«I am the father of Geyrna, who has caught the eye of a warrior who is my chief's son. Peython will judge the father's worth as well as the daughter's, when it comes time to choose a wife for his son.»
«You have already-«
«I have not done enough, Blade. And can you truly say that having a comrade will make no difference in this battle against the war Oltec?»
Blade couldn't. He would rather have had Sidas or Kareena at his side, of course. But they were trapped in the storeroom-possibly trapped for good if he didn't draw the robot off fairly soon. If Saorm was this determined, there was no point in wasting precious time by arguing.
Besides Sidas knew Gilmarg much better than he did. That could turn out to be important.
«All right,» said Blade, not trying to conceal his irritation. «But if you get tired or are wounded, I'll have to leave you behind. I'll come back for you if I live, but I can't wait for you.»
«That is the way of war, Blade. Even a merchant knows that much.»
Blade mentally threw up his hands in resignation and led the way up the stairs to where the other Kaldakans were hiding. Since he saw none of the natural leaders up here, he spoke to all of them. He had to choose his words carefully, to tell them what to do without revealing so much knowledge of Oltec that anyone would become suspicious of him.
«This is a machine of the Sky Masters, made for war. It has gone mad with age, so it must be destroyed. I have more of the knowledge needed to do this than anyone of Kaldak. It does not matter that I am outside the Law, for this machine is also outside the Law.
«So I will take the machine away from here and find a way to destroy it. When it is gone, go down to the room below and bring up the people in the tunnel. Help them also bring up all the fire jewels everyone can carry. Then leave the city at once. Do not try to save the munfans. That will draw the robot on to you like a great-hawk on to a lamb. You must save yourselves first.»
Blade saw a few faces still blank with surprise or fear. Most seemed to understand what he was proposing and didn't resent taking advice from a man outside the Law as long as he was the only one with some idea of what to do. He turned to Saorm.
«All right. Let's go play bait.»
Blade and Saorm climbed down the vines from a rear window on the second floor. Then they hurried around to the front, to find the robot still standing there. It couldn't get into the building and its enemies wouldn't come out. So Blade and Saorm took cover half a block up the street, then opened fire with their rifles.
Instantly the robot turned its head, its body followed the head around with surprising speed, and the laser chewed a piece out of the wall above the two men. A fragment large enough to crush Blade's skull came close enough to part his hair. Before the robot could fire again, Blade and Saorm were running up the street. Both hoped it would follow. After a moment's hesitation, it did. In fact it came after them so fast that Blade looked back to find it gaining on them rapidly. They were both zigzagging, but in another minute it would be too close for safety.
«To the right!» Saorm followed Blade's gesture and darted down a side-street with the Englishman at his heels. The robot saw them turning but fired too late. A section of the corner building two stories high crashed down and spread itself across the street in smoking rubble. More of the building was tottering. Blade stopped in the shelter of a doorway, hoping to see the robot come close enough to be caught by the next fall of masonry.
Instead it gave the building a wide berth. When the collapse did come the robot was already well out of danger and advancing on Blade. As it marched out of the cloud of dust and smoke, its laser fired again. A chunk of pavement flew up like a soccer ball, crashed into the front of a building just ahead of Blade, and brought down several large pieces of metal facing. Blade and Saorm barely jumped aside in time, and Blade was now painfully aware that two could play this game of dropping buildings on the enemy. He decided to keep to the main streets as much as possible and use the side streets only for cover. The robot could turn so well that there was no reason to try leading it around sharp corners and hope it would fall or crash into a building.
Blade and Saorm headed west as fast as they could, nearly getting lost several times but usually drawing the robot after them. Twice it seemed to lose track of them, and once Blade saw it turn back toward the east. Assuming it was turning back toward the Kaldakans, he opened fire, was nearly killed by the robot's laser, but at least got its attention again.
Blade wondered why the laser was fixed in the robot's chest rather than mounted in the swiveling head. He could only guess that the black muzzle in the head was some sort of close-range weapon, perhaps a grenade launcher. He hoped it was empty. A few grenades could have finished the Kaldakans, and one lucky shot could do the job on him and Saorm. On the other hand, lasers worked only on line-of-sight. You couldn't fire them in a curve over anything or through anything too solid.
Of course this worked both ways. Blade and Saorm had to expose themselves to fire at the robot. They were smaller targets, but they were much more vulnerable. There didn't seem to be any part of the robot they could hurt with the rifles, at least before the robot could bring its own heavier weapon to bear. Blade quickly knew that he and Saorm were going to have to win by skill rather than by strength.
Several times Blade tried to lead the robot across the bridges over Gilmarg's numerous canals, hoping its weight would collapse a bridge under it. Each time the robot stopped at the head of the bridge. Each time Blade had to recross the canal before he could get the robot moving again. He hoped the Kaldakans were on their way out of the city by now, but he couldn't be sure. At least he hadn't heard any laser fire from the east, so the robot was probably operating alone.
Blade did notice that when the robot turned its head, its feet sometimes kept going for several more steps in the old direction. This happened often enough to make Blade wonder if the robot's computer «brain» was slightly defective. After all these years it very well might be, and this could give him and Saorm an opening. There should be places where the banks of the canals which criss-crossed Gilmarg were so overgrown with foliage that they were hidden. If they led the robot straight toward one of those places, then suddenly drew its attention to one side, the robot's legs would continue to take it forward a few more steps, and then…
They were far enough ahead of the robot now so that Blade could lead Saorm into a doorway and force him to sit down for a minute. The merchant was gasping for breath.
«I'll need you for our next trick,» said Blade. «But if that doesn't work, I want you to give up this chase.»
«My honor-my daughter-I'm just a bit short-of-breath.»
«You'll drop dead if you go on much longer,» said Blade sharply. «I'd rather bring you home to Geyrna than tell her how gallantly you died! Now, is there a place where the canal bank is so overgrown that the robot might not see it until too late?»
There was, and Saorm led Blade toward it as quickly as the robot would let them go. They could never forget the searing green death licking at their heels, and Blade was beginning to worry. Saorm really did look ready to fall over, and he himself wasn't going to be able to play hide and seek with this mechanical monster forever. Human flesh could not compete with steel and electricity in an endurance contest.
Then they were out on the bank high above the canal and trotting rapidly along the street toward the park where Saorm had said there would be a good place to set their trap. As the robot turned onto the street half a mile behind them, Blade saw something peculiar about the pavement ahead. For fifty yards the pavement slabs of the street were tilted slightly toward the canal. Blade looked across the canal. There were actually two streets, an upper and a lower roadway one above the other, supported by the steel columns. He then looked over the railing along the street on his side of the canal. It was the same on this side. Those shaky pavement blocks ahead hid a fifteen-foot drop to the roadway below.