«So-the foot soldiers will have this Oltec all to themselves, whatever Feragga says?»
«I do not know what Feragga will say,» Blade pointed out. «She may try to favor the Seekers. But you can certainly trust me to speak strongly for the foot soldiers. Even Feragga of Doimar cannot make an Oltec machine into something it is not.»
«No.» Nungor was staring at the Hovercraft like a starving man offered a seven-course banquet. Blade practically had to drag him away.
Like the other times Blade dined with Feragga, this meal ended with a huge bowl of fruit sliced up in honey. As usual, Feragga served herself the lion's share of the bowl. The chief of Doimar had a sweet tooth.
As she spooned up the dessert with childish pleasure, Blade watched the candlelight play on Feragga's smooth brown skin, showing the muscles rippling under it. There was more skin than usual on display tonight. Feragga wore her knee-length boots with knives in them, a skirt of blue leather reaching to her ankles but slit up to one hip, and nothing else except a heavy dose of perfume. The perfume could not entirely hide Feragga's reluctance to take a bath more than once a week.
Otherwise Blade had to admit that the less Feragga wore the better she looked. Her breasts were large, in proportion to the rest of her, but well shaped and solid. The curve of her belly told of muscle rather than flab, and her surprisingly graceful throat-
Blade realized he was staring at her a moment before Feragga laughed. «Ah, Blade. Sometimes I think I should bed you. Sometimes I think I should not. Sometimes I think I should ask you to decide for me. But if you are going to look at me like that, I know the answer you would give if I asked. So perhaps I should not trust you that much in matters where your prick might rule you.»
She pushed the empty dish away, lit a fresh candle from the dying one, and signaled to the maidservant at the door to leave them. When the door closed, Feragga's smile faded. «You are wiser in matters of war and Oltec, I think. So there I will trust you.» She filled both their cups with beer from a jug on the floor beside her. «Nungor says you can make one of the Oltec carrying machines live again. Is this so?»
«If he says that I am sure of it, he is hoping for too much,» began Blade cautiously. «If he says that I think I can learn the machine's ways, then teach them to others… «He shrugged. «I will not give you false hopes, Feragga.»
«Good. I would not thank you for that.» She gulped her beer noisily. «Nungor also says that the Seekers cannot use these machines.»
Blade nodded. «There he says what I think, too. I know the Seekers' wisdom and do not think they lack courage. But I do not know what they could do with these machines. If I knew more of the Seekers' work-«
Feragga raised a hand. «You shall, Blade. You shall, as soon as you have learned how to guide these machines. You shall teach the Seekers as well as the footmen how to guide them. In return the Seekers will tell you everything they know.»
«Thank you, Feragga. This will make my work easier. But-will Nungor-«
Feragga slammed her cup down on the table hard enough to knock spoons and knives off onto the floor. «I piss in Nungor's beer! He will like it, or I will find another War Captain. For too long the Seekers and the footmen have been fighting like tomcats. The Doimari will never rule the Land if we go on running off in different directions like a flock of sheep when a great-hawk swoops down!» She poured herself more beer. «But with your help, Blade, this can change.»
«I will be glad to help,» said Blade. He was still cautious. In spite of her coarse manners, Feragga was dangerously sensible. She might ask him to do something which would be fatal to Kaldak.
«Good.» She explained. Once he'd proved he could make the Oltec vehicles live again, Blade would be named Doimar's Captain of Oltec, ranking equal to both the First Seeker and Nungor the War Captain. He would be given a staff of intelligent men and women, chosen equally from the Seekers and from the foot soldiers. With this staff, he would find, study, and learn to use any Oltec found in the cities Doimar conquered. Then he would teach what he'd learned to both the Seekers and the foot soldiers.
«How many people will I have under me?» Blade asked. So far, the plan didn't seem to present any immediate danger to Kaldak, but he wanted to be sure. «If I'm going to have to search each city in the Land from tower top to cellar-«
Feragga laughed, spraying beer into Blade's face. «Don't worry, Blade. We've got maps of at least a dozen of the cities, showing where all the Oltec is hidden. Those Lawbound fools have been sitting on treasures for centuries. That proves how unfit they are to hold it. In Doimar we've gone beyond the Law, and that proves we're the destined rulers of the Land!» Feragga seemed to be feeling the beer.
«You didn't have a map of Gilmarg, did you?» said Blade. He was fishing for more information about those maps.
Feragga grunted like a pig. «No, worse luck. If we had, we'd have stripped that storeroom empty long before you led the Kaldakans to it. Oh, well, we'll dig up that building you dropped on it someday, and we've got plenty of other maps.» She laughed. «Would you believe we even have one of Kaldak?»
«I'll believe it if I see it,» said Blade, trying hard to make a joke of the matter.
«You will, you will. You might as well start studying those maps while you're studying the machines. You've got to have something to do at night besides take slave girls to bed.» She punched Blade in the shoulder. «I'm not jealous. I know you've got enough manhood to have some left for me. So don't look so worried about that.»
Blade wasn't looking worried. He was trying desperately to hide his excitement. Feragga was offering him a map showing all Kaldak's hidden Oltec! That could save months in preparing the city for war, if he could get back there with the information. From now on, that was going to have to be his main goal-that, and making sure Kareena was not left to die horribly.
Feragga reached across the table, gripped Blade by both shoulders, and pulled him toward her as easily as if he'd been a child. He wound up with his face buried between her breasts. Then she ruffled his hair with one hand and kissed him on the forehead. It was rather like being kissed by an affectionate bear.
«This won't be our night, Blade,» she said. «When you've done your work with the machines-ah, that will be the time. We can celebrate making you Captain of Oltec properly. Good night and skilled hands.»
The ritual wish for anyone working with Oltec was Blade's dismissal. He left quickly, trying to stagger convincingly as if he'd drunk more than he actually had. It would do no harm if Feragga thought he was too drunk to remember all she'd said to him.
It would do even less harm if she kept her promise not to take him to bed until he'd finished his work with the Hovercraft. If she did it before then Nungor's jealousy could still wreck everything. If she waited, Blade didn't plan to be in Doimar, let alone ready to warm her bed.
He and Kareena would be either dead or on their way home to Kaldak.
Chapter 17
For the next few weeks, Blade would have been happier if he'd been triplets. There was too much for any one man to do. Fortunately Blade knew what to do in this sort of situation. He sat down and divided all the work into what absolutely had to be done before he left Doimar, dead or alive, and what it would be merely useful to do. That shrank the work down to what one man could do, as long as the man had the constitution of a horse and the ability to go for weeks on end with three hours' sleep a night. Blade qualified. Otherwise he'd have been dead years ago.