"And if I do not promise?"
Blade's hand had been resting on the jeweled hilt of the Pethdne sword. He half-drew it from the scabbard. "Then I will kill you, Sutha. I will kill you now and take my chances. I swear it!"
Sutha did not show fear. He never did. Blade thought that his smile was a little sad.
"I promise this," said Sutha. "I think I see what you have in mind. But let me point out a few things. You are new here, Blade, and there is much you do not know."
"I know what I must do."
"Yet you must listen and be sure you understand. When the Power is aborted, completely aborted, everything in Tharn, and here in Urcit, comes to a halt. Everything, Blade! Without the Power Tharn is nothing. We are no better, much weaker in fact, than the Pethcines. They are only savages and barbarians, but without the Power we will be helpless before them."
Blade touched the sword. "Not quite helpless."
Sutha nodded. "I know. I said I understood. You want to fight the Pethcines, and Honcho, on their own terms?"
Blade grinned like a wolf. "Wrong. On my terms."
It was the kernel, the nut, of his planning. To hell with the Power, with magveils and simlu and teleportation and all the other Tharnian miracles. He, as mere man, was helpless against those things. And helpless against Honcho, how the knowledge rankled, as long as Honcho had those things at his command. But take them away...
Sutha was speaking again, in a low tone, as if to himself. "Take away the Power and Tharn comes to a halt. There will be no light. The weather will slip beyond our control. The mani will die in the fields. The baby plants will not function and the neuter embryos will die in their decanters. All food processing will halt. There will be no waste disposal, no spiscreens, no way to police the ceboids. There is always the possibility that, under such conditions, they will revolt."
"So be it," said Blade. He slammed the sword back into the scabbard with a clang. "So I wish it. In depriving Tharn, ourselves, of all these things we also deprive Honcho of them. That is my whole point, Sutha. Without the Power Honcho is nothing. I will kill him. I will kill Org and Totha also, if I must. I do not think the Pethcines will fight well without a leader."
Sutha appeared to give in, but only half convinced. "Just so you do not wait too long to give the word. I have told you my dream - to destroy the Pethcines forever, for all time, so they can never again threaten Tharn. I know that is impossible without the Power."
Blade had other thoughts, but he kept them to himself. He needed Sutha for his plan. Needed him badly. And he had no desire to harm the old neuter.
"I will not wait too long. I promise it. I will send a runner when the time is right. On the other hand you promise that all Power, all of it, will stay aborted until I ask for it?"
Sutha laid a scrawny hand over his left chest. "I promise it."
"Then do it now," commanded Blade. "I would see it done with my own eyes."
"Come, then."
Blade followed him past the sarophagus of Astar I. The naked mummy still wore its smile of faint mockery.
They went back through the computer area and beyond it to a tiny cubicle of a room. It contained nothing but walls filled with buttons and switches. Sutha reached for a master switch, hesitated, then without looking at Blade he tugged the switch down.
There was silence. A new, strange silence the like of which Blade had not heard since his arrival in Tharn. The computers had stopped.
Blade touched Sutha's arm. "I will speak with Isma. Tell her nothing of our plans if she asks. Say that I will not tell even you! That way she cannot hold you responsible. Goodbye, Sutha. I go now to make my preparations. What will you do?"
"I will remain here, in this place, until I hear from you. Do not be too long, Blade. In this microkrono Tharn has begun to die."
Blade touched the sword hilt. "Don't worry, Sutha. I - and this - will save Tharn. Perhaps a better Tharn than you know."
Blade climbed endless stairs to the very top of the Palace. Here, from a large terrace, was a broad view of the surrounding country. Some of the women were lounging about, naked, being given teksin oil treatments by Maiduke girls, and Blade cleared them out brusquely. For the time being this would be his Command Post.
He sent a neuter to summon Isma and watched in cold amusement as the creature stepped on the gravity drop and found it would not work.
"Use the stairs," Blade commanded brusquely. "You will be using them from now on. After you have found the High Priestess and delivered my message send the Second Neuter to me. At once!"
The neuter made a frightened slaveface and ran.
Blade sent for tables and chairs. There were no maps and he could not expect to find a pair of field glasses in Tharn. It did not really matter. He intended that Honcho and Org should come to him. Blade would choose the battle site and dictate the conditions. Only so did he stand a chance of winning. And win he must. There was no turning back now. Honcho and Org, Totha, the barbarian horde, would already be on the march. It would not take Honcho long to discover that the Power had been aborted and that he could advance through the magveils.
He went to the railing protecting the terrace and examined the sky. He thought he detected a tiny rift of blue, but could not be positive. It would take a little time. There was still the eternal twilight, the milky opaqueness. He sought for the scribble of blue again and found it. Wider now. Weather control was not functioning in Tharn.
Blade stared at the streamer of blue for a moment. He smiled and walked to a table where there was a pile of slates and a stylus. Still smiling he picked up a slate and wrote: Blade, days of...
A monstrous conceit. The Bladian calendar.
Isma arrived, magnificent in a flowing black robe and accompanied by the usual gaggle of Maiduke girls. Blade sent the girls away. Isma watched with a mingle of curiosity and resentment in her oval sloe eyes. She was as strikingly patrician, as breathtakingly lovely as ever. Her hair was piled high on her head and her skin was golden milk, her mouth a vivid slash of scarlet desire. When the Maidukes had gone she came close to Blade and kissed him and thrust her breasts against him. She pushed out her lips at him.
"I am angry with you, Lord. The way you left our bed so hurriedly. I was in the mood for coi."
Blade put his big hands on her shoulders and held her away from him. Surprise glinted in the dark eyes. Blade chucked her beneath the chin and laughed. She was nothing but a beautiful pouting woman. The Power was gone and, somehow, so was the High Priestess. This lovely amoral murderous woman was just that, just another woman.
Isma stepped back from him, her puzzlement beginning to give way to anger. "You are acting very strangely, Lord. You forget that I am Isma! I do not tolerate arrogance."
Blade scowled at her. "I forget nothing, Isma. You see - I call you so. But as for me, from this moment you will call me Blade. Or Lord Blade, if it pleases you. One or the other. Nothing else. You will forget Mazda."
Her mouth was scornful. "Mazda never was. We know that."
He nodded. "Yes. And when the time is right all shall know it. But now we speak of more important things." He pointed to a chair. "Sit down, Isma, and listen!"
Isma obeyed docilely enough, surprise again replacing anger on her lovely face. Not in all the kronos of Tharn had anyone ever spoken to a High Priestess like this.
Blade spoke for a long time. Isma listened and understood, as he, had known she would. After Sutha she had the best conditioned brain in Tharn. That was the weakness, the blindness. A conditioned brain.
Nonetheless, when Blade had explained what he meant to do, Isma went directly to his weakness.
"I agree that the Pethcines must be lured into a trap," she said. "And to that the Power must be aborted. But why, once they are in the trap, do you want to wait? When we can drop the magveils behind them and send the Red Storms and the magrays, when we can destroy them utterly. Why wait?"
And destroy Zulekia with them! Blade was sure that Honcho would bring the girl along as hostage.
Isma watched him intently.
Blade, having his story ready, went glibly into it. "It has occurred to me," he explained, "that it is not a good idea to destroy the Pethcines completely. I..."
Isma interrupted, her face scornful and disbelieving. "Not destroy them? The Pethcines? They are nothing but brutes, savages - filthy barbarians. You have not only aborted our Power, Blade. You have aborted your brain!"
Ignoring the gibe, Blade said, "Hear me out, Isma. You will admit that the Lordsmen are poor things? Weaklings? That none could ever satisfy you?"
The dark eyes hardened. Her features stiffened into lines of hauteur. "The Lordsmen? What have they to do with me? They are poor things, I admit, but what have they to do with me?" The last words were a near scream and she started to rise from the chair.
Blade stepped quickly and pushed her into the chair again. He was a trifle rough and again Isma could not believe that she had been so treated. Yet she remained in the chair.
Blade, arms akimbo, towered over her. "Do not lie to me, Isma. I know that you have been with the Lordsmen. It means nothing to me. I do not care. My point is that we do not kill all the Pethcines! That we take as many prisoners as possible and use them to replace the Lordsmen. They are barbarians, yes, but they are strong and virile. I would select the best, Isma, and then mate them with the People. With the women. And each would bear her own child."
Isma leaped to her feet. "I will not listen to this blasphemy! And I shall give orders to destruct Sutha immediately. Only he could have told you this."
From the corner of his eye Blade saw that the Second Neuter had arrived and was lingering in the background, along with a Lieutenant and a squad of ceboid soldiers. Even the beasts were staring in amazement.
It was the moment of truth for Blade. Now or never. He needed Isma, for as High Priestess she could still exact absolute obedience, for a time, even without the Power.
He looked steadily at Isma. Their eyes met in combat and neither looked away. Blade said, very softly: "You can destruct Sutha. Yes. You can always get another neuter. But how about me, Isma? Can you get another Blade? Have I not pleasured you as never before? Do I not rule with you? Do I not value Tharn, and yearn to protect it, as much as you do? Would I do anything that is not for the ultimate good of Tharn? Ask yourself all those questions, Isma, and then see if you can still quarrel with me."
Her stare was dark and unblinking. It gave nothing away, yet Blade knew she was thinking of the Pethcine men, of barbarian virility and novelty. He knew his Isma. He kept a careful eye on the squad of ceboids. They were armed only with teksin swords and he could kill them easily, but he did not want to do that. He needed, must have, unity in Urcit. Else he was already defeated.
Isma looked away. She went back to the chair and sat down again. Blade kept his face impassive and restrained a sigh of relief. It had been a narrow thing, but he had brought it off. At least for the time being. Zulekia's name had not been mentioned.
"I will listen," said Isma haughtily. "Explain exactly what it is that you intend to do, Lord Blade."
Blade flicked a finger at the Second Neuter, who came forward. Then he took Isma's arm and led her to the railing of the terrace. Overhead more blue was showing now as the curdled melancholy twilight gave way to a solitary shaft of crimson silver. Blade took a deep breath. The air was different. There was a sun in Tharn!
The neuter was staring fearfully at the changing sky. It looked at Isma, then at Blade, and said: "I have never seen this before. Not in all my kronos."
"Get used to it," said Blade.
He pointed to the flat, only slightly undulating land that lay in the direction of North Provo. Here, on the outskirts of Urcit, was a maze of ceboid hovels. Hundreds of them.
"We will level those shacks," said Blade, "and make barricades of them. Honcho and Org will come in from this direction, I am sure. Urcit has no walls and so it does not matter where they attack. They will take the most direct route into the city. You, Second Neuter, will give orders at once for those hovels to be torn down and made into a long barricade. We will mass our main force behind it." He looked at Isma "Your women were warriors once, I understand. They must be again. You will see to it, Isma, that they are all mustered out immediately. Fully armed."
Blade pointed. "Assembly point will be there, in the Square of the Great Phallus. You will do this now, Isma."
Her smile was faint, and lacking the mockery he had expected. She seemed perfectly serious. "Yes, Lord Blade. But how shall I summon them? There is no power."
Blade laughed and pointed down to his sandaled feet. "There is power. Foot power. Have the Third Neuter form a group of runners. You will have to set up a message center in liaison with my command post here. I make you Commander of the People, Isma. Of all the homid women. You are second only to me, and will obey only my orders. That is understood?"
Her dark eyes narrowed at him, but she said only: "That is understood, Lord Blade. I go to obey." The obedience was only in the words, not in her tone or her look.
Blade turned to the Second Neuter. "Sutha, your King, has bidden that you obey me absolutely. He, Sutha, will not be in this battle. He has a special and very difficult task and must do it alone. So you are in command of all neuters...under me, of course. You understand this?"
The Second Neuter was of middle kronos. He wore a chain of small teksin diamonds over his tunic. He made a slight slaveface and said, "Yes, Lord Blade. What do you require of me?"
"It is simple enough. I require a roster of all your neuters, of all ranks and grades. You will form them into an army. They are going to have to fight."
"Fight, Lord Blade?" The Second Neuter looked startled. "Neuters cannot fight! We, none of us, have ever been trained for fighting. I am afraid that we will be of no use to you, my Lord Blade."
Blade stared at the neuter grimly. "Then I will use you for cannon fodder. If you cannot fight at least you will make good targets for Pethcine arrows."
"Cannon fodder, my Lord Blade? I do not understand the term."
"You will," said Blade. "You will. Go and gather all neuters together. Assemble them in the square before the neuter dormitories."
The Second Neuter was leaving as Blade called him back. "One moment. Who commands the ceboids?" He gestured to where the squad of ceboid soldiers waited near the stairs.
"We command them, my Lord Blade. The neuters. The lowest order of neuters, of course. I have never had anything to do with the ceboids myself, naturally."
Blade pointed to a chair. "Sit, Second Neuter." The neuter obeyed. Blade stoked his beard.
"You say neuters cannot fight. What of the ceboids - will they fight?"
"They will obey, Lord Blade. That is the only function of a ceboid, to obey."
Blade remembered something Sutha had told him. "Yet I have heard that there is always danger of revolt among them. Is this true?"
The smooth impassive face of the Second Neuter twitched. The long green eyes narrowed. "That is only the opinion of an old..." The words ceased abruptly. The neuter made slaveface. "I am sorry, Lord Blade. It is not my place..."
Blade held up a hand. "Enough. I am not interested in your opinion of Sutha. Just answer my questions." He sighed inwardly. He had enough trouble without a power struggle among the neuters.
The Second Neuter thought a moment, then said: "The ceboids will fight. As well as their intelligence permits, and if they are whipped enough. That is the secret with ceboids, my Lord, whipping. And a public execution every now and then. It is all they understand."
Blade studied the creatures waiting near the stair. These were soldier-ceboids and they all had tails. Their origin still baffled Blade. He watched now as they chittered among themselves in their coarse, guttural language. Every now and then one of the long dog-baboon heads swiveled in his direction. Blade knew they were watching and listening. How much did they understand?
Blade knew that the Second Neuter, no matter his level of conditioning, was a fool. It could not be helped. He must use the neuter as best he could, depend on him as far as he dared.
"Who actually oversees the ceboids?"
"The ceboid-masters, Lord Blade. Neuters of the lowest level. They live among the ceboids and speak their language. This is necessary because the beasts cannot learn Tharnian, therefore the ceboid-masters must speak their language. It has always been thus, for all the kronos on record."
Blade regarded him grimly. "I see. Well, a great many things are going to be changed in Tharn. That is all for now, Second Neuter. Go and start organizing your neuters as I bade you. And find Xeno, he is my servant, and send him to me. At once."
"At once, Lord Blade." The Second Neuter made slaveface and glided away. Blade watched him disappear down the stairs followed by the ceboid squad.
Blade strode back to the railing once more. There was a great blue patch directly overhead now, widening as he watched it, and toward the northern horizon, from whence Honcho and Org and the Pethcines would come, there was a scatter of small clouds like sheep in a pen. As Blade watched the clouds a single lance of sunlight struck through from somewhere and gilded them, transforming each separate cloudlet into a golden fleece. Blade tugged at his beard and smiled, a slow smile. In his other life he had never believed in omens. Now he was not so sure.
Xeno arrived breathless and fearful. He had in fact been off attending to some business of his own, neuter business, and neglecting his duties. He did not know what to expect. Perhaps he would even be destructed, and he of only 16 kronos! He made deep and humble slaveface, his slitted eyes on the great sword at Blade's side.
"You sent for me, Lord Blade?" He was still breathless from running. And very nervous and upset. Nothing worked in Tharn any more. There were horrible rumors that the Power was gone forever.
Blade was stern. "I did. Sit down."
"Sit down, my Lord?" It was unthinkable. Sit down! In the Lord Blade's presence!
Blade roared suddenly. "I said to sit down, Xeno. That is a command!"
Xeno sat. Blade regarded him. He needed an aide, an ADC, that was intelligent and trustworthy. Intuition told him that Xeno was his man or, rather, his neuter.
"You have 16 kronos?"
"Yes, my Lord."
Blade nodded in satisfaction. Still a very young neuter.
"What is your level, Xeno?"