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Conscientious to the last, she refused to permit the palace to be repaired
until the walls of the city were patched up and the grain warehouses
restocked. Only then did she permit workmen to patch the holes in the palace's
roof and walls, repair the furnaces under the baths, and sweep up the litter
of smashed statuary, plaster dust, and broken tiles from all the floors. After
that came Blade's summons to the palace and to the queen's bed.
By that time Blade knew Loya was safely in the lands of the Hauri, where
Kayarna could never find her even if she wanted to.
As far as Blade could tell, the queen couldn't have cared less. Her great
desire was to have as much of
Blade's company as the work they still both had to do allowed. He was with her
in bed, in the baths, at meals in her private chambers, on long rides into the
countryside beyond the devastated area around
Tordas.
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Blade began to wonder if her desire for him would fade. He began to hear her
speak of Tor needing a king, and the more he heard of the idea the more
uncertain he felt about it. Becoming king of Tor could make it much harder for
him to assure Loya the honor she deserved or even the safety she needed.
Kayarna would be more jealous of the other women of her crowned royal consort
than of the other women of a mere lover.
On the other hand, if the king of Tor was the former High Baudz of the Kargoi,
the alliance between the two peoples could hardly be firmer. Once again Blade
was painfully aware of clashing responsibilities. At least Loya was still
alive and sane, and he knew he would risk throne, sanity, and life to keep her
that way. She might never have the honor that her qualities and her love for
him had earned her, but she would not die.
Blight was falling over Tordas. From the window of the chamber in the north
tower of the palace, Blade could look out over the city and the water beyond.
The fires of the sunset colors were almost faded.
Closer at hand, smaller lights burned on both the sea and the land. Torches
burned where Hauri fishermen dragged their nets; more torches burned where
masons worked late to repair some damaged building.
The rebuilding of Tordas would be an effort by all three of the peoples who'd
fought the Vodi. The
Torians were doing most of the work, but the Hauri were catching tons of fish
to feed the city, while many Kargoi worked as tanners, carpenters, and
butchers. The rebuilt city would be something that all three peoples could
claim as their own.
In the last few days Blade had taught warriors of all three how to use the
captured Vodi muskets and cannon. He'd also written down the formula for
making gunpowder. Tomorrow he was supposed to go out into the countryside, to
watch the testing of the first batch of Torian-made gunpowder. It would
probably be a while before the Torians produced anything that would go bang
rather than fizzzzzz, but they were well on the way. Long before anyone else
human or nonhuman came against them, all three peoples would have gunpowder
weapons and tactics for using them.
He would not wait until then to tell Kayarna about the Menel, though. He would
send a message tomorrow to Paor, who was keeping the Menel diary in a locked
box in his wagon in the Kargoi camp outside the city. Fudan and Loya were
keeping the other Menel souvenirs in the little seaside but by the cove.
Blade wondered how Loya was. In the two months since he'd seen her, her
pregnancy would have advanced considerably. Would it be a son or a daughter?
It didn't matter much to Blade, and it probably didn't matter much to the
Hauri. They were too sensible to treat the child as much more than a symbol,
and a girl would do as well for that as a boy. But Loya would probably want a
son, to raise as a warrior, a fisherman, a sailor, and an explorer. For her
sake he could hope the child would be a boy.
He also hoped he would be able to bring Loya out of the forest again before
the child was born.
Kayarna hadn't said a word about her rival since Blade moved into the
palace-but then, Blade hadn't said a word about Loya either. Perhaps it was
time to find some way of subtly raising the question?
Before Blade could think further on this point, he heard a familiar set of
swift, light footsteps behind him.
He was about to turn around when Kayarna's voice spoke.
"No, Blade. Stand where you are. Do not turn around. I have something for
you."
Her tone was light, almost joking, but a wise man obeyed Kayarna Deda of Tor
even when she spoke jokingly. Blade did as he was told, conscious of her warm
soft breathing behind him and also of the open window in front of him. It was
a long way to the ground, and Kayarna had a rough taste in practical jokes.
He heard the sound of rippling cloth, then something heavy settled down on his
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head, with cool metal
pressing against his forehead and temples. A hand fell lightly on his
shoulder.
"Turn around, Blade, and look in the mirror."
Blade turned around. He saw Kayarna standing beside him in a long red skirt
and jeweled sandals, her hair piled high and caught up with a gold circlet,
the nipples of her bare breasts lightly rouged. Then he saw himself in the
bronze mirror that hung on the wall.
On his head rose a conical crown a foot high, the frame white gold but with
the gold almost completely invisible under layer after layer of black pearls.
There were hundreds of them, perhaps more than a thousand, all perfect, all
carefully graded and carefully placed. The large ones at the base of the crown
were the size of grapes, the ones at the very top were hardly larger than
grains of sand. Blade moved his head slightly, and the light played across the
black surface of pearls.
It was like wearing a crown of luminous darkness.
"You are already the king of my lovers," said Kayarna with a smile, running
her hand down Blade's arm.
"By the Pearl Crown you are King-By-Marriage in all of Tor, not just in my
bed. You will have the place beside me as long as you live. That place needs
filling, and there is no one else so worthy. Nor will there be."
"You flatter me," said Blade. "I can hardly refuse. Yet what becomes of the
Kargoi now?"
"You yourself have said that the man Paor is worthy to be High Baudz. Indeed
he seems wise and brave. So let him be chosen to rule the Kargoi, and they
will have no further need of you."
It struck Blade that he might have just been given the perfect opportunity to
raise the question of the
Hauri and of Loyas safety and position. Before he could say a word, Kayarna
smiled again.
"To the King-By-Marriage, all but the queen must kneel. Even she may kneel if
she chooses."
In a single flowing motion Kayarna knelt on the floor before Blade. With one
hand she raised his kilt, with the other she drew aside the loinguard under
it. Her mouth with its warm, superbly skilled, mobile lips closed on Blade's
manhood.
He stood like a rock as she stroked and licked and sucked, trying to keep his
back straight and his breathing even. It was a game they played sometimes,
seeing how long and how silently each could endure the other's best and most
skilled efforts to arouse. It was a delightful game, one in which there was
never a loser-only winners.
Blade's silence drove Kayarna to put her hands to work along with her lips.
Blade clenched both his teeth and his fists and kept quiet. But his back was
beginning to arch involuntarily, almost as if he were being gripped by two
powerful hands and bent backward. His body was fighting its own fight with
Kayarna's lips.
Blade groaned out loud. As if the groan was a signal, pain roared in his head
like the winds of a hurricane sweeping in off the sea. His ears were filled
with thunder and before his eyes the world vanished in a red fog of pain. Lord
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