«You first, Ezarn,» he said. «Then I'll hand up Cheeky.»

Ezarn tossed the laser up into the open door and swung himself up. He was leaning over the edge to reach for Cheeky when the feather-monkey leaped. He sailed clear over Ezarn and vanished into the lifter. By then the water was up to Blades' knees. Baliza lowered her lifter another foot, and Ezarn yanked him in so hard Blade felt his arms and shoulders protesting. It was still better than an impromptu swim in a river which might hold anything, most of it mutated and all of it hungry.

As the lifter rose, Blade went forward. He looked carefully at the wounded Intelligence man lying on the floor of the cabin; he appeared to be safely unconscious. Each step seemed longer to Blade than the last, and the final step up to his daughter in the pilot's seat seemed the longest of all. Then Blade consigned the Dimension X secret to the devil, bent down, and kissed Baliza on the forehead.

«You're a daughter to be proud of,» was all he felt able to say. He was afraid his voice wouldn't stay steady for more than that.

«Sidas was afraid of you worrying about my safety,» said Baliza softly. «He didn't think I might find a time to be worried about-yours.» She raised one hand and wiped the back of it across her eyes. «Father. .»

«What's the matter, girl?» said Feragga with a chuckle. «That wasn't the way you greeted him the last time you met, I've heard.»

«Oh, shut up, you bawdy old witch,» growled Blade. «Or better yet, make yourself useful. Get on the radio-the Sky Voice-and listen to the talk between the Doimari lifters. That may tell us if anyone heard a call from the ones we shot down.»

«Yes, Sky Master,» said Feragga with sarcastic meekness.

Blade grinned. He understood now what Feragga had been doing-trying to keep him and Baliza from being completely carried away by their emotions. She'd probably been right, too. This far inside Doimari territory, they were a long way from being out of the woods yet.

Feragga listened for an hour without hearing any signs that the battle by the river had been detected. Apparently the Doimari commander had been acting on his own initiative and sent out no messages before he went down.

By then it was mid-afternoon. Blade started searching for a clearing where he could land and hide the lifters. He wanted to find it, get the lifters out of sight, and make camp before dark.

Chapter 27

Ikhnan himself and Shangbari were the only two of the Red Cats to go with Voros at dawn to the skymachines which would take him to the City of Kaldak. The rest of the Tribe, warriors and women alike, were too drunk or sound asleep.

Not that Shangbari would have called himself sober. There had been much beer drunk last night, and even some strong Kaldakan waters from Monitor Bekror's house. All wanted to celebrate the victory and the escape and give the spirits of the dead a proper start toward the Great Hunt. Voros the Wise drank as much as anyone, for he had won the victory but had his woman Sparra to mourn.

And the cunning of the escape! That was worth much beer all by itself. Flying so far into Doimar that no map showed where they were, then sitting in the forest for days while the Doimari looked for them in all the places they were not. Shangbari had fed them well during those days with his hunting skills, although some of the animals were strange even to him. He was as proud of how well they'd eaten because of his skills as he was of the Doimari he'd killed at the wizards' home.

No one would ever again doubt that Shangbari was the finest hunter of the Red Cats. And Shangbari knew he owed this also to Voros the Wise, a man of the City of Kaldak.

Clearly the gods had made many kinds of City men-and women.

Now Voros and Ezarn stood beside their machine, waiting for the chief and the hunter to come up. Cheeky and the Red Cat Fija were sitting face to face at their feet, like two human friends saying farewell.

«Farewell, Ikhnan, Shangbari,» said Voros. «If it is so willed, I shall return to do you more honor.»

«The greatest honor you can do is leading us again in battle, if there is a worthy enemy to be fought,» said Ikhnan. Shangbari nodded.

«That would be a pleasure, if it can be so,» said Voros. «I have never led better fighting men than the Red Cats.»

«I've never fought beside better, neither,» said Ezarn, although he looked at the ground as he said it instead of at the two Tribesmen.

Then Voros's face set hard. Cheeky jumped up on his shoulder, and he and Ezarn climbed into the sky machine. It rose, and the other three rose with it. Like birds flying away for the winter, they vanished over the treetops.

Shangbari looked at Ikhnan. «I wonder why Voros looks as if he was going to punishment instead of honor for his victory?»

«Perhaps he has offended someone powerful in Kaldak,» said the chief. «There have always been those in the Cities who wanted them to unite against the Tribes, not fight each other. Certainly they would not be happy that he has won his victory with our aid!»

Ikhnan was shrewd, as usual. «They will find him hard to kill,» said Shangbari. «Ezarn will guard his back to the death, and so will Baliza.»

Shangbari did not know what to make of the woman Baliza, other than that she seemed to be a warrior-woman even more formidable than Sparra. Sometimes she behaved as if she had once been Voros's woman. Other times she behaved as if she was blood kin, unlawful for him to bed. Well, either way she would be sworn to defend or avenge him.

Short of a firing squad, Blade wasn't really sure what to expect on his return to Kaldak. He'd finally stopped worrying about the Dimension X secret to the point where he could see things from the point of view of the Kaldakans. After all, his return from the dead must have thrown a rather large wrench in their works, too!

So it was pleasant but not completely a surprise to discover what Sidas planned to do about the Sky Master's return. Once he'd listened to Blade's story, he thanked Blade, poured out beer, and said:

«We're not going to tell anybody a damned thing. Not a word. As far as we're concerned, the raid was led by Cadet Commander Voros, who's going to get a pardon and a company of his own.»

The High Commander laughed. «This is partly because we respect you and the way you wanted to keep your return a secret. But don't flatter yourself that's the only reason.»

«That's no way to talk to-«began Baliza, but Sidas waved her to silence.

«It's the way to talk to a soldier of Kaldak. I want to think of Blade that way, if I can. And that's another reason why I don't want the news to get out. Consider how few people will even try to think of the Sky Master as just another man. Consider how many are going to think of him as a god who came to get us out of trouble again. If too many of them think that, they'll be expecting him to come back and save them every time Kaldak gets into trouble.

«Also, from what Blade says, it will be a century or more before we can use his method of traveling between the-Dimensions?» Blade nodded. Sidas went on. «A century, before the 'brains' we use in our Fighting Machines are good enough. But people won't believe that. They'll expect a miracle tomorrow, ask our scientists to produce it, then tear them apart if they don't.»

Blade nodded again. He wasn't entirely sure it would take a whole century for Kaldak to develop the computers. They might even find some other method of inter-Dimensional travel. Such existed, and there just weren't that many rules on the subject.

However, Sidas's mistake wouldn't do anyone any harm. If someone in this Dimension did get inter-Dimensional travel, it was more likely to be Doimar, with its Seekers and telepaths. The raid had undoubtedly set them back a couple of generations, but it hadn't completely wiped out their City's advantage.