«What are you planning to do?» he asked bluntly.

Himgar was ready with an answer. «We are going to lead the people of the Purple River lands down to the city. The women who have worked for us there will come out to join us. Then we shall all march north, over the mountains where they come down to the ocean. We have sent explorers into the lands there, and they are good lands. We and the women will go there and a new people will take root and grow.»

«I see.» Blade was telling the truth when he said that. He was not sure that he believed in Himgar's dreams, though. At best, it was a desperate solution-but perhaps Himgar saw the problem as desperate too. It was not really his place to judge. Certainly working for Himgar would be better than serving Rilgon. Meanwhile-

«What exactly do you want me to do?»

«We must send a small party of scouts to the city, to warn the women to be ready to march out and join us. That party will be better off if they can fight without arms as well as with them. Nugun said that you are marvelously skilled in fighting only with your hands and feet. Can you teach the other scouts to do the same?»

Blade hesitated. He was not going to promise miracles, even to keep Himgar happy. But he probably wouldn't need to perform any. If unarmed combat was a comparatively unknown skill in Brega, even a few weeks' training should be of great benefit to the scouts. It would certainly be enough to give any of the women of the city a nasty surprise.

«How much time will I have?» Blade asked.

«Not more than one moon-span. By the time the next moon-span is half gone, the scouts must be on the march for the city.»

Blade considered this. About a month to train the scouts. About six weeks before they marched out.

«I shall give you my best,» he said.

Himgar could not keep back a sigh of relief.

Two days' hard marching, and the raiders with Blade and Melyna reached the Purple River settlements. Melyna kept on her feet with the rest during those two days; her white, sweating face told of the courage it cost her. Once more Blade had to acknowledge the courage and determination of the women of the city. Disunited they might be, but Rilgon was going to have a fight on his hands that might well bleed his own people white. Blade hoped so.

On the morning of the third day they reached the main settlement. Looking down into the river through the tall ferns along its bank, Blade could see how it had gotten its name, for as far as the eye could see, the river bottom was a mass of dark purple gravel, tinting the clear water running over it.

Blade's contemplation of the river was broken by a sudden, explosive roar that could not have come from any normal human throat. He spun around, snatching his sword clear. Then he dropped the sword and held up his arms as he saw Nugun come dashing out of a hut toward him.

The Senar's right shoulder was heavily bandaged. But his rush nearly sent Blade flying back into the river, and his embrace nearly cracked Blade's ribs. He jumped up and down several times before he could finally speak.

«Blade here, Blade here, Blade here,» he kept saying. The Senar was nearly incoherent with happiness. Blade himself could not help grinning broadly. He gave the hairy man a clap on the shoulder that would have flattened a normal human.

«Thank you, Nugun,» said Blade, when the Senar had calmed down. «I owe you a lot for that trip. And Melyna owes you her life.»

Nugun's eyes took in the girl, and his face fell. «Nugun sorry Blade not have Wyala now. Nugun sorry not save Blade's woman.»

Blade shrugged. «Yes, it is sad. But she was dead before you could have done anything to save her. Do not feel badly about it. You will have plenty of chances to avenge her.»

«Yes.» Nugun's head bobbed enthusiastically. «Nugun kill many Hairless Ones, bad Senar, send them after Wyala.» He took another look at Melyna. «Blade have new woman now?»

Blade also looked at the girl. Melyna was looking about her curiously, although she was obviously almost ready to pass out on her feet from exhaustion. But the sight of civilized men and civilized women living and working together was too strange for her.

Blade shook his head. «She is not my woman, at least not now. And I do not think right now she even wants a man. She was a prisoner of the bad Senar for two years.»

Blade was wrong about Melyna, as he discovered later that night. Himgar led him to a hut in the heart of the settlement and told him to relax and wait.

«For what?» said Blade. He looked dubiously around him at the hut. It was cleaner than the one where he had been a prisoner. It also had a bed, table, chairs, a small charcoal brazier, and other luxuries. But Blade wondered if he hadn't exchanged one captivity for another.

The War Councilor looked genuinely horrorstricken when Blade mentioned the possibility and shook his head sharply. «No, no, not at all, Blade. It is just that-well, I am only one of several Councilors to our people. And they must all agree to my plan for you before you can go to work. Until that time you would be wise to stay here, within this hut. Our people have small love for strangers. Were you to wander about at night, the Spirit alone knows what might happen to you. And believe me, I do indeed want your aid in the saving of our people.»

Blade could not doubt the man's sincerity. But he was no more willing than before to be tamed. «Very well,» he said coolly. «I shall wait while you try to convince the other Councilors that I can be trusted. But if you cannot, do not expect me to sit around in this hut forever. I will go out into the forest and live there, and be damned to you and Rilgon and the city and everybody else in Brega!» The flare of anger in that last sentence was genuine; Blade did not like this kind of game-playing.

Himgar left him, and the hours passed on toward night. A meal was brought-a thick stew of game and the yellow tubers in a wooden bowl, and sour, purplish wine in a wooden cup. Blade emptied both cup and bowl with a ready appetite, then lay down on the bed. It was not much cleaner than the pile of straw back among Rilgon's people had been, but it was a good deal warmer and more comfortable. He pulled the blankets over him and drifted off to sleep.

Tired as he was, Blade let himself sleep so deeply that nothing short of an earthquake could have wakened him. He did not wake until morning. When he did, he noticed two things. A pale pink light was already creeping in through the chinks in the logs. And there was something warm and soft and gently breathing snuggled up against him in the bed. Very slowly he turned to look at that «something,» one hand creeping toward the knife under his pillow.

He was not surprised to see Melyna. She had managed to wash some of the filth of Senar captivity from her skin and hair. The hair now gleamed pale gold in the dawn, spread out on the pillow.

As though Blade's eyes on her had been a caress, Melyna stirred. Blindly she turned her head toward Blade, then opened her eyes. They were dark blue, and stared up at Blade without fear or even timidity. And why should she be fearful or timid? She had undoubtedly seen and even done things that would turn Blade's stomach in the past two years. Slowly, as though he were reaching out for a shy kitten he didn't want to frighten away, Blade laid a heavily muscled hand on one bare, tanned shoulder.

It was like ice melting. Melyna seemed to flow up and over on top of Blade. He felt a long, slim body pressing hard against him. He felt his own responding to the warmth and the pressure and the movement. He threw off the blankets, and his arms went around Melyna. She stiffened for a moment, then became even warmer and pressed even harder against Blade.