Though Truja never shared Blade's bed, she would talk long and freely with him after the day's training. She had no use for any notion of trying to stay neutral in the coming war between Rilgon and the city.

«What we ought to do is send all the women and the children and the old men back into the forest, where Rilgon couldn't find them if he looked for a year. Then our fighters, and our fighters only, can march down to the city. They can meet with our sisters from the city, as Himgar wants. But then they should not simply march away. They should camp on the plains until Rilgon's army appears.»

«And then?»

«Isn't it obvious, Blade? Rilgon's army will march on the city, and its fighting women will come out to meet the enemy. They will join in battle. And then we-we, with two thousand of the best fighting men and women in all the lands of Brega, we shall-«

«Take them in the rear?» Blade finished the sentence for her.

Truja smiled thinly and nodded. «Rilgon's mob of killers will never get home if we do that. At least not enough of them to do any more harm. And the sisters of the city will think well of us, and perhaps give us understanding and aid that we could not get otherwise.»

«Perhaps,» said Blade pointedly.

Truja shrugged. «To be sure. I can promise nothing. But we shall get more that way than by following Himgar's plan. Even if we get nothing from the city, we will at least do-more to Rilgon and his army of monsters.» Insane rage flared in Truja's eyes as she said that. «But in the name of the Spirit of Union and Mother Kina, let us do something!»

Blade could not agree more with the last point. Summer was wearing on. Reports were coming up from the city of more and more bitter rivalry between the two factions, sometimes erupting into open violence. And equally disturbing reports were coming up from the Senar lands, reports that told of Rilgon's growing army. Each day its numbers and war skills increased. Is seemed likely that Rilgon would be able to lead out two thousand Blenar and ten times that many Senar. Even if all the fighting women of the city could unite to face Rilgon's invasion, they would have barely a quarter that many.

«What about the other women?» Blade asked Truja.

The scarred woman made a gesture of disgust. «They can no more fight than they can fly or lay eggs. Thank Mother Kina, most of the sisters who will be joining us are of the fighting classes. I doubt if most of the others could even survive the journey out of the city.»

Blade wondered about that. In his travels in Dimension X he had seen some of the most unpromising people turn into formidable fighters in impossibly short periods of time. But that was a question for the future, when he had the walls of the city in sight. For the moment, he was here by the Purple River, and here he would stay until the people mustered up their courage to follow Himgar.

Before Blade died of boredom or Himgar died of frustration, there was a compromise. The people would leave their homes. But only the fighting men and women would march down to the plains to meet the women coming out of the city. The others would head straight for the new lands, carrying with them whatever would be needed for the settlement there. Only a few fighters and some hunters would go with them, to guard against wild animals and hunt down game to feed the mass of people who would be making their way through the forest. Game would be abundant, and so would fish, roots and berries, and water. Another month, though, and this would not be so. Nor would it be good for the older people and the younger children to try crossing the passes in the mountains after the colder weather set in.

Himgar was far too happy that something was being done and in good time to quibble about the details. The moment the Council reached its decision, he came tearing down from the Council House and called the scouts together. He was so excited that he was jumping up and down like a child as he gave the scouts their orders.

«Now it doesn't matter if there is some argument over when the rest of the fighters leave. It doesn't matter at all. You people must leave at once and head for the city. You must get our friends out of the city, out of the city, I tell you. Rilgon may march any day. You must get there before his army does, and get the women out. You must!»

Blade noticed that Truja was looking at Himgar with the fond expression of a mother watching a brilliant son making his first public speech. When Himgar finally ran out of breath and things to say and left, Blade turned to the scarred woman.

«Did you have anything to do with this-change of plans, let's say?»

Truja shook her head. «Himgar has never paid any attention to me. And if he had, I certainly wouldn't have dared try to force him to change his mind about something. We would never get anywhere if I did that. No, I didn't do anything at all to get the plans changed.» She paused. «Unless you count nightly prayers to both Mother Kina and the Spirit of Union.»

The ten women and nine men of the scouting party moved out the next morning. Himgar saw them off, with more breathless exhortations and good wishes, and a deep regret that he could not go with them.

«Never mind,» said Truja. «The fighters who will be coming after us need your leadership more than we do. The future of Brega depends more on them than on us.»

There might have been more men in the scouting party. But the women, and only the women, could move freely about the city and the lands near it. The five women who came originally from the city itself would be the ones who actually slipped into it, to contact the friendly leaders.

Ten women, nine men-and one Senar. Nugun was desperately frightened for his master when he learned that Blade was going down among the women of the city. He flew into a fearsome rage when Truja tried to tell him that he could not go with Blade. And he was the happiest being in all of Brega when Blade finally persuaded Truja to let him go.

The trip through the forest and down into the plains was fast and uneventful. All of the scouts could cover twenty miles a day without even breathing hard, and there was plenty of food and water. Nor did they meet any enemies. Both roaming Senar and hunting parties from the city seemed to have abandoned the woods. As this became clear, Truja forced the pace to twenty-five and even thirty miles a day. They rose before dawn and seldom made camp much before darkness fell. It was as though everything depended on their pounding east as fast as their legs would carry them.

Perhaps it did.

They were through the forest in two days less than they had expected. On the western edge of the plains they stopped for a day and a night, waiting and watching. If the normal patrols from the city were roaming the plains, they would have to move slowly and carefully from here on. But if the feuds in the city actually made both factions unwilling to send their fighting women out of the city, the scouts might have an easy march.

Truja was a cheerful cynic about this, as she was about many things. «I'm quite sure the patrols won't be out,» she said. «But we're certain to run into something else. A herd of stampeding cattle, a flash flood, a forest fire, a search for escaped males-our luck's bound to run out sooner or later.»

But the patrols were thinner on the ground than usual, and there were no accidents. On the second morning they moved out onto the plains. More than a hundred miles farther east lay the city of Brega.

Moving by night and hiding to sleep by day, they covered more than two-thirds of that distance in less than four days. Blade was pleased to see Nugun earn the respect and trust of the other scouts during the night marches. The Senar's abnormally keen night vision guided the party through the darkness as fast as it could have moved by day. And more than once Nugun gave warning of the approach of night-prowling women in time to permit the scouts to go to ground.