Valli sat up. She took his hand and pressed it to her breast and stared hard at him. «I understand nothing. But I am no longer afraid. I must believe what my eyes and ears tell me, and if you say such things are possible I must believe.»

«Then hold me,» said Blade, «and this time do not rock me or croon to me, but listen and answer my questions.»

Valli picked him up and carried him to a divan and, as she had been wont to do, nuzzled him to her bare breasts. Blade found this not unpleasant, though he had no desire for her teat now. He was beyond the need of milk. He could have devoured a raw steak.

Valli held him away from her and stared into his eyes for a long time. At last she sighed and said, «I begin to believe I do not dream. Your eyes are those of a man.»

In that moment he sensed the change in her. Her smile was somehow different and her eyes narrowed and the look that came over her lovely face could only be called sly. With a little shock he remembered that she was probably not yet twenty-this was really only a girl.

Valli said, «You made a promise to me just now. That if you live and your schemes prosper I could have anything I asked?»

«I did that.»

She pressed his face against her smooth warm breasts. «Could I have a child, do you think? A real baby of my very own?»

Blade's thoughts were elsewhere. A strange thing was happening to him. But he nodded and said, «Of course. If that is your wish. As soon as I have the power of Zir you may have as many children as you desire.»

He was naked, as usual, and he looked down at his tiny baby penis and saw it in an erectile state. Odd, because he was not really in a state of sexual excitement. Yet there it was. He put it down to automatic function, the contact of flesh on flesh, and tried to forget it. It would be a long time before he was the old Blade and ready for sex.

Valli cradled him to her again and began to rock him.

«Stop that,» said Blade snappishly, «or you will have me asleep. We must talk and plan, Valli. It will take the whole of the night.»

«I am sorry-but what shall I call you now? You who are a baby who is not a baby?»

«My name is Blade. You will call me that.»

«Blade- Blade-what does it mean?»

Blade sat up on her lap and scowled at her. «That is no matter. You must not be stupid, Valli. You must answer questions and do as you are told. And call me Blade. Just that.»

Her luminous dark eyes devoured him. Her gaze made him uneasy. In it he read doubt and fear and love and desire, even awe, and at the moment these things did not please him. He wished that Valli were brainier, cooler, more like a man than a woman, but wishing was vain and stupid and he must make do. She was all he had.

Valli seemed to sense his disapproval. She hooded her eyes and said, «I will do as you say, Blade. What do you wish to know?»

«Everything. Everything about Zir.»

They talked the night away. As the dawn crept in and the birds began to twitter in the bushes, Blade saw that his half-formed plan, until now little more than an armature for hope, might well come to fruition. It was remarkable how the pieces of this future jigsaw began to drop into place. Risky, yes, with mortal danger around every corner, but no help for that. Danger, fear, terror-they were all part of life in Dimension X.

Just before the sun came up Blade told Valli what she must do. She covered her face and sobbed. «No-no-they will kill you. And me also.»

«I do not think so. Not if you spoke truth about the Izmir and this high priest, this Casta. You said that Casta has promised the old man an heir, that he has made a prophecy that a boy will come to inherit Zir and lead it to new glory. Did you not tell me that?»

«I did, Blade. I did. And it is true. But the Izmir is a doddering old fool who believes lies. Casta is cunning and a liar and a villain. He is also the lover of the Princess Hirga and plots to put her on the throne. They are only waiting until the old Izmir dies, or until they can kill him without suspicion to themselves. Oh, Blade, do not do it! The Izmir will believe and welcome you-the High Priest will have you slain.»

Blade sighed. He was getting into another nest of vipers. Always so. He could remember thinking, back in Home Dimension, that for once, just once, he might stray into paradise. Vain hope. If he had learned anything at all in six trips through the computer it was that in all dimensions you found the foul rot of greed and lust and vanity and jealousy. You found brutes and cowards and brave men and fools. No help for it. Cope.

«The first hour or so will be tricky,» he admitted now. «If I live past that I will be all right. That is why your part in this plan is so important. You must smuggle me right into the bedchamber of the Izmir. He must be the first to see me and the first to whom I speak. Otherwise I have little chance.»

He kissed her cheek. «You see, Valli, I am still your child and dependent on you. You must not fail me.»

Valli wept and held him to her breasts. «Yes, Blade. I will try. I will do my best. There is a palace guard who is always after me. I do not like him, and he risks his head by so much as glancing at me, but I think it might be done. Ramsus would do anything to have me.»

At that moment the crystal ticked in Blade's brain and he felt a faint electric surge and knew that the computer had added another year's growth. An odd sensation-to feel yourself grow. Odder still was the sudden realization that Valli's breasts no longer looked so much like mother's breasts, the source of nourishment, but had somehow become more round and firm, softer blue-veined marble, shapelier, the nipples larger and more erect.

Blade slipped off her lap and ran to a window. The sun was up and dew sparkled like diamonds. «Then let this Ramsus have you,» he commanded. «It must be done. Perhaps he will get you a child into the bargain and by the time you come to bear it I will either be in power or dead. And if I am dead it is likely that you will also be. Now go. The sun is high and people are beginning to stir.»

«I want no child by Ramsus,» said Valli. She came to stand beside him at the window. She put her hand on his fuzzy head and stroked it. «My darling little Blade. I hate to lose you, to see you grow so fast.»

«Go,» Blade said, «and come for me tonight as planned. Be careful. If you are caught now all is ruined.»

«I come and go by a secret way. In the harem I sleep alone and the Izmir has not visited me for months. That is not the danger. The danger will come when I try to smuggle you into the Izmir's bed chamber.»

«We can only try,» said Blade, «and hope. Just be sure that you are a satisfactory lover to Ramsus this day. Make him desire you again. If he wants more he will be careful and cooperative and guard his own neck better. And in this case his neck is our neck. Goodbye, Valli.»

He felt like a pimp.

Valli lifted him and swung him high and kissed him on the mouth. «Goodbye, little Blade. I will see you tonight. Heed your own advice and be careful.»

When she was gone Blade retired to his closet and pulled a rug over him. He was hungry, starving, but if things went well tonight he would have food. If things did not go well he would not need food. He lay sleepless and tried to concentrate and let the computer, and Lord L, know what he was up to. After a time he sensed that he was not getting through and gave it up. The crystal was in one of its bad moods, on strike, and there were no impulses either way. Blade was on his own. No great surprise in that, for he usually was, and during the next thirty days he would survive, if at all, by his wits, guile, cunning and above all his brass, his gall.

Blade had no illusions about his chances in Zir. He had milked Valli far more completely than she knew-he was an expert in interrogation back in Home Dimension-and before the night was half over he had known that this was the worst snake pit into which he had ever strayed. Intrigue, cruelty, lust for power-it was all there. Zir was a land torn to shreds by jealousy and hate and clashing factions. Ruled by an aging, superstitious fool.