Monster Of The Maze Part 2

"Blade- Blade-what does it mean?"

Blade sat up on her lap and scowled at her. "That is no matter. You must not be stupid, Valli. You must answer questions and do as you are told. And call me Blade. Just that."

Her luminous dark eyes devoured him. Her gaze made him uneasy. In it he read doubt and fear and love and desire, even awe, and at the moment these things did not please him. He wished that Valli were brainier, cooler, more like a man than a woman, but wis.h.i.+ng was vain and stupid and he must make do. She was all he had.

Valli seemed to sense his disapproval. She hooded her eyes and said, "I will do as you say, Blade. What do you wish to know?"

"Everything. Everything about Zir."

They talked the night away. As the dawn crept in and the birds began to twitter in the bushes, Blade saw that his half-formed plan, until now little more than an armature for hope, might well come to fruition. It was remarkable how the pieces of this future jigsaw began to drop into place. Risky, yes, with mortal danger around every corner, but no help for that. Danger, fear, terror-they were all part of life in Dimension X.

Just before the sun came up Blade told Valli what she must do. She covered her face and sobbed. "No-no-they will kill you. And me also."

"I do not think so. Not if you spoke truth about the Izmir and this high priest, this Casta. You said that Casta has promised the old man an heir, that he has made a prophecy that a boy will come to inherit Zir and lead it to new glory. Did you not tell me that?"

"I did, Blade. I did. And it is true. But the Izmir is a doddering old fool who believes lies. Casta is cunning and a liar and a villain. He is also the lover of the Princess Hirga and plots to put her on the throne. They are only waiting until the old Izmir dies, or until they can kill him without suspicion to themselves. Oh, Blade, do not do it! The Izmir will believe and welcome you-the High Priest will have you slain."

Blade sighed. He was getting into another nest of vipers. Always so. He could remember thinking, back in Home Dimension, that for once, just once, he might stray into paradise. Vain hope. If he had learned anything at all in six trips through the computer it was that in all dimensions you found the foul rot of greed and l.u.s.t and vanity and jealousy. You found brutes and cowards and brave men and fools. No help for it. Cope.

"The first hour or so will be tricky," he admitted now. "If I live past that I will be all right. That is why your part in this plan is so important. You must smuggle me right into the bedchamber of the Izmir. He must be the first to see me and the first to whom I speak. Otherwise I have little chance."

He kissed her cheek. "You see, Valli, I am still your child and dependent on you. You must not fail me."

Valli wept and held him to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "Yes, Blade. I will try. I will do my best. There is a palace guard who is always after me. I do not like him, and he risks his head by so much as glancing at me, but I think it might be done. Ramsus would do anything to have me."

At that moment the crystal ticked in Blade's brain and he felt a faint electric surge and knew that the computer had added another year's growth. An odd sensation-to feel yourself grow. Odder still was the sudden realization that Valli's b.r.e.a.s.t.s no longer looked so much like mother's b.r.e.a.s.t.s, the source of nourishment, but had somehow become more round and firm, softer blue-veined marble, shapelier, the nipples larger and more erect.

Blade slipped off her lap and ran to a window. The sun was up and dew sparkled like diamonds. "Then let this Ramsus have you," he commanded. "It must be done. Perhaps he will get you a child into the bargain and by the time you come to bear it I will either be in power or dead. And if I am dead it is likely that you will also be. Now go. The sun is high and people are beginning to stir."

"I want no child by Ramsus," said Valli. She came to stand beside him at the window. She put her hand on his fuzzy head and stroked it. "My darling little Blade. I hate to lose you, to see you grow so fast."

"Go," Blade said, "and come for me tonight as planned. Be careful. If you are caught now all is ruined."

"I come and go by a secret way. In the harem I sleep alone and the Izmir has not visited me for months. That is not the danger. The danger will come when I try to smuggle you into the Izmir's bed chamber."

"We can only try," said Blade, "and hope. Just be sure that you are a satisfactory lover to Ramsus this day. Make him desire you again. If he wants more he will be careful and cooperative and guard his own neck better. And in this case his neck is our neck. Goodbye, Valli."

He felt like a pimp.

Valli lifted him and swung him high and kissed him on the mouth. "Goodbye, little Blade. I will see you tonight. Heed your own advice and be careful."

When she was gone Blade retired to his closet and pulled a rug over him. He was hungry, starving, but if things went well tonight he would have food. If things did not go well he would not need food. He lay sleepless and tried to concentrate and let the computer, and Lord L, know what he was up to. After a time he sensed that he was not getting through and gave it up. The crystal was in one of its bad moods, on strike, and there were no impulses either way. Blade was on his own. No great surprise in that, for he usually was, and during the next thirty days he would survive, if at all, by his wits, guile, cunning and above all his bra.s.s, his gall.

Blade had no illusions about his chances in Zir. He had milked Valli far more completely than she knew-he was an expert in interrogation back in Home Dimension-and before the night was half over he had known that this was the worst snake pit into which he had ever strayed. Intrigue, cruelty, l.u.s.t for power-it was all there. Zir was a land torn to shreds by jealousy and hate and clas.h.i.+ng factions. Ruled by an aging, superst.i.tious fool.

Superst.i.tious. The Izmir of Zir was superst.i.tious. In that, and in that alone, lay Blade's one chance of staying alive.

At last he slept. When Valli came for him that night after dark he had grown another year and was beginning to look like a very stalwart infant indeed. His hair was darker and thicker and already inclined to curl. Muscles were developing beneath the baby fat. Valli kissed and hugged him and when Blade drew away impatiently she laughed and said, "If I did not believe before-and all day I have been wondering if it was not a dream after all-then I must believe you now. I think you have gained ten pounds this day."

"I don't see how," Blade said crossly, "since I am starving to death. If I do not have meat soon I will never grow back to manhood."

"You must manage a little longer," said Valli. "In the morning, if this crazy plan works and we are still alive, you will have food." She eyed him and with a strange little smile said, "In the meantime, if you want it, there is my breast."

Blade shook his head, though her b.r.e.a.s.t.s were inviting enough. "No. I am grown beyond that now. I must have meat. So let us get on with it . . . your lover Ramsus is going to help?"

Valli made a face and sank onto a divan. From an anteroom a single light cast a faint glow over her face. Blade noted that for the first time she was wearing lip salve and that her lashes and brows had been darkened. Her hair smelled of fresh scent and she wore new combs to keep it atop her head. Her kirtle was new, he saw, and shorter than before, and tonight she wore scarlet underpants.

I have, he thought sourly, a most beautiful mother.

"Ramsus is ours," said Valli. "He will do anything I ask. He should, after this afternoon. He nearly killed me. He is not a man at all-he is a beast, a goat, an animal or a devil. I do not know what he is--except that it is impossible to satisfy him."

"That is good," said Blade. "He will want you tomorrow and the day after. That will keep him quiet and cautious. What is he going to do for us?"

Valli explained. Ramsus had promised to drug a guard who would normally be stationed at the door of the Izmir's bedchamber. The man would become ill and a subst.i.tute guard would be sought. Ramsus would volunteer for the duty.

Blade was pleased, but looked for flaws in the plan. "Suppose Ramsus is not chosen? Suppose another man volunteers and is given the post?"

Valli shook her head. "Small danger. It is dull duty and the palace guard is lazy and spoiled. They never volunteer for anything."

Blade nodded. She was probably right. It was the same back in Home Dimension.

"So far, so good, but how do you get me into the palace?"

Valli patted his head and pulled him onto her lap. "Come, let me coddle you a bit before you grow too big." She pressed his face against her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "My little sweet-I hate all this. I do hate so to see you become a man so quickly."

Blade pulled away. "Enough of that. How do you get me into the palace?"

"Simple enough-if nothing goes wrong. Stel has agreed to help me. I have told you of my friend Stel?"

"Yes, yes. She wanted to leave me to die. Can you trust her now?"

"I think so. I know things about her, things which I have threatened to tell if she does not aid me. Of course, I would not really tell, but---"

"Get on with it."

Valli sighed. "You are becoming a man, all right. Already you give orders like the Izmir himself. Very well-there is a postern gate that leads into the palace near the old man's chambers. It is guarded by a single man and it is well known that sometimes he sleeps."

"We cannot depend on that," Blade complained. "This may be the night that he does not sleep."

"Patience, little Blade. I know that. But Stel is to go to him and engage him in talk and, in good time, offer her body. They will go off into the bushes. It will really be no great hards.h.i.+p for Stel," said Valli with some spite, "for it is a long time since she has had a man."

"And then what-supposing this all works out?"

"I will sneak quickly into the palace, carrying you, and make my way to the chambers of the Izmir. The corridors are deserted at that time of night and, with good luck, I will see no one but Ramsus. He will be guarding the bedchamber. He will let me in and I will place you on the bed of the Izmir and depart, to pray and to hope that all goes well and that we will both live to see another dawn."

Blade thought it over for a moment. There were no flaws in the plan-if his luck held. It was simple and uncomplicated and should work. And there was no alternative.

"It is the best we can do," he agreed. "How soon do we go?"

"Two hours before dawn. I have a basket outside the door. I will carry you in that."

And so she did. Matters went well. Their luck held and she left him on a great soft bed in which an old man snored loudly. Valli kissed him and stroked his head and whispered, "Goodbye, little Blade. If matters go badly we will both die. If they go well and you do come to power in Zir, you will not forget your Valli? Or your promise?"

"I will forget neither," whispered Blade. "Go. Go quickly."

Her kirtle rustled as she left the room. A door closed softly and Blade heard an instant of whispering. Then he was alone in darkness and listening to the Izmir snore.

Blade sat cross-legged at the foot of the bed and waited patiently for light to show through the curtains. He tried to concentrate, to get a message through to Lord L, but the crystal was still dead. As dead, Blade thought, as he might be if this gambit did not come off.

Once in the pavilion, when he had spied on the women who came there to make love, he had heard them mention that in Zir unwanted babies were strangled.

Chapter 5.

When it grew light enough to see Blade crawled up the bed until he crouched near the pillow on which rested the Izmir's head. The old man was bald and toothless, with cheeks heavily pouched and a nose like a scimitar. His neck was thin and wrinkled, leading under the bedclothes to a body that Blade guessed would be an emaciated wreck. This man was very old. He could die at any moment, even the next, in his sleep. Blade could only hope that the wracked flesh and the senile brain would hold together for a time yet-long enough for Blade to attain his growth and the ability to survive on his own.

The light grew stronger. The Izmir moaned and tossed a bit, mumbling to himself, and at last opened his gummed and rheumy eyes and stared, face to face, at Blade.

"Do not fear me," said Blade. "I am the child, sent as Casta promised. I am your heir. I come in a child's body and with an adult's head and brain."

Blade's small spine was cold and the hair frizzled on the nape of his neck. The next second would be decisive-if the old man screamed and summoned his guard, if panic and mindlessness took over, Blade did not stand much of a chance. He held his breath.

The Izmir did not move. His runny eyes narrowed and when he spoke his voice was surprisingly calm and deep.

"If you are a dream or a phantom," said the Izmir, "you can go away. I am too old to frighten. If you are real, and this I do not yet believe, lay your flesh to mine so that I may feel it."

Blade put his tiny hand in the wrinkled old one of the Izmir. The old man picked up the little hand, examined it, stroked it, squeezed it, then let it fall. "If it is a dream," he said, "it is a most marvelously vivid one."

"I am no dream," said Blade. "Look you at my head-is it not too big for my body?"

The Izmir nodded. "Much too big. You are grotesque."

"And hear my voice," Blade continued. "Is it that of a man or an infant?"

"A man."

"And do you believe that in this oversize skull there is a man's brain, fully developed?"

"I am beginning to believe it," said the Izmir, "though I am not the fool that many, especially that Casta, take me for, and I have never really believed in miracles or wizardry. My people say that I am superst.i.tious and I let them think so, for it does me no harm and gives them something to gabble about."

This gave Blade pause. He saw that he had better revise his plan a bit. He leaned closer to the old man and stared into his eyes. The rheumy old eyes stared back and Blade saw cunning and knowledge there, and he saw also infinite weariness and boredom and, lurking last and deepest, final despair.

The Izmir said, "Your eyes are those of a man. And, if all my experience does not deceive me, those of a strong and shrewd and triumphant man. This I believe. But what good are these things in the body of a baby?"

"I grow a year each day," said Blade. "You will see this for yourself. I come from another world, which I will explain when we have time, and, though you do not believe in miracles or wizardry, there is something of both in my coming here-though not in the ordinary sense. How much time have we, Izmir, before someone comes to these chambers?"

The old man nodded toward a bell pull. "All the time we need. I am never disturbed until I summon my servants in the morning."

"Good. Now watch me." Blade leaped from the huge bed and ran around the room. He turned cartwheels and somersaults and jumped over a chair or two, then returned to the bed. "You saw that-you have never seen a normal babe do such things."

By now the Izmir was sitting up in bed, propped on pillows and stroking the few scant hairs of his goatee. He nodded and narrowed his eyes at Blade.

"You need not belabor it, my friend. So far I believe. I do not understand it and I doubt I ever will, but to this point I believe what I see. And in the end it is all very simple-you say that you will soon grow into a man? I shall wait and see. If you do grow into a man, then I will accept it and believe even more firmly. If you do not grow into a man I will have you strangled. Simple."

Blade settled on the bed again. "Yes. Simple. But I am speaking the truth and so we must plan. Hear me out, Izmir and then tell me your thoughts."

The old man opened his mouth, then closed it. He made a gesture that indicated that Blade was to speak on.

"I had thought you a senile old fool," said Blade. "I was led to believe this."

From deep in that scrawny throat came a chuckle. "A fool, yes. Old, yes. Senile, no."

"I was going to lie to you," Blade went on. "Lie and bamboozle and pretend to be this child that the priest Casta has been promising will come to save Zir and be your heir. This I cannot do now because it is not true and you know it is not true."

The Izmir nodded and chuckled again. "Costa is a great liar and also something of a fool, though very cunning. He believes that I believe him."

The old man fell into a fit of coughing and hawked a great gob of spittle into a cloth, then said. "It is my thought, of late, that Casta does have a child somewhere in the background, a child that he trains and keeps secret and awaits the proper hour to produce and announce as the heir to Zir. Then, when I am dead, he will slay the Princess Hirga and place this child on my throne and rule through him."

Blade held up a hand. "Later-later for all these details of intrigue. Our task now, for I take it that you are agreed to accept me, is to ensure my survival for the next few days. I cannot think that this priest will take kindly to my coming."

The Izmir went into such a fit of laughing that he nearly choked.

"Take it kindly? You, whoever you are, will be a living curse to him. You have stolen his thunder-and his idea. He will most certainly try to have you killed."

"Can you protect me, Izmir? Until I get my strength and manhood back?"

"I will try," said the Izmir. "I think I can do it. Many plot against me and many think me senile, but I am an old dog and I know many tricks. But you must prove yourself to me . . . what are you to be called?"

"Blade."

"Blade? It makes no sense to me, but as you wish. So, Blade, as I say, you will have to prove yourself to me or I will save Casta the trouble of killing you. So let us begin. What is first to do?"

"Food," said Blade. "Meat and bread in plenty. I am so near famished that, if I do not eat soon, the task of proving myself to you will never arise."

"And clothing," said the Izmir. He looked Blade up and down. "I think I have seen you grow since we began to talk. You are too large to run around naked."

"And a little sword," said Blade. "A real one, a weapon that will kill, but light enough for me to wield. I will feel safer with a weapon."

The Izmir reached for the bell pull at the head of his bed. "It shall all be done. Then, later today, I will arrange for a grand audience in the palace. I will introduce you to all my wise men and my statesmen, bah, and certainly to Casta and the Princess Hirga. I cannot wait to see the expression on the priest's face when he finds that his prophecy has come true and that a child has indeed come to save Zir and subdue the Hitts."

This was a new note. "Hitts? What of Hitts? It is the first time I have heard the name."

The Izmir stroked his goatee and his eyes grew hard. "They live across the narrow water and are savages and barbarians. They defeated my father and his father and even his father before that. I have sworn to avenge all these defeats and, before I die, to invade and conquer the Hitts. Casta has promised this most of all-that the child to come would lead my soldiers victorious against the Hitts. Now you will do it-unless, of course-you fail to grow as you say you will and I must have you strangled. But enough of that for now-here come my servants."