Wyala pulled herself partly out of his arms and bent her own lips to run across Blade's skin. Those lips were warm and wet, and as they crept lower and lower on his body, Blade groaned. His hands reached out for her again, ran down the smooth skin of her back, and slipped down into her trousers. Her buttocks were as firm and sweetly rounded as her breasts. And when he moved his hands around to her groin, he found the thick tangle of hair there already dampening with her mounting passion.

Wyala seemed to take Blade's hands moving on her as a signal. With a graceful twisting of her body, she stood up and wriggled out of her trousers. One kick and they went flying across the clearing, nearly landing in the campfire. Both Blade and Wyala laughed out loud. Then Blade was also on his feet. But he had no chance to pull down his trousers. Wyala's hands clutched at them, dragging them down. As her hands worked on the trousers, they also stroked the inside of Blade's thighs and his massive, swollen organ. And where her hands went, a moment later her lips followed. Blade groaned again and wondered if Wyala knew how little of this men could really take. His own endurance was enormous, but there was such a thing as too much even for him.

But before they reached that point, Wyala took the initiative again. Snatching up the fallen trousers and tunics, she spread them on the ground, then lay back on them. She did not say anything coherent. By now she probably couldn't. But the expression on her face and her gasping breath and murmurs made it obvious that the time had come for her. Blade knelt down at her feet, gently pulled her legs apart, then moved forward, down-and in.

Wyala's face took on an unmistakable look of surprise as Blade slipped inside her. Even in his excitement, Blade remembered that the male organs of the Senar had been grotesquely lumpish and hairy. A normal set of male genitals inside her might be a novelty.

If there was any novelty, it certainly wasn't affecting Wyala's responses. Blade began with an unusual effort to go slowly, to make Wyala's introduction to normal sex as gentle as possible. He soon realized that he had no need to do anything of the kind. Wyala was almost sopping wet inside, and she locked arms and legs around him as if she wanted to drag him into her or flatten herself against him. Her hips writhed and wriggled in a steadily increasing tempo, jerking upward against him faster and faster.

Then in one explosive moment her hips increased their movements until they were almost vibrating. Her arms and legs tightened around Blade until he could hardly breathe, and her nails dug into his back until he felt as though he was being whipped. Her mouth opened and shut like a dying woman's, but nothing came out of it except gasps and little hisses. Blade felt her pelvic muscles jerking under his groin and her wet canal tightening around his own erection.

That tightening was all he needed to overcome the last bit of his self-control. All the built-up pressure came jetting out hotly into Wyala, and went on jetting.

Eventually both Blade and Wyala exhausted the last of their passion. Blade managed to find the energy to roll off the girl and lie down on the clothes beside her. They lay there motionless and silent for a few minutes. Then Blade found a little more energy, got up, and picked up the cloaks. He laid both on top of Wyala, then lay down again and crept in under them. Now that the burning heat of their common passion had vanished, the night's cold struck unpleasantly at their bare skins.

After a few minutes, Wyala stirred. She lay for a time staring at Blade. Then she rolled over against him, her body warm, soft, and comfortable against his. He put his arms around her, for her pleasure and for his.

«You are not of the Senar,» she said. The tone of voice was that of someone who has no more doubts.

«And you-you are not like a woman who has lived only among women,» said Blade with a grin. He had no doubts on that either.

Soon they drifted off to sleep in each other's arms.

Blade had been awake and on the move for almost thirty-six hours, so it was well after dawn when he awoke. This was an unpleasant surprise. Blade was a man who believed that half of beating one's opponent was getting up before him in the morning.

However, there wasn't much point in moving early until he and Wyala had decided where they were going. He raised that point after a breakfast of water and the cold remains of the squirrels.

Wyala seemed more rational this morning than she had been the day before. Now she seemed to be used to the idea of there being a third kind of male in the world besides the breeding males and the Senar. She even seemed to be enjoying the discovery.

But she was just as stubborn as before on the point that Blade's approaching the city of Brega would be nothing but suicide for both of them. «How can you expect it to be otherwise, when we have known nothing but the Senar and the breeding males?»

«You yourself said that I do not look like either one.»

I know. And that is true. But how many of our hunters or warriors would see that-at least before they had killed you?»

«Have you nothing in the city but hunters and warriors?»

«Oh, no; we have many kinds of women. There are the governors, the guardians of fertility-«she listed a dozen more. «And they are chosen for their wisdom, so they might let you live a little while. But the hunters and the warriors will see you first and kill you before the higher wisdom groups can ever get a chance to see you.»

«Perhaps. But suppose you came with me to the city? Could you not do something to convince the hunters and warriors that I should not be killed?»

Wyala cocked her head to one side as she considered that. Last night the idea had sent her virtually into hysterics. Today it merely seemed something to think over carefully before saying anything. This was a young woman of much common sense. Blade hoped very much that she would help him in his exploration of this dimension. He could hardly have found a better ally if he had ordered one specially in advance.

Finally she nodded. «It will be almost as much a risk for me as for you. They will think that you have captured me and forced me into cooperating with you by threats or torture. So they may kill you anyway-and then kill me afterwards.» She hesitated. «But I will go with you if you want to go to the city. Could you possibly not go to the city at all? That would be safer for both of us.»

Blade had to admit that the idea was more than usually tempting. The city of Brega sounded like a place of great danger for small rewards. However, duty was duty, until the day his luck ran out or they found someone new to take his place in the computer's chair. And Wyala was not only risking her life; she was risking it against everything she had been taught to believe in. There was high courage in her.

Blade bent over and kissed Wyala firmly on the lips. «Thank you for this. You are very brave, as well as very beautiful.» Wyala smiled and blushed, then began busying herself with picking up the equipment and putting out the campfire.

Within a few minutes both had their gear loaded on their backs. The last thing Blade picked up was the remains of the cords he had used to tie Wyala the day before. He held them up in front of her and waved them around, laughing. She laughed too. Then with a flick of his wrist Blade tossed the cords into the stream. He stood and watched for a moment as they drifted out of sight. Then he turned back to Wyala.

«Let's go. Which way is the city?»

Wyala looked up at the blue sky for a moment, shading her eyes against the bright morning sun. «That way,» she said finally, pointing. «Toward the sunrise.»