Blade smiled. «Bairam is no fool, or at least no more of a fool than I was at his age. He is not stupid. If his mistakes do not kill him soon, he will learn. In time, he may even learn enough to be a worthy son to you, and a proper chief for Kaldak, city of the Law.
«He is also honorable, and will be a friend to those who have done him good. I have come to Kaldak, without friends or knowledge of its ways. I need every friend I can honorably win. Do you feel that I have lacked honor-?»
He broke off as he saw Peython's frown deepen and his shoulders begin to shake. For a moment he thought he'd finally said too much, then realized that Peython was trying to hide laughter. Finally he sighed and looked at Blade again.
«Blade, men who have known my son since he came from his mother's body have not found such wise words for him. I am going to find your time in Kaldak interesting, however long it lasts and however it ends.» He rose and shouted for the guards. «You may go now.»
Chapter 6
Blade spent his first few days in Kaldak as something less than a guest but somewhat more than a prisoner. He was confined to a room on the ground floor of the northern tower. The room had heavy wooden bars on the door and a guard armed with a laser rifle at the door, but plenty of light, air, and comfortable furniture. The Kaldakans also fed Blade three large meals a day, along with good strong beer. Once they even brought him a bronze jug of distilled liquor which tasted like cheap gin.
Blade didn't like being confined even as comfortably as this. He was bored, and he wasn't learning anything about Kaldak or getting enough exercise. He also knew that he was still at the Kaldakans' mercy. He did have to admit that if he was going to be a prisoner at all, this was one of the most comfortable prisons he'd ever seen in any Dimension.
On the sixth day Kareena came to him with an escort of guards led by Hota and a message from Peython. «If you give your word of honor not to leave Kaldak, you may go where you will within the city until the Gathering,» she said. Her words came out in short bursts from a tight mouth. Obviously she didn't like having to deliver this message.
«I swear by the Law of England and my own honor as a warrior that I shall not put one foot beyond the streets of Kaldak until the Gathering has rendered its judgment,» said Blade. He hoped he wouldn't also be asked to swear to submit tamely to a sentence of death. He would rather not have to take an oath he had no intention of keeping. He could lie with a straight face if he had to-his years in MI6A guaranteed that. But he still preferred to tell the truth, particularly among people who took oaths much more seriously than the «civilized» nations of Home Dimension.
«Do we know that England has a Law by which anyone can swear?» asked Hota.
Kareena looked at him sharply, half angry and half embarrassed. «We do not. But we can hardly ask Blade to swear by the Law of Kaldak when he is confined for breaking it.»
«Then why take an oath from him at all?»
«Because my father has ordered that we take it,» snapped Kareena. «And I will say nothing more on this to you, Hota.» She turned and stamped out. Hota lingered a moment to glower at Blade, then followed her. Blade frowned and poured himself some beer. At least Peython's order hadn't made him any new enemies. But he'd have to watch his back carefully as he moved around Kaldak. Hota would cheerfully slit his throat for a penny, and might be a formidable opponent even in a straight fight.
It turned out that Blade didn't have to worry about his back. Bairam appointed himself Blade's official escort from the first day of Blade's parole. With the chief's son and heir by his side, Blade could go anywhere he wanted in the city without anyone trying to stop him. Accidents were another matter. Bairam was as impulsive as ever, and sometimes Blade wondered who was keeping whom out of trouble.
In spite of this, Blade quickly learned most of what he wanted to know about Kaldak. Peython ruled about twelve thousand people. Most of them lived in the buildings of the city itself, including the farmers who went out to their fields every morning and returned every night. The rest were herdsmen who lived in distant pastures with their herds and flocks, or fishermen who lived by the Aloga River. The herds and fish gave Kaldak plenty of meat, and the rich soil of its fields produced grain and vegetables. The people of Kaldak were mostly slim-bodied, but it was not for lack of food.
«It is said that our land is richer than that of many cities because we keep the Law better than they do,» said Bairam.
«Do you believe this?» asked Blade.
«Is it possible that it is-not so?»
«Many things are possible, for I have seen them since I left England,» said Blade. «But I have not seen enough of Kaldak to answer that question.» He didn't want to get into a full-scale discussion. For one thing, Kaldak probably had some punishment for questioning the Law's principles. For another thing, the less he said himself, the more freely Bairam would talk.
«I think the Law makes some difference,» said Bairam. «We eat better and we have found more living Oltec. But our women bear no more children than those of cities with a weaker Law.»
That answered one of Blade's questions-why there were so few children. Some lingering aftereffect of the war-radiation, chemicals, a plague-made men or women or both infertile. When you had to do most work by musclepower, a small and slowly-growing population was a very mixed blessing. When you had to do most of your fighting with muscle-powered weapons, it was an outright curse.
The Kaldakans despised those cities with a weak Law and the wretched Tribes with no Law at all, who lived by hunting and gathering in the forests. But they could not ignore them. The warriors of Kaldak were always meeting the warriors of Doimar and its allies in savage fights over new finds of Oltec in the ruined cities. Over the years these fights took their toll of Kaldak's best men. Even more warriors died in fights with the Tribes when they raided Kaldak's fields or herds or burned the fishermen's huts.
Other cities had strong Laws and were more or less friendly. Kaldak traded with some of them, and there was a whole street of merchants supported by this trade. They sold leather, metal, furs, bone implements, drinking cups, weapons, fire jewels-
«Fire jewels?» asked Blade. He hadn't heard the term before.
«You've seen my father's necklace, haven't you?» said Bairam. «That is made of fire jewels.»
Blade remembered Peython's necklace of small metal blocks strung on a leather thong. «Why are they called fire jewels?»
«Because they hold fire within them, they cannot be cut or worked like other kinds of jewels or metal things of the Oltec. If you cut into them, they burst with much bright blue light or melt with a sound like meat frying. If a man holds them too long, he feels as though he is being struck by lightning. Men have died from holding burning fire jewels. Do you know why this is so?»
«I do not,» said Blade, which was only partly the truth. «But I would very much like to look closely at some fire jewels.» That was a considerable understatement.
«Well, there is a merchant of fire jewels named Saorm, and indeed I was going to visit his house tomorrow,» said Bairam. He hesitated. «I was not going to ask you to come with me-you see, I have a rather special reason for going there-«
«Is it his wife or his daughter?»
«You are very clever, Blade. Yes, it is his daughter Geyrna.»
«And-you do not think her father approves?»