out rewards and punishments in Nainan, I would like to ask a favor of you. As your first act, the woman Sarylla should-«

«No!» said Gennar suddenly. The others stared at him as he crossed the room and put his arms around Sarylla. «The Lady Sarylla may be rewarded if it is Marshal-I mean, Duke-Alsin's pleasure to do so. But first of all, I am going to take her as my lawful, lordly wife. If she will have me,» he added. He swallowed, and Blade saw that the warrior Lord was frightened half out of his wits at the idea of Sarylla refusing him.

Fortunately for everybody, she managed to gasp out the word «yes» before she fainted into Gennar's arms. He and the women took her out to another chamber, leaving Blade, Alsin, and Chenosh staring at each other.

Alsin was the first to get his voice back. «Well, if I can be a Duke, then surely Sarylla can be a lady. She is probably better fitted for her task than I am for mine: Nonetheless, I do have that task. And the first proclamation I will make is that Lord Blade is Marshal of Nainan.»

There was clearly no safe or easy way to refuse, so Blade didn't. In fact, he felt like cheering. Alsin's appointing him Marshal meant his work in arming the peasants was accepted, and that the new Duke's mind was open to the idea of further changes. «I will accept,» he said. «But on the condition that Lord Gennar be made my second in command, and Lord Ebass be given command of the Duke's Guardsmen.»

«Done,» said Alsin, and Blade gave a mental sigh of relief. Both Gennar and Ebass deserved rewards, and now they had them. Also, Gennar was another man who could cope with all the changes that were happening to warfare along the Crimson River.

There was no need to talk of details now, and certainly not here, with Miera's sightless eyes on them. «Although I feel more easy in my mind about my grandfather's death and Miera's now,» said Chenosh, «I feel-well, I feel that his work will go on, and his death will not be a waste.»

When the two visitors went downstairs, Blade turned the other way and climbed onto the roof of the keep. Cheeky rode on his shoulder. The sky was clearing now, and the wind was brisk enough to feel cool on his skin. It felt even better in his lungs after the thick air of the death room.

Overhead, the stars were coming out. Blade leaned against the stone battlements, then hastily stepped back as he felt a stone shift under his weight. A fine end to this trip and his life it would be, falling through the battlements and splattering on the ground a hundred and fifty feet below!

He took a deep breath and opened his mind to Cheeky. He hadn't spoken with the Feathered One for days, and he wanted to see how the battle looked through his eyes.

«Yeeeeeppp!»

Blade heard surprise and even pain in the Feathered One's call. Then he felt a prickling all over his skin and a throbbing in his head, just below the threshold of pain but impossible to ignore. For a moment he understood Cheeky's surprise and even shared it. Then the throbbing grew more intense, and although it still wasn't painful, he recognized it.

The computer was calling to him, ready to bring him back to Home Dimension. Because Cheeky was linked to his mind, the computer was calling to him, too. In fact, he'd picked up the call before Blade did, but didn't know what it meant.

It was easier for Blade to control his thoughts with this new form of the computer's call. He told Cheeky to keep calm, and at the same time scratched his back in the familiar manner.

For a moment the throbbing flared to pain. Blade braced himself against a firm section of stone. He heard Cheeky yeeeep again, the world swam in front of his eyes…

… and he was standing in the transfer booth, with Cheeky still on his shoulder.

The Feathered One's next yeeeep was rather subdued.

Chapter 25

«… refuse to use the word 'apologize' under the circumstances.»

«Richard, there's no point in not calling a spade a spade. I realize you're reluctant to save Lord Leighton's pride after what he said to you-«

«You're bloody right I'm reluctant!»

«-but do you see anything else to do? Richard, if you're going to be stubborn about this, I'm going to question the soundness of your judgment.»

«Is that a threat?»

«It is not,» said J in the chilliest voice Blade could recall hearing him use in years. «It's simply a statement of fact.»

It was on the tip of his tongue to ask J what right he had to try making up the quarrel between Blade and Lord Leighton, considering how he'd lost his temper with the scientist not too long ago, but refrained. If he said it, there'd simply be a quarrel with J added to the one with Lord Leighton.

«I'll talk to you tomorrow,» he said briskly to J, and hung up. It was the first time he'd hung up on J. He felt that he was showing rather a lot of self-restraint in not slamming the receiver down.

He went over to the sideboard and poured himself a large whiskey. It was only his second of the evening. He didn't plan to get drunk-not tonight. He wasn't that angry yet.

«Yeeeep?»

«All right, Cheeky. You can have something, too.»