The Forests Of Gleor

Chapter 7

Blade's surprise must have showed on his face. Neena's eyes rose to meet his. Then she could no longer keep her laughter silent. She threw her head back and howled with laughter until the tears ran down her dirty face and the echoes ran up and down the tunnel.

Finally the princess leaned back against the wall, gasping for breath, and sighed deeply. «Oh, warrior, I am sorry if I frightened you. But you looked so funny, staring at me like an ox staring at the butcher just before the axe comes down.»

Blade let the unflattering description of him pass. «Well, my lady princess, do you wonder that I was deceived? You played your part with great skill.»

«I had good reason to,» she said bluntly. «Can you deny that?»

«No I-«

«Then do not complain or find excuses for yourself. I intended to deceive you as well. You looked like a warrior and a man of sense, but I could not be sure you would be a friend, or even a neutral. You seem of no people I have ever seen or heard of. I could not be sure that you would not think to buy the favor of Lord Desgo by telling him of my deception. So I aimed to convince you as well as him. Do not feel small because I succeeded. You are right, I am a skilled actress.»

Blade took a deep breath and then mentally counted to ten before answering Princess Neena. She might have a great many gifts, but tact wasn't among them.

«My lady princess, you acted wisely according to what you knew. I am indeed from a land and people more distant than you could hope to know of. But I am a prince in my own right among my own people, traveling to prove myself and learn of other lands. I would not have betrayed you to Lord Desgo.»

«How so?» said Neena. «Are you familiar with the ways of those of Trawn? Do you know how hard it is to buy their favor?»

«No, I had never heard of Trawn before I came to Gleor.» He was tempted to add that he'd never heard of Draad either. «There are such people in my homeland, however. I know perfectly well how hard it is to buy their favor, and how seldom they keep faith even when you have sold yourself to them.

«Besides, I will not sell myself to such vile people as those of Trawn even if they are willing to buy. As a prince I have some notions of honor, and as a man I have some notions of decency. I ask you to accept that.»

Neena laughed, this time softly. When she spoke, her voice was quiet and the edge was gone from it.

«Warrior-Prince-what is your name?»

«Blade.»

«Prince Blade. I accept what you've told me. You seem the sort of man of whom I can believe this. Also, I am grateful for your opening this tunnel for us. I doubt if I would have been strong enough to get through the grating. Now we have a place where we can sit and talk to each other. We will not have to be silent and look dumb or dismal to fool whoever watches from above.»

It was Blade's turn to laugh. «You see things very clearly, princess. Unfortunately, I hoped for more from this tunnel than it can give us.»

He told her briefly of what he'd found down there in the darkness. Neena looked sober, then frowned.

«You say there is no way to find out how wide that gap may be?»

«None that I can think of,» replied Blade. «I know the gap is deep enough so that anyone who falls into it will be smashed to pieces. But the width-«He shrugged.

«Well, if the thing was not wide enough to make a barrier for prisoners, they would doubtless have sealed off the tunnel entirely. Then we would be even worse off than we are.»

«Perhaps,» said Blade. «But I still wonder why they didn't block all access, even to the gap. It is certainly a way to a quick death, and I imagine many prisoners must be looking for such a death.»

«Those of Trawn do not find it easy to understand how the minds of other people may work,» explained Neena. «They do not see their own people trying to flee from cruelty-or at least not very often. They do not expect to see other people do the same.»

«Not very wise, are they?» said Blade drily.

«Perhaps it is a lack of wisdom, perhaps it is their curse from the gods.»

«Curse?»

«Or so our Kaireens-the Learned Ones-say. They say the gods have cursed those of Trawn with a poison in the earth under their feet. It is a poison that rises from the earth into the water they drink and the flesh and fruit they eat.»

«They look healthy enough,» said Blade.

«Oh, it is not a poison that twists their limbs or blinds their eyes. It poisons their very souls so that they love cruelty and pain. They cannot understand any people who do not love these evils.»

Blade nodded, mentally translating Neena's description into more scientific language. It sounded like soil chemicals or parasites that either infected the whole population or caused enough genetic damage to produce hereditary mental disorders in the whole population.

But if this element was in the soil or water-

«How long does it take for the poison to work?» said Blade.

Neena shrugged. «No one seems to know. The people of Trawn have been like this since we in Draad have known of their existence. You fear we may be poisoned if we stay long here?»

«Yes.»

«So do I. But I think we shall not be here long-at least not alive. You agree?»

Blade nodded.

«Good. Then we have little to fear from the poison, unless it works very swiftly indeed. Of course, if you do start asking the guards for a whip to flog me, I will know that it is working in you. Otherwise I shall not lose any sleep over it.»

They both laughed, and Neena began to try combing out her long dark hair with her fingers. She grimaced as she worked through the mass of snags, knots, and tangles that her hair had become.

Blade watched her as she worked, noting her sure movements, the play of expression on her pixieish face, the graceful lift of her breasts. She had both wits and wit, and she had lost neither in being captured. She would be as good an ally as he could expect, and far better than he'd dared hope for.

Blade and Neena settled down to manage as comfortably as they could hope to under the circumstances. Food and water were lowered from the doorway in buckets twice a day. There was enough food to satisfy half a dozen people, and enough water to allow for some washing. Blade left most of the washing water for Neena, since a daily scrub seemed to improve her spirits.

The food was not exactly gourmet cooking. It consisted largely of heavily spiced stews of root vegetables, with large chunks of salted meat or fish thrown in about every third meal. It made Blade thirstier than ever, but also filled him comfortably. He was sure that on this diet he could keep up his strength as long as necessary.

«That's probably the idea,» was Neena's comment. «You must be kept strong to make a prime slave. Even if they do torture you to death in the end, you will last longer and make a better show if you are strong.» There was no need to say why their captors were keeping her strong. At least once a day the guards reminded them that King Furzun liked his women strong enough to put up a fight when he took them.

No one seemed concerned about the captives' escaping, or paid any attention to what Blade had done with the grating. Still, they took as few chances as possible. They spent only a few minutes each day in the tunnel. Each time they passed through the grating, Blade pulled the loose bars roughly back into place and held them there with globs of mud. In the dim light, the grating looked almost intact.

They never left the grating and tunnel unwatched, though. Somehow they had to find out just exactly how wide that mysterious gap might be. Blade would cheerfully have promised anything to anybody in return for fifteen minutes in the tunnel with a good torch.

As Blade expected, Neena found the waiting hard. From his own years as an agent he was used to waiting, like a cat in front of the hole of a very lazy mouse. Neena, on the other hand, was a royal lady, proud and impatient as a thoroughbred race horse. Several times a day she would spring up and stride around and around the prison like a caged tiger, until sheer exhaustion brought her to a stop.

Blade himself soon began to wonder how much longer they would have to wait. From the number of meals served, they'd already been here over a week. Lord Desgo seemed to have forgotten their existence, and as for King Furzun, it seemed that he had never even heard of them.