«Yes. And Princess Aumara escaped with me. She is back there in the forest.» He turned and shouted. «Aumara, we are safe! A Zungan patrol!» Again the Zungan gaped and stared as Aumara stepped out into the open. Finally he managed to get his mouth closed, then opened it again to greet the princess and call his men out from cover.
Blade noticed that all eighteen of the Zungans were carrying the new spears. He asked about that.
«Ah, the new fighting art is all over Zunga now,» the warrior replied. «Half our warriors have the Blade-spears, and many hundreds can use them well. The On'ror and the Ulungas grumble, but we have not yet violated the letter of their decision. And the letter of their decision is all that King Afuno will let them enforce.»
«King Afuno is a wise and great king,» said Blade. «I am glad to be able to make him happy by bringing his daughter back to him. And I do not think the On'ror will be able to enforce anything very much longer.»
His tone as he said this discouraged questions. The patrol leader nodded and said, «Tell us about what has happened to you.»
Blade told of his adventures once there in the clearing, twice more on the way back as they met other patrols, and a good half dozen times after they got back to the main camp of the Zungan army that afternoon. By this time he was getting a little weary of the repetition. But that evening King Afuno arrived from a visit to the part of his army that was besieging Kanda. Blade did not mind at all telling the king the story of his capture and escape-and what he learned in Rulam.
Afuno's face went dark and hard as stone when Blade told him about the treachery of the On'ror. «Aumara had very nearly convinced me of this before she was captured,» said the king. «But I-after she was captured, I did not… «He shrugged, for the moment too filled with a mixture of emotions to go on.
Finally he shook his head. «I am glad she is back. In truth I was not sure that I cared whether Zunga lost or won this war after Aumara was captured.» He fixed Blade with his old familiar sharp look. «What does Aumara truly want of you?»
That was a question it took Blade some time to answer. He wanted to pick and choose his words, and he was too tired for that amount of mental effort. Finally he said, «She would like me to be her husband. I do not know whether she wants me also to be King of Zunga, or whether she is willing to step down from her place in favor of a younger sister. If I were you, Your Majesty-«
«You are not me, Richard Blade,» said Afuno. «And I will decide whether I will offer a warrior of the English to the Zungans as their king. Certainly I will not ask Aumara to step down from what is her right unless there is nothing else I can do. But I do not know if even what you have done will make my people accept you as king. As a great warrior and the new On'ror, almost certainly. But as king?» He shook his head. «There must be something more you can do to make yourself a name. I wish I could make it something not dangerous, because I think Aumara will pull what hair I have left out by the roots if I send you into any more danger. But the Zungans are a warrior people, so…»
«I know,» said Blade. «But I think I know a possible answer. Remember what I said about the rivalries among our enemies? Rulam and Kanda have little in common, and Kleptor and Roxala even less. I think there are ways we can take advantage of these divisions. Above all; this will make our fight easier and less costly. There is an English saying that applies here. It is 'divide and conquer.' «
Blade outlined his scheme in a few sentences. Afuno's eyes widened and gleamed with satisfaction. He practically rubbed his hands.
«Marvelous,» he said finally. «It will do all you say, I hope. And at least it will allow us to make the best use of the few really good new-style fighters we have. A great many of our warriors can wave their new spears around marvelously, but all they could do in battle with this spear-waving is to scare off birds. If only we could have dealt with the On'ror beforehand. Ah, well, we shall not have to worry about him again.»
Blade nodded. «I hope not. As much as the king and queen of Rulam hate each other, I do not think they have stopped hating us even more. I think a Rulami army will be coming soon against us within a few days.»
Both Afuno's prediction and Blade's were accurate. The On'ror vanished from his tent in the dark hours of the next morning and was never seen again.
And a week later, the northern patrols reported that the army of Rulam was on the march.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
There had been a light rain the night before, so the Rulami army raised no dust clouds to mark its advance. But King Afuno had thrown out a swarm of scouts well to the north of his own army. These formed a broad arc across the Rulami line of advance. He would not be taken by surprise. The Rulami army had hardly broken camp and begun to file out of the forest when the messengers began coming back with their reports from the scouting line.
King Afuno sat on a hide spread on the ground in the shade of a small tree, listening to the reports as they came in. Beside him stood Blade and Nayung. Both now carried new-style spears adorned with the double tuft of blue feathers that marked Great D'bors.
«I can think of no two men in all the army of Zunga who deserve the rank more,» Afuno had said the night before as he handed them the spears. «In fact, if there was time to call a meeting of the War Council, I would raise Blade to On'ror in place of that traitor we have now sent to his fate. But there is no time for that. We will be giving battle tomorrow morning at the latest.»
And now it was tomorrow morning, and it was obvious that they would indeed be giving battle before the sun rose much higher. Afuno nibbled on a piece of bread and swept the crumbs from his lap onto the ground as he listened to the latest report.
«That makes at least fifteen thousand men facing us,» he said to Blade. «Are there likely to be many more from Rulam?»
Blade shook his head. «Not impossible, but not likely either, Your Majesty. They have to leave a large force at home to prevent rebellion among their conquered cities and their slaves. And both King Kleptor and Queen Roxala have probably left their best men in Rulam, each to watch the other.»
«Probably,» said Afuno, sourly. «I hope you are right, Blade. With fifteen thousand men of Rulam, we will be facing twenty thousand or more when the army of Kanda joins them. And we are less than eighteen thousand now. There will be no more coming in before the battle. And we have little or nothing left at home to defend our towns if we lose. We are playing for high stakes in this battle, Blade-will Zunga survive or not? I hope your plan works. More depends on it than whether you become king of Zunga or not. Much more.»
«I know, Your Majesty,» said Blade. «But it should work. I've seen what good fighters with the new spears can do to even the best Rulami soldiers. So have you. And I know what will happen if we behead the enemy's armies. We will loose intrigue and treachery among them like a plague. They will be too busy fighting civil wars and each other to worry about us in Zunga for many years to come. Consider what would happen to Zunga if you were killed, Your Majesty. Then consider that among our enemies things will be ten times worse.»
Afuno grunted. Blade wasn't sure whether the king agreed with him or was simply trying to shut him up. Nayung shook his head. «All this is well and good, provided that the Kandans actually unite their army with that of Rulam, so that we get a chance at both leaders.»