"Does anyone know what happened to the Seeker Detcharn?" he asked. No one seemed to. Blade was about to give orders for the course home, when a sudden rumble and roar drowned out the whine of the propellers. Everyone looked around wildly, fearing some unknown form of attack-then stopped to stare at the cliff.

Slowly but steadily, the whole cliff which held the laboratory complex was collapsing. Pieces of stone the size of Seekers' mansions were sliding down or falling freely, landing on top of other pieces, throwing up explosions of dust and gravel. Blade saw flashes of sunlight on metal, as laboratory equipment, steel beams, and elevator shafts tore loose and fell with the stone. Blade thought he saw human figures also falling, arms and legs flailing wildly.

There must have been a geological fault in the cliff, which had finally fractured under the hammering from the explosions. It was a more thorough destruction of the Seekers than Blade had planned or even wanted, but now it didn't matter if Detcharn were dead or not. Most of the Seekers and their laboratories were gone, their power in Doimar was smashed, and their city's technology would surely fall behind Kaldak's.

Considering how the stones were flying, it was time to get out of here. Also, by now the Doimari in their main city must have learned of the attack on the rocket base, and would have sent out lifters to apprehend the raiders. "Follow me," said Blade. "We're heading straight for the city of Doimar." They all stared and he explained. "That's the last direction they'll expect us to go. By the time we get to the city, all the lifters will be on their way out here or to the border. Then we'll go to ground beyond Doimar and cross the border at night."

They obviously thought he was crazy, but then he was Voros the Wise, who'd led them to victory and vengeance over the Doimari. Also, if they thought he was crazy, the Doimari would probably think the same.

Blade hoped he was guessing right. He also hoped that Feragga wouldn't take a hand in guiding the search for the raiders. She just might; now that Blade had carried out her plans for stopping Detcharn. After all, Blade was primarily helping the Kaldakans, her age-old enemies, and even though Feragga said she wanted peace, she certainly wouldn't hesitate to apprehend the raiders in order to make examples of them. This would be just like Feragga, and it could just mean the end to Blade, for she was the one person in Doimar who knew how his mind really worked.

Chapter 25.

Baliza was walking along a sandy beach by the ocean. She'd never seen the ocean, but somehow she knew that the blue water stretching to the horizon was just that. A powerfully built man was walking beside her. He looked somewhat like Voros, but she knew that this was her father, the Sky Master Blade.

Either he was a giant, or she'd shrunk. She'd just realized that neither was the case, that she was a little girl again, when she heard the waves starting to whisper her name.

"Baliza, Baliza."

"Go away."

"Baliza!" This was no wave, but a human voice. She turned to ask her father what to do, but he was no longer there. Then the beach and the ocean faded away, and she felt the blankets of her bed in Doimar over her. Someone was shaking her.

"Baliza?"

It was Kandro. "What is it?" she muttered, still half-asleep and more than half-angry at being awakened from a dream she thought might have answered so many questions.

"Something's happened. Something big. I think there's been an army mutiny. Soldiers are all over the place."

"Lifters, too?"

"Yes. Whole balloon trains, too, heading for the border."

Baliza snapped wide-awake in a moment. She also cursed under her breath. It would be just her luck, to have Voros-she still could not call him "her father" -stage his raid on the rocket base now. She couldn't think of anything else which could be causing this kind of uproar and troop movements.

She would have a few words for her stepfather, Sidas, when she got back to Kaldak-if she got back. He'd refused to time her carrying off Feragga with the raid. He'd said that would endanger the secrecy of both projects. He'd even refused to let her inform the three Intelligence people who were helping her in Doimar. Again, the excuse was secrecy. What they didn't know, they couldn't be tortured into telling.

She'd swallowed it then, because she'd had no choice. Now, getting to Feragga would be a lot more difficult. Everyone would be on the alert, and the two agents who were supposed to steal a lifter might run into trouble. Even Feragga's two guards might be suspicious enough to put up a fight.

On the other hand, it was now all the more important to try for Feragga. Her enemies might take advantage of the confusion to try killing her. Baliza knew the old woman deserved a better fate than being shot down by the hired killers of a slimy madman like Detcharn.

She sprang out of bed, and Kandro blinked. She'd forgotten that she was sleeping naked. She giggled. She'd really have to go to bed with the poor little fellow, so he'd get used to her skin. But why did the idea of any man in her bed except Monitor Bekror suddenly seem odd, almost unpleasant?

Time to worry about that later. She pulled on her clothes every which way, then reluctantly tidied them. The neighborhood where her inn lay was rather poor and shabby, but Feragga lived in a richer quarter. She and Kandro shouldn't look as if they had spent the night sleeping in the streets.

When she knew her clothes were in order and her weapons were concealed, she threw a final look around the room to see if she'd left any clues behind. She saw none, and led Kandro down the stairs two at a time.

Feragga's building was too far for them to run all the way, as much as Baliza was tempted to do so. She fought down the urge. They'd get there exhausted, even if they didn't attract too much notice on the way. So they walked briskly, and Baliza watched the sky overhead and the streets around them on the way.

Certainly Voros's raid or something just as big must have happened. Every soldier she saw was moving as fast as she was, and most ordinary Doimari were staying inside or at least out of the soldiers' way. Lifters were also going overhead in swarms. Even though Baliza knew that Doimar had more lifters than Kaldak, she still hadn't expected to see so many. She thanked the Laws that she'd ordered the two lifter-thieves to steal a citizen's machine. All the soldiers' lifters would now be closely guarded.

They reached the street of Feragga's building, and Kandro grabbed her arm. "Look. Our people must be there already." A lifter was just settling down on Feragga's roof.

Baliza squinted into the sun, then shook her head. "Not unless they got away with a soldiers' lifter. That one's got army markings on it. Come on!" They had to be in the building and out of sight from the roof before the soldiers in that lifter started getting out. After that-well, she would see. This wasn't a "Do it or don't come back alive" mission-Sidas didn't give that kind of orders. But she had her pride in doing the impossible and making it look easy. Sidas said that was another thing she seemed to have got from her father.

They charged into the building and headed up the stairs. Three flights up, and one to go, they heard the ominous crackle of lasers. At the foot of the last flight of stairs they heard a scream. It sounded like a man's scream, thank the Lords! Then two bodies crashed down the stairs, locked together in a death-grapple. One was a Doimari soldier, the other, one of Feragga's guards.

The two Kaldakans looked at each other, then up the stairs. Things seemed clear. Baliza wished briefly for a grenade, then decided she wouldn't have dared throw it, not without knowing where Feragga was.

Lasers crackled again as they ran up the stairs. Baliza was the first to reach the top floor. As she stepped into the open two soldiers stepped out of a door across the hall. She shot one and he fell against his comrade, spoiling the man's aim. Before he could shoot again, Baliza kicked him in the stomach, then smashed him across the back of the neck with both hands as he doubled up.

From where she stood, Baliza now had a clear view down the hall to the open roof and the door of the lifter. The hall was smoke-filled and smelled of burned human flesh, but the lifter's pilot also had a clear view of her. He fired a solid-shot at her, and succeeded in hitting Kandro as he stepped out into the hall.

Kandro shot back as he fell. He'd won prizes for pistol shooting, and now proved the prizes had gone to the right man. The pilot flew out of his chair, headless. Baliza shot the man who tried to pull him away from the controls.

That seemed to be the last soldier. Baliza was trying to think what she'd do if there were any more, when she heard wheels on the rug behind her. Then: "Put your hands up and turn around-slowly."

It was a strong voice, but with a note of old age. Baliza obeyed. She wasn't surprised to find herself looking at Feragga. The older woman was in her wheelchair, with one hand on its controls and the other holding a short, thick-barreled laser rifle.

Recognition was mutual. Feragga's eyes widened. "What in the name of everything unlawful-! Baliza! What are you doing in Doimar?"

Baliza didn't lower her hands but snapped out her reply. "To get you out of the city. And I don't think I've come a day too soon!"

Feragga looked up and down the hall, counting the bodies as if she was seeing them for the first time. Then she nodded: "No, I don't suppose you have. All right. I'll go."

Baliza's jaw dropped. Even though every second counted, she'd still expected to spend some time arguing. She almost suspected a trick or a trap. Why should Feragga be so tame and ready to flee to her city's hereditary enemies?

Yet if Feragga was telling the truth, this was a gift of minutes which might save them all. Baliza decided not to question the gift. She knelt beside Kandro, who was unconscious and pale from loss of blood but still breathing.

Feragga looked on approvingly as Baliza bandaged her companion's wounds. "Your father would have done that," she said. "He never abandoned friends. Your mother owes her life to that."

"I know."

"Nungor, my old war captain, was like that, too. It was a sad and un-Lawful thing, that he and Blade could not have met in a way that let them be friends. But life is that way, more often than not."

Baliza had no attention to spare for life's tragedies. Instead, she hoisted Kandro over her shoulder and carried him out to the lifter. Then she returned for Feragga. The old woman's grip on her rifle was so loose that Baliza was tempted to grab it. She resisted the idea. Feragga obviously wasn't going to be taken alive, and in fact it was this determination which had kept her fighting long enough for Baliza and Kandro to arrive. s.n.a.t.c.hing her rifle would just make her angry, without helping a bit against other Doimari.

Baliza wheeled Feragga, rifle and all, down the hall and into the lifter. She was strapping the chair firmly in place when she heard lifter propellers and the crackle of laser fire outside. They seemed to be a long way off but getting rapidly closer.

Baliza looked out. A battered and dirty citizen's lifter was heading for them. A hundred yards behind was a Doimari soldiers' machine, with men firing lasers from both doors and windows. They'd already hit the lifter in front several times, but the propellers were still intact.

A moment later Baliza recognized the other two Intelligence people in the pilots' seats. A moment after that, a shot from their pursuers got home. One propeller disintegrated. Baliza saw one of the Intelligence men throw up his hands as flying metal drove into him.

"Here, girl. It's heavier." Baliza turned at the words and took Feragga's rifle. It wouldn't do much good soon enough, but at least she owed it to the men and her own conscience to go down- Her finger was on the trigger when the captured lifter suddenly swung around in a sharp turn. The turn took it directly into the path of the Doimari lifter. The captured lifter was moving slowly, but the Doimari lifter was speeding up as its pilot closed in for the kill. The impact as the two machines came together was enough to wreck both.

They bounced apart, spewing pieces and smoke, then began their long fall to the ground. Baliza didn't take her eyes off them until they both plunged through the roof of a building three streets away. Smoke boiled up, and she imagined she heard screams.

"Come on, girl," said Feragga irritably. "You can't do anything for them. It's wasting their deaths not to use the time they gave you! It's Detcharn's men who were coming for me. If what's happening is what I thought might happen, he'll be too busy to send more until we're-"

Baliza cursed, then glared at Feragga. "Old woman, just exactly what did you think might happen? And I want an answer, or we don't move an inch off this roof!"

Faragga grinned. "That would really be cutting off your toes to spite your feet, now wouldn't it? But indeed, you ought to know. I suspect you'll be finding out from someone else before long, but-" She broke off, as Baliza let out a gasp as if she'd been punched in the stomach. Somehow she knew what had to be coming.

"It's time you knew. Your father the Sky Master Blade has come back. He's probably stamping Detcharn and the rocket base into the ground right now."

"My fa-ther?" It was a croak. She'd known it, but still she couldn't face hearing "Your father's come back" said like "The sun will rise tomorrow."

"You probably know him as Voros," Feragga went on. "But it's Blade all right. His Doimari daughter Moshra got it out of his mind. There's no doubt about it. "I-Lord's sake girl, what's gotten into you?"

Baliza shook herself like a wet dog. "Sorry. It's-going to take a little-for me to get used to it."

"Then do it elsewhere. Right now, you stop standing there like you're seeing your first naked man, and get this skybarge moving. Otherwise your father's going to get a message about your glorious death, and a fine welcome-home present that'll be for him!"

Baliza said nothing, but she was at the controls in a moment. In another minute, the lifter was climbing swiftly into a temporarily empty sky.

Chapter 26.

Far off on the horizon, Blade saw the towers of the city of Doimar. The sight actually made him breathe easier. They were now as close to the enemy's heart as they were going to get. They still hadn't met opposition or even suspicion.

Blade would have breathed still easier if there hadn't been quite so many lifters in the air. So far none of them were asking awkward questions, but if somebody did get suspicious, he could quickly call up strong reinforcements.

However, the Doimari would hardly sit quiet and twiddle their thumbs in the face of the raiders' victory. It was inevitable that they would be rushing around both on the ground and in the air, like ants from a kicked anthill. As long as they weren't any better organized, Blade thought he and his people had a reasonably good chance of getting out. They'd done their work, no matter what happened now, but Blade didn't like unnecessary kamikaze missions.

Ezarn had finished checking out the turret laser and p.r.o.nounced it "tight and ready." Now he sat cross-legged beside Cheeky, doing the same check on his captured Doimari laser. With both side doors open, Ezarn could fire out either one, and the laser was powerful enough to hurt a lifter.

Doimar and the bee-swarm of lifters over it sank below the horizon. The raiders were alone over countryside that was mostly farms, with patches of forest. Slowly the patches of forest grew larger, then grew together. In another few hours they would be outside the area which Doimar tried to control. They could go to ground in a forest which would hide them like a haystack hiding a needle, and wait until the hunt died down. Then they could swing far to the south and head for home. It would not be too different from the route Blade had used in escaping from Doimar with Kareena, except that they would be flying instead of using a hovercraft.

"Voros," said Ezarn quietly. "We're being followed."

Blade shifted position so that he could see out one of the side doors. Ezarn was right. A Doimari military lifter was overhauling them quickly. From its nose jutted the muzzle of a heavy laser. In a fixed mount, it wouldn't be as easy to aim as the one in Blade's turret, but it would be much more powerful. It could knock one of the raiders' lifters out of the sky with a single hit, or at least kill everyone aboard it.

Baliza had just discovered the big laser mounted in the nose of her lifter when she saw the three other machines a mile ahead. She mentally kicked herself for not having done a more thorough inspection of her prize long before this. Here she was facing Doimari she almost certainly would have to fight or outrun, and she hadn't even checked out her main weapon!

She was starting that overdue check when she saw something familiar about one of the lifters ahead. It had a turret-mounted laser forward just like one of the machines sent to Voros. And all three lifters were smoke-blackened and scarred, as if they'd recently been in a fight-or near an explosion ....

Baliza fed power to the propellers and put the nose of her lifter down. With gravity aiding thrust, she rapidly caught up with the three machines and slid under them. Down here the turret of the landing machine couldn't bear on her, and n.o.body could lean out far enough to shoot without risking a fall.

"What Law-forsaken rat's in your brain, girl-?" began Feragga. Then Baliza pulled her machine up to fly parallel to the leader and only a few yards away.

"Well, I'll be b.u.g.g.e.red with a file," said Feragga softly. "Fine place for a family reunion this is, I must say." They both recognized the Sky Master Blade at the controls of the turreted lifter. For a moment which seemed to go on for hours, father and daughter stared at each other through the windows and across the empty air.

Then Blade seemed to shrug, smiled, and raised one hand in an open-palmed signal of greeting.

When Blade saw his daughter at the controls of the lifter alongside, and Feragga strapped in her wheelchair, his breath went out with a whoooosh. The secret of his ident.i.ty and probably the Dimension X secret were so far up the spout they'd probably never get back down again. The idea of Feragga not telling Baliza the truth about "Voros" was too ridiculous to contemplate.

So that question was settled. But-what were Baliza and Feragga doing out here in the same lifter? Was his daughter kidnapping Feragga or rescuing her? Rescuing, probably-Blade now saw the hefty laser in Feragga's lap. And her grin as she recognized him didn't look like a prisoner's, either.

Time to settle that question when they'd landed and he and the others could get off and talk quietly. He'd be d.a.m.ned if he was going to reveal his ident.i.ty over the radio hundreds of miles inside Doimar! The secret was out, but maybe he could still keep it from getting too far out.

He signaled that Baliza should take position at the rear of the line. She nodded, and her machine started dropping back. As it did, Blade saw Ezarn staring hard at him.

"Voros, that was Baliza, wasn't it?"

"Unless she's got a twin, yes."

"And the other woman, the old one. That was Feragga, wasn't it?"

"As far as I can tell, yes."

"Wonder how far that is, Voros. Wonder if you are really a-Voros, in fact."

Ezarn wouldn't do anything violent or dangerous even if he wasn't told the truth. But he'd been too good a soldier and too loyal a friend to be told anything else. He deserved the truth more than anybody in this Dimension except the young woman who'd already found it out.

"I am-" he began then Ezarn shouted: "Look out!"

A laser beam ripped past. It came from below and off to the right. As Ezarn sprang into the turret, Blade spotted the Doimari lifter rising from behind a clump of tall trees in the forest below.

So did Ezarn. The turret lazer went tsssrrpppp! and a piece of the other lifter's hull glowed, then peeled away. It slammed against the trees, but its own laser was also turret-mounted. In spite of the unstable platform under him, the turret gunner shot back. Smoke, hot air, and bits of molten metal sprayed back at Ezarn as the enemy beam took off the barrel of his laser.

Ezarn fell back into the cabin, coughing, cursing, and beating out burning spots on his clothes. He was making so much noise that Blade was fairly sure he wasn't badly hurt. Cheeky squalled in rage and alarm but had the sense to stay out from underfoot.

Then Blade saw two more lifters rising from the bank of a small river. He didn't know if the detachment's commander was trigger-happy or if he'd been warned somehow. If he was attacking on his own initiative and his detachment was wiped out, the raiders might still escape.

Not if Blade used his radio, though. He'd just have to trust to Baliza's good sense, to make her pick sound tactics. "Ezarn, get your own laser and stand ready by the doors. I'm going down under them."

"Right, Voros!" Ezarn scrambled into position so fast that Blade stopped worrying about his being hurt. He concentrated on the controls, putting the lifter into a dive with the propellers wide open.

He'd covered half the distance to the enemy before they saw him coming.

The attack was a complete surprise to Baliza. Before she'd recovered from the surprise, the first enemy lifter had plunged to the ground and exploded. Then she saw her father's lifter, plunging straight at the other two enemies.

"May the Laws protect us," she breathed. She saw again the sight of the two Intelligence men, ramming the enemy at the cost of their own lives. She imagined her father falling down through the sky in a smashed lifter, his body crushed and charred but still horribly alive after it struck. She heard his screams-then let out one of her own.

"No!"

The Doimari would have both her and her father or neither of them.