The Torian Pearls

Chapter 22

They headed for home under full sail in order to beat the approaching storm and succeeded with a few hours to spare. From a hilltop beside a sheltered cove, Blade watched the sea and sky both turn dark and twenty-foot waves churn against the shore.

That night Blade and Fudan sat in a hut lit by a flickering candle. Fudan squatted, opening the shellfish with his knife and carefully probing the dark flesh inside for the precious black pearls. Just as carefully Blade examined the salvaged Menel equipment.

Some of it was impossible to even identify. Much of it was impossible to study without a fully equipped laboratory. Frustrating, but inevitable. Blade saved the black book in its waterproof bag until the last.

It was indeed some sort of diary or log, with a map, photographs, and handwritten entries. At least Blade assumed they were handwritten. The «handwriting» of the Menel looked more like the marks made by a cockroach dipped in ink and sent crawling across the pages of the diary. After a moment Blade turned to the map and photographs.

It would have been hard to find the Menel's island base purely from the map-their cartographers did not work to human standards, and Blade was totally unable to guess the scale of the map. Fortunately the Hauri had seen the ship of the Menel fall out of the sky and knew where the island lay. With the map from the diary, it would be possible to land on the island and march straight to where the spaceship of the Menel lay hidden.

The crashed spaceship. The photographs made that clear. Judging from the size of the Menel standing beside it, the ship was at least five hundred feet long. It was also broken completely in two, with one end crushed into the ground as well. Blade counted forty-eight Menel in the group photograph. At least twenty of them were wearing what could have been bandages, and only twelve of them were carrying the long cylindrical beamers.

Perhaps the Menel had come to this world with a plan of conquest. Perhaps in the crushed part of the ship lay hundreds of dead Menel, a dozen more submarines and a dozen more flying machines, and an array of weapons that would have given them control of this Dimension in a few weeks. Certainly what they had now was this battered, poorly armed band of survivors of a devastating crash-a band which had in the past few weeks lost still more people and equipment to Blade's efforts and bad luck.

In spite of this disaster, they were trying to carry out their mission of extending the Menel empire. If they couldn't conquer this Dimension outright, perhaps they could do so by controlling some of the more formidable local wildlife? Some determined individual among the Menel must have asked that question. The result was the implanted bat-birds and sea reptiles.

Blade could not help wondering about the diary he held. Was it official and authorized, as a supplementary record of the Menel activities in this Dimension? Or had some Menel succumbed to the temptation to record privately what he and his comrades had done? Why had he succumbed, in that case? Out of loneliness, fear, despair, distrust of superiors who might not give him or someone close to him proper credit? Those were plausible motives for human beings in a situation like this, and ascribing those motives to the Menel made them seem much more human for a moment. It was also complete guesswork, and perhaps totally unjustified.

One thing was certain. The diary laid out for Blade to see all the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the Menel. Whoever had kept that diary and for whatever reasons had, quite by accident, done his comrades a great deal of harm. Fortunately for him, he was probably one of the crash victims and would therefore never know. Meanwhile, Richard Blade sat with the diary in his hands.

It was almost ludicrous, the way the Great Menel Menace had evaporated or at least shrunk down to its proper size. Instead of a horde of Menel ready to sweep human beings from the face of this world, there was a battered handful of survivors desperately trying to improvise some sort of campaign with what little equipment they still had. Blade found himself reluctantly admiring their courage and determination, although he didn't think much of their common sense. And a campaign of conquest was still a campaign of conquest, no matter how sloppy or ineffective it might be.

There was also no guarantee that the Menel wouldn't sooner find some more effective method of attack. They might even find human allies, the way they'd found the Ice Master in the land of the Ice Dragons.

So there was still no time to waste. The peoples of this Dimension would have to be united, as fast as possible and as thoroughly as possible without telling them exactly why they had to unite. A few of the wisest leaders could be trusted with that truth, but for the time being no one else.

He would also have to give this Dimension gunpowder as quickly as possible. Gunpowder weapons were still not equal to the beamers of the Menel, but they would be better than spears and arrows. With a hundred cannon or a thousand muskets to every beamer, the Menel would certainly have their claws full in any battle.

Blade realized that he was letting his thoughts run on ridiculously far ahead of his knowledge, and turned back to the photographs in the diary. One of the last ones showed an aerial view of a two-masted sailing ship, all sails set and close-hauled. The human figures on the deck showed that the ship was about a hundred feet long. Most of the figures wore seaman's trousers, boots, and caps. Several wore long coats of chain mail, with horned helmets on their heads and broadswords or axes slung from belts at their waists.

What drew Blade's eye particularly were the long cylinders of various sizes pointing outward on either side of the main deck and also at the bow and stern. On the main deck someone was about to shove a large sponge on the end of a long pole into the outboard end of one of the cylinders. They could hardly be anything but cannon-perhaps crude, but judging from their size, quite powerful.

So somebody in this Dimension already had gunpowder. Who and where were they? There was no clue to where this picture had been taken. The sailing ship might have been just beyond the range of the Hauri canoes, or it might have been half a world away.

In any case, it was absolutely necessary to search out these people. If they became allies and friends, it would give the other peoples of this Dimension gunpowder weapons many years sooner. If they became enemies-or even worse allies of the Menel-well, that had to be prevented somehow.

Blade suddenly realized that the candle had gone out and the hut was so dark he could barely make out the photographs in the book across his knees. Fudan was slumped over his pile of shellfish, sound asleep, his knife still in his hand.

Blade yawned, and realized that he also was ready for sleep. Certainly he could do nothing more against the Menel now, even if he stayed up all night.

The storm died by morning and Fudan put out to sea in his canoe, a small bag of black pearls slung at his waist. He wanted Blade to come with him, but Blade refused. He did not want to bring any of the Menel equipment to a Hauri village or a Kargoi camp at the moment.

«It is possible that the Menel have put in some of these little machines devices that give off signals-like smoke signals, but invisible. Such signals can be heard many days' sailing away. The Menel might follow the signals in another flying machine and destroy whatever and whoever they found. If they do that while I am here, I alone will die, not a whole village.»

Fudan sighed. «I could say that your wisdom is worth a whole village, and it would be true. But it would not change your mind, would it?»

Blade shook his head. «If I am killed, look for a boulder marked with a blue triangle on top of that hill to the east.» He pointed. «Under it I will put a written plan of how to fight the Menel. In that plan will be everything you will need to know to go on without me.»

«Should I tell anyone else of what we have seen and learned on this voyage?»

Blade was about to shake his head, but some note in Fudan's voice made him stop. «Are you thinking of anyone in particular?»

«Yes. The man you would have as High Baudz of the Kargoi, Paor. He has been asking many questions about what we have seen of the sea reptiles. I began to wonder if he suspects something about them.»

«But you didn't tell me, because I didn't ask?» said Blade, laughing.

«That is true. Then you wish me to tell him?»

«Yes. It is time that he learned. I trust him to keep silent until it is time to speak of this to other people.»

«Very good. Farewell, Blade, and do not stay here alone too long. Both the Hauri and the Kargoi have too great a need of you.»

Blade shook hands with Fudan and watched the chief go down to the shore and climb into his canoe. When Fudan's sail was out of sight, Blade returned to the hut and the study of his Menel souvenirs.

For all that he learned from them during the next four days, Blade might just as well have gone with Fudan. Even the photographs lost interest for him after looking at them twenty times. He was able to spend a day writing up his report and concealing it on the hill, but that was only one day, and he was determined to give the Menel at least a week. If they hadn't done anything to trace their missing gear by then, it would probably be safe for him to go home.

Blade was just lighting the candle on the fifth evening when someone knocked on the door of the hut. He blew out the candle, picked up his sword, and went to the door.

He needed no weapons for the visitor. It was Loya, dressed in her usual trousers, her staff in one hand and a bag of food slung over the other shoulder. She was barefoot and there were salt stains on her trousers and in her hair.

«Am I welcome, in spite of that?» she said, pointing at the sword. Her broad mouth curved into a mocking smile.

«Certainly.» Blade put down the sword and closed the door behind her. «Perhaps in return for my welcome you will tell me why you have come here?»

«Why does any woman come to a man she has chosen and who has accepted her-or so she has been told?» There was no mockery in the smile now. «It is not good for you to be alone so long.»

«It may not be good for you to be here,» said Blade. He hesitated. «The Sky People may come, and if they do ….»

«Yes, yes,» Loya said briskly, waving one hand to dismiss the matter. «Fudan has told me everything. I came anyway. Blade, there is nothing that can frighten me away from he who is to be my husband.»

«You seem to have tracked me down at last. Well then, huntress, come and claim your prey.» He stood up and held out both arms to her. Loya seemed to float into them without her feet touching the ground.

For some time Blade had wondered how Loya's long-limbed, finely muscled body would feel in his arms. Now he knew. She filled him with soaring excitement and at the same time tenderness. He was more to Loya than she could ever be to him, and nothing could be done about that in the long run. In the time they would have together, though, he would do anything possible to avoid hurting her or disappointing her.

Loya was tall enough so that he did not have to bend far to kiss her. He started on her forehead, brushed his lips down over both eyes and across the high-bridged nose, then brought his mouth against hers. He started gently but quickly sensed her demanding more and began to give it. Her tongue crept out between the even white teeth and he met it with his own. He felt a warm, deeply sensual welcome in that meeting of their tongues.

He would happily have let the kissing go on forever, but as his lips and Loya's met his hands were moving up and down her back and her hands were stroking the insides of his thighs. His hands slipped inside her trousers and drew her up against him, so that the swollen manhood under his loinguard was pressing upward between her thighs. Her hands crept upward across the broad chest, fingering the layers of muscle and the ridged scars. Then they darted down to yank aside the loinguard and suddenly close on the exposed flesh. Blade jerked as if he'd received an electric shock and stifled a gasp.

He could feel Loya's breath coming quickly now, her chest rising and falling, driving the solid curves of her breasts and the still more solid points of her nipples against him. He could feel her beginning to shiver, as if she were standing in a cold wind. He could feel that it was time for both of them.

It was agony to step apart even for a moment, but it was a short-lived agony and it made coming together again all the sweeter. Blade tore off his loinguard as Loya unlaced her trousers and pushed them down her long legs. She stepped forward, a perfect triangle of blue-black hair cradled between her thighs, rising on her toes as she came. Blade bent at the knees, so that they were perfectly positioned. Loya sank down, he rose up, and as he did he slid upward into the eagerly waiting warmth inside her.

Neither Loya nor Blade could have stayed apart a second longer. It would have made no difference to him if she'd weighed four hundred pounds-he still could have lifted her like a feather pillow, with the strength given by the overpowering desire in him.

He had no need to move, only to support Loya while she rose and fell and twisted as though all her limbs were suddenly made of elastic. She followed no pattern or rhythm, followed nothing except her own desire. Yet somehow what her desire demanded was exactly what would also perfectly satisfy Blade. It seemed to him that in the joining of their bodies they had also joined their minds, so they had only one consciousness between them.

Suddenly Loya seemed to spring upward, her arms locking hard around Blade's neck and her legs around his waist. All the breath went out of him under the pressure of those muscular limbs. A moment later all the breath went out of Loya as well, in a series of convulsive gasps. Her body arched forward and back, her head twisted from side to side and battered itself against Blade's shoulder. Then before she could be still it was Blade's back that arched like a tightly-drawn bow, and his arms and legs that gripped Loya as though his life would cease the moment he let her go. He did not gasp, for there was no breath left in his body. He stood until his body had found all its release and the room began to swim around him from the lack of oxygen. Slowly he sank to the floor, without releasing Loya, and her head sank forward onto his chest with a last moment of grace. Then they had no strength left to keep them from sprawling on the floor in a tangle of arms and legs and damp hair.

The strength to look at each other swiftly returned. The strength to sit up, laugh, talk, eat dried fish and seaweed from Loya's pack came a little later. It was hours before they found the strength or the desire to join again. The first loving had drained both of them so that for a time they were unable to even conceive of desire, let alone feel it.

That was something rare for Blade, and it meant that Loya was something equally rare among women. That was no surprise. He'd suspected it since they first met. Now that he could be certain, he could also hope that uniting the Hauri and the Kargoi might not be so difficult-if he had the time.