|
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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." The two servants who entered were both fat men and wore only loin cloths and soft hats like fezzes. They bowed to the Izmir and stared with round eyes at Blade. When the old man had given orders and they had gone he said to Blade, "Slaves. From the south, of course. I have never had a Hitt slave because they will never surrender. When they are beaten, which is not often, they kill themselves. You cannot make a slave of a corpse. But those you just saw are of a different breed ball-less now, because they go into my harem occasionally and I do not want them at my women." Blade said nothing, but something in his expression made the Izmir chuckle and nearly fall into another fit of coughing. "You are wondering, Blade, what an old fool like me can do with a harem of five-hundred women? I do not blame you. Often I wonder myself but now and again I manage. My cock is not more senile than my brain and with five or six soft and tender young girls I can sometimes achieve." Blade kept silence. The Izmir looked at him sharply and went on, "When you get your growth and strength if you do I suppose that will be a problem. Do not fret about it. I will give you a harem of your own." The food came and Blade fell on it like a wolf. As he ate he felt the electric ticking in him and understood that the crystal was working again and that he Page 20 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html had grown another year. Lord L would know, when the computer decoded Blade's thought impulses and printed them out, just how he was progressing. And how important it was that his growth continue at the proper and predetermined pace. His life depended on it now. Blade had no illusions about this old man in the bed. The Izmir was playing along. He believed or did not believe Blade had no way of knowing which but in the end he would kill Blade unless matters went as Blade predicted. If the computer broke down Blade was dead. Chapter 6 The computer did not fail. Blade lived and prospered and, when the thirty days had elapsed, he was his own brute and masculine self again, with the civilized trappings of Home Dimension fallen away as they always did when he was in X Dimension. His thews were mighty again, his legs like pillars of oak and his chest deep and his shoulders massive. He had his hair clipped to a decent length but let his beard grow long and black and curly. Now that his body again matched his head in proportion he was as handsome as ever, but he was not the Blade of HD. Beneath that flowing dark mane was a brain both subtle and shrewd, but with an animal cunning the normal Blade did not possess. By the time he had attained his growth again he was more a creature of Zir than of Home Dimension. He had adapted. The Izmir kept his word. He had said that he could muster a dozen loyal guards and he did. They were led by a captain named Ogier, a stalwart, barrel-shaped man who clanked about in armor and whose only loyalty was to the old Izmir and, later, to Blade. It was this Ogier who, when the situation was explained to him, schemed how the child Blade could be kept alive. "'Tis simple enough," Ogier said, "given loyal men such as I have. There are twelve of us. Six of us will remain always awake and on guard. We will keep the boy here, Izmir, in your own chambers and six of us will be with him come night or come day. Six will guard and six will sleep, and so it will be until the need is past." And he glanced down at Blade, who by this time had the size and heft of a ten-year-old. "He has grown since yesterday, Izmir. It is indeed a miracle and all Zir whispers of it. The people are impatient to see for themselves." Blade, dressed in baggy trousers and a jeweled vest, was practicing with his little sword. He liked Ogier and trusted him and had plans for him, but he did not speak now. He listened. Always he listened and learned. "The people will have to wait," the Izmir said, "until he has his years and is announced as my heir. And that cannot be done until he has proven himself in battle against the Hitts. In good time, Ogier, all in good time. But what of Casta and the Princess Hirga? I have not seen them since the audience in the palace. It is not like the priest to be so quiet." Captain Ogier laughed harshly. "Casta is sulking, Izmir. He has been sulking [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |
Odnośniki
|