He was of a mind to ask how many sisters Zeena had, but decided against it. Pphira was showing signs of heat again and, with her hand and mouth, was manipulating Blade into a like readiness. He held her off for a time.
"How is she punished on this ship?"
Pphira bit him. He would have tooth marks there for a day or so. "She rows, Blade. She pulls an oar in a galley like any slave, though she is not beaten. It is a ship of women, all women but for the master, one Marius, I think, who is a seaman. I have found, though I do not understand it, that women do not make good sea captains."
Blade tried to imagine what it would be like to captain a ship full of women. He came up with some pretty lurid ideas and had to chuckle.
Pphira stopped what she was doing, which was very pleasant and exciting, and regarded him.
"I was only thinking," Blade said with half truth, "that I Was worrying about Zeena for nothing. I liked her well enough, Pphira, and I would not like evil to befall her. Now I find that she is not harmed - only being disciplined a bit Though I confess I do not yet know why."
Before she bent to him again Pphira gave him a long look, and in those dark eyes she saw at last the years and the bitter wisdom.
"I will tell you why," said the Queen. "Zeena is much in love of you, Blade. This in itself is not good for one who may one day be Queen. Love softens the heart and makes it weak. A Queen cannot be weak. And Zeena spoke much of you. Too much. It was Blade this and Blade that. Of your prowess as a lover she never tired of telling, nor of your beauty as a man. She told how huge you were - a thing I did not believe until I saw for myself - and she also spoke of your wisdom. She spoke of your marriage and, before the Council of Five, she renounced all claim to the throne of Sarma. She wanted only you, Blade. She wanted only that I order your release from Barracid and that you be greeted and welcomed as a freeman and a stranger."
Blade writhed on the bed. He had thought himself drained, but pleasure was beginning to take over once more.
"And you could not grant Zeena even this?"
Pphira did not look at him. "How could I? I had heard too much, Blade. I wanted you for myself. And I am Queen."
Chapter Fifteen
Otto the Black came to collect his annual tribute - one hundred tons of meta. This was a jagged, rock-like mineral dug out of the brown mountains by slaves and melted down into small knuckle shaped ingots. The ingots were hard, heavy and with the whiteness of nickel. Otto had them made into square coins with a hole in the middle for easy stringing, and very few of the coins ever returned to Sarma. The Black One held the right of coinage and counterfeiters were flayed alive and the skinless body boiled in oil.
Richard Blade did not at first pay much attention to the meta ingots. He was too busy plotting, and as adept at it as any in Sarma. Pelops had been delivered to him along with, of all people, the monstrosity Chephron whom Blade had kicked in the dungeon before the fight with Tarsu. When Blade objected to the man Pelops pleaded his cause.
"He was once a friend of mine," said Pelops. The little scholar was clean and well dressed and only one of his legs had been twisted by Kreed's torture. He limped a bit, but got around well enough.
"Chephron was not so fortunate as I was," said Pelops now. "When he was made a slave there was great need of men in the meta mines. That is a living death, sire. Men die quickly of the mine sickness - and before they die they suffer greatly of the sores that never heal. Chephron only volunteered as executioner that he might escape the mines. I, or even you, sire, might have done the like in his case."
They were on the poopdeck of a great trireme in the harbor of Sarmacid. The ship was new launched, named the Pphira, and had a crew of Blade's own choosing. In a few hours now the sea games would begin.
Blade scowled at the miserable wretch with Pelops. Chephron still wore his leather kirtle, was still bald and pocked and malformed. Still wore his iron collar. Still had the high bleating voice and the great sores on his legs. Blade did not want the man on his ship. And yet -
"I will vouch for him," said Pelops. He moved closer to Blade and whispered, "He is as desperate as any man you have aboard, sire. He wants freedom, as we all do, and he will fight well and die for it if necessary. Give him his chance."
Blade stroked his beard in thought. "Very well, then. Against my judgment, Pelops. Those sores on his legs - you are sure they are not infectious? When we escape, if we do, there will be perils enough without having sickness aboard."
Pelops nodded quickly. "He will spread no disease, sire. I swear it. Those are mine sores, as I said. All mine slaves have them. It is said to be something in the meta. No one knows the truth of it."
Blade, had he not been so harried and busy plotting, might have guessed at the truth of it then. But the moment passed and he none the wiser.
Blade gave in. He nodded curtly and said, "All right. Bathe the man and strike off that iron collar. Find him new clothes and some ointment for his sores. And keep him out of my sight, Pelops."
Chephron, for all his bowing and scraping, met Blade's hard stare with eyes that did not flinch away. "I thank you, Captain," said the former executioner. "I have a debt to you now and I will pay it when it comes due."
When they had gone Blade had a deep conference with Ixion, his second in command. Ixion had been a sailor before being enslaved for debt, and wore only wide legged pantaloons and a sailor's cap of pointed leather. He was Sarmaian to the tips of his dirty toes. Pelops, who had done most of the recruiting at Blade's bidding, also vouched for Ixion. Blade trusted the man because he must. There was so little time. The sea games began in an hour. If Blade had his way they would not last very long. He had things to do - when he had done them he would be on his way. Pphira had a clean bottom, being just off the skids, and there was nothing in the harbor to catch him. He had a crew of slaves and they would be rowing for freedom and life itself.
Ixion drew close and whispered. "I kept them working all night, my Captain. In pairs. This new thing you call a file works well - I think the chain will break."
Blade glanced at a huge chain stretched across the narrow gut of the harbor. The Sarmaians did not know the wheel, but they were great for chains. He could still feel the weight of the great slave chain on which he and Pelops had trekked from Barracid.
He looked at Ixion. "They were not seen?"
"No, Captain. Else we would have trouble now. The middle link is half cut through."
Blade crossed his arms on his chest and stared beyond the chain to the outer harbor and the Purple Sea stretching away to a fog obscured horizon. The yellow fogs came frequently.
Beyond the horizon, and the fog, what? Just opposite Sarma was Tyranna, the land of Otto the Black. A place to avoid, especially after today. And Blade was not interested. His desire was to find Zeena, if he could, and then to the Burning Land where pirates were reported to have set his double ashore. Blade had a full report on this from one of Pphira's officers who had been second in command of a galley that had captured the pirates and put them to death. Several of them, before they died on the T, had babbled of the man they had saved from drowning and eventually put ashore because there was no profit in murdering him.
Pphira's officer, on looking at Blade for the first time, had been awe-stricken. "I did not see this man you seek, Captain, but before they died the pirates told me of him. Men do not usually lie just before death - and the stranger they described to me was you!"
So be it. The Russian agent was out there somewhere, beyond the Purple Sea, in the desert, alive or dead. If the latter, Blade thought now, he would like to see the bones before he returned to Home Dimension.