Empire Of Blood

Chapter 27

Kul-Nam was not the last man in the two fleets to die. It took a while to hoist Prince Durouman's standard to the flagship's masthead. It took a while after that for every one to see it and realize what it meant. It took an even longer time to convince everyone aboard the ships of Saram that they could surrender safely. Most expected to have their throats cut or be pitched overboard the moment they laid down their arms.

No one gave such promises to the Corps of Eunuchs. It would have been a waste of breath, and anyone who even suggested it would probably have been heaved overboard, along with most of the corps. Like Avenger's former slavemasters, they were no great loss. They had been Kul-Nam's personal terror weapon, and now that Kul-Nam was dead there was nothing for them to do except follow their master.

There was another man whom Blade and Prince Durouman would cheerfully have dealt with in the same way-the treacherous commandant of Parine. He had not only told Kul-Nam of the princess's moves against him, thus provoking the attack. He had also revealed all the secrets and weaknesses of Parine's fortifications, thus helping to make the attack a success.

Emass was frank about what should be done with the commandant. «We should take him back to Parine and there torture him to death the same way Princess Tarassa died.»

Blade shook his head. «As much as I want his blood, I don't want it that way. There should be no more torture or painful executions under Prince-ah, Emperor-Durouman rule. That will make a great and welcome contrast with Kul-Nam.» They would not have understood his suggesting that torture was wrong-it was that sort of Dimension.

In any case, the question turned out to be meaningless. They discovered that the commandant had fallen in the attack on Parine, along with nearly five thousand more of Kul-Nam's men. He had made the attack on Parine a success, but he had not made it easy, nor had he lived to collect his hoped-for reward of becoming Prince of Parine. Along with the five thousand men had gone twenty galleys, five sailing ships, and nearly half of Kul-Nam's store of ammunition.

Two large groups of men who had spent most of the day trying to kill each other did not become sworn comrades overnight. But everyone was too exhausted and too relieved that Kul-Nam was dead to bear anyone any ill will. By morning everyone had slept enough to realize that a new and perhaps better time for all of them was dawning with the new day. The battered fleets set sail for Garis with everyone in much better spirits.

The voyage to Garis took three days. The arrival of the combined fleets and the news they brought first stunned the people, then set off wild rejoicing. Word spread rapidly through Saram, and the rejoicing steadily mounted. By the time Emperor Durouman rode inland toward his capital, his progress had the air of a triumphal procession. Blade rode with him, hailed as the mightiest of the mighty and the champion of champions, a savior to all, second only to the new Emperor himself.

The only thing that marred the procession was the number of bodies that littered the streets and road-Kul-Nam's informers or officials, his police or merely those who had supported him too loudly in the past and hadn't turned their colors fast enough. Durouman didn't much care for the sight.

Emass was delighted. «Your Magnificence,» he kept saying, «this is a great stroke of good fortune. These people are your enemies, whom you would have had to destroy sooner or later. Here they are, dying by the thousands without you having to lift a finger or take the smallest portion of the blame.»

Blade shook his head. «Some of them may be your enemies,» he said. «But I suspect that a great many personal feuds are also being settled. You would be wise to bring the killing to a halt as quickly as possible.»

Durouman threw back his head and roared with laughter. «Blade, Emass-what am I going to do if you two stay around and keep giving me advice? You always make exactly opposite suggestions.»

«I do not know about Emass,» said Blade, «but you will not have to worry about me much longer. I have carried out the mission my king gave me-«

«And done a good deal more besides,» put in Durouman.

«True. But I have no more business here in Saram. I will be gathering a company of stout fighters before long, then riding south.»

«Are you sure you would not rather wait until we have fought the Steppemen?» said Durouman. «I would be glad of your sword beside mine again. Also, your journey will be safer when the Steppemen are broken.»

«I would be happy to join you,» said Blade. «But I was sent on this journey with strict orders from my king. He is not Kul-Nam. He will not have my head or title or estates if I do not return swiftly. He will merely not think me wise, and in England, to be thought unwise is to be thought dishonorable.»

«I will say no more,» said Durouman. «Is there anything I may do to speed you on your way?»

«There are things that will ease my mind,» said Blade. «First, there is-«

«Avenger's crew,» put in Durouman.

«Yes.»

«If it were possible, I would make every one of them a nobleman,» said Durouman earnestly. «That cannot be. I can swear solemnly that no man who fought under you aboard your ship will go hungry or homeless as long as he lives and I and my sons rule in Saram.»

Blade smiled. «Very good. Second, there is-«

«Haleen?» said Durouman.

Blade laughed loudly. «Has the Eagle crown given you the power to read other men's thoughts, my friend?»

«No. It is merely that you obviously care for her, and she for you. Why should you not therefore wish her in good hands?»

«True. I take it that you have a plan for her?»

«Yes. Princess Tarassa's son will need a nurse for some years, until he is old enough to be placed in the care of men. I was thinking of making her principal nurse to the young prince. She seems a very honest and wise young woman.»

«She is.» Wise enough, in fact, so that by the time the young prince no longer needed a nurse, Haleen would have the money and position to do whatever she pleased. Blade suspected that she would end up marrying at least a wealthy merchant's heir, if not a nobleman.

«Is there anything else I can do for those you must leave behind?»

«No,» said Blade sadly. «There are no others. Too many of those who have been my comrades in this land are dead.»

Haleen was waiting for him that night when he returned to the small palace that was his temporary home in the capital. He kissed her, but she wriggled gently out of his embrace and stood at arms' length, looking at him with an impish grin on her face.

«No, Prince Blade. Not until you have bathed. I am going to be a lady of some rank now, or so I have heard.»

«That is true.»

«Then I shall have in my bed no man who has not bathed first.» She raised one slim arm and pointed toward the bath chamber. «Go, my prince. Go and bathe.»

«Will you join me if I do?»

«In time, in time.»

That time was short. Five minutes after Blade climbed into the great golden bathtub, the chamber door opened and Haleen entered. She wore a pink silk robe that neither revealed nor clung but was somehow all the more enticing for that. Blade reached out toward her. She let him grasp her by one hand, then reached up with the other and undid the clasp of the robe. It whispered to the floor. Nude and lovely, she turned toward him.

Then she noticed the commando knife and belt hanging over one of the projecting ornaments on the edge of the tub. Her face clouded.

«You bathe with your knife?»

«I would rather not be without a weapon ready to hand until all the people who might want to send me after Kul-Nam are no longer dangerous.»

«I am not unarmed, Blade,» she said, putting her hands behind her head and giving her body a sensuous wiggle.

«No. But your weapons are no danger to my life.»

«You are that confident of your powers, Blade?»

«Are you planning to put them to a test?»

«I am.» Haleen put one hand on the edge of the tub and got ready to climb in. Then suddenly she jerked the hand back as if the tub had turned red-hot.

«Blade-what is the matter?» Her voice was half a gasp, half a scream.

«No-it's-«Blade managed to grunt. Then he could not have spoken a word to save his life. The pain was in his head, the pain that told him the time had come to return to Home Dimension. It tore at him, roaring in a way he'd never felt before. He saw nothing, felt nothing except the pain.

It eased for a moment, long enough for him to see an open-mouthed and staring Haleen, already fading away. The tub was still solid around him, the water hot against his skin, the knife and belt still hooked solidly to the ornament.

He had a moment to be aware of these things. He had another moment to raise a hand in farewell to Haleen. Then the pain crashed down on him again, and he was aware of nothing else.