Джеффри Лорд - Return To Kaldak

«Do you wish more beer?» said Ikhnan.

Blade shook his head. He'd already drunk more than enough of the rough Tribal beer while telling Ikhnan his tale. «You have already done far more than the Laws for welcoming guests demanded of you.»

Ikhnan smiled grimly. «But not as much as you could have wished, or perhaps expected?»

«You are a wise leader of your people,» said Blade with a shrug. «You would be wiser if you believed me more.»

«That I doubt,» said Ikhnan. «Though you say you did not join the sky-riders of Kaldak of your own will, yet you came among us as one of them.»

«I did. And I did little harm to your people, and much to the Doimari, who are the enemies of everyone except themselves.»

«That is so. But that only gives me a reason to let you return to Kaldak with your tale. It does not give me reason to let the remaining warriors of the Red Cats follow you into the jaws of the Seekers.»

Blade was annoyed enough to think of several things it wouldn't be wise to say out loud. Perhaps he should give up and accept Ikhnan's offer of a guide to the Kaldakan border. That would save him a few days in getting back. Would that be enough if it took him weeks to convince the Kaldakans they should act? «Cadet Commander Voros» was probably under sentence of death for six or seven different crimes.

He would even need some luck to escape being shot on sight.

Then he heard a familiar yeeeeping behind him, the scrabble of Cheeky's paws, and the pad-pad-pad of some other animal about the same size. Ikhnan's eyes opened wide and his mouth opened wider, as he looked past Blade. Blade turned around, to see Cheeky walking into the tent with one of the sacred Red Cats following respectfully behind him. They sat down, Cheeky scratched the Red Cat behind its ears, and the beast started to purr!

Blade reached out a hand to pet the cat-and got bloody claw marks on his wrist for his pains. Then Cheeky yeeeeped angrily, jumped up and down, and pulled the Red Cat's tail hard. It laid its ears back, and for a moment Blade thought he would have to rescue Cheeky. The Red Cats had ferocious tempers, and this one was nearly as big as Cheeky.

The Red Cat and Cheeky glared at each other for a moment. Then slowly the Red Cat relaxed. A moment later it went over to Blade and licked the blood off his wrist, purring like a small outboard motor. Then, while Ikhnan looked as if his eyes were going to fall out of their sockets, the Red Cat climbed onto Blade's lap, curled its tail around itself, and went to sleep. Cheeky gave a small yeeep of satisfaction and hopped up onto Blade's shoulder.

With a heroic effort at self-control, Ikhnan spoke. «Is that Fija?»

Blade grinned. «How should I know? Ask Cheeky.»

Ikhnan swallowed. «You said that as if-he might answer-like a man. Is he-?»

«He is not one of the Little Men of the tales I have heard here in the Land,» said Blade. «That I can swear. As to what else he is-much I do not know myself, and most of the rest is not my secret but his.»

Ikhnan swallowed again. «I am sorry to seem-less than a warrior-before you. But-«

Blade waved away the apologies. «I myself have soiled my breeches, facing what I did not understand. Suppose you tell me what makes you uneasy. Then I will know what questions of yours I can answer.»

Ikhnan nodded. «It is simply that Fija is the most evil-tempered of all the Red Cats. It is as if he wanted to feed on human flesh all the year around. No other man has been able to touch Fija without being clawed or sometimes bitten. As for his being a friend of any other living creature-I am not yet sure that what I saw was really what happened.»

«I didn't know that about Fija. But Cheeky-well, he's a friendly little chap. He probably convinced Fija that he was no rival for food or females. Then it wasn't hard to persuade him that any friend of Cheeky's also ought to be a friend of Fija's.»

«You said that as if you believed it …. No, I am sorry. Forgive me for seeming to doubt your word, as I have doubted my own eyes.» Ikhnan smiled thinly. «Still, I will not trust the-Cheeky's powers enough to pet Fija myself, even if I do become your friend.»

Ikhnan looked embarrassed. «Cheeky's friendship with Fija is a sign that I must do more than I would before. Yet-I still cannot simply arm my warriors and send them against Doimar at your word.» He straightened up. «Voros. If you were among the sky-riders of Kaldak, you must have had friends there. Perhaps even friends among their chiefs?»

«Yes. Have you heard of a Monitor Bekror?»

Ikhnan jumped. «His land begins not more than four days from where we sit. But-he is one of the mightiest enemies the Tribes have. No friendship for you would-«

«That remains to be seen. He is no friend to the Tribes, but he is a friend to me. He is also an enemy of my enemies in Kaldak. To spite them, he might even be willing to aid Tribesmen who were not going to fight him. Do you think I can ask you not to use any aid you get from Bekror against anyone except Doimar? I have told you several times that Doimar is now a greater enemy to the Tribes than Kaldak has ever dreamed of being!»

«And I believe you. Now. But what I believe does not matter. Without some help from someone, the Red Cats cannot do as you wish. We had five hundred warriors. Now we have less than two hundred, and fewer than that with weapons fit to use against Doimar. If I send half my warriors with you and they do not return, the Red Cats will be too weak to stand against anyone. It would not matter who slew them. The Tribe would die, to the last infant.»

Blade was silent. Ikhnan was a proud warrior confessing weakness, and could do without pointless remarks for a while.

Finally Blade said, «I would not ask that. It is something no honorable man could ask.»

«Thank you.» Ikhnan swallowed more beer, which seemed to clear his head. «I and five other warriors will travel with you to the house of Monitor Bekror. You and he shall speak. If he offers us weapons to use against Doimar, I shall swear by anything he asks not to use them against him. Will he find that just?»

Bekror would, if he believed Blade at all. If he didn't, there wasn't much Blade could do about it. He and the Tribesmen could hardly steal enough Newtec or Oltec gear to make Ikhnan willing to send his warriors against the rocket base.

Then Blade would have to convince someone else in Kaldak, if he wanted to smash Detcharn's schemes before they literally got off the ground. He would also have to do it fast, or even the serum formula wouldn't be in Kaldakan hands fast enough to do any good!

The Sky Master's daughter Baliza closed the door behind her and looked across the tapestry-hung room to the great bed. Monitor Bekror was already in it, propped up on a stack of pillows. He had a book in his lap and a jug of beer with two cups on the carved wooden table beside the bed. He looked as if he might be dozing, but Baliza knew that appearances could deceive.

She locked the door, snuffed out all the lamps except the one by the bed, and started undressing. She took her time about it, since the night was warm, and there was no great hurry to get under the blankets and into Bekror's arms. Also, he said he liked to watch her slowly stripping herself down from a soldier into a love-goddess.

The first time she'd come to him, she'd thought he might have been flattering her, when all he really needed was the extra time to become aroused. After all, he would never see fifty again. Now she knew that when he said she was a work of art, he was simply telling the truth as he saw it.

When she was naked, she padded across to the bed. Bekror handed her a full cup of beer. As she drank she suddenly felt his hand between her thighs, where it tickled most. She jumped and spilled half the beer over her shoulders and breasts. Bekror sat up and started licking the beer off her skin. As his lips closed around her nipples, she put down the cup and wound her fingers in his hair to pull his head against her breasts. Meanwhile his hand was still busy between her thighs, doing more than tickling.