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doubt is my own safety, if you hope for too much and then are disappointed."
"Richard, my friend, that is an unworthy thought between men of gentle
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birth. You should be ashamed of it."
"I would be more ashamed to walk blindly to my death, when a few
words could make us understand each other clearly. Such foolish
carelessness is not for men of gentle birth, either."
"Perhaps not. Very well on my honor I swear that if we cannot return to your
England, no harm will come to you. Indeed, you shall continue at my right
hand, and be my friend and comrade in the ruling of
Rentoro. Though we shall be alone, yet we shall have no small pleasure in our
lives from that rule."
"I can ask nothing more," said Blade. Indeed, he could not, or at least he
didn't care to try. For all the friendship the Wizard had shown him, he was
still as vulnerable as ever to the man's whims. The less the
Wizard was provoked, the better.
Chapter 15
«^»
Although the Wizard gave Blade free run of the women of the castle, nothing
came of it for a while except a certain amount of pleasure. Even that was
limited, at least from Blade's point of view. The
Wizard's women were so desperate in their eagerness to please that the mere
possibility of angering
Blade made them shiver with fright and even burst into tears. Or was it the
Wizard's displeasure they feared, for not doing their best for their master's
sworn friend and comrade? All the women showed the signs of years of obedience
to the Wizard's whims and temper. A few of them showed fresh bruises from the
Wizard's more violent moments. After a while, none of them could really please
Blade.
In spite of the odds against him, he tried asking some of the women questions
about the Wizard's affairs. A few of them answered, but none of them told him
anything new and important. Others seemed so frightened at his questions that
he abandoned the effort before the women were driven to telling the
Wizard.
Blade did learn one thing from the women. The Wizard hadn't aged visibly
during the time that any of the women had been serving in the castle. Still,
that was no more than ten years, and a man who kept himself in good shape and
dyed his hair and beard might very well not change. Blade was no nearer
finding out if the Wizard was immortal, mad, or simply shared his ancestors'
memories.
In any case, it really did not matter that much. Even if the present Wizard of
Rentoro was not the same man as the one who'd traveled across the Dimensions,
he was certainly a telepath and the master of the view-balls and sky-bridges.
He could also teach many of his skills to other men. This was more than enough
to make bringing him back to Home Dimension a monumental victory for Project
Dimension X
and for Britain. Blade saw no need to change any of his plans.
One evening over dinner he casually remarked that he found some of the women
of the castle "a boring lot."
"I see that you've beaten obedience into them," Blade continued, "but you also
seem to have beaten the spirit out of them."
The Wizard shrugged. "The wise ones, I didn't have to beat. They knew or could
guess what I
wanted from the first. But others yes, I did have to use the stick a trifle. A
few I even had to throw to the Wolves for a night or two. That cured them." A
satisfied smile spread across the Wizard's face. "I
take it you'd prefer someone with more life, shall we say?"
"You might say that," said Blade.
"I think that can be arranged," said the Wizard. "There's one lady I have here
I was never able to cure. Even throwing her to the Wolves just made her go
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astray in her wits. I've given up on her, but if you want to try?"
"I'll think about it," said Blade. "Why do you keep her around, if she's so
hard to tame?" The Wizard seldom kept the useless or the disobedient around
his castle or in his service at all.
"I wouldn't, except that she's a high noble of Morina. Sister to the ruling
duke, in fact, and highly thought of by the people. Her brother was more than
happy to send her to me, but the Morinans weren't happy to see her go. I've
got to keep her around until she dies a natural death, otherwise the city will
be in an uproar. I'd have to send in the Wolves and make such a shambles I'd
get no taxes out of the place for two years.
"By all means try her, if you're interested. If you get her down it might
improve her disposition. Don't kill her, but otherwise " The Wizard waved a
casual hand.
Blade wished he could hit the Wizard over the head and lock him in a closet
until the time came to return to Home Dimension. Enduring the man's whims for
the sake of their "friendship" was becoming something of a strain. Now he was
being invited indeed, practically ordered to rape a madwoman.
He should have kept his mouth shut about the castle's women!
"Very well," Blade said. "I'll see about paying her a visit tomorrow."
"Good. I'll leave the necessary orders with the guards. And now more wine?"
The Morinan lady's room was high up in one of the towers, where she could get
a reasonable amount of sunlight and fresh air. This had nothing to do with
kindness the Wizard would have done as much for a prize sow that he had to
keep in good health.
Two of the house guards were on duty outside the room when Blade arrived. One
of them unlocked the iron-bound door and held it slightly ajar.
"Now, 'member, lord any trouble, gi' us a shout we be in straight."
"Don't worry," said Blade. "I'm sure I'm big enough to handle her." The guards
caught his double meaning and were still laughing as he slipped into the room.
It was circular, twenty feet across, eight feet high, and whitewashed so
heavily Blade felt as if he'd stepped inside a wedding cake. It was a moment
before he noticed the low bed on the far side of the room, under the barred
window. It was another moment before he noticed the woman in the stained white
robe, lying face down on the bed.
As Blade stepped toward the bed, the woman rolled over in a swirl of silk and
pale legs, then raised her head to look at Blade. Her eyes were enormous,
staring wildly without understanding, and with huge dark circles under them.
Her blonde hair was a tangled mess, dark and stiff with grime. She laughed, a
low bubbling sound deep in her throat that made Blade's flesh crawl and nearly
made him turn around and leave the room much faster than he'd come in. She
raised a thin hand to point at him, a shaking hand with black circles under
untrimmed fingernails. She laughed again, and then she swung her legs off the
bed, sprang to her feet, and came toward Blade.
Blade forced himself to stand and meet the woman's eyes as she came at him. As
he got a better look at her, he realized that she was beautiful, or at least
would have been, except for the look in her eyes and her unhealthy thinness.
Pale, freckled skin was stretched too tightly over fine bones, and what should
have been the generous curves of breast, hip, and thigh were shrunken and
flattened. She looked as if she hadn't eaten regularly for months or years.
Then her hands clawed at Blade's shoulders until her fingernails sank through
his silk shirt into his flesh. He gripped her arms, trying to control her, but
she broke free and stepped back just out of his reach. Her hands made another
quick dart, this time to grip her robe at the level of her knees. Before
Blade could move or speak, she jerked the robe over her head and flung it away
from her so violently that it flew clear across the room.
Certainly the beauty was there, as if asleep under that pale skin showing too
many bones. The breasts rose in a proud challenge, the hips and thighs curved
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gracefully even now, the long legs held both power and elegance. She tossed
her head, and Blade wished her hair was clean, loose, and flowing, so he could
see it swirl about her high cheekbones and the long, graceful throat. Then she
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