Guardians Of The Coral Throne

Princess Amadora promptly tried to improve at least the generals' mood by throwing one of her grand feasts, with Blade as guest of honor. She had a reputation as a hostess that went with her reputation as an ambitious politician. She seldom made up a guest list without an eye on what she might gain by it.

Blade was tempted to plead illness. But it would be a good opportunity to see one of his possible enemies in action on her home grounds. That would be useful. It would also probably a

They both went dressed to the height of fashion, Blade in silvered armor and wreaths and Tera in white silk and dripping jewels. Most of this splendor was paid for by an unexpected gift, from none other than the eunuch Duke Pardes. It arrived three days after Blade's return, a chest containing three thousand pieces of gold and a short note delicately inked on silk:

Blade,

It seems proper now to give you some portion of the money you earned for me. Spend it to increase your own splendor. I make no prophecies as to what shall be the relations between us, for I am not a god. At this moment I am not your enemy, either.

Pardes

Blade could think of no reason not to do as Pardes suggested.

Pardes might have declared at least a temporary peace with Blade. But Count Iscaros was even more openly hostile than before. Princess Amadora paid so much attention to Blade that the count spent most of the evening glowering at him. He practically never looked at the princess.

He was about the only man at the feast who didn't. Amadora was aware of every bit of her attractiveness to men, and dressed accordingly. This evening she wore a simple gown of alternating strips of red and white silk that flowed down from her olive-tinted bare shoulders to the floor. It covered her completely, but the silk was thin enough not to leave very much to the imagination. She heightened that particular effect by judiciously rouging her breasts and pubic area. Massive gold bracelets and a tiara of rubies shimmering in her black hair completed the outfit.

The feast went on and on, until Blade lost count of the courses, the wines, and the entertainment. He managed to stay sober, however. He was also extremely careful to taste every wine and every dish before letting Tera take a single sip or bite. Count Iscaros was obviously still more unhappy about seeing his former slave-girl as the wife of a new rival and seated at the same table with him. The few times he took his eyes off Blade, it was to glare at Tera. If looks could have killed, Tera would have been dead several times over before the feast ended.

But eventually it did end. Princess Amadora made the rounds of her departing guests, giving each man a farewell kiss. When she came to Blade, she seemed to flow up against his body, warm wet lips caressing his slowly and carefully. It was an open and unmistakable gesture of desire.

But with Princess Amadora lust, like hospitality, was usually mixed with politics. Blade knew he had not just received an invitation from a beautiful woman. He had also received his first invitation to enter someone else's intrigues.

Chapter 19

It was soon clear that Princess Amadora wasn't the only noblewoman of Karan interested in Blade.

«But I think many of them are less interested in pleasure than in power,» said Blade sourly one night, as he lay in bed with Tera. «I doubt if any of them know or care at all what kind of a person the Lord General Blade is. But I am sure they all care very much that he is a new and important military chief with the Emperor's ear. I suspect I could find out half of what is going on in Karan by going to bed with a few of them, if I wanted to.»

«Why should you not want to,» said Tera, somewhat surprised. «Many of them are not ugly, and it is in the hearts of men to find new women when they begin to grow tired of the old ones.»

Blade could not miss the unmistakable note of fear in Tera's voice. Here she was among the nobles of Karan, with beautiful women throwing themselves at her husband's feet. Why shouldn't she be afraid he would sooner or later drift away from her, leaving her alone and helpless, with neither position, family, nor defense against her enemies?

Blade firmly took her in his arms. «Tera, it is not in my heart to grow tired of you. The gods willing, I will come back to you from wherever I may go.» Except from Home Dimension, of course, and there was nothing he could do about that.

She stared at him, eyes wide. Once more he had done something she could hardly believe a man could do, by making this promise. «You will come back, even from Princess Amadora's bed?»

«Even from there, if I get there in the first place.»

Tera laughed, and the fear was gone from her voice as she spoke. «You will certainly not find that woman trying to keep you out. I think you might even be wise to go there. She is an enemy to both of us, I think. In her bed, you might learn much of what she is thinking.»

It was Blade's turn to laugh. «I might indeed. But what's got into you, Tera? Are you suddenly becoming fond of the games they play here in Karan?»

«I am fond of my own life and of yours,» said the girl flatly. «In Karan, I have come to see there are things one must do to live that are not needed in Scador.»

Scador was much on Blade's mind these days. With the Pass of Scador gaping open, the tribes were swarming down into the frontier lands of Karan, doing everything Blade had expected they would do. Thousands of farmers were driven from their homes, and scores of villages and small towns went up in flames. Improvised Scadori cavalry, mounted on captured horses, raided far and wide, sometimes reaching nearly halfway to Karanopolis itself. The Karani infantry tramped up and down the country, and the farmers themselves took up boar spears and hunting bows to defend their fields and families. But the tribesmen were here, there, and everywhere, as elusive and painful as a cloud of wasps.

It was soon clear that they were going to spend the winter in Karan. No invader of the Empire had done that in three hundred years. The Emperor called a special conference of his most trusted military advisers to discuss this crisis.

Once more Blade urged a bold course of action. They should do like the Scadori themselves. Every fighting man who could ride should climb on the back of any horse that would carry him, and all should ride to the Pass of Scador. Cut off from their homeland, the tribesmen might panic, retreat toward the pass, and be forced into a pitched battle. If they didn't retreat, a mounted force could burn their camps and defeat their roving bands one by one.

If Duke Pardes had been at the conference, he might have helped Blade. But the big eunuch was in bed at his country estate, injured in a fall from his horse. That was bad luck for everyone except Pardes' enemies and those generals who still couldn't make up their minds how to fight a war without the Guardians of the Coral Throne. Once more they banded together to vote down Blade, and once more Jores VII couldn't nerve himself to ignore their vote.

Blade was so furious that he was afraid he might burst out in a rage at the Emperor himself. To avoid that disaster, he left the Palace at once, stalking out into the windy darkness. Normally he would not have tried walking home, even in the Palace Quarter. But tonight he didn't care. He felt he would almost welcome a chance to fight off a few robbers, to work off his rage and frustration. Any robbers who met him in his present mood would regret it, if they lived long enough.

He was more than halfway home when a carriage with four horses and two outriders overtook him. As he stepped aside to let it pass, a woman stuck her head out the window and hailed him.