Warlords Of Gaikon

Chapter 15

Blade knocked lightly three times on the sliding wooden door. The signal would alert Lady Oyasa without carrying warning to any ears that might be listening. There weren't likely to be many in the half-deserted castle in any case. Maids and attendants and servants had been fleeing like frightened birds ever since the return from Deyun a week ago.

From the lady's point of view, that was fine. It made it safe and easy to hold her final rendezvous with Blade in the comfort of a castle chamber, rather than in the drafty but in the dark woods. The booby traps were disconnected, the eunuchs and maids had fled, and only Lady Musura was standing by.

The panic of Lord Tsekuin's household was a grim spectacle. To Blade the castle seemed like an old man, dying alone and deserted by all his friends. For years it had been a place of safety to those who served Lord Tsekuin. Now they fled as though a volcano was about to erupt underneath it.

Blade didn't blame them. Even some of the dabuni had fled into the mountains when word came that the Hungshu's army was approaching, ten thousand strong. They would occupy the castle and lands peacefully if possible. But they would fight if anyone was foolish enough to resist.

So far nobody had been that foolish. They fled or waited for the inevitable. Blade was left alone to prowl the empty halls of the castle, his footsteps echoing hollowly.

The three knocks were repeated from the far side of the door. Then it scraped open. Blade slipped through into darkness, but he heard breathing and a gentle laugh in that darkness. Then a yellow spark flared. An orange yellow glow wavered to life.

«Welcome, Blade. Welcome to our farewell.»

Lady Oyasa was already on her sleeping mat and curled up under the quilts. Only her head and bare shoulders were visible. Her black hair was unbound and flowed like a river of ink across the pillows. Blade felt desire rise in him as he looked at her lying there. Desire-and regret. She was right. This would be their farewell, however much longer he found himself staying in Gaikon. He barred the door behind him, laid his swords on the floor, threw off his cloak, and began undoing his sash.

Knowing this was their last time gave the lovemaking something new. Call it tenderness, call it-Blade really didn't care what they called it. He only knew that it was there. He also knew that because of it he went on and on, again and again, and it did the same for Lady Oyasa. She muffled her screams into whimpers and groans. But she gasped, sucked in air as though she were drowning, clawed at Blade's back and shoulders, bit his ears, locked her legs around him, writhed and heaved herself about like a madwoman.

How long they went on, Blade couldn't even guess. Time lost its meaning for both of them. But eventually they both reached the end of their strength. They lay quietly, in luxurious exhaustion, until their panting breath steadied and the sweat dried on their bare skins.

«Blade,» said Lady Oyasa. She ran a long-fingered hand across his chest. «You know I must spend tomorrow night with my husband.»

«Yes.» The morning of the day after tomorrow was fixed for Lord Tsekuin's suicide. «Custom demands it.»

«Yes, and I wish it also. In some ways my husband has been a fool. If he had not been a fool he would not be facing what he now faces. But he had some notions of honor and decency. He has asked my forgiveness for much that he has made me endure. I think that if he were not doomed, we»- She broke off. Blade sensed that she found «what might have been» too painful, and did not press her.

After another silence, she went on. «I think there are also a good many of my husband's dabuni who are willing to forgive his faults. But they will not forget the Hongshu's treachery, nor Lord Geron. Yezjaro is young, Doifuzan is old, but I think both have long memories.»

«I agree,» said Blade. He grinned. «They also both have a talent for keeping their mouths shut. I too suspect they have some plans of their own afoot. But I don't know any more about them than you do.»

Lady Oyasa shrugged. «Why should I? I am a woman, and Yezjaro at least suspects that my conduct has not been all that it should be. Besides, I will be returning to my family, and my sister is married to a man too high in the Hongshu's councils for comfort.

«You are a proven and mighty warrior, but you are a stranger in Gaikon. The Hongshu himself offers you a place in his service. In fact, he wishes you in his service so badly that he goes to great lengths to keep you from serving any other lord. Is it surprising that my husband's dabuni seem to think you may be tempted? To serve the Hongshu is-«

«They don't know me very well,» said Blade sharply. «Even if I owed Lord Tsekuin or his memory no loyalty at all, there is still common sense. I have served many lords in many lands, some stranger by far than Gaikon. If I had not learned to recognize a man too treacherous to follow safely, I would never have lived to reach Gaikon.»

«That would have been sad,» said Lady Oyasa with a smile. «For many people.» Her arms reached out for him again. Blade found that he had no trouble responding.

When the very last fit of passion had faded away, Lady Oyasa reached under her pillow and drew out a small lacquered metal box.

«This is for you, Blade. For all you have done, and for all you may yet do.»

Blade unlatched the box, pushed back the lid, and reached inside. Something wrapped in red silk lay there on a piece of fur. He unbound the silk, and stared.

A diamond lay there in the palm of his hand. A diamond of the finest gem quality, expertly cut and faceted into an oval, and at least six hundred carats. Blade tried to compute its value in home dimension terms, then realized he couldn't. No diamond that size had turned up in home dimension for many years. But he was obviously holding several million dollars at least in the palm of his hand.

«I thought of giving you something simply to make you remember me,» Lady Oyasa said. «But this is better. It will also stand between you and hunger if necessary.» Her lips softly caressed his.

Blade couldn't see any reason to try putting their farewell into words. Instead he rose silently, dressed and armed himself, and slipped out. The lamp went out behind him as he stepped through the doorway, and in the darkness he heard a faint sob. Then Lady Musura seemed to sprout from the floor at his side, sliding the door shut and leading him away down the silent halls.

Lord Tsekuin and Lady Oyasa spent the next night together. Blade spent the next night in the lowest cellars of the castle, carefully disguising the diamond. By the time he had finished the job, the diamond looked and smelled like something dredged up from a particularly filthy sewer. Blade then wrapped it in silk again and coated the silk with hot wax to keep the smell in and prying fingers out. Lady Oyasa had been right. The diamond could be his fortune. It could even more easily get him a slit throat if anyone knew he had it.

Morning came. Before the dew had dried on the sand of the courtyard the dabuni who were to witness Lord Tsekuin's death had assembled. Blade was among them. Yezjaro and Doifuzan might have their doubts about Blade's loyalty, but they would not give him the mortal insult of barring him from Lord Tsekuin's last ritual.

The sun rose above the roofs surrounding the courtyard. Lord Tsekuin appeared, dressed in white from head to foot, his feet bare and his head shaved and annointed with the oil of Kunkoi. The priestess followed him, and after the priestess came a servant, carrying a short sword with a particularly ornate hilt.

Lord Tsekuin knelt on a small square of black silk that contrasted sharply with the white sand spread across the courtyard. The priestess hobbled three times around him in a circle, intoning blessings to speed his spirit to the Sun Goddess as it deserved.

Then from opposite sides Doifuzan and the servant stepped forward. The servant handed Lord Tsekuin the short sword. Doifuzan drew his own sword and took a solid two-handed grip on it. A deathly silence fell on the courtyard.

Lord Tsekuin raised the short sword, then turned it in his hand until it was pointing at the right side of his stomach. His mouth hardened into a thin line. Then with a jerk of his arm he drove the point of the sword into himself.

His face twisted, but his hand locked on the sword, driving it in deeper. He coughed, and blood sprayed from his mouth, leaving spots on the sand and on his white clothing. Then he began to draw the sword across his stomach, leaving a gaping bloody slash.

As he finished carving the slash, Doifuzan stepped forward. The first dabuno's sword flashed in the sun, then whistled down in an arc. Lord Tsekuin's head leaped from his shoulders in a mighty fountaining spray of blood and fell to the sand with a dull whump. The headless body remained kneeling upright for a moment. Then it folded forward and lay motionless as the last few beats of the heart drove out the last of the blood. The smell of the blood rose thickly into the warm still air of the courtyard.

Doifuzan raised one hand. «It is finished, and our lord has done his duty to the Hongshu.»

Yezjaro stepped forward and also raised one hand. «Let us be mindful of our duty also.» Blade tried to catch the instructor's eyes, but the young man refused to meet Blade's gaze. He persistently looked away, until Blade finally gave up, turned away, and strode off toward the gate of the courtyard. No one followed him, spoke to him, or even looked at his departing back.