She fell to her knees and would not look at him. He went to her and stood looking for a moment at that sleek head with its golden combs and piled dark hair. She wore her silver kirtle and red underpants and nothing else. She kept staring at the floor and he saw that she trembled. He took her arm and raised her. «What is this, Valli? Are you afraid of me?»

The huge dark eyes were filled with tears. «Yes, Blade. I fear. Everything has changed. I am but a harem woman and you are now a god. Everyone knows this. All speak of it.»

There were many advantages to being thought a god. Blade knew this and meant to take his measure of adulation and use it, but not with Valli. He meant to use her too, but not in that manner. The fact was, and he admitted it now, that he was a bit ambivalent about Valli.

He took her chin in his hands and forced her to look directly into his eyes. «Smile,» he commanded. «There, that is better. And I am no god, Valli. Never to you. We are friends, good friends, and I am much in your debt. And will be even more so, for I have a task for you, a favor to ask, and that is why I have sent for you. Did you have trouble leaving the harem?»

She shrugged and her bare breasts moved. Her nipples were taut and aroused. «None,» she whispered. «Ogier is a powerful man. He commanded and it was done. I do not think the Izmir will ever know.»

Blade nodded and smiled. He guided her to the bed and sat beside her. «That may be as well. But how does it go? What of your friend Stel? And how goes it with the guard Ramsus?»

Valli by now had regained her composure. She smoothed her hair and leaned ever so slightly against Blade, so that her breasts brushed his bare chest. She was now, Blade thought with a little sense of shock, ten years younger than he was and very lovely, and it was incredible that she had once played mother to him, that he had once suckled those well-formed breasts that he might live. Beneath the cloth his penis began to stir.

«I no longer lie with Ramsus,» Valli said. «It is not necessary now and I never liked him. He pursues me, but I keep to the harem and he cannot get at me. As for Stel, she is mad with jealousy and curses herself for a fool. She wishes now that she had been kind to the god who came as a babe. She regrets the reward that she would have had.»

«Reward,» said Blade. «Ah, yes. That. I promised you, Valli, did I not?»

She lowered her eyes and did not look at him. «I want no reward, Blade, other than what you promised. A child.»

«I remember, Valli. And it shall be arranged. But first I wish to talk of other things. To explain why I have sent for you and-«

Valli moved closer to him. Her voice firmed and she looked at him and there was determination in the dark, liquid eyes.

«Can we not talk later, Blade? Now you must understand-I want a child. Your child!»

By now Blade was fully tumescent and the cloth that covered him was bulging. Valli cast a glance downward and smiled. She put her hand on him gently.

«You see, Blade. You are ready. You desire me as I desire you. So am I to beg? You did promise, you know, and, though I doubted then, I do not doubt now. You are a god, no matter how you deny it, and the child I have will be the child of a god. Please, Blade. I implore you. Keep your promise.»

Blade was lost. Indeed, as he drew her to him and kissed her, he wondered if this had not been in his mind all along. He did have a task for Valli, but had it not been secondary? Had he not from the very first, even with his infantile penis, wanted this girl? For that was what she was-a girl. No mother to him now. Nothing of incest here. He realized then, as he and Valli rolled over on the bed, that he had not yet shaken the mores of Home Dimension completely. Like shackles, some habits of thought persisted. He would have to do better, get completely free, if he meant to survive in Zir.

Valli, as a harem woman, had been well schooled in all the arts of love. Even had Blade not known this he would soon have guessed that, ever since she had been old enough to understand, she had been learning the ways in which men are best pleased. Her kisses were sweet and her tongue made of honey. She soon took command and, gentle-voiced, bade Blade relax and let her minister to him. And in exciting him who needed little urging, she soon excited herself.

She laved his big body with her tongue and her fingers were agile and knowing. She directed where his hands should go and what they should do. She drew it out and out and out, to such excruciating length of ecstasy, that Blade sworled in passion and began to think he would go mad. Always, when making love, he sought to keep a portion of his mind cool and detached, but with Valli it did not work. She took complete charge of him, she consumed him, and when she mounted him at last and was panting toward climax, all sweet sweat-covered, it took all his willpower to force her over and take command as he liked to do. As he insisted he do. He went into a flurry of brutal last strokes, pounding and pounding away, and then he moaned as she screamed and they collapsed into exhaustion.

Valli was first to break the silence. She touched his face with her fingers and whispered, «Ah, Blade. Blade! That was a baby. I know it. I feel it. You spewed a fountain into me and of it will come a child. I thank you. I will have your child, and who is to say that he will not also be a god.»

It was some time before he could control his breathing well enough to speak. Then he said, «I hope so, Valli. If that is what you want.»

She clung to him. «It is what I want. And you will stay in Zir, Blade? You will not go away? You have power now and you will not let them kill this child as they did my first?»

Blade could not promise this and knew it-and yet he could not bring himself to hurt or worry her. So he lied.

«I will remain. I will protect your child, if indeed you have one.» He laughed and kissed her tenderly. «You are getting a little ahead of things, you know. Imagining. One time in bed does not always make a child and you cannot know-«

«I know,» Valli said firmly. «I know, Blade. I am sure. You do not understand such matters, even if you are a god.»

Blade laughed and gave it up. «All right. Have your way of it. Now we can talk of other matters-the real reason I sent for you.»

Valli lay with eyes closed and her arms outflung. She whispered. «What we have just done is reason enough for me. But speak on. I will do anything you ask, as you well know.»

Blade explained what had been in his mind for some time. He needed an intelligence network-a system of spies, to put it bluntly-and he thought to make a beginning with the harem women. Valli was to be in charge of collecting the information and bringing it to him. It was a bare beginning, a first step, but Blade must begin somewhere and at once.

Valli was intelligent. She grasped at once what he wanted.

«There is much loose talk in the harem,» she said. «The women talk to kill time and ward off boredom. But most of such talk would be worthless to your purpose, Blade. Rumors and gossip. How can they help?»

He acknowledged this but pointed out that it was worth wading through a pound of chaff to gain a Brain of truth. You never knew. His own experience in MI6, back in Home Dimension, had taught him that.

Blade donned a robe and came back to the bed. Valli had slipped back into her red underpants. «I am sure,» said Blade, «that your harem women have more to do with men than is generally known or admitted. This is bound to be so, Valli, and you need not be afraid to admit it. You will not be getting your friends in trouble. I wish this information for my own use only. I do not care a damn what harem women do or do not do. Their business is their own. And the Izmir will never hear anything from me.»

Valli smiled. «I am glad to hear that, Blade. I would betray my friends for you, I would do anything for you, but I am happy that it is not required. It is true that there is much intrigue in the harem-if the Izmir knew of it, many heads would be struck off. There are ways in which the women smuggle men in-guards and officers and even priests. There are even ways, and times, when the women leave the harem and spend nights with their lovers. Most of the guards are corrupt and can be bribed to make a false count. But I do not see-«