The Ruins Of Kaldac

Blade! The mere thought of his name nauseated her. She would have vomited if there'd been anything in her stomach. She hated him more than any of the Doimari guards who'd made her their plaything for the past weeks. They were hardly more than animals. Blade knew what he was doing.

A sharp pain in her leg made her bite her ragged lips and lean against the wall of the cell for a moment. She could stand and even walk slowly, but not much more. The leg would probably never be completely right again. Once the thought of spending the rest of her life walking with a limp would have been agony. That time now seemed long ago, in the life of a person other than the Kareena who now stood naked in a filthy cellar in Doimar.

More guards were coming now, bringing one of those metal chairs they used to carry her. She started walking over to it herself. She would not give them any excuse to manhandle her, not when the bruises from the last beating hadn't healed yet, and she would certainly be getting fresh ones when she got to wherever they were taking her. That had been the rule-a beating every time she was moved. At least they hadn't used the iron-tipped Initiation whip. She'd seen what that did and knew it might have broken her.

The guards lifted the chair and trotted down the hall, then turned right and stopped before a tall metal door. To Kareena's surprise it slid open, revealing one of the elevators. Where was she going, that they were taking her there by elevator? As far as she knew, the elevators only worked in Feragga's tower and one or two others in all of Doimar.

The elevator lurched upward, creaking and hissing, for quite a while. When the door opened again Kareena saw the guards outside wore Feragga's house badge. She was in the bitch-chief's tower. Then she saw something which drove all thoughts of Feragga out of her mind.

Blade was standing behind the guards, arms crossed on his massive chest. He looked as she'd expected him to look-clean, well-fed, self-satisfied, and as arrogant as if he ruled here instead of Feragga. Then he started giving orders, as if he took it for granted that he'd be obeyed.

«Bring hot water and soap and give Kareena a bath. Clean her wounds, rub her with oil, and give her a meal with some meat in it.»

«And the chain, Blade?» asked the chief of the guards carrying the chair.

«To be sure, the chain. But make it a long one, and wrap the leg iron in cloth. She'll have a lot of work to do, so I want her to be able to move about the rooms.»

«As you command, Blade.»

In front of Blade, Kareena was suddenly self-conscious about her nakedness for the first time since reaching Doimar. She wanted to cover her face or her breasts with her hands. Instead she forced herself to raise her head and stare hard at him. For a moment he stared back, then he looked sharply away.

She knew that he hadn't looked away because he was ashamed: clearly he felt nothing for her. He'd only ordered the bath and the meal because he didn't want a filthy, starved scarecrow of a slave in his comfortable rooms. Angrily she told her stomach to stop rumbling at the thought of meat, the first she would be tasting since she reached Doimar.

Perhaps Blade felt guilty over betraying Kaldak. He certainly should, by the Lords of the Law! But that wouldn't save him, either. If she was on a long chain, she would have a chance to explore his rooms when he wasn't around. There should be something she could hide, then use as a weapon at the right time.

The time would surely come. He'd want to bed her, if only to humiliate her. He'd be lost in rut then, and she would still be clear and cool in her mind and body. She'd be able to pick her moment, then strike to avenge her own honor and that of her city.

Perhaps she could kill that piece of dung Blade outright.

If she could do that, she wouldn't care what they did to her afterward. She could certainly take his eyes or his manhood or perhaps both. After that she might have the chance to end her own life.

She'd thought sometimes of doing that in the prison. She'd even had opportunities. Now she knew that nothing would make her turn against herself before she tried to strike at Blade. Now she knew she might not die dishonored and degraded but in a way worthy of Peython's daughter and a warrior of Kaldak. She could almost feel grateful to Blade, that his death or mutilation would give her back her own honor.

Chapter 18

Rehna fell asleep soon after reaching her climax. Blade waited until her even breathing told him she was dead to the world, then cautiously shifted his position to look at Kareena. She lay on her pallet by the window, her knees drawn almost up to her breasts and her hair streaming across the pillow. Sometimes she whimpered or twitched in the grip of nightmares. She'd kicked off the blankets and the moonlight silvered her body, giving it back some of the beauty she'd lost during her captivity.

You'll have it all back, Kareena. All of it, or you'll be past suffering. He wished he could have spared her the final degradation of being here while he made love to Rehna, but Feragga had been insistent that Blade's stud service begin on schedule. The thought made him turn back to Rehna.

Now there was a smile on her small face. Blade was glad he'd been able to make her the first woman he took to his bed «officially.» He hoped she would conceive by him, and not just because he knew that would make her even happier. Carrying his child would also help protect her from Feragga's or Nungor's anger after his escape.

Meanwhile, there were a few other things he could do to protect her. Quietly he sought her carotid artery and applied pressure with his thumbs. In a few moments Rehna was not just asleep but unconscious. Blade made sure she was still breathing, then slipped out of bed and started pulling on his clothes. At intervals he spared a look for Kareena. She was still asleep, but now she'd stretched out on her back, one hand under her head and the other out of sight under the pillow.

At last Blade was fully dressed and armed. He was wearing the loinguard once again, the Seekers having returned it to him that morning after determining it had no secret powers. The two maps of Kaldak were snugly hidden away in different pockets. He walked over to the head of Kareena's pallet, bent down, and whispered.

«Kareena, wake up. We're going to escape.»

Only Blade's quick reflexes saved him from death or at least from losing an eye. Kareena's hand came out from under the pillow like a striking rattlesnake, and there was a long sharp piece of wire in it. The end of the wire struck where Blade's throat would have been if he hadn't already been moving. She struck again, opening a gash in his forehead just above his left eye, then he chopped down on her wrist so hard that her fingers went limp and the wire dropped to the floor.

«Kareena, stop it! We're escaping, I said!» He'd half-expected this, but nothing had prepared him for the sheer ugliness of Kareena's expression. She looked like a madwoman, and the nails of her usable hand clawed at his face. He felt more blood flow, saw her open her mouth to scream, and knew there was only one thing to do. He clamped one hand over her mouth, gritted his teeth as she bit it to the bone, then applied the same pressure he'd used on Rehna. After an impossibly long time she went limp and those mad eyes closed.

Kareena's being a dead weight was going to slow him down at a time when every moment counted, but the idea of leaving her behind never occurred to Blade. They were both going to be out of Doimar tonight, either dead or alive. Blade picked up Rehna's clothing and pulled it onto Kareena as well as he could. It was a poor fit, since Kareena was a good deal taller than the Seeker. It still made Kareena look enough like a Seeker to fool anyone who didn't look too closely or saw her in poor light. Since the halls of Feragga's tower were hardly lit at night and the guards were usually half-asleep, Blade thought there was a chance.