However, there could still be uses for the rifles. Blade took a fresh power cell, loaded it into his rifle, then aimed it at a far corner of the room and let fly. The cracked and shaken wall started to shed more fragments and dust. The robot"s head slowly turned, and its own laser stabbed into the same corner. The corner erupted in dusty and flying debris, then the wall collapsed completely and took part of the floor above with it. The roar of collapsing masonry completely drowned out Blade"s and Saorm"s footsteps as they sprinted across the room and up the stairs. The fog of dust filling the room was thick enough to hide them completely.
Once around the bend in the stairs, the merchant leaned against the wall to catch his breath. "Thank you, Saorm," said Blade. "You"ve done well. Now stay here while I-"
Saorm shook his head. "I am not going to leave your back bare or your Oltec dead."
"You are no warrior, Saorm. Forgive me for sounding like Hota, but-"
"I am the father of Geyrna, who has caught the eye of a warrior who is my chief"s son. Peython will judge the father"s worth as well as the daughter"s, when it comes time to choose a wife for his son."
"You have already-"
"I have not done enough, Blade. And can you truly say that having a comrade will make no difference in this battle against the war Oltec?"
Blade couldn"t. He would rather have had Sidas or Kareena at his side, of course. But they were trapped in the storeroom-possibly trapped for good if he didn"t draw the robot off fairly soon. If Saorm was this determined, there was no point in wasting precious time by arguing.
Besides Sidas knew Gilmarg much better than he did. That could turn out to be important.
"All right," said Blade, not trying to conceal his irritation. "But if you get tired or are wounded, I"ll have to leave you behind. I"ll come back for you if I live, but I can"t wait for you."
"That is the way of war, Blade. Even a merchant knows that much."
Blade mentally threw up his hands in resignation and led the way up the stairs to where the other Kaldakans were hiding. Since he saw none of the natural leaders up here, he spoke to all of them. He had to choose his words carefully, to tell them what to do without revealing so much knowledge of Oltec that anyone would become suspicious of him.
"This is a machine of the Sky Masters, made for war. It has gone mad with age, so it must be destroyed. I have more of the knowledge needed to do this than anyone of Kaldak. It does not matter that I am outside the Law, for this machine is also outside the Law.
"So I will take the machine away from here and find a way to destroy it. When it is gone, go down to the room below and bring up the people in the tunnel. Help them also bring up all the fire jewels everyone can carry. Then leave the city at once. Do not try to save the munfans. That will draw the robot on to you like a great-hawk on to a lamb. You must save yourselves first."
Blade saw a few faces still blank with surprise or fear. Most seemed to understand what he was proposing and didn"t resent taking advice from a man outside the Law as long as he was the only one with some idea of what to do. He turned to Saorm.
"All right. Let"s go play bait."
Blade and Saorm climbed down the vines from a rear window on the second floor. Then they hurried around to the front, to find the robot still standing there. It couldn"t get into the building and its enemies wouldn"t come out. So Blade and Saorm took cover half a block up the street, then opened fire with their rifles.
Instantly the robot turned its head, its body followed the head around with surprising speed, and the laser chewed a piece out of the wall above the two men. A fragment large enough to crush Blade"s skull came close enough to part his hair. Before the robot could fire again, Blade and Saorm were running up the street. Both hoped it would follow. After a moment"s hesitation, it did. In fact it came after them so fast that Blade looked back to find it gaining on them rapidly. They were both zigzagging, but in another minute it would be too close for safety.
"To the right!" Saorm followed Blade"s gesture and darted down a side-street with the Englishman at his heels. The robot saw them turning but fired too late. A section of the corner building two stories high crashed down and spread itself across the street in smoking rubble. More of the building was tottering. Blade stopped in the shelter of a doorway, hoping to see the robot come close enough to be caught by the next fall of masonry.
Instead it gave the building a wide berth. When the collapse did come the robot was already well out of danger and advancing on Blade. As it marched out of the cloud of dust and smoke, its laser fired again. A chunk of pavement flew up like a soccer ball, crashed into the front of a building just ahead of Blade, and brought down several large pieces of metal facing. Blade and Saorm barely jumped aside in time, and Blade was now painfully aware that two could play this game of dropping buildings on the enemy. He decided to keep to the main streets as much as possible and use the side streets only for cover. The robot could turn so well that there was no reason to try leading it around sharp corners and hope it would fall or crash into a building.
Blade and Saorm headed west as fast as they could, nearly getting lost several times but usually drawing the robot after them. Twice it seemed to lose track of them, and once Blade saw it turn back toward the east. a.s.suming it was turning back toward the Kaldakans, he opened fire, was nearly killed by the robot"s laser, but at least got its attention again.
Blade wondered why the laser was fixed in the robot"s chest rather than mounted in the swiveling head. He could only guess that the black muzzle in the head was some sort of close-range weapon, perhaps a grenade launcher. He hoped it was empty. A few grenades could have finished the Kaldakans, and one lucky shot could do the job on him and Saorm. On the other hand, lasers worked only on line-of-sight. You couldn"t fire them in a curve over anything or through anything too solid.
Of course this worked both ways. Blade and Saorm had to expose themselves to fire at the robot. They were smaller targets, but they were much more vulnerable. There didn"t seem to be any part of the robot they could hurt with the rifles, at least before the robot could bring its own heavier weapon to bear. Blade quickly knew that he and Saorm were going to have to win by skill rather than by strength.
Several times Blade tried to lead the robot across the bridges over Gilmarg"s numerous ca.n.a.ls, hoping its weight would collapse a bridge under it. Each time the robot stopped at the head of the bridge. Each time Blade had to recross the ca.n.a.l before he could get the robot moving again. He hoped the Kaldakans were on their way out of the city by now, but he couldn"t be sure. At least he hadn"t heard any laser fire from the east, so the robot was probably operating alone.
Blade did notice that when the robot turned its head, its feet sometimes kept going for several more steps in the old direction. This happened often enough to make Blade wonder if the robot"s computer "brain" was slightly defective. After all these years it very well might be, and this could give him and Saorm an opening. There should be places where the banks of the ca.n.a.ls which criss-crossed Gilmarg were so overgrown with foliage that they were hidden. If they led the robot straight toward one of those places, then suddenly drew its attention to one side, the robot"s legs would continue to take it forward a few more steps, and then...
They were far enough ahead of the robot now so that Blade could lead Saorm into a doorway and force him to sit down for a minute. The merchant was gasping for breath.
"I"ll need you for our next trick," said Blade. "But if that doesn"t work, I want you to give up this chase."
"My honor-my daughter-I"m just a bit short-of-breath."
"You"ll drop dead if you go on much longer," said Blade sharply. "I"d rather bring you home to Geyrna than tell her how gallantly you died! Now, is there a place where the ca.n.a.l bank is so overgrown that the robot might not see it until too late?"
There was, and Saorm led Blade toward it as quickly as the robot would let them go. They could never forget the searing green death licking at their heels, and Blade was beginning to worry. Saorm really did look ready to fall over, and he himself wasn"t going to be able to play hide and seek with this mechanical monster forever. Human flesh could not compete with steel and electricity in an endurance contest.
Then they were out on the bank high above the ca.n.a.l and trotting rapidly along the street toward the park where Saorm had said there would be a good place to set their trap. As the robot turned onto the street half a mile behind them, Blade saw something peculiar about the pavement ahead. For fifty yards the pavement slabs of the street were tilted slightly toward the ca.n.a.l. Blade looked across the ca.n.a.l. There were actually two streets, an upper and a lower roadway one above the other, supported by the steel columns. He then looked over the railing along the street on his side of the ca.n.a.l. It was the same on this side. Those shaky pavement blocks ahead hid a fifteen-foot drop to the roadway below.
That should be enough, and suddenly Blade had a different plan. The trap in the park forgotten for the moment, Blade quickly gave Saorm his instructions, conscious of the robot tramping steadily toward them. The merchant staggered off toward the next bridge, his eyes so glazed with fatigue Blade wondered if he could even see the robot, let alone hit it. Well, with luck he wouldn"t need to hit it to draw its attention.
Then the robot was within range and Blade began his dance of death with it. He darted back and forth across the street high above the ca.n.a.l, never stopping even to fire his rifle, always watching the robot, always seeing it tramp steadily forward, firing every few yards. He began to fear it would step on one of the loose slabs and spring the trap prematurely.
Now the robot needed only about ten more steps before it reached the loose slabs. "Fire," Blade whispered to Saorm. "Fire!" He wanted to scream, but his throat felt as if someone was firing a miniature laser inside it. His chest felt as tight as if the robot was already gripping him in one hand.
"Fire!"
Green light speared out from a window on the far side of the ca.n.a.l. The robot"s head swiveled to scan the direction of the new attack, while its feet took the last few steps onto the first of the loose blocks.
For a moment Blade couldn"t be sure his trick had worked. Then several tons of robot made the slab give up its long struggle against the force of gravity. Instead of tilting toward the ca.n.a.l, the slab tilted toward the buildings inland. It tilted so slowly that for another moment Blade thought the robot might have time to step backward. The robot stopped, sensed that something was wrong, and lifted a foot for a backward step. Then the slab cracked completely in two, and the robot vanished as if it had fallen through a trapdoor.
Blade was running toward the hole before the echoes of the robot"s fall died. He approached the hole from the rear to avoid the laser but quickly saw he needn"t have bothered. The robot"s chest was crushed against a steel column, and the laser was sizzling and sputtering like all the frying pans in the world put together. Acrid gas poured up past Blade, and sparks and bits of molten metal dripped down into the water from the lower roadway. Blade sighted in on the robot"s neck and fired his rifle. He kept firing until the rifle was too hot to hold. He let it cool off, then started firing again until the power cell was completely dead. By then half the robot"s neck was black and distorted, and clouds of foul-smelling smoke told Blade of burned-out circuitry. By the time Saorm staggered up with the other rifle, Blade was sure the robot was helpless if not permanently wrecked.
He clapped the merchant on the back. "Saorm, I don"t know what the Law says, or what the Law says I can say. But I say here and now-this day you"ve been a warrior and a friend. Let no one say a word against Geyrna"s father in my presence."
"Thank you, Blade. I-" Suddenly he went down on hands and knees, started shaking all over, then vomited into the hole. Blade let him alone. Tougher men than Saorm could have got the shakes after this weird battle. As long as he"d waited until after the fight, it was all right.
Finally Saorm rose, wiped his mouth, and looked down at the robot. "So we"ve won."
"We"ve won today"s battle," said Blade. "But I suspect it was only the first battle in what could be a very long war."
"The Law spare us that!" exclaimed Saorm.
Blade shook his head. "I do not think the Law will make much difference one way or another. In fact, I would say that today saw the end of Kaldak of the Law."
Chapter 11.
Blade examined the robot quickly, ignoring the danger of b.o.o.by traps. He wanted the job done before either new enemies or the Kaldakans arrived. By the time he"d finished, he was even more sure than before that nothing would ever be the same again in this Dimension. Strictly speaking, the fallen machine was not a robot, a selfcontained mechanical imitation of a human being. Instead it was controlled from a distance by a computer or possibly a human operator, getting commands by radio and sending back visual and sound information from its sensors. In spite of its humanoid form, it reminded Blade of the remote-controlled waldoes in Home Dimension used for handling radioactive materials. Now if he could just find a way to disable or jam the radio equipment...
That hope soon vanished. The radio equipment was so sophisticated and apparently so nearly indestructible that Blade couldn"t have figured out a way of defeating it with all the resources of Home Dimension technology available. Lord Leighton might have been able to improvise something, but Blade wasn"t that kind of electronics expert.
Blade"s grim look seemed to depress Saorm even more. The merchant was sitting on the edge of the hole, staring at nothing. It seemed he couldn"t face the idea of a Kaldak totally without the Law.
"Blade, Blade," he moaned. "If there is no Law, what will become of my daughter, who has already given herself to Bairam? Without the Law, how will he think of her?"
"He"ll think of her as his bride, or at least a woman to be well treated. If the Law doesn"t tell him that, my fist will," said Blade. "I think Peython and Kareena will help me too."
The idea that the pa.s.sing of the Law would not necessarily bring dishonor to his daughter seemed to cheer up Saorm. He rose and began in a fumbling way to study the two laser rifles.
He was still at work when the rest of the expedition came up on foot, with Kareena in the lead. When she saw Blade standing unharmed, she gave a wordless little cry and ran to him, ignoring Hota"s black look.
"Blade! Are you all right? We thought-"
"You were wrong," said Blade wearily. He was too tired and too conscious of the need for haste to be polite. "I am all right. Are the munfans ready to go?"
"Yes. But must we leave so soon, when there is so much new Oltec to learn?"
She had a point. There ought to be some alternative to a headlong retreat, waldoes or no waldoes. However, they couldn"t really afford to risk losing what they"d already gained in the hope of winning more. He explained the situation.
"So the Oltec machine had to be sent by men?" asked Sidas when Blade was finished. "Is it possible that-the Tower Builders still live somewhere in the land?"
Blade shook his head. "If the Tower Builders still lived, there would have been other signs of them long before now. Also, this war machine would not have gone mad. I think someone in a city has learned how to use these machines and is sending them against his enemies."
"The Doimari!" growled Bairam. He cursed. "They have always lived under a weak Law. Now instead of being cursed, they find these to sweep the land."
"We shall not keep the Doimari from sweeping the Land by throwing aside the Law ourselves," said Hota firmly. "So before we do anything else, let us all take new oaths to the Law."
"Before we do anything else," said Kareena, "we shall let Blade of England finish what he has to say."
"A man outside the Law?"
"A man who has beaten an enemy not even you could have fought. You are not outside the Law, Hota, but you will be outside my favor if you speak again before Blade has finished."
It was probably just as well that no one heard what Hota muttered under his breath while everyone else was listening to Blade. "The rest of you should load the munfans with all the fire jewels they can carry and return to Kaldak as fast as you can. Then you should begin to search Kaldak for underground rooms with fire jewels and other Oltec which you can use against the machines."
"What about you, Blade?" asked Sidas.
"I will stay behind in Gilmarg," he said. "I want to look for more Oltec. I will start with what may lie at the bottom of the ladder in the room of the fire jewels. Though I am outside the Law, I know more about what to seek. I can fight or run better than anyone else if the Doimari send more Oltec machines."
"Yes," someone said, "but since you are outside the Law, you should not be left alone with all this Oltec. Someone within the Law must stay with you."
"I can stay with you," said Saorm. He had his color back now and was standing with a rifle over his shoulder. He looked like a self-confident combat veteran.
"No," said Blade. "You were very valiant during the fight with the war machine, but I don"t think you"d live through another such encounter. No, you must return to the city and help in the search there."
Everyone seemed to be trying to look at everyone else at once. Although no one quite wanted to leave Blade alone in Gilmarg, no one was eager to volunteer to face Doimari, waldoes, and the Sky Masters alone knew what else. Blade was relieved to see that at least neither Bairam nor Hota had volunteered.
Sidas seemed about to speak, then Kareena stamped her foot. "Are none of you men? Then I will stay behind with Blade. No one can say that I am not within the Law."
"So, you"re finally going to let Blade bed you?" said Hota. He spoke loudly enough to be overheard but not so loud that anyone who wanted to ignore him couldn"t do so. Blade saw Kareena silently grit her teeth and hoped Bairam would have the sense to do the same.
Instead Bairam drew his sword so violently that he nearly dropped it, then stepped toward Hota. Kareena tried to hold him back, but he shook off her hand fiercely.
"Hota, you will eat those-words."
Hota"s own sword rasped out of its scabbard. "You will eat my sword long before that, Bairam. You may be of Peython"s blood, but I begin to wonder. Would Peython have a son ready to sell his sister to someone outside the Law?"
At this point Blade would cheerfully have strangled Bairam with his bare hands. From the look on Kareena"s face she would probably have helped him. However, there was Hota to deal with first. Everyone else was hovering around the two swordsmen, not knowing whether they should back off and give them room to fight or try to break up the duel. Custom and the Law said the duel should be fought. Common sense said it should be stopped. Then Blade pushed his way through the circle and stepped up to Hota.
"Hota, I say that you are a coward, to fight Bairam who has not your strength. I say that you will prove anything only by fighting me to the death."
Hota spat at Blade"s feet. "You are outside the Law, Blade. Now stand out of the way."
"So are you, Hota. The Law is made for men. You are much less of a man than Kareena. You are only an animal who talks too much and foolishly. I say this, and I will go on saying it while I live. So kill me or hear it from me every day while I am in Kaldak."
Hota"s scream really was more like an animal"s cry than anything human. Blade jumped back as Hota"s sword flashed past his chest three times, in three savage thrusts. Then several men gripped Hota"s arms and shoulders, pulling him back. He screamed and cursed until Blade was afraid the men holding him would have to knock him out. Blade very much wanted the fight to go to a conclusion.
"Hota, will you prove Blade"s words the truth?" said Sidas angrily. "Does a brave man fight with a sword against bare hands?"
Blade laughed. "Do not take his sword from him, Sidas. In England we have ways of fighting with our bare hands which you do not have in the Land. So Hota with his sword and me with my hands is a fair fight, as long as neither of us is wearing armor. Hota, I will fight as I stand if you will meet me-"
"I will, by the Law! Now let me go, you-!"
Reluctantly, Sidas and the others let Hota go. He shook himself to loosen his muscles, then raised his sword and sprang forward. Blade dropped into unarmed-combat stance and hoped this gamble would pay off. Facing Hota with his bare hands would give him a perfect excuse for killing the man, and Hota had to die. With his loud mouth, his bigotry about the Law, and his many friends among the warriors, he"d simply become too dangerous to be left alive. Blade was going to have to terminate him, as cold-bloodedly as he"d ever terminated a KGB agent. In fact there"d been KGB agents he"d killed with more regrets than he would feel in Hota"s case. On the other hand, bare hands against bare steel was a gamble. Blade was confident of his skill in unarmed combat, but he was also aware of Hota"s speed and strength. If the man was able to slow Blade down at all, this fight might have a very ugly ending.
Blade quickly discovered that Hota"s combination of speed and a short sword gave the man a nearly perfect defense. If he"d been using a longer sword which he had to raise before striking, Blade might have been able to get in under it. As it was, he found the sword"s point darting at his ribs every time he tried to close. If it got to be a life-or-death matter, he could always take the sword in his shoulder, immobilizing Hota"s weapon. Then he could strike with his free hand. He didn"t want to do that yet, though. Gilmarg had to be explored, and he"d be d.a.m.ned if he was going to try exploring it with one arm out of action!
So Blade kept his distance as much as he could without looking too cautious. Several times he managed to get in a kick at Hota"s hip from the man"s left. This slowed Hota down a little but not much. After the fourth kick he started guarding with his left arm held low. The next time Blade kicked, Hota"s hand clamped down on Blade"s ankle like the claw of the waldo. Blade had to kick, twist, and roll all in one motion to get free without being run through. Even then Hota"s sword gashed the back of his leg.
As he got up, Blade heard Kareena gasp with relief and close her eyes. He wished she"d keep herself more under control. Knowing that Kareena was on Blade"s side. could drive Hota into a berserk attack, caring nothing about his survival as long as he could take Blade with him.
Fortunately the cut was shallow. In Home Dimension a light bandage would have been enough for it. He wasn"t even going to lose any speed. Just as well, since Hota seemed to be a more intelligent fighter than he"d expected.
Suddenly Blade realized that the way Hota reacted to Blade"s kicks opened a possible line of attack. Blade feinted twice with his kicks and saw Hota make the same response each time. Not so intelligent after all, Blade thought. Putting both arms in predictable positions isn"t a good idea in a fight. Blade decided to make his move the next time. Otherwise Hota might get suspicious, and he himself was going to be losing speed from sheer fatigue before much longer. Hota hadn"t been chased all over Gilmarg by a runaway waldo!
Blade closed, then stood with one leg loose, the other stiffened. Hota gave his war cry and thrust fiercely at Blade"s exposed and immobile stomach. Blade wheeled on his stiffened leg and brought the edge of his left hand across the side of Hota"s neck. At the same time he folded to the right and gripped Hota"s wrist. The sword point darted past Blade, inches away from castrating him. All of Hota"s forward motion was now a free gift to Blade.
With that help, Blade"s strength and his grip on Hota"s shoulder and arm easily did the rest. In a single smooth motion Blade dropped and Hota rose. The Kaldakan let out a scream as he found himself in midair, then hit the ground headfirst with a gruesome crunch. Blade stepped back, noting that Hota"s skull was flattened on top and his whole head was at an impossible angle to his shoulders.
Then Kareena was in Blade"s arms, and this time he didn"t even want to push her away. He wasn"t feeling quite so cold-blooded now that Hota was dead, and it helped not to have to look at the man"s body for a while.
Finally Kareena stepped away from Blade and turned to the others. "You see that Hota is dead, from the bare hands of a man he fought with a sword. A man he said was outside the Law! I say that if Blade is outside the Law, then the Law itself is not as it should be." Several people flinched at those words, but n.o.body dared say anything. Blade himself wouldn"t have argued with Kareena, not when she had her sword drawn and looked ready to kill anyone who argued.
"I will stay here in Gilmarg with Blade, and we shall study the secrets of the Tower Builders. Whatever we do or leave undone will be for the good of Kaldak, in the war which is coming. The rest of you, start loading the munfans!"
Bairam stepped forward. "My sister, our chief"s daughter, speaks well. My sword will go where she or Blade of England tells it to go."
"Mine likewise," said Sidas.
"And mine."