the Khad was a greedy man. He was grateful for all he had learned in his three weeks behind the wall.
'The Emperor Mei Saka is dead, eaten by carrion apes and his bones forgotten. It is true that I come from Pukka, sent as special envoy by the High Emperor of all the Caths, to replace the Low Emperor, Mei Saka, and find out why you Mongs cannot be defeated. They are very impatient in Pukka and do not understand why this fighting must go on year after year.'
Morpho grinned and watched Blade with alert dark eyes in which there was no belief. But he nodded and said, 'As you say it, Sir Blade. I will tell' Sadda all these things.'
The dwarf's eyes roamed up and down Blade's powerful frame. 'I will also tell her what she most wants to know - that you will make a magnificent slave in more ways than one. It may be that she will save you from the Khad yet.'
Blade was getting out of his depth again. 'How can Sadda save me, little man? Our spies reported that she was a prisoner and was to be bound and turned over to me if I won. How can Sadda do anything for me? Or for herself? There must be much hate between the Khad and she.'
'Hate?' Morpho's head nodded vigorously. 'There is. There was. There will be. Yet they are still brother and sister and, until one of them is dead, they must rule the Mongs together. Each has his faction and the spies are thicker than flies on pony dung. They quarrel constantly and makeup constantly. Each always on guard against the other. And now that you have lost, after having won and thrown the victory away, the Khad has released Sadda from her tent and they are friends again and tonight that will be celebrated. You will be judged and disposed of, Sir Blade. That is why I am here on Sadda's errand - to see if you are worth saving as a slave.
'She is subtle, is Sadda, and knows that for just now she has the. advantage over the Khad. He would have handed her over to the Caths, I think, if things had gone otherwise today. So he would have been rid of her and no real blame to him. But things did not go otherwise, because you are something of a arrogant fool, Sir Blade, if a brave one, and now the Khad must put a good face on it. Sadda knows this. She knows that if she asks him for something soon, before his temper changes, that she is likely to get it.'
Blade nodded. 'And she will ask him for me? As a slave?'
Morpho turned one of his amazing flips and stared at Blade, his mouth grotesque in the wavering light of the lamp.
'If you are fortunate she will, Sir Blade. If not you will die at dawn on the plain before the wall. Plans are made. All the Caths to be summoned to watch. A parley in which the Khad will ask once again for the giant cannon. Which, of course, the Caths will not part with. Not even for you.'
Blade had to agree. They would not part with the great cannon. Lali would be distressed, but Lali would have to let him die on the plain.
'The Khad,' said Morpho, watching Blade's face closely, 'has planned a special death for you. Would you know of it?'
Blade shrugged. 'Why not? Words do not hurt me.' He was suddenly aware that this was some sort of test and had nothing to do with Sadda or the dwarf's errand. Morpho was trying to find out something for himself.
'You will be tied to a stake and your guts cut out,' said Morpho. 'Then you will be strangled. You see what a genius the Khad is?'
No mistaking the hate and scorn in those last words. Blade knew that if he had not found a friend he had at least found an enemy of the Khad. It was not much, yet more than he had had a few minutes before.
A vast shiny black face poked itself into the tent. Blade stared in surprise. He had not known there was anyone on guard outside.
The black wore a tall peaked turban and a colored sash wound about his loins. He waved a heavy sword at the dwarf in a peculiar motion. Morpho signed back and the black disappeared. Blade blinked and watched the tent entrance. Had he really seen it? Or had a genie swirled like dark smoke in and out of the tent?
Morpho saw his expression and chuckled. 'Eunuchs. Sadda's men. The Khad gave leave that they might guard you, instead of his own men, which is a reason to believe that you may live a time yet, Sir Blade. But that will be as the black sands write it. And my time is up.'
He turned a double back flip back toward the entrance. 'I will do my best for you, Sir Blade. I promise nothing. But I will extol your virtues as a slave. You understand me, Sir Blade?'
Blade nodded sourly. 'If what I have heard of Sadda is true I understand you. You mean bed slave?'
The mouth moved in the bad light. 'That is what I mean. Now I go, after one last warning. Do not show fear. Be bold, but not too bold. I would have you live, Sir Blade.'
The dwarf was gone.
Soon afterward they came for him. The blacks first, three of them with flaring torches, and he saw why Morpho had not feared their eavesdropping. They made throaty animal sounds. Their tongues had been torn out and he guessed they had also been deafened by the way they stared and motioned with the thick-bladed swords.
The larger of the blacks hauled Blade to his feet and examined his chains. They threw a twist of cloth at him and signed that he wrap it around him. His chains were enormously heavy and cumbersome, and Blade had barely completed the task when the tent entrance parted and a warrior came in. He approached Blade and gave him a fierce stare.
'I am Rahstum,' he announced proudly. 'Chief Captain of all the Mongs and high servant to Khad Tambur, Scourge of the World and Shaker of the Universe. You are wanted in audience, stranger, by the Khad and his sister, the Most Magnificent Sadda. Are you ready, stranger?'
Blade did not doubt that he was of high rank. His leather armor was new and burnished to a high luster and there was a silver chain about his neck. From each of his shoulders dangled a horsetail. His high peaked cap was worked with silver. He was taller than any Mong Blade had seen before, and his eyes were a piercing light gray instead of the usual dark brown and did not have the Mong slant about them. They stared at Blade now, above a thick sprouting beard, with a mingle of curiosity and contempt.
It was time, Blade thought, to assert himself a bit. It could do no harm. He glared back at the splendid Captain.
'You will not call me stranger,' he said coldly. 'I am Sir Blade, come from Pukka, great city of all the Caths, and
