Blade breathed deep and saw that Juna was doing the same. The child was asleep at her breast. When she saw him looking she took the teat from it and arranged her sift to cover herself. Blade gave her a wide smile.

«I think I am going to like your island, if smells are any auger.» He sniffed again. «I can almost forget the sewers of Thyme.»

Cautiously, careful not to tip the wayward boat, he crawled aboard. «The land is not far novt?»

At that moment a beacon flared yellow on a headland. She pointed to it. «Yonder is the master flare that points to Cybar, our capital city. I think we are awaited.»

Blade, now paddling with his hands, shot a look at her. «How is that? Your messenger did not get through.»

The moon, coming late, had vanished early. It lacked an hour until dawn and the star sheen was blurred by milky clouds. He could see the white smudge of her face, nothing more, yet it seemed that she smiled.

«Izmia, my grandmother, is not a fool. She has other spies in Thyme and will know what has happened-and this part of the coast is always well guarded. It will be especially so now that Hectoris is victor over Thyrnehis agents will be as thick as lice on a beggar.»

Blade took another deep breath. He was weary and hungry and caked with brine. On Patmos, in the city of Cybar, surely there would be a chance to rest and bathe and eat his fill, a time of surcease so that he could recoup for the new tasks and dangers that must lie ahead. To this end he was counting heavily on Juna.

He told her so. «I trust that your grandmother, Izmia, Pearl of Patmos, will be a friend to me. I think I have earned that, and I count on you to speak for me when the time comes.» He stifled a yawn. The silken scented air was making him sleepy. «And that time can come none to soon for me, Juna. And you-you must also be weary.»

She pointed to the beacon flaring on a point of land. «There will be time to speak of these things later. Get us ashore, Blade. We are not safe yet. Patmos has no ships and those of Hectoris approach our shores at will. I beg you to hurry.»

Blade slipped over the side again and began to kick the little boat inland. Juna busied herself with the child, awake now and squalling in hunger. She did not offer her breast again.

He skirted a reef and found that he could touch bottom some two hundred yards out from a rocky beach. They had been seen now and a knot.of men, soldiers as best he could make out in the first dawn, came to the water's edge to greet them. Blade began to walk ashore, pulling the boat behind him. As he grew closer he could make out archers and lancers, a dozen or more in the charge of an officer. They clustered near a tall pole on which the beacon flared. Blade stopped for a moment, considering, then reached into the boat for his sword belt. It was gone.

Blade halted abruptly in water up to his waist and glared at Juna. «Where is 'my sword, Goddess?»

She clutched the crying child to her breasts and, in the rapidly paling light, he saw that she smiled in triumph. She met his stare defiantly.

«As to that, Blade, you will have to ask among the sea creatures. I gave them your sword some time back.»

And very slyly, too, for he had not seen her move nor heard a sound. He glinted his teeth at her and gave the fragile boat a great shake.

«You presume too much, Goddess! I am not your slave, nor yet a believer in your divinity. In short, I am not a fool. 91

She laughed at him, a tinkle of sound, a clear little bell in the morning. «You are not, Blade? I disagree. I think you look much like a fool at the moment. But be not alarmed. What I do, what I have done, is for your own good. And for mine.»

Blade could have smiled, but he restrained the impulse with no great difficulty. She needed another lesson, and in time he would give it to her, but for the moment he had been outsmarted. And there was always the chance that she knew what she was doing. This was her country and her people. He was the stranger. Nevertheless he gave her a scowl and a growl, saying, «I still have you=and — the child. I could wring both your. necks before your friends could reach us.»

Juna laughed in his face. «You will not, Blade. I know you better than that. You are a demon, no doubt of it, but you will not harm me or the child. Now do you listen to me-I sent a message with Edyrn, to Kador and Smyr, asking that this thing be done and-«

Blade scowled again. «So that was the whispering on the beach! And just who are Kador and Smyr?»

A hail came from the beach. «Junal Juna, Goddess of Thyrne. We are bid by the king, and by, his gracious sister, the queen, to make you welcome to Patmos.»

Juna ignored the call. She was whispering urgently to Blade, her fingers reaching to touch one brawny arm.

«There is no time for detailed explanations now. Kador and Smyr are king and queen of Patmos, and some kin to me. There is no time to explain all that, either. But Edyrn has landed and carried out my bidding and we are met by the proper party. I had feared for your life else, Blade, for the soldiers of Izmia are a rough lot. And I greatly fear for you anyway, for this is Patmos, not Thyrne nor any land you,have been in, and you will be as a babe in arms at first. I-«

Blade roared with laughter. «A babe in arms, is it?» He nodded toward the beach. «Hah-I do not need a sword to handle that lot! By the looks of them the child there could do it. Ho-if there is trouble my fists will be enough.»

Juna moved close to him. She struck with her little fists at his great chest. «Will you listenl It is just as I fearedfor I know your temper and your strength. I warn youdo not put too much faith in that strength. This is Patmos, where children are born knowing more of intrigue than a great rogue like you can ever know. Believe me in this, Blade. I beg you. Bide your time, and keep your temper in check, until you can see matters for yourself.»

He fingered his beard and eyed her. «And if I do all this-if I play the weakling and submit to whatever you, and this king and queen of yours, have in store for me? What then?»

Juna smiled at him. «Then all will be well, my love. In time you will come to understand. You will be happy in Patmos for so long as we have, for invasion is coming, and I shall be happy with you. See-they are coming to, escort us in. I have your promise?»

His look was dour. He had already decided. He did not want trouble, certainly not bloodshed, and for the moment he was at a disadvantage. No point in trying to figure out her motives. Impossible. He had best look to himself.

Still, at that very moment, he would almost have surrendered his hopes of returning to Home Dimension for his sword.

A splendid and rather dainty officer-or so Blade thought-was first to reach the boat as it was pulled onto the beach by soldiers. The officer ignored Blade for the moment and bowed to Juna. Blade had some difficulty in repressing a smile, for he had never in all his military service in Home or X Dimensions seen anything like this popinjay.

The officer doffed a silver helmet decorated with gay plumes. His hair was of shoulder length and in tight ringlets and emitted a strong perfume. Blade wrinkled his nose. The officer's chest armor was of gold, chased with silver, and the slender rapier slung on a bejeweled baldric could only have been intended for ceremony. He wore a kilt of gold cloth and greaves of polished gold. His shoes were high laced and bound with thongs about the calf, and had long pointed toes that turned up and were tipped with rosettes of colored ribbon. Blade wondered how the man could walk in such footgear, much less fight in them. The latter speculation, he told himself as he studied the rest of the little troop, was idle and beside the point. These men had never fought a battle in their lives, nor would they. These were «show» soldiers, a palace guard, spit-and-polish men. Blade thought of Hectoris, and of the invasion that was forthcoming, and thought that only God could help Patmos.