Return To Kaldak

That seemed to be the last soldier. Baliza was trying to think what she'd do if there were any more, when she heard wheels on the rug behind her. Then:

«Put your hands up and turn around-slowly.»

It was a strong voice, but with a note of old age. Baliza obeyed. She wasn't surprised to find herself looking at Feragga. The older woman was in her wheelchair, with one hand on its controls and the other holding a short, thick-barreled laser rifle.

Recognition was mutual. Feragga's eyes widened. «What in the name of everything unlawful-! Baliza! What are you doing in Doimar?»

Baliza didn't lower her hands but snapped out her reply. «To get you out of the city. And I don't think I've come a day too soon!»

Feragga looked up and down the hall, counting the bodies as if she was seeing them for the first time. Then she nodded: «No, I don't suppose you have. All right. I'll go.»

Baliza's jaw dropped. Even though every second counted, she'd still expected to spend some time arguing. She almost suspected a trick or a trap. Why should Feragga be so tame and ready to flee to her city's hereditary enemies?

Yet if Feragga was telling the truth, this was a gift of minutes which might save them all. Baliza decided not to question the gift. She knelt beside Kandro, who was unconscious and pale from loss of blood but still breathing.

Feragga looked on approvingly as Baliza bandaged her companion's wounds. «Your father would have done that,» she said. «He never abandoned friends. Your mother owes her life to that.»

«I know.»

«Nungor, my old war captain, was like that, too. It was a sad and un-Lawful thing, that he and Blade could not have met in a way that let them be friends. But life is that way, more often than not.»

Baliza had no attention to spare for life's tragedies. Instead, she hoisted Kandro over her shoulder and carried him out to the lifter. Then she returned for Feragga. The old woman's grip on her rifle was so loose that Baliza was tempted to grab it. She resisted the idea. Feragga obviously wasn't going to be taken alive, and in fact it was this determination which had kept her fighting long enough for Baliza and Kandro to arrive. Snatching her rifle would just make her angry, without helping a bit against other Doimari.

Baliza wheeled Feragga, rifle and all, down the hall and into the lifter. She was strapping the chair firmly in place when she heard lifter propellers and the crackle of laser fire outside. They seemed to be a long way off but getting rapidly closer.

Baliza looked out. A battered and dirty citizen's lifter was heading for them. A hundred yards behind was a Doimari soldiers' machine, with men firing lasers from both doors and windows. They'd already hit the lifter in front several times, but the propellers were still intact.

A moment later Baliza recognized the other two Intelligence people in the pilots' seats. A moment after that, a shot from their pursuers got home. One propeller disintegrated. Baliza saw one of the Intelligence men throw up his hands as flying metal drove into him.

«Here, girl. It's heavier.» Baliza turned at the words and took Feragga's rifle. It wouldn't do much good soon enough, but at least she owed it to the men and her own conscience to go down-

Her finger was on the trigger when the captured lifter suddenly swung around in a sharp turn. The turn took it directly into the path of the Doimari lifter. The captured lifter was moving slowly, but the Doimari lifter was speeding up as its pilot closed in for the kill. The impact as the two machines came together was enough to wreck both.

They bounced apart, spewing pieces and smoke, then began their long fall to the ground. Baliza didn't take her eyes off them until they both plunged through the roof of a building three streets away. Smoke boiled up, and she imagined she heard screams.

«Come on, girl,» said Feragga irritably. «You can't do anything for them. It's wasting their deaths not to use the time they gave you! It's Detcharn's men who were coming for me. If what's happening is what I thought might happen, he'll be too busy to send more until we're-«

Baliza cursed, then glared at Feragga. «Old woman, just exactly what did you think might happen? And I want an answer, or we don't move an inch off this roof!»

Faragga gri

«It's time you knew. Your father the Sky Master Blade has come back. He's probably stamping Detcharn and the rocket base into the ground right now.»

«My fa-ther?» It was a croak. She'd known it, but still she couldn't face hearing «Your father's come back» said like «The sun will rise tomorrow.»

«You probably know him as Voros,» Feragga went on. «But it's Blade all right. His Doimari daughter Moshra got it out of his mind. There's no doubt about it. «I–Lord's sake girl, what's gotten into you?»

Baliza shook herself like a wet dog. «Sorry. It's-going to take a little-for me to get used to it.»

«Then do it elsewhere. Right now, you stop standing there like you're seeing your first naked man, and get this skybarge moving. Otherwise your father's going to get a message about your glorious death, and a fine welcome-home present that'll be for him!»

Baliza said nothing, but she was at the controls in a moment. In another minute, the lifter was climbing swiftly into a temporarily empty sky.

Chapter 26

Far off on the horizon, Blade saw the towers of the city of Doimar. The sight actually made him breathe easier. They were now as close to the enemy's heart as they were going to get. They still hadn't met opposition or even suspicion.

Blade would have breathed still easier if there hadn't been quite so many lifters in the air. So far none of them were asking awkward questions, but if somebody did get suspicious, he could quickly call up strong reinforcements.

However, the Doimari would hardly sit quiet and twiddle their thumbs in the face of the raiders' victory. It was inevitable that they would be rushing around both on the ground and in the air, like ants from a kicked anthill. As long as they weren't any better organized, Blade thought he and his people had a reasonably good chance of getting out. They'd done their work, no matter what happened now, but Blade didn't like u

Ezarn had finished checking out the turret laser and pronounced it «tight and ready.» Now he sat cross-legged beside Cheeky, doing the same check on his captured Doimari laser. With both side doors open, Ezarn could fire out either one, and the laser was powerful enough to hurt a lifter.

Doimar and the bee-swarm of lifters over it sank below the horizon. The raiders were alone over countryside that was mostly farms, with patches of forest. Slowly the patches of forest grew larger, then grew together. In another few hours they would be outside the area which Doimar tried to control. They could go to ground in a forest which would hide them like a haystack hiding a needle, and wait until the hunt died down. Then they could swing far to the south and head for home. It would not be too different from the route Blade had used in escaping from Doimar with Kareena, except that they would be flying instead of using a hovercraft.

«Voros,» said Ezarn quietly. «We're being followed.»

Blade shifted position so that he could see out one of the side doors. Ezarn was right. A Doimari military lifter was overhauling them quickly. From its nose jutted the muzzle of a heavy laser. In a fixed mount, it wouldn't be as easy to aim as the one in Blade's turret, but it would be much more powerful. It could knock one of the raiders' lifters out of the sky with a single hit, or at least kill everyone aboard it.