For the first time in many hours Blade could no longer hear the endless whine of the wind. That alone was enough to make him feel that the house was almost luxurious.

  The old woman led Blade to a seat by the fire. The seat was a large flat rock with layers of hides piled over it. Blade sat down, while Degar crossed the room to an even lower door set in the far wall.

  «Tera! Come forth to meet your new master! Come forth to see he whose will shall be over yours from this night on!» There was a stirring in the darkness beyond the door, a small squeal of pain or surprise, and Degar reappeared, dragging a young woman.

  Very young, in fact. But then Blade remembered that seventeen was very young only by Home Dimension standards. Here in Scador she had doubtless been considered a grown woman at fourteen. She would be old at forty, if she was still alive.

  But now she was seventeen, and as Blade looked at her his eyes widened. Tera was beautiful. More beautiful than he had expected, almost more beautiful than he could believe in someone from this barbaric people living in their harsh, chill land. She was barely five feet tall and exquisitely formed. Huge dark eyes stared out at him from a face that missed being perfect only through the square lines of its jaw, and a great mass of dark brown hair poured down her back and over her-shoulders. It was matted and filthy, and right now her father had a firm grip on it. But Blade could not help imagining how that hair might look, clean and flowing. Or how the rest of Tera might look, stripped of the shapeless garment of hides that concealed her from neck to ankles and left bare only face, feet, and slim arms.

  Degar released his daughter and made a sharp gesture with one hand. She nodded submissively, reached down to the hem of the garment, and pulled it over her head. Her nude body kept the promise of the rest of her, with small perfect breasts, slim waist, beautifully molded legs. Blade felt desire rising in him more quickly than it had for any woman in years.

  «Is she not pleasing, Blade?»

  «She is very pleasing, Degar.» The sincere enthusiasm in his voice made the warrior smile.

  «She is small, and she has Nessiri blood in her through her mother. But is she not, in spite of that, formed to bear the sons of warriors?» The Nessiri were a people living to the south of Scador and east of Karan, a people of hunters and fishermen who fought both Scadori and Karani.

  «She is.» As Blade spoke, Tera did a quick twirl on her small feet, showing herself off with a smile of pride on her face. She obviously knew just how desirable a man should find her.

  «Can you believe that it is her fault that shame has come on my house because she has borne no sons? Can you believe that it was not the fault of Urgo, unable to do what a man should do?»

  «Urgo indeed must have been as weak in his manhood as in his head,» said Blade. He looked Tera up and down, letting his face show all the appreciation and desire he felt. Her smile broadened. «A warrior of my people must fast and keep vigil after battle, before he can take a woman. This I have not done on the journey here. When I have done that, Tera will find that my manhood is as strong as my arms.» He flexed his arm and shoulder muscles. It would have been even more dramatic if he had been able to show a full erection, but he hadn’t quite reached that point yeti

  Tera’s smile faded, and Degar frowned. «You speak the truth in this? It is the way of your warriors?»

  Blade hardened his own voice and expression. «It is so. I am not as Urgo. There will be unhappiness between us, Degar, if you again doubt what I say.»

  Blade did not want to start his life in Ukush by a quarrel with Degar. But among these people he doubted if he could let anyone call him a liar without losing reputation. He hoped his choice of words had struck the right balance.

  Apparently it had. Degar shrugged his massive shoulders, then turned to his daughter. «There will be a time yet, girl, or this Blade shall tell me why.» His face softened for a moment as he gazed at his daughter. Then he turned and strode out without another word.

  Tera stood, still naked and looking down at the floor. «Shall I cover myself, Blade?» she said softly.

  Blade laughed. «You shall not, Tera. Why should you cover yourself just before I take you?»

  Tera’s mouth dropped open and she clapped both hands to her breasts with a little gasp. When she could speak, she could only stammer, «But-but the laws-your people-«

  «There are things no laws of any people can make a man do when he has his manhood,» said Blade with a grin. «One of them is not to reach out for a woman such as you are, and do with her all that he can for as long as he can.» Tera giggled in delight and anticipation. Blade turned to the old woman.

  «You shall keep silent on all that passes tonight. Or you will not have a tooth in your head tomorrow morning. Do you understand?»

  «Yes, master.» The woman bowed so deeply that her forehead nearly touched the floor.

  «Good.» Blade stepped forward and scooped Tera up in his arms. She was as light as he had expected. He carried her through the inner door into a tiny sleeping room, then laid her down on the furs that gave the floor a little softness. She lay back, hair making a fan around her head, legs spread nearly as wide, wearing nothing but a smile that seemed to light up the whole gloomy chamber. Blade felt desire rising in him again as he began stripping off his clothes. Tera’s eyes widened at the sight of his erect maleness. But the smile never left her face, and her hips began to move slowly, with an almost liquid motion.

  Then Blade lay down and surged into her. She was snug, but warm and wet and totally receptive and welcoming. He began thrusting, and she began moving faster. Slim arms came up to wrap around his neck; the superbly molded legs rose to clamp around his hips with more strength than he thought they had in them. Her teeth tightened painfully on his left ear. But he barely felt the pain in the rising joy and delight he felt as he moved inside Tera and she moved around him. He felt nothing except this woman and what was happening between them.

  Her breathing came faster, and he felt the hard little points of rigid nipples against his chest. He pressed down on her harder, not worrying that she might be fragile, not thinking of anything except doing all that this woman would let him do. Could he last that long? He sensed that this woman might be more than his match. There were years and years of pent-up desire in Tera, and she would be spending it all on him, here and now.

  Yet in the end it was Tera who first cried out, shrilly and wildly, who first twisted and writhed still more wildly under Blade’s thrusts, who locked her legs still more tightly about him and tossed her head about until her hair flowed over Blade’s head. Then she was sobbing and whimpering as her spasm passed. A second came, and with that Blade reached his own climax and writhed and heaved as he groaned and poured himself into her.

  Eventually they found the strength to untangle themselves. Blade became aware that it was chilly in the little chamber, and pulled some of the piled furs over them. The furs stank and probably swarmed with vermin, but he hardly cared about that now. Certainly he did not care about that one-tenth as much as he cared about Tera. She was indeed a woman and an unusual one, with more to know in her and find out about her than many Home Dimension women twice her age. Blade did not know if he loved her or indeed would ever love her. But he knew even now that he cared very much what happened to her.

  Chapter 5

  Tera was more than willing to keep the secret of Blade’s violation of his people’s «taboo.» In fact she seemed to find it a good joke to let it be believed for several days that the relationship between her and Blade was still unconsummated.

  However, Blade could not get out of doing what he said he had to do. So on the third day he went out on the walls of Ukush and sat there all of one day and all the night until dawn. He stayed in lotus position most of the time and neither ate, drank, nor spoke to anyone. This made the vigil more dramatic and impressed everyone who saw him with his great strength of will and the power of his people’s taboos.

  After that he went back to the house and Tera’s warm welcome and even warmer arms. When word got around that Tera was smiling and singing at her work, other warriors began to slap Blade on the back and shout bawdy congratulations. Degar also congratulated Blade, but more soberly. He gave him a captured Karani sword that must have once belonged to a high-ranking officer, for it had a gold hilt with a ruby set in it. He also promised Blade the command of as many warriors as he thought he could get to follow him, when the Scadori next marched into Karan.

  «When will that be?» Blade asked. The sooner the war began, the sooner he could be out of Scador. But-did he want to leave, now that there was Tera?

  «The high chiefs will meet in twenty days to decide who will go. Those who will be marching will start preparing then. They will march as soon as we have food and the snow is gone from the pass into Karan. The weather grows warmer, so that will be no more than twenty more days.»

  Six weeks, roughly, before the Scadori marched down into Karan. That was good, in a way. It meant he could get among the Karani faster than he had expected, long before the next winter froze the grim plateau and hills where the Scadori lived.

  But there was Tera, something Blade had not expected. He did not want to leave her alone in the chill, dark house in Ukush. When it was obvious that Blade was not coming back, she would be passed on to some other warrior, who might treat her as badly as Urgo had. And suppose word reached to Ukush that Blade had deserted to the hated Karani? What would happen to Tera then?

  Take Tera with him when he fled? How? That would mean taking her on the march into the lowlands, and would he be allowed to take her even if she could endure the march? Would she want to escape with him even if she had the chance, to live among the hereditary enemies of her people? He could hardly force her if she didn’t want to go. Besides, the Karani might kill him on sight, however civilized they might be. What would happen to Tera then, if she was with him, would be worse than anything she might suffer by staying in Ukush among her people.

  Damn! There were risks either way. But one thing was certain. Blade did not want to leave Tera behind until the last possible moment. He decided to take her along with him, if that was possible and she could stand it. Then he could play the rest by ear.

  That turned out to be easier than he had expected. Leaders of more than fifty men had the right to take a woman with them when the Scadori went to war, a woman who would be theirs alone. So all Blade had to do was make Tare that in barely a month he was a leader of fifty men or more.

  That was not quite so easy. It meant many hours of weapons practice each day. It also meant a few fights. No one wanted to avenge Urgo or take Tera. But a few warriors seemed to resent the prospect of this stranger who had wandered in from nowhere leading them into battle. A few of them said a little too much, and Blade had to challenge them. He put down quickly those who fought against him with weapons, but took more time with those who had the courage to come against him barehanded. He wanted such brave men to look as good as possible. This helped win the friendship of several of them.

  The practice with both the weapons of Scador and those captured from the Karani was easy. Blade could already handle all of them with a formidable skill that impressed everyone who watched him and impressed even more those who fought against him.

  «I hope your land is so far away that its warriors will never march against us,» Degar said one day, after watching Blade in action. «If they ever did, they would be an enemy far harder to beat than even the Riders of Death of Karan. Or are most of your people’s warriors less skilled than you?»

  Blade shook his head. «Some are less skilled, that is true. But there are just as many still stronger and faster and more skilled than I am. Not bigger, though-I do not come from a race of giants.» That last admission seemed to make Degar feel a little better.

  So the days passed, as Blade practiced and trained from dawn to dark, gradually gathering followers. As darkness crept over the plateau and the western sky turned red, he would make his way to his house and the hot meal and warm welcome Tera would always have waiting for him. Before long, he was envied not only for his skill with weapons, but for his skill in properly taming the proud and strong-spirited Tera. Both of them found the praise heaped on Blade for this amusing, but they carefully kept it a private joke.

  As the days passed, night was slower in coming, the wind lost some of its chill, and the fields and plains beyond began to show spots of color. By now Blade could be sure that he would have command of more than fifty warriors of Scador when the time came to march against the Karani. He would have no trouble taking Tera with him, although he was still far from certain what he should do with her. He knew that he did not want to leave her, but he was still not sure if it would be the right thing to take her with him among the Karani.

  Nearly the six weeks Degar had predicted passed before the word to march came down from the High Chiefs. All normal life in Ukush came to a stop, as everyone turned to getting the warriors of the town ready to depart. Dried meat and bread and beer, weapons and newly polished and greased armor, spare boots, stirrups and harnesses and bags of fodder for the leaders’ horses-they piled up hour by hour. Two out of every three warriors were chosen by lot to march out. Those who stayed behind were to guard Ukush, and if necessary train the young boys whose fathers did not return.

  The two hundred warriors of Ukush gathered just outside the wall one morning, with the eastern sky just turning pink and the night’s chill still in the air. Degar led one-third of the two hundred, Blade another third, a man Blade knew only as Jarud led the remaining third. Degar and Jarud each brought a woman of their own, making things simpler for Blade. It might have looked odd for him to be the only leader to take his «home comforts» with him.

  Besides the leaders’ women, there were a score more for the service of the warriors. Most of these were Karani or Nessiri prisoners or women of Scador enslaved for one or another sort of misbehavior. There were also a score of older men and younger boys to feed the horses, build the fires, clean armor and weapons, and do the rest of the dirty work. Altogether, nearly two hundred and fifty of Ukush’s people marched out across the plateau when Degar’s trumpeter blew the signal.

  Looking back over his shoulder, Blade could see Tera tramping along with a long, free stride in her proper place behind his horse. Behind her the column of the men he led trailed away across the hard bare earth and short grass toward Ukush. The walls of the town were lined with those left behind, cheering, shouting, beating on drums, and waving everything they could wave.

  Blade found that he was not quite as happy about leaving Ukush behind as he had expected to be. The way of life and customs there were not his. But the Scadori had welcomed him, a stranger, and given him as much of a home as they could.

  Gradually Ukush on its hill sank into the plateau, and within an hour it was gone, vanished below the horizon. The warriors marched steadily forward behind their leaders, the women and servants following them. Occasionally someone would sing one of Scador’s harsh, bellowing war songs. Otherwise there was no sound but the hooves of the horses and the feet of the marchers on the hard ground, and above them all the endless whisper and moan of the wind.

  Chapter 6

  The march across the plateau went on for several days. One by one, other columns of the warriors of Scador marched up over the horizon and joined the men of Ukush. By the tenth day, over three thousand warriors and five hundred camp followers were marching steadily on in a single great column.

  By now Blade knew they were marching north. The nights were almost as chilly as they had been in Ukush before spring came. Blade found Tera snuggling closer to him at night, and seldom took off his clothes even to air them out. Washing was out of the question. The occasional pond or spring provided just enough water to fill the water bags and drinking bottles.

  On the thirteenth day Blade saw snow-covered summits lifting over the horizon to the north and northwest. About noon on that day the whole column swung off toward the northwest. A dozen of the more experienced warriors mounted up on leaders’ horses and rode off ahead of the column as scouts. They were approaching the northern end of the plateau, and the pass that led the Scadori through the mountains and down into the lowlands. The Karani had never fortified or garrisoned that pass in all the centuries the Scadori had been fighting them. But none of the leaders wanted to take any chances. The Scadori had learned much from the wars. It was possible that the Karani had done the same.

  The column camped for the night several hours earlier than usual, just out of sight of the pass. Blade found Tera wilder in her passion that night than ever before. She knew as well as Blade did that the march was over and the fighting about to begin.

  «I would be unhappy to be apart from you for the rest of my life,» she said with a sigh. «I pray every hour to the Watchers that other warriors may fall, but not you. It is not a good prayer, and I do not know if the Watchers will answer. But I hope they will.»

  «We must all bow to the Watchers,» said Blade. «I pray, rather, that I do not fail those who follow me through any lack of skill or courage. I also pray to do my best in our battles. If that is granted, I think we will not be apart when the fighting is over.» Blade knew that might very well turn out to be a lie, if he chose to flee to the Karani without her. But if he ended up leaving Tera, why not let her think he had met his death in battle? She would suffer enough as it was.

  The camp awoke long before dawn, as soon as the scouts returned to report that the pass was clear. Several hundred fur-clad warriors with stoneheaded axes and spears marched in from the mountain-dwelling tribes, to join the column. Two of the clans whose warriors were expected did not appear, but this seemed a minor detail. When the column set out on its march in the darkness, it was nearly four thousand strong.

 

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