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Blade had to agree. He thought particularly of the memory of Tressana's gruesome death. He didn't like to think about it, even though he supposed it could be called a rough justice-Tressana killed by the husband whose mind she'd destroyed. He nodded, and dropped the jewels into his pack on top of the amulets, the dried meat, and the wire garrote. «I don't know how soon I'll be able to visit you in Jaghd. If I set a foot out of Elstan before I've got Chaia with child, Haima will probably not only find another husband for her daughter but geld me as well.»
Jollya looked very serious. «That would be a disaster.» Daimarz carefully looked everywhere but at Jollya.
«Come on, Lorma,» said Blade. The cat stood up, rubbed against Jollya one final time, then leaped into her riding position behind Blade. Blade pulled his rolgha around and trotted off toward the front of the herd. The last thing he saw as he looked back was Daimarz slipping his good arm around Jollya's waist. He was too short to reach her shoulders comfortably.
The thunderstorm broke an hour after the herd set out. Blade was certain by then that more Jaghdi riders would be needed to get the animals safely to Elstan. The rolgha stallions and the bulls were being particularly troublesome. If there'd been more of them the herd might already have been disintegrating. Blade hoped it wouldn't take a stampede to convince the Elstani they needed more help.
The first flash of lightning and thunderclap broke over the herd like an artillery shell. Blade heard bellowings, neighings, and furiously blown herdsman's horns. He put the spurs to his rolgha, cutting toward the front of the herd and shouting for the Jaghdi riders as he went. He'd have to get all of them in front of the herd and try to head off a possible stampede, while the Elstani kept clear. The men on foot couldn't possibly survive around the herd, while even the mounted ones couldn't be trusted to handle their frantic rolghas except under ideal conditions.
The second flash and thunderclap sent a ripple of fear through the whole herd. Blade was out in front when the third explosion turned the ripple into a full-scale stampede. Then the dark skies started pouring down rain so that in a single moment the visibility shrank from five hundred yards to fifty feet. In another moment the ground underfoot was slick with the rain, and as Blade turned his rolgha, the animal bucked and kicked and went down.
He and Lorma fell clear, but before he could get up his rolgha lurched to its feet and galloped off. Blade stood up, aware of pains in his right wrist and head, and shouted to Lorma.
«Run! Get out of here! Go, Lorma, go!»
She didn't move. Instead she crouched facing the oncoming herd, mouth open, her snarl inaudible over the rain, the thunder, and the swelling rumble of thousands of hooves. She was going to stay and die with him.
Blade knew he had only one chance. If he could run fast enough to keep ahead of the herd, the stampede might die down or break up before the main body of animals caught up with him. He turned, and as he took his first step he felt a pain in his head like a spike being driven into his forehead. He staggered, stayed on his feet, knew that he'd never be able to run with a head injury like this-then recognized the pain for what it was.
The computer was reaching out from England, calling him back to Home Dimension. He went to his knees as the pain increased, and groped blindly until his hand fell on Lorma's collar. She growled, recognizing something wrong with his touch, but he gripped the leather tightly. Through the rain he could see the approaching herd, but the animals now seemed to be ru
Then even the rain was blotted out, as the pain clamped down on Blade like a dog's jaws on a rat. He knew he was falling to the ground, he thought he was falling through it, then he couldn't even guess what was happening to him except for his deathlike grip on Lorma's collar.
Chapter 25
Blade came home from Dimension X with Lorma, the Queen's Jewels of Jaghd, a dozen amulets, and a bad cold. The first three were highly interesting to Lord Leighton and the other scientists of the Project. The last was interesting only to Blade himself, after the doctors established that the cold came from a purely Home Dimension kind of virus and not some exotic bug from worlds beyond.
It was a
«Ah, Richard. How are you feeling?»
«I could be feeling quite a bit better.»
«No doubt. The report on the amulets and the jewels has come through. I'm afraid the synthetic scent is of no particular interest. We can't even use it as a garden weed killer. All it's good for is what the Jaghdi intended-paralyzing killer plants. Lord Leighton says it's a pity you couldn't bring back one of the plants, or at least some seeds-«
«If I brought back everything Lord Leighton wanted to study each trip, I'd need a lorry.»
«No need to be testy, Richard.»
«Sorry, sir. But Lord Leighton's 'might have beens' are a trifle a
«True. He's happy enough about the jewels to forgive quite a lot, though. They're rather exceptional, both chemically and optically. They'll intensify a beam of light ten times better than anything we know now, and remain stable much longer.»
«So they'd be ideal for lasers?»
«Yes. Not heavy ones, perhaps, but the smaller industrial or surgical types-it would mean a whole new generation of them.»
«If we establish trade with Elstan.»
«I notice you didn't say when, Richard.»
«No. But then neither does Lord Leighton, even after the wire traveled both ways without any harm.» Blade then remembered something else. «What have you learned about Lorma?»
«Nothing one way or the other. It's true that this is the most intelligent animal you've ever brought back with you from another Dimension. At least it's housebroken.» J laughed as he remembered the clean-up job they had had after Blade returned with the Golden Steed from Pendar.
Blade was in no mood to laugh. «But we still don't know if teleportation between Dimensions is any closer?»
«Well, we have the wire, which traveled both ways without any harm. And we have an intelligent, though not human, creature, which also made the trip safely. Maybe we are closer.»
«How is Lorma doing?» Blade suddenly thought to ask.
«The vet is getting worried. She won't eat.»
«Tell him to try leaving her alone for a few days. I wouldn't eat either if that hairy nuisance was trying to make me.»
J chuckled. «I'll do that. And I hope you're right. I'd rather like to see the man confounded too. Good night, Richard.»
«Good night, sir.»
Blade poured himself some more Scotch and lay back on the sofa. What would they find in the Dimension of the killer plants if they found a way to go back there in a few years? He didn't think there was much to worry about with the Elstani, and even the Jaghdi might have put their house in order if Sikkurad stayed on the throne.
He probably would. The Keeper would use ten words where two would do as well as long as he lived, but in those ten words he'd talk sense. Sooner rather than later, the Jaghdi would recognize it. After Tressana's death and their defeat in the war, the Jaghdi would probably be much more concerned about a civil war than an unwarlike man on the throne. They'd be willing to accept the devil himself, and Sikkurad was a long way ahead of the devil. If Tressana hadn't made them too afraid of queens, they might even be willing to accept Jollya as her father's successor, and then…