«Yes.»

Blade rose and followed Sikkurad into the library. Inside he sat down on a leather-covered bench, while the Keeper pulled a heavily-padded inner door into place behind the main one.

«No one can hear us now. I trust my guards in most things, but I will not trust even them in this matter.»

«Very wise.»

Sikkurad frowned. «Blade, do you think the queen wants you in her bed?»

Blade had to assume that this pointless question was meant seriously, but found it hard not to laugh. «I'd wager my manhood on it.»

«You may be wagering your life.»

«Perhaps. But I've wagered it before without losing it.»

«Not against Tressana of Jaghd. For a woman she is something terrible. She frightens even Keepers who have fought in war.» Sikkurad pulled at his hair in a distracted manner.

This time Blade had to fight down anger. If he had to sit here until Sikkurad got his nerves under control and started making sense, they'd be here all night. He stood up.

«Sikkurad, do you remember what I said in the prison? I do not like long talks that go nowhere. You seem to want to tell me something of great importance about Queen Tressana. Something where my life may even be at stake. But so far you have told me nothing. Now tell me quickly, or I am going to go and take my bath.»

«You would not get past my guards.»

Blake tried to bluff. «Perhaps not, unless I took you a prisoner.»

Sikkurad swallowed but shook his head. «That would not save you or stop them, even if I died. And if I died, how would you learn what I am about to tell you? Without learning it, how could you help our people? Blade, I think you will not let a chance to do much good pass simply because you do not like the way I talk. You are skilled in war, but you will work for peace as well.»

Blade sat down, smiling. He'd expected his bluff to fail, but not quite so thoroughly. Sikkurad's courage might be well hidden under all the roundabout talk, but it was definitely there. So was an exceptionally keen eye for other men's strengths and weaknesses. Blade would have been happy to see Sikkurad's words-«you are skilled in war, but you will work for peace as well»- carved on his tombstone, in this or any other Dimension. He decided to listen to the man no matter how long-winded he was.

«I will work for peace when I can. But right now it seems that Jaghd is preparing for war against Elstan.»

Sikkurad started. «You know? Who told you?»

Blade explained how he'd listened to the rumors, and gradually the Keeper relaxed. Then he sighed, and began talking in short, jerky sentences. «You're right. Tressana's war is coming. How soon, we do not know. Not too soon, because she has asked you to the palace. It will need time, time for her to learn your ways, deal with Curim, have her guards accept you. Jollya would be happy to see you leading the men.»

«No doubt,» Blade murmured politely. This would all make sense if he listened long enough.

«We must let you go. Now. So you must learn all you need to know here, today. We don't have the rest of the month. Tressana will be suspicious if we take it.» «We?» Sikkurad charged on as if he were deaf. «You must learn how Tressana will deal with Elstan. Everything depends on that. If she will join their strength with ours, well and good. If not, something must be done.»

«About what?»

«Tressana's war, of course.»

«Why the hurry?» It began to sound as if Blade was to spy on the queen. If that was so he wasn't going to refuse completely, but he'd be damned if he'd let Sikkurad hustle him! Trying to do intelligence work in a hurry was usually unsuccessful and sometimes disastrous. «The Adrim won't be navigable again for months, and if you're going through the mountains-«

«Oh, we won't be doing either. We're going through the forest of Binaark. «

Blade ran the incredible words back and forth through his mind several times. After a moment he decided to believe in the simplest explanation: Sikkurad had said it and meant it.

«How?»

Sikkurad pulled down a scroll from a pigeonhole in one of the cabinets, unrolled it on his desk, weighted down both ends, and motioned Blade to join him. Blade saw that the scroll was a map. Then Sikkurad began to speak. After listening for a few minutes, Blade understood a good deal more about the history of this Dimension. He even understood how the army of Jaghd was planning to march through the forest of Binaark.

As Blade suspected, this Dimension had once been devastated by war. Nuclear weapons, chemicals, and bacteria had all been used freely, and not just once but several times over the course of a century. In Jaghd this was called the Time of the Burning. In Elstan it was called the Time of the Dead. Among the barbarian tribes to the west of Jaghd it was called the Time when the Gods Slept.

«No doubt there are other lands where it is called other things,» said Sikkurad. «The world before the Burning was much larger than it is now. But we know nothing of those lands and the men who may have survived elsewhere. Indeed, until Tressana came to rule Jaghd, only the Keepers did not fear to learn about the people of other lands.»

Blade nodded. The idea that a stranger must be an enemy runs deep in most people. If the people are the survivors of a nuclear war the fear runs even deeper than usual. If Tressana had done anything to fight that fear, she had done at least one good thing for her people.

How long ago the Time of the Burning was, no one could be sure. No way of accurately dating it was known, even to the Keepers. Certainly much of the damage from the war had disappeared, but not all. Wide stretches of land were still blighted, particularly in Elstan. Strange and sometimes terrible mutations were not unknown among men and animals, and quite common among plants.

«The killer plants of the forest of Binaark were one of those mutations?»

«Yes. They grew quickly after the Burning, and bred true.»

Blade also learned from the keeper that by the time the survivors on either side of the forest recovered from the burning, the killer plants stood between them. The mountains were completely inaccessible half the year and impassable for trading purposes the rest of the time. The Adrim could carry any amount of trade, but only for two months out of the year. Slowly but surely, the survivors to the east and west of the forest became two separate peoples.

On their plains, the Jaghdi became stockbreeders and farmers, with rich fields and herds. In their mountains, the Elstani became miners and metalworkers. Among both, there were men with the duty of passing down what knowledge had survived from before the Burning and, if possible, recovering what had been lost. The Jaghdi called these men the Keepers; the Elstani called them Masters.

In Jaghd the Keepers were experts in the biological sciences, including stockbreeding, plant grafting, medicine, and organic chemistry. They were also skilled builders in stone and wood. In Elstan the Masters knew just about everything there was to know about mining and metalworking.

In both lands the knowledge was very much rule-of-thumb-neither the Keepers nor the Masters had rediscovered the scientific method nor the advanced technology of their predecessors. That didn't mean their knowledge couldn't be taken seriously. Blade knew that the Roman Empire had worked rather well for several centuries with out anything resembling the scientific method or modern-day technology.

The generations went by and turned into centuries. The trade between the Jaghdi and the Elstani became essential to both, although each tried to get the best of the bargain. The Jaghdi sold the Elstani only sterile animals if possible; the Elstani preferred not to sell the Jaghdi finished metal weapons. Both understood that as long as Binaark and its killer plants stood between them, neither could do much to change the situation.