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Chapter 20
That was the first time Blade found himself making love to Princess Amadora. It wasn't the last. Over the next month or so the lady contrived half a dozen more occasions. They were all intended to look like accidents, but Blade wasn't fooled at all. The woman was testing him out as a lover. When she had done that she would start testing him out as a political ally. To replace Iscaros? Possibly. Certainly the count seemed more than usually worried about something, at the times Blade saw him.
Blade was very careful to play the naive, lustful barbarian, too blinded by Amadora's beauty and obvious passion for him to be suspicious of what she might have in mind. As long as he could do that, both he and Tera would be a good deal safer. If he could go on doing it long enough, he would probably learn a good deal of her plans.
And then what? It seemed to Blade that he had two choices. One was to act on his own, going straight to the Emperor. The other was to ally himself with Duke Pardes. Normally Blade wouldn't trust the eunuch as far as he could throw a war galley. But Pardes might consider anyone who helped him bring about Amadora's final downfall friendly, or at least valuable. He might also be willing to take Tera under his protection. Blade could not help thinking about what might happen to the girl after his return to Home Dimension. He knew he could not hope to stay in Karan much longer.
Amadora made her first move one night when the two of them were lying in her satin-sheeted bed, relaxing between two bouts of lovemaking. She traced circles on his stomach with one finger and murmured, «Blade, what would you say to always having me around to love like this?»
«I'd say you were joking. You are a Princess of the Blood. I am merely a newly promoted general, my origins honorable but obscure. Would the Imperial House swallow this?»
«The Imperial House has swallowed many such things in the past, Blade. Blood far stranger and less honorable than yours has flowed in the veins of those who sat on the Coral Throne.»
«Perhaps. But there is already a man who seems to care for you, and his origins are honorable and not at all obscure.»
«Care for me? Iscaros?» The princess gave a short, harsh, ugly laugh. It would have fooled ears less experienced than Blade's. «Care for me? He wants a sheath for his sword and thinks he can perhaps stab his way to power with it. That is all.» She bent over Blade until her hair flowed down across his face and her nipples brushed his chest. She was obviously ready again. Fortunately, so was Blade.
Things went on this way for quite a while. Autumn moved on toward winter and the warriors of Scador settled down in the occupied frontier land. They gorged on its crops, swilled down its wine, warmed their beds with its captured daughters and wives. Refugees from the frontier lands and from the Scadori raids farther into Karan crowded into the capital. They did not go hungry or homeless-Jores did his best to see to that. But their mood was ugly, and it grew uglier as they realized that the Emperor and his military advisers were holding back from anything that might free their homes and avenge their dead.
Amadora dropped only vague hints of what she had in mind. She was obviously being careful to say nothing that could serve as real evidence against her, just in case Blade did decide to carry tales to Pardes or the Emperor. Blade listened carefully, asked naive questions, and generally went on playing the lustful fool.
One thing was becoming more and more certain. Amadora was becoming dangerously fond of his company in bed. The danger there was not so much for him as for Tera. If the princess ever got the idea into her sleekly-groomed head that Tera was keeping Blade from doing his best-well, Blade did not like to think too much about what might happen.
Nothing did happen for a while. Amadora's lovemaking grew more and more furious and more and more demanding. At first Blade wondered if she was faking some or all of this lust, to test him. But it became more and' more obvious that she wasn't faking at all. She was being driven onward by a genuine, uncontrollable passion for Blade, beyond anything that mere political ambitions could have done.
Blade knew that could make her even more dangerous. A jealous woman could fly into rages that a merely ambitious one could never match. She could also watch more closely for any sign of his losing interest. If she found any, Tera would be in immediate, deadly danger.
Blade did what he could. He threw all his skill, experience, and endurance into keeping Amadora satisfied to the point of exhaustion. He also continued to post half a dozen picked guards around Tera's chambers. He would have liked to put Captain Zogades in charge of them, to ensure their loyalty and vigilance. But that would have gone beyond the limits permitted to even the most trusted generals. In the past, generals' bodyguards had turned too successfully against too many Emperors. If Blade pushed beyond the permitted limits, he would have open enemies besides Count Iscaros. Even Jores himself might start having suspicions of Blade's loyalty.
Blade tried to keep as much of all this as possible from Tera, but she was too intelligent to miss it all. She seemed quite unworried, though, and spent much of her time in the garden of their house, taking care of the flowers. After so many years on the grim bare plateau of Scador, she could not get enough of the colors and scents, particularly the roses. There weren't too many things in this Dimension that could always make Blade happy. But watching Tera moving like a woodland nymph among the flowers was one of them.
Even that reminded him of how sooner or later he would have to return to Home Dimension. When that happened, Tera would be not only vulnerable but grief-stricken. He couldn't do anything about the grief-she loved him too much. But he could try to do something about the vulnerability, and decided to go ahead on the matter. He arranged a confidential meeting with Baron Descares, Duke Pardes' scar-faced henchman and agent.
«Descares, there is my wife Tera.»
«There is.»
«I would have her protected, in case misfortune befalls me.»
Descares smiled. «What misfortune can befall one so young and strong and so much in the Emperor's favor?»
Blade felt more than usually impatient with this sort of verbal fencing. But he knew he would weaken his position by not playing along.
«Fevers can strike down anyone. Or I could fall from a horse, like your master, and break my neck instead of merely a few bones. Or-need I list all the misfortunes that the gods may send?»
«No, I think that is not needed.»
«Then you know that Tera may find herself alone. I would consider it valuable aid if I knew she would be protected in such a case.»
«Indeed, that would be valuable aid. But how can I give it?»
«Your master Duke Pardes can give it with great ease, with his power and wealth. Is that not so?»
«It is. But he seldom gives aid to those who ca
«In that he is wise. I would not do differently. But I do not see clearly how I could aid a man so powerful as Duke Pardes.»
«Perhaps not. But perhaps…» Descares let his voice trail off and fingered his scars for a moment. Then:
«You are in the confidence of Princess Amadora, are you not?»
That struck Blade as an almost ridiculously delicate way of putting it. But since there seemed to be no secrecy left in the affair, he saw no reason not to admit it.
«I am.»
«She occasionally speaks of her-ah, hopes-doesn't she?»
«She does.»
«Could you speak of them to me?»
«Perhaps I could. But it would be hard for me to do so, unless I was sure that the princess would not know of it.»
«My master's resources are, as you said, large. He can contrive to keep what he learns a secret. He can also contrive to keep even more secret the whereabouts of young women who have been entrusted to his protection.»