'It will be,' said Honcho, 'many minikronos before she dies. Would you have this happen, Blade?'
Blade wiped sweat from his face and stared at the creature. He was tense with rage and desperate, sick, with impotence. There was, at the moment, nothing he could do.
The picture faded away.
'That was only simlu,' said Honcho. 'Fore-simlu. An extrapolation of what will be, Blade, if you do not obey my orders. I have shown you. So it will be. I cannot, at the moment, force you to obey. The girl is my only weapon. Perhaps you do not care what happens to her and in that case I will have to find another way. Only you know that. But I must also know. What of it, Blade?'
Blade closed his eyes for a moment. He did not, actually, trust himself not to leap and grapple with the simlu. And make a fool of himself as he had before.
Sweat beaded his brow and formed saltily in the crevices of his body. He found himself praying to a Deity that was not Tharnian. To someone he had nearly forgotten. He prayed not for courage. He had that in plenty. He prayed for wisdom, patience, for cunning to match that of Honcho.
Blade looked at the neuter. He nodded. 'It must not happen to Zulekia. What do you want me to do?'
Honcho told him. Told him briefly and faded away. Blade lay brooding and staring at the now empty chamber. Beside him Isma stirred and began to awaken. Presently she looked over at Blade and reached to stroke his bearded cheek.
'What is it, Lord? You look troubled.'
'It is nothing,' he told her. 'I had a bad dream. Something you would not understand, since Tharnians do not dream.'
She moved over to nuzzle and kiss him. 'You are happy in Tharn, my Lord. With me?'
'I am happy,' Blade said miserably.
Isma began to stroke her breasts, a habit she had preparatory to coi. She leaned to kiss Blade again. 'I would have you, Lord, before we attend the feast later. Then we confer with old Sutha?'
For a moment she left off her warming-up exercises. 'We confer and confer, Lord, and nothing happens. What do you and Sutha plan to do about the Pethcines?'
Blade rolled away from her and off the bed. At the moment the thought of coi revolted him. He stalked out of the room, taking the big sword with him.
Over his shoulder he said, 'I go to see Sutha now. You are right. The Pethcine question must be settled at once. At once!'
But how? What? The dilemma lay within himself. Honcho was a monster. A cunning monster that struck directly at Blade's weakness, that had unerringly found the flaw in Blade. Had somehow known it from the first. Blade was human, not just homid, and Honcho knew that. He should not have known it, but he did.
And yet, as Blade made his way through a maze of tunnels and corridors to the computer room, where he would meet Sutha, he told himself that the problem was easily enough resolved. All he had to do was forget Zulekia. What was the girl to him, after all? A few minutes of pleasure...What else?
All he had to do was leave her to the torture and he was again ahead of Honcho in the deadly game they played.
Could he?
Chapter Twelve
By the time Blade met Sutha in the computer area he had made his decision. His motives were complex, even murky, but he understood enough about himself to know what he must do. And to acknowledge that he was not doing it for the girl's sake alone. Just how to achieve his ends he did not yet know, except that it was going to require a combination of guile and guts and there would be no margin for error.
He met Sutha and they went into the Sacred of Sacreds where they could have privacy. Blade sat on the brink of the Pool and stared down at the casket far below the unruffled surface.
'You must abort the Power at once,' he told Sutha. 'Honcho is ready to invade Tharn. I want him to do so. Immediately. I will prepare everything.'
The old neuter studied Blade for a moment. Sutha seemed preoccupied, full of his own thoughts.
He nodded. 'Yes. I think the time has come. You have seen Honcho? He sent his simlu?'
'He did. He threatened me, showed me what will happen to Zulekia if I do not obey.' Blade told Sutha what he had seen.
When he had finished Sutha said: 'And you? You agreed to his plan?'
Blade made a ball of his mighty right fist and slammed it down on the teksin ledge. The structure quivered. 'I did! I pretended to agree. I am to persuade you, as I am now doing, that the time has come to abort the Power and let Honcho in. Then, before we can return the Power and drop the magveils behind him and the Pethcines, trapping them, and send the Red Storms, I am to kill you, Sutha, and make Isma prisoner and turn the Power over to Honcho. He will then stand where you now stand, Sutha. He will be King of Neuters! It is a very good plan, from Honcho's viewpoint.'
Sutha stroked his pointed chin and nodded. 'It is. It is indeed. And Honcho promises that you will still rule as Mazda?'
'He does. I believe him in that. He will need a figurehead.'
'Just so.' The green eyes blinked. 'You will be exactly that. A puppet. Honcho will rule Tharn, and Honcho alone.'
'A disaster not to be thought of,' growled Blade.
