No one passed the word, and the Tribesmen paid for it. As the Tribesmen who'd taken cover rose to join their comrades, Blade raised the laser and opened fire. His first blast hit the officer and the whole squad behind him. One of them must have been carrying demolition charges. He exploded as the laser hit him, and grisly pieces of his body rained down. The squad behind him froze, and Blade cut them down before they could move. Then both he and Sparra were firing into the confused mass of men coming on behind the two point squads.

Perhaps the Tribesmen were new warriors who'd never before faced point-blank laser fire. Or perhaps the surprise and the loss of their officer confused them. In any case, they turned and ran after only a minute of Blade's laser work. They fired a few wild shots, but after another demolition man blew up they stopped doing even that. Five minutes after the attack began, it was over. There wasn't a living Tribesman in sight, except a few moaning wounded, writhing among the far more numerous corpses. The stench of burned flesh and ozone was strong enough to turn even Blade's cast-iron stomach.

In the silence Blade heard the steamboat whistle again, then the hiss and crackle of heavy lasers. «That's probably the City Regiment from Kaldak,» said Sparra. «Late as usual, and of course they won't come in here. They'll go off chasing the Tribesmen, and try to get the glory without doing any real fighting.»

«There's something to be said for that, It's always risky, new troops moving into a battle area at night. Easy to make mistakes and shoot your friends.»

Sparra frowned. «That is true. It is also more than I really expected you to know about war. What were you?»

Blade realized that he'd said a little too much, but luck saved him the need of replying. A hail came from out of the darkness.

«Hoaaaa! Is anyone there?» It was Chyatho's voice.

«It's Sparra,» she called back. «The Tribesmen tried to come through here. But the man who'd lost his memory-Voros, he calls himself-he'd captured one of their lasers. He butchered them, Chyatho.»

Blade heard mutterings, then from someone else, «By the Laws, she's right. You can't see the ground for the dead, some places.»

Chyatho came forward, his pistol drawn, leading a squad. Blade recognized Terbo the rifleman and the crossbowman from the squad by the river. Then Chyatho noticed Blade's laser and Sparra's lack of clothing. His face hardened.

«What have you two been doing, besides killing Tribesmen?»

«Nothing,» said Sparra. Blade stood silently. Chyatho was only too obviously carrying a big chip on his shoulder. Blade's suddenly revealing his newly regained wits could provoke him even more. It would be better if Sparra handled the matter.

«Nonsense!» said Chyatho.

«Nonsense?» repeated Sparra. «What else do you think we've had time to do?» She waved a hand at the bodies of the Tribesmen.

«She's right, Chyatho,» said Terbo. «Now calm yourself and let's start-«

«No, before that!» shouted Chyatho. Blade quietly shifted his footing, to be ready if the man attacked. His voice was ugly. «You were gone long enough to do anything you damn well pleased, the way you always do!»

«I swear by the Law that I have taken or given away nothing which was yours,» said Sparra coldly. Blade rather wished he could slip away in the darkness, because this quarrel could do him no good. But if he vanished, Chyatho would probably take his anger out on Sparra.

Chyatho wasn't too angry to notice Blade's stance. «He's listening and understanding what we say!» he screamed. «He was lying, and so are you, bitch!»

Terbo grabbed Chyatho's shoulder. «Come on, Chyatho! It's been a long night, and you're half out of your mind-«

Chyatho let out an animal's screech, twisted out of Terbo's grasp, and hurled himself at Sparra. Before Terbo could draw his pistol, Chyatho was too close to the woman for him to fire without danger of hitting her.

With only his bare hands, Blade wasn't similarly handicapped. He caught Chyatho in a judo hold and the man shot up over Blade's shoulder with a yell of surprise and fear. Unfortunately, he twisted half out of Blade's grip in mid-flight. Blade had intended to drop him on a patch of soft earth to the left of the shaft mouth. Instead Chyatho landed head-down on a solid lump of rock. Everyone heard the sickening double crunch as his neck snapped and his skull caved in.

Terbo knelt by Chyatho for a moment, to make sure he was dead, while Sparra covered the other men with the laser. From her expression, it was obvious that any man who batted an eye was likely to get a laser beam through his guts.

Finally Terbo rose and looked hard at Blade. «You have got your wits back, haven't you?»

There didn't seem to be any point in lying. «Enough to remember I was a fighting man, and most of what I knew when I was.»

«Then I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to hand over your weapons.»

«Why should I trust you?» said Blade.

«No reason, except you can trust me more than some of the other men. Chyatho had a good many friends. If I take your weapons and put you under my protection, none of them will dare touch you until Monitor Bekror himself has given his judgment. Otherwise you may find yourself fair game, with a lot of hunters around. How many eyes and ears do you have?»

«Do what he says, Voros,» said Sparra. «He's rough-spoken but I've never known him to break an oath, even to an enemy.» she added in a tight whisper that only Blade heard, «I've caused Chyatho's death tonight. I don't want to see you die, too.»

«All right,» said Blade. He reversed the rifle and handed it butt first to Terbo. Something flying droned overhead, and green laser light flared off to the left, followed by machine-gun fire. Then darkness and silence returned.

Chapter 7

Blade spent the rest of the night in an informal sort of protective custody. Sparra took command of Terbo's squad and led it off into the darkness while Terbo himself mounted guard over both Blade and the body-strewn rubble.

That worried Blade. If he was in danger of death from Chyatho's friends, what about Sparra? He probably couldn't do anything to help her tonight, but it was always better to know for sure things like this.

«You and she did get together, didn't you?» was Terbo's reply. «And don't lie.»

«We did,» said Blade.

«I thought so, That phrase of Sparra's-'nothing which is yours'-I've heard it before. So has Chyatho. This must have been one too many times.»

«Whose side are you on?»

«The side of not getting any more good fighters or live loins killed tonight,» said Terbo. «That's why I'm protecting you. It's also why I will hunt down any man who touches Sparra for this night's work if the Monitor doesn't do it first.»

«Are you-claiming Sparra-now that Chyatho is dead?» As long as he was pretending to recover his wits, he could ask what would otherwise have been stupid questions.

«I am not,» said Terbo. «You see, I am dead-Joined. I can be a Protector to the children other men father, but never put one into a woman myself. Sparra has borne Chyatho a son, and is young enough to bear more to another man with live loins. It would go hard with both of us if I claimed her. Oh, I have bedded her at times when both of us were in need. But I would not claim her. I advise you not to, either, at least until you have all your wits back. She will say ten words to your one, otherwise.»

Blade laughed. «So I suspected.»

After that they talked freely. Terbo had been a soldier for more than twenty of his forty years. In fact, he'd fled as a boy from a village overrun by the Doimari advancing to the great battle where the Sky Master Blade defeated them. With both parents dead he was adopted by a Kaldakan family, then went into the army as soon as he was old enough for them to take him. Since then, he'd fought in most of Kaldak's major battles and a good many of the minor ones, in several different units of Kaldak's army.