Monster Of The Maze Part 5

Blade was cautious. "I can see how I might help you, Casta. But how can you help me?"

The low chuckle again. "In many ways. By advice, by intrigue, by treachery if need be, and by treasure. Lastly, and most important, by not having you killed."

Blade leaped to his feet and slammed a fist on the table. He half drew his sword. "You keep saying that, priest. I think you boast. If you are so sure you can murder me then why not try it now?"

Casta patted his gash of a mouth with bloodless fingers. The great dark eyes burned at Blade. once more he chuckled.

"Such is not my way." He tapped his skull. "In here is my strength. But sit down, Blade, and hear me out. Be calm. We are not children, or slaves, or simple folk. Now tell me-whence do you come?"

As Blade went back to the cask he decided to play along. For a moment he had been on the verge of putting his steel into Casta and having done with it, but intuition told him that he would never leave the place alive. He could not, for instance, even find his way out through that maze of corridors.

"There is little point in telling you that," he said, "for you would never understand. I come from another world, perhaps another planet, though as to that I cannot be certain. The difference is in dimension and not in time. But it is hopeless-you could not know of these things."

"You are arrogant," said Casta. "Intellectually arrogant, and that is the worst kind. How do you know what I know, Blade? Let me tell you-I have long suspected that there are other worlds, other times and dimensions, than are known here in Zir. We here are locked in ignorance, all but myself, and I think that you are such a person, come from such a place, and that your trick of growing from babe to man in a month is nothing but some advanced machinery of the brain. I cannot do it, nor even understand it, but I know that it can be explained and I do not fear it. There is nothing of the supernatural about you, Blade. That is my department, my skill, and mayhap one day I will show you something. But as of now, my bristling friend, I want to keep you alive and learn from you. When your knowledge is mine, when I have drained you of all you know, then is time to worry about dying. In the meantime we are not friends and will not pretend to be. But we can help each other. It would be a pity if we did not. What say you now?"

Blade, with a sinking feeling, knew that he had been right. He had met his match. This living skeleton was his peer. Blade did not like to think that Casta might be his superior.

"I will make a truce," he said at last. "When time affords I will tell you what I can, and what you can grasp, of what I am and how I came here. It will not be easy. And what do I get in return, other than the a.s.surance that you will not have me murdered?"

"I will give you power and freedom of movement. I will give you treasure, or at least show you where it is."

"Treasure? What kind of treasure?"

"Hah," said Casta. "I have struck a note. You are a seeker, Blade, and a seeker usually is after treasure of one sort or another. But we must see-perhaps the treasure I can offer is not what you seek." He opened a drawer in the desk and reached into it.

Blade tested the crystal in his brain. Not working. Nothing. No matter at the moment. But treasure was what England wanted, needed, and treasure was what the Prime Minister demanded. Teleportation was working now-at least it worked in the labs in Scotland-and if there was anything in Zir worth sending back Casta put something on his desk. It resembled a large lump of coal, irregular and many-faceted, except that it was colorless and of a crystalline purity. Blade gazed at it in awe. It couldn't be. It simply could not be. He left his cask and swept the lump off the table and took it to the fire. He held it up. A million fires danced and reflected in the giant prism; it sparked and burned in every facet and somewhere deep in it glowed a rainbow. It was! It was a diamond.

Chapter 8.

Blade hefted the diamond in his hand. It weighed at least ten pounds and would run to thousands of carats. He held it to the fire again and his hand seemed to catch flame from it. Here was treasure indeed. If there were more of these stones, and if they could be teleported back to Home Dimension- Behind him the High Priest said, "I was in the right of it, Blade. You are a seeker and you have found-it is written on your face. Already your mind changes and you are more inclined to bargain with me."

Blade put the diamond on the table and stared at Casta. "You are partly in the right-it depends. How came you by this stone? Are there more? Are they easy to come by?"

Casta folded his hands on his frail chest. "Hold a moment. Knowledge for knowledge. What is this thing called in the place from which you come?"

"A diamond. They are deemed of much value and greatly sought after."

Casta compressed his thin lips. "Indeed? How strange. Here they are but edged stones that are good for cutting. Thane, the builder, showed me the use of one to cut stone or metal. Diamond, you say? I have never heard the word."

Blade poked the great diamond with his finger. "You do not answer my questions. Are there more of these?"

"Not in Zir. We have none."

"Where then?"

"In the land of the Hitts. They have mountains of the stuff. They accord it no great value except to make statues of their kings and queens-after they are dead. So if you really value these diamonds, as you call them, you must cross the narrow water and take them from the Hitts. That will not be easy. Loth Bloodax, the leader of the Hitts, is a savage and a barbarian, but he is a great warrior. It will take a greater warrior to defeat him. I admit that you have the look of a warrior .. are you one in truth?"

"I am," said Blade. "If you have a champion and wish to test me, bring him forward."

Casta gave him a very odd look, then covered his lips with a hand. "In time-in time. I have such a champion, but the time for that is not yet. Let us get back-you want these diamonds. To get them you must invade the Hitts. To do that with any hope of success, you must have my help. Shall we strike a bargain?"

Blade pondered before he answered. Casta broke in on his thoughts and now there was a touch of impatience in his tone.

"If it will help you in coming to a decision I will tell you something-something I had not meant you to know just yet. The Izmir is dead. In this last hour."

Blade stared. "How can you know that?"

Casta shrugged. "By mirror message, how else? Surely you have seen and understood that, and how we use the sun, you who know so much."

Heliograph. Blade had seen the flashes in the sky many times and had tried to decode the messages to no avail. He decided that Casta was telling the truth.

So he nodded and said, "How came this about?"

Casta shrugged again. "I know only what the message spelt out. The Izmir had a seizure in his chambers and was dead before his surgeons could be sent for. You may be sure of it. My spies in the palace would not dare lie to me in this matter."

The Izmir's death changed everything. The old man, as frail and ill as he had been, had afforded Blade some protection. He had p.r.o.nounced Blade his son and heir, Prince, and now he was gone and Blade was bereft of sponsors-other than his sword and his strength and his cunning. What of Ogier and his twelve stout men? Would they cling to a man so disinherited?

Casta said, "I think you had best strike the bargain, Blade. For both our sakes. I want no trouble and you can afford none. If I have you slain I will be the loser, for you carry knowledge that I would have. Do not force it. Agree."

Blade decided. "For the time being, then. To what would you have me agree?"

Casta smiled, showing toothless gums, and picked up the skull from his table. He toyed with it.

"Good. You are being wise. So hear me out and, when I am done, I will hear your objections.

"First I would have you marry Hirga. She is a princess, the sole blood of the Izmir that survives-all the other infants having been strangled to ensure this-and by taking her to wife you will become Prince Consort. The people of Zir will accept that and, though my hand will be suspected in it, they will not know for sure. For I am not loved, Blade, nor my priests. I am hated and feared and, while I do not care for myself, such hatred and distrust is an obstacle to my plans. So I remain hidden and you and Hirga will seem to rule.

"You will marry as soon as the funeral is over and the Izmir has been placed in his crypt in this place. A pity he did not live to see it finished for I could have wished him that. As soon as you marry you will move against the Hitts. I wish them destroyed."

"Why?"

For the first time rage showed in Casta's face. "Because they are mockers. They laugh at me and defy me. Loth Bloodax is an arrogant savage and must be taught a lesson. And there are other reasons-I would have the lands of the Hitts. They are of no value to me, but my north flank must be protected when I march at last to the east and to the west and south. I have plans for conquest in due time, Blade, and I do not want the Hitts at my back. Are you agreeable so far?"

Blade feigned doubt, though he knew that in the end he must agree. With the Izmir dead he was in a weak position. He must bide his time, play along and await developments. So he nodded.

"So far I agree. With these conditions-I am to have complete command of the armies. I will choose my own officers. I will take whatever diamonds I find as my share of the loot. Other than that, and if Hirga agrees to the marriage, I am in accord."

Casta put the skull down. "I see no quarrel. Hirga will do as I bid her. So go now, back to the palace-city and await word from me. In the meantime you can make plans for the invasion, subject to the interruption of funeral and marriage services. I think they will not greatly hinder you?"

"No," said Blade. "I will get on with it. Goodbye, Casta."

The High Priest did not rise. He gave Blade a thin smile. "Goodbye. Hirga will be waiting for you. Since you are to wife her, Blade, it might be as well to pay her some attention and do as she lists. Spend some time with her and listen-she is not a fool. And think not of treachery, Blade, for I will know of it and there would be trouble and great loss to both of us. Think always that, though we are not friends, we need not be mortal enemies. Let your brain rule and not your emotions. Farewell for now."

At the leather curtain Blade halted and looked back. "I would have a word with this Thane, the builder. I may have use for him. I will need an engineer for the Hitt invasion."

Casta shrugged. "See him. Talk. Arrange it as you will. Goodbye, Blade."

Hirga was waiting for him in the cavern. She took his hand and drew him into an adjacent corridor and thence to a bare cubicle in which there was only a cot. She wore only the silver trousers and atop her piled red hair sparkled the coronal. Blade sought for diamonds in it and could see none.

There was an odd smell in the cubicle. Blade could not identify it, but it was unpleasant. A burnt smell, a rotten smell, somehow an odor of feces and death and rot that yet eluded those names.

Hirga's green eyes were bold and her teeth gleamed. She took Blade's hands and placed them on her jutting b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "Since we are to marry we had best get acquainted."

Blade was aroused physically but felt no real desire for her. This he accounted strange indeed for he was a sensual man. He kissed and caressed her briefly and she drew him to the cot. Her eyes were wild and out of focus and she did not lie down for him at once, but insisted on loosing his kilt and making a long study of his phallus. She fondled it and stroked and leaned closer to see it, and Blade, for the first time in his life, sensed that he was found wanting in the genital department. She did not speak of it, and when they coupled on the cot she gave every outward sign of enjoyment, but he knew. She lay on the cot and watched as he arranged his clothing and armor and buckled on his sword, and he saw discontent in the green eyes. He had not satisfied her. He could not understand it.

The foul smell was in the cubicle again and as he went to the door he saw something s.h.i.+ning on the floor. He stooped to pick it up. It was of silvery sheen, a hard substance, leathery and pliable, and he thought it some sort of scale. A fish scale? On impulse he sniffed at it and the foul odor was there. He flung it away and glanced back at the cot. Hirga was watching him with her mouth half open, her red tongue lolling out and her eyes narrowed. She was laughing at him. She knew something that he did not, about a subject that he could not fathom. Blade stared at her.

"Something amuses you, Hirga? Tell me. Matters have not gone so well today that I could not use a laugh."

Hirga laughed. She covered her b.r.e.a.s.t.s with her arms and swung her feet off the cot and smiled at him. "It is nothing, Blade. Nothing you will know of, or understand, ever. I am sorry. Goodbye, Blade. I will see you next at the marriage ceremony. Casta wishes it so. Until then goodbye."

For the second time in half an hour he had been summarily dismissed. He nodded coldly and left the cubicle. Anger rose in him and he forced it down. He must walk carefully. He would marry her, for in that direction lay his fortunes of the moment, but he did not look forward to it.

And he rankled-never in his life had he failed to satisfy a woman, to bring her to cries of pleasure and o.r.g.a.s.m. What had gone wrong with Hirga?

Blade scowled and shrugged it away. Matters of greater moment were afoot. There was no time to waste in vanity or in brooding over lost s.e.xual powers. But that was just the point-he had been strong and of long duration, had used time-proven techniques, and yet Hirga had not come to climax. She had not bothered to fake and she had not reproached, but they both knew. And her knowing look at the last- what did she know? Blade cursed heartily and made himself forget it.

The tall priest waited for him by the platform. He was led out into the sunlight at the entrance where Ogier paced impatiently. He greeted Blade and scowled darkly at the priest.

"Another few minutes, Blade, and I meant to come seeking you, priests or no. I would love to put my steel into those black bellies, in any case."

They were alone by the archway. The two priests had gone. Ogier's men lolled a little way off. Blade clapped the Captain on the shoulder.

"Listen to me, Ogier, and listen well. Then you must decide. For much has happened and I need a friend now as never before."

He told Ogier of the interview with Casta and that the Izmir was dead. He spoke of his promised marriage to Hirga. He said nothing of the interlude in the cubicle.

Ogier, arms akimbo, stepped back a pace and surveyed Blade. His face was dark. "And you agreed to all this?"

"I had to, Ogier. I was in a weak position. I had no power to strike a better bargain."

Ogier shook his head. "You have me. I have sworn an oath and I will bide by it. So will my men."

"Ogier! Think, man. You and a dozen soldiers, no matter how loyal?"

"I could get other men. I am not the only soldier who hates the priests."

"How many men, Ogier?"

The Captain scratched at his stubble. "Perhaps a thousand. Or even more."

Blade smiled wryly. "And how many priests are there in Zir? I want a cool answer, Ogier. Forget your prejudice and anger. Give me an officer's answer."

Ogier frowned. "At last intelligence, Casta had some ten thousand priests to his back. I admit the number. But it is of no matter. Give me a thousand good men and I will slit their throats as if they were pigeons and not black crows. Only we had best hurry before Casta can organize. Give me the word, Blade-"

Blade shook his head. "No. It is my game and I will play it my way."

Ogier looked his disgust. "As you say. I promised the Izmir I would obey you, and I will-but you are a fool. For one thing-cannot you see why Casta sends you to invade the Hitts? To get you out of the way, and at the same time do his dirty job for him. For it is true that the Hitts are a menace to our north flank and we dare not invade elsewhere until they are pacified."

Blade grinned at him. "That is better. That is the soldier thinking. Keep to such thoughts, Ogier, and let me worry about the plots and the intrigues. I am not a child at such matters. Now take me to this Thane."

With his little party trailing along behind, Blade was directed to a cl.u.s.ter of huts nearby on the plain. In the largest of the huts he found the man called Thane and so glimpsed his first Hitt.

Thane was as tall as Blade and thicker in the chest and shoulders. His yellow hair fell to his shoulders and his eyes were wide set and an icy blue. He wore leather trousers and a vest and the hair on his bare chest was thick and as yellow as his head. He did not rise as they came into the hut. There was a cup on the table and a large jar of wine nearby and it was evident that Thane was drunk. For a moment Blade thought to come another time, or have the man brought to him, then he realized that here was a man who could drink and still hold to his senses. The voice was thick and the eyes bloodshot, but Thane knew what he was about.

Ogier spoke first, introducing Blade, and then stood back. Thane stared at Blade, still not rising, and if there was no overt disrespect in his tone and mien, neither was there respect. Blade was secretly amused, and not displeased. He did not want a serf. And it was evident that Thane could draw the line just short of insolence.

"So you are the babe grown to a man so soon, eh? I have been wanting to see with my own eyes, for one must be a fool to believe these Zirnians. But now I see and I must believe. But how, I ask? I would give a lot to know the trick."

Blade smiled. "So said the High Priest Casta."

Thane scowled and smashed at the table with a huge fist. "Do not speak to me of that black corpse. It sickens me to think of him. But he is a brain-picker for all that--I admit it. He is always after my secrets. Not that I tell him. I lie to him. Not that he believes me. Aha, what games we play, the crow and me!"

Blade sat down and poured himself a cup of wine. Ogier looked on, arms crossed on his barrel chest, and refused drink. "One of us must stay sober," he commented dourly. "This is not a time for drinking, Blade. It is a time for thought and preparation."

Blade grinned and winked at Thane. "I know, Ogier. I will have but the one cup. And why am I here, if not for thought and preparation?" Thane drank off his wine and splashed his cup full again. "You speak like a warrior, Blade, and you look like a warrior. Are you one?"

"I am," said Blade mildly. "As time will prove. And it is of war that I came here to speak, Thane."

Thane belched. "You want something of me, then? I thought so. What is it?"

"I plan to invade the Hitts. I need an engineer. I will make you a Captain and you will have full authority in your field, also a full share of loot and treasure."

Thane shook his head. "I am well enough here. Anyway, the work is not finished yet. Now that the old man is dead I would like to finish it quickly, even though he will never see it."

"I could command you," said Blade softly, "but I will not. An unwilling man gives poor service. But hear me out. There is no great hurry to finish the block. The Izmir will sleep as peacefully. Whereas I would take the Hitts off balance and strike as swiftly as possible after my preparations are made. I plan to build a pontoon over the narrow water so I will not have to depend on boats or wind."

Thane began to laugh. He spilled wine into his chest hair and daubed at it and roared. "A pontoon? A bridge? Aha-ho-ho-it has been tried, Blade. It failed. The Hitts swam out and cut it in the middle and those Zirnians who did not drown were slaughtered when they reached land. Ho-ho-ho- A pontoon! You will have to do better than that."

Blade glanced at Ogier. The Captain nodded. "It is so. Some half-dozen years ago. The last time the Izmir tried to tame the Hitts."

Thane drank wine and roared on, slapping a leg like an oak limb. "You may be a warrior, Blade, but you are no general. You do not interest me. You have no ideas. You will never beat the Hitts."

"I will beat the Hitts." Blade was calm. "I said to hear me out. I plan to build two pontoons-one with much bustle and show above the water. The other pontoon-the one we will use-will be built at a distance from the first and it will be a foot below the water. It will be built at night and in secrecy. But it will be difficult, such a task, and very likely beyond your powers, Thane. I will find another man. Thank you for the wine. Come, Ogier, it is time we rode back and-"

Thane was staring at Blade. The big blond man smiled and slapped at the table, sending a pool of wine splas.h.i.+ng.

"Two pontoons, eh? One as a feint, a decoy, and the other under the surface? By the G.o.ds-I never thought of that. It might work. But you are right-it will be a hard task."

"Probably impossible," agreed Blade. "Forget it, Thane. I dreamed. I doubt that it can be done. Not even by you. So-"

Thane regarded Blade for a moment with a scowl. Then he laughed and filled his cup again. "I know your method, Blade, and how you seek to lure me. I am not fooled, not taken in. But it can be done. It is a challenge and I will undertake it-as soon as I am sober."