Джеффри Лорд - Return To Kaldak

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.

«Yes,» said Baliza «We've got better things to do than hunt the Golden Munfan. Also, if no one knows that Blade saved us again, nobody will say anything against the High Command or the Intelligence people.»

«What's there to say against me?» said Sidas.

«A lot, when my father's not around to tell me I should be more respectful to a superior,» said Baliza.

Sidas grunted. «All right.»

Blade smiled. He was pretty sure what Baliza had to say and could almost feel sorry for Sidas. Baliza still wasn't happy about the lack of coordination between her mission and Blade's, even though everybody had been lucky. She was going to have some things to say about desk-bound superiors. They would probably be the same things he'd said in his younger days, when he'd felt he was carrying the can for their mistakes.

That evening Sidas threw a party, for everyone who was in on the secret.

It was a highly informal party, with nobody standing on rank. Even Ezarn finally got used to talking to Monitor Bekror and taking a glass of beer from a tray held by his High Commander. He still looked a bit as if he'd been hit over the head and hadn't quite recovered. Blade expected the man would sooner or later get used to the fact that his old comrade Voros was really the Sky Master Blade: Ezarn wasn't stupid, he was impossible to frighten, and having an assured future (in the Monitor Bekror's guards, with a farm of his own) probably wouldn't hurt either.

Cheeky ate so much that finally he vomited all over Baliza's tunic. She washed him off, put him to bed, then went around the rest of the evening bare to the waist. For the first time in his life Blade found himself trying not to look at such a good-looking, woman parading around half-bare. However, he finally remembered that this was Kaldakan custom. Blood kin had a complete right to be casually nude around each other.

«It's good to see her that way,» Bekror told Blade as they both refilled their cups. «I wouldn't care to have some unnatural fear crawling in her mind when I marry her.»

Blade looked at his cup, to see if somebody had spiked his drink. Or maybe he'd just drunk too much?

«I thought you said you wanted to marry Baliza,» he said slowly.

«I did,» said Bekror. «If she'll have me.»

«And if she won't?»

«She's the best woman I've known for a long time. She's not the only one. If she says no, I'll let her go. I value my peace of mind too much.»

«Not to mention your ribs, skull, and back teeth,» added Blade.

«Them, too.»

They talked freely after that. Bekror wanted a wife who would outlive him and be able to take care of his estates and any children she had by him.

«About the taking care, I'm not worried,» said Blade. «About the outliving-well, she's got one of my worst habits. She'll always run to find out what's happening, no matter how dangerous it might be.»

«She'll have a double dose of it, then. Her mother was like that.» They both drank to Kareena's memory. «What do you suggest my doing about it?»

«Learn to live with it, or you'll have to learn to live without her,» said Blade flatly.

«That's all?»

«That's all. And you didn't really need my advice, did you?»

Blade wanted out of this embarrassing situation of advising a prospective son-in-law who was almost old enough to be his own father, about a daughter whom the other man surely knew much better than he did! Inter-Dimensional family reunions were a headache.