After they'd taken Saorm out, the chief turned to the others. «We have won ourselves some time, but not much. The sooner we send men to Gilmarg, the better. But I think we shall speak more wisely after some food. Geyrna, will you accept a place at my table?»
The girl flushed and looked at the floor. «I would be honored, Peython.»
The dinner was supposed to be a planning session for the expedition to Gilmarg, to bring home Saorm's roomful of fire jewels. Instead it became a celebration of Blade's discovery, the bright new future it opened for Kaldak, and all the other discoveries he might make in the future. The table creaked under the weight of platters of meat, and the beer and liquor went around and around, one toast after another.
The liquor still tasted like gin to Blade. Now it seemed like good Bombay gin, not the sort of cheap rotgut sold in dockside pubs. Kareena slid lower and lower in her chair and sometimes broke into song. It was always a relief when she stopped. She had a lovely speaking voice but couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. Geyrna giggled a lot and leaned openly on Bairam's shoulder, while he held her up and caressed her. Only Peython seemed to remain completely sober, although he drank half again as much as anyone else in the room. For all the effect the liquor had on him, he might have been drinking fruit juice.
At last Bairam and Geyrna staggered off to his room, both nearly naked and their arms around each other's waist. Kareena was having trouble standing up, so Blade went over to help her. She sprang up like a jack-in-the-box, then leaned against him and raised her face to him. The invitation in her eyes was unmistakable. Blade bent and kissed her. For a moment her lips flared wide and hot, her seeking tongue darting out to meet his. Then she jerked as if she'd gripped one of the power cells, and she twisted away from Blade. He watched her lurch off to her room, and he was very conscious of Peython watching him.
Blade reached his own room, to find the door unlocked and the guard gone. He was beginning to drift off to sleep when he heard a knock on the door. Before he could move, the door opened and he saw Geyrna silhouetted against the light in the hall. She carried a fur robe over one arm, but otherwise she was stark naked. Her red hair tumbled down wildly, almost reaching her buttocks.
«Geyrna, what are you doing here?»
She giggled. «I have come to make you Bairam's brother. What else did you think, Blade of England?» She patted one full breast and the patch of red hair between her legs.
«Ah,» said Blade. If two men who'd fought side by side in battle also had sex with the same woman, this gave them a form of brotherhood under the Law. Blade wasn't entirely sure he wanted to be any sort of kin to the hotheaded Bairam, but he could hardly insult both the chief's son and the girl by flatly refusing. Before he could even think of any words to delay matters, Geyrna darted across the room, swept the blankets off the bed, and leaped on top of Blade.
«Ah,» he said again, this time in a very different tone of voice. The girl seemed to be kissing or caressing every part of his body at once. Her warm smooth skin and the musk of her own arousal made Blade aggressively ready for her almost at once. She was starting to kiss his throbbing penis when he gripped her shoulders and rolled her off him. Then he bent over her, kissing her lips, letting his tongue and hers dance together while he stroked her breasts. Nipples like miniature spear points tickled his palms, and he heard Geyrna moan. He trailed fingers across her pubic hair, felt dampness, heard her moan louder. Then he raised himself above her and entered.
Her thighs and legs clamped around him as if he was her only hold on the world. Her nails dug into the skin of his shoulders, and he heard her sobbing breath in his ear. He thrust steadily, with increasing eagerness as his own self-control began to go. He wanted to hold back, but he also wanted to ease the exquisite agony slowly turning every part of his body to fire.
Blade's breath tore its way out of his throat in a long gasp at the same moment as Geyrna cried out. Blade knew that half the tower could have heard her and didn't care. He sagged forward, the strength oozing out of his arms. It was all he could do to keep from settling down on her with his whole two hundred and ten pounds of now thoroughly limp muscle and bone.
She lay beside him, one nipple brushing his elbow and one hand resting on his groin. «Now you and Bairam are brothers,» she said quietly. «You will be even more his brother if you bed Kareena. I think she will have you if you ask her.»
Blade doubted this but was too tired to find words easily. By the time he'd thought of an answer Geyrna's even breathing told him that she was sound asleep. Blade pulled the blankets over both of them and closed his eyes.
Blade didn't wake up until well after dawn. By then Geyrna was gone, and his head was throbbing with a ferocious hangover. By the time he'd washed and shaved, he felt ready to face Peython and the others.
Either Peython had stayed awake all night or got up very early. Even more annoying, he still showed no signs of all his drinking. That was more than could be said of his son, Geyrna, or Kareena, who wobbled in last of all, obviously nursing a hangover even worse than Blade's.
They quickly unrolled a map of the Land and made their plans. Saorm would lead them to where the fire jewels were hidden, and Kareena, Bairam, and Blade would take fifty fighting men and women and twenty munfans to Gilmarg. That was all Kaldak could spare at the moment, although there might be enough fire jewels and other valuable Oltec to load every munfan the city had.
«Gilmarg is also, in land claimed by Doimar,» said Peython. «The last time we sent men to Gilmarg, the Doimari killed many of them. The same thing could happen again. I would not be sending either of you or Blade if I had a choice, but-«
«You have no choice,» said Bairam, with unexpected dignity. «And we have the duty of proving ourselves worthy children of Peython of Kaldak.»
Bairam and Kareena would in theory be leaders of the expedition, with Blade serving them. In fact, Blade would be a third leader.
«And you will both swear to listen to his advice,» said Peython sharply.
«Yes, Father,» his children chorused.
Blade would teach them all he knew about Oltec, then let them do all the actual work with it. «Under the Law, Blade, you cannot touch Oltec-or carry any weapon until the Gathering gives its judgment. Even I could not set the Law aside without making many tongues wag. Then we might lose all we have gained.»
The «cover story» for the expedition was mostly the truth. In Gilmarg there was a great hoard of fire jewels. If enough could be brought home to Kaldak, Peython would ask the Gathering to allow wise men to study the fire jewels: This would prepare everyone for a possible change in the Law, without giving away the secret of Blade's discovery.
Kareena looked at the map and traced the march from Kaldak to Gilmarg with her forefinger. «This should be easy enough. It is a short journey.»
«It is the longest journey ever made by men of Kaldak, daughter,» said Peython. «It is a journey from the past of the Land into its future.»
Chapter 9
From the top of the tree where Blade was perched, the city of Gilmarg looked like a smaller, more battered edition of Mossev. Two of its eighteen towers were only piles of rubble, and the rest had lost most of their color and ornament. Tall trees grew up through the paving of some streets, and vines choked many of the doors and lower-floor windows. There was no sign of human life. Although the Doimari claimed Gilmarg, it was far enough from Doimar so they didn't keep a permanent garrison in it.