Eventually the mindless erotic fog faded away for both of them. Idrana rolled off Blade and sprawled limply beside him. By what was obviously a heroic effort of will, she managed to be the first to get to her feet and call for food and more water.
After a meal of bread and cheese and dried meat washed down with water, Idrana gave Blade the explanation she had promised. Most of it Blade could have guessed from what she had already said. The Greens and the Blues were the factions in the city competing to choose the next Mistress of the House of Fertility. Matters had become so tense that the Greens were planning open violence.
«And no doubt the Blues also,» said Idrana. «But we will be striking first. Three weeks from now, there will be the Great Games in the arena. No woman who can be there will be elsewhere, and that includes the leaders of the Blues.»
Blade nodded. «And then the Sworn Sisters of the Greens will-act?»
«Yes. With their leaders-gone-the Blues will not dare submit a candidate for mistress. Ours will win easily, and then I will be appointed warrior of the House of Fertility, to guard it and its secrets.» She paused, with what could only be called a smug grin on her face.
Then she lowered her voice and said, «I will be in a good position to reward those who help me. And I may rise higher yet. First Warrior of the city, perhaps. Then no one can say a word against what I do. I could even keep-a man.»
Blade nodded. «And you want me to be that man?»
Idrana smiled. «Of course. The women are not bad, and the Senar are good for variety. But a real man-like something out of legend-I will be the most envied woman in the city.»
And the most hated, thought Blade. But that was better left unsaid. For a moment he was silent. Obviously there was nothing in this offer that he needed to take seriously. Idrana was about as trustworthy as a cobra. And even if she was sincere, she was trying to enlist him in the faction fighting in the city. The faction fighting that could do nothing for the city except lay it open to Rilgon's army.
But for the moment, Idrana might be offering a milder captivity, one affording more opportunity to contact the «sisters» in the city, more chance to escape and a chance to protect Nugun.
Blade made his decision. «All right. You interest me. And you will have power in the city. But I will only aid you on one condition. Release the Senar Nugun to me. Or better yet, set him free entirely.»
If Blade had thrust a white-hot iron into her, Idrana could not have started more violently. Her face went pale, then contorted into an ugly mask. «Blade, are you joking?»
«No-why should I be?»
«Set free-one of those-animals? Treat it like-something human? Never! The Senar will die in the arena as part of the games, and that is all there is to it.»
Blade's temper flared. «Animals, are they? Then you women of the city have strange tastes in sex. I saw what you did with those Senar in the forest-animal-lover!»
In the next moment Blade knew that his temper had definitely taken him too far. Idrana screamed like a wounded animal and snatched her knife from the corner of the tent. She raised it in one trembling hand and held it over Blade's groin, lowering it slowly. Blade lay still, not moving a muscle. If she stayed blinded by rage, when her knife hand came within reach of a quick grab-
But Idrana's scream had alerted the women outside. The tent flap flew open, and Blade found himself staring at the shimmering metal of three drawn swords. No matter what he did, at least one of them would drive into his neck before he could move. So he went on lying still, not an easy thing with the knife still dropping lower and lower, the point now aimed directly at his groin.
But Idrana's rage passed before the steel drove into Blade's flesh. The knife flashed in the candlelight as she threw it across the tent and leaped to her feet, still naked and quivering all over with rage.
«Take him out and spread-eagle him!» she snarled. «If he loves that Senar so much, he can spend the night the same way. And he can die the same way in the arena, and think about what he missed! Oh, Mother Kina!» Idrana spat hard in Blade's face, then turned away and slumped to the ground, her shoulders heaving.
As the women dragged him to his feet and out of the tent, Blade could not help wondering if he had done the wisest thing. But-face it-the only alternative would have been abandoning Nugun to death in the arena. That he could not have done. Now they would be in the arena together-and where one alone might die, two together might contrive to live.
Chapter 14
In two days they reached the city of Brega. By Idrana's orders, Blade was spread-eagled each night and bullied and harassed during the day. Idrana was obviously still in a fine blaze of rage and frustration with him.
So Blade's eyes burned and his muscles ached as he watched the city grow larger in the dawn. It made him think of the skeleton of a giant.
Once the city must have covered many times its present area. Among the fields and farms beside the road were numerous piles of crumbling stone. The farmhouses and fences themselves had been put together from salvaged stone. The present city was almost a village in comparison with its departed ancestor. It lurked behind a low wall of roughly mortared stone and a narrow ditch filled with scummy water. The smell of that water reached Blade's nostrils when the wagon was still a mile from the wall.
«You women are certainly sloppy housekeepers,» he said to Idrana. «I've known barnyards that smelled sweeter than your beloved city.»
Idrana's dusty face twisted in a sneer. «Go on taunting us, Blade. Let your tongue wag if you wish, until it is silent forever.»
«That may be longer than you think, woman,» said Blade calmly.
The women of the patrol dropped behind the wagon as it came up to the walls and followed it through the gate. Neither the gate nor the wall impressed Blade very much. Both were pieced together out of timber and salvaged stone and metal. Neither would offer much of an obstacle to an attacker. And the ditch was solid earth in several places. If Rilgon had the foresight to prepare ladders or even prop logs against the wall, he could put a thousand men into the city in a few minutes.
Inside the walls, things might not be so easy for an attacker who did not know the city. The streets were narrow and wound back and forth and up and down like drunken snakes. The close-packed houses offered infinite opportunities for ambushes and sniping by the archers. But to balance this, they were mostly built of wood. A small fire, a strong wind-and the women of the city would die in its ashes. If the fighting women of the city had any sense, they would march out and try to meet Rilgon in the open field. To stay in their city would be laying their necks on the block and begging for Rilgon to swing the axe.
Not all of the city was a rat's nest of wooden houses. A mile away on the right, a gigantic black stone mass rose high above the shingled roofs and rough stone chimneys. It looked like an enormous arcade, with a fringe of brightly colored banners fluttering from poles on top and massive arches below.
Idrana saw Blade's eyes resting on the arcade. «The arena, Blade-the place of your death. Look your fill on it today. You will be too busy to admire it the next time you see it.»
«I do indeed admire it,» said Blade with a thin smile. «It is the only thing I can admire in this 'city' that hardly deserves the name. What wretched builders you women seem to be. No doubt the arena is left over from the era of men, before the disaster.»
The thrust went home. Idrana's nostrils flared, and her knuckles went white as her hand tightened on the hilt of her dagger. Blade tensed, but Idrana got her temper under control again. She sat in grim silence, swaying slightly as the wagon bumped and jolted over ruts and potholes in the half-paved streets. Blade relaxed and looked around again.