She put her lifter's nose down and fed it power. At the same time, she was adjusting the controls on the main laser. Its power supply was fully charged.

She swept past the other two lifters, ignoring the staring faces at their doors and window. Out in front, she saw that the enemy was reacting to her father's attack. But would they react fast enough, and how? If they didn't break to the right and left, he would ram them. But if they did break, where would they go? She estimated distances and times, made a careful adjustment of her own lifter's course, then rested one finger on the firing b.u.t.ton.

The two Doimari lifters broke, one hard to the right, the other hard to the left. A laser beam darted out of Blade's door at the one on the right. The one on the left swung out wide, precisely on the course Baliza had predicted. She stabbed the firing b.u.t.ton.

Laser beam and lifter met in a perfect mating.

She must have hit the power supply, because the enemy lifter blew apart like a hand grenade. White-hot pieces arched down through the sky from a cloud of sparks and blue smoke.

The other lifter and Blade's were now too close together to let Baliza risk a second shot. She clenched her gun hand into a fist to keep her finger off the hutton.

Another blazing exchange of laser beams. Blade's machine was. .h.i.t, and hard-it started to lurch downward toward the river. If it lost all lift this high-Baliza forced the thought out of her mind.

Then she saw that the last enemy lifter was wandering aimlessly in circles, its nose smoking, its pilot apparently dead or hurt. It showed no signs of falling.

It showed no signs of maneuvering, either, as Baliza got into position behind and lasered it. This one didn't explode, but it was a lifeless, smoking wreck as it plunged into the river in a cloud of steam.

The waves from the crash were still spreading when Blade's lifter made a slightly more dignified landing in the river. It promptly started to sink, but Baliza sighed with relief when she saw her father and another man climb out on the roof. There was also something small and blue riding on her father's shoulder.

She started down toward the river, while the other two raider lifters flew in circles above her.

The last air was bubbling out of the sinking lifter when Blade saw his daughter waving to him out of her c.o.c.kpit window. She cut the propellers back and came to a stop almost overhead.

"You first, Ezarn," he said. "Then I'll hand up Cheeky."

Ezarn tossed the laser up into the open door and swung himself up. He was leaning over the edge to reach for Cheeky when the feather-monkey leaped. He sailed clear over Ezarn and vanished into the lifter. By then the water was up to Blades' knees. Baliza lowered her lifter another foot, and Ezarn yanked him in so hard Blade felt his arms and shoulders protesting. It was still better than an impromptu swim in a river which might hold anything, most of it mutated and all of it hungry.

As the lifter rose, Blade went forward. He looked carefully at the wounded Intelligence man lying on the floor of the cabin; he appeared to be safely unconscious. Each step seemed longer to Blade than the last, and the final step up to his daughter in the pilot's seat seemed the longest of all. Then Blade consigned the Dimension X secret to the devil, bent down, and kissed Baliza on the forehead.

"You're a daughter to be proud of," was all he felt able to say. He was afraid his voice wouldn't stay steady for more than that.

"Sidas was afraid of you worrying about my safety," said Baliza softly. "He didn't think I might find a time to be worried about-yours." She raised one hand and wiped the back of it across her eyes. "Father . . ."

"What's the matter, girl?" said Feragga with a chuckle. "That wasn't the way you greeted him the last time you met, I've heard."

"Oh, shut up, you bawdy old witch," growled Blade. "Or better yet, make yourself useful. Get on the radio-the Sky Voice-and listen to the talk between the Doimari lifters. That may tell us if anyone heard a call from the ones we shot down."

"Yes, Sky Master," said Feragga with sarcastic meekness.

Blade grinned. He understood now what Feragga had been doing-trying to keep him and Baliza from being completely carried away by their emotions. She'd probably been right, too. This far inside Doimari territory, they were a long way from being out of the woods yet.

Feragga listened for an hour without hearing any signs that the battle by the river had been detected. Apparently the Doimari commander had been acting on his own initiative and sent out no messages before he went down.

By then it was mid-afternoon. Blade started searching for a clearing where he could land and hide the lifters. He wanted to find it, get the lifters out of sight, and make camp before dark.

Chapter 27.

Ikhnan himself and Shangbari were the only two of the Red Cats to go with Voros at dawn to the skymachines which would take him to the City of Kaldak. The rest of the Tribe, warriors and women alike, were too drunk or sound asleep.

Not that Shangbari would have called himself sober. There had been much beer drunk last night, and even some strong Kaldakan waters from Monitor Bekror's house. All wanted to celebrate the victory and the escape and give the spirits of the dead a proper start toward the Great Hunt. Voros the Wise drank as much as anyone, for he had won the victory but had his woman Sparra to mourn.

And the cunning of the escape! That was worth much beer all by itself. Flying so far into Doimar that no map showed where they were, then sitting in the forest for days while the Doimari looked for them in all the places they were not. Shangbari had fed them well during those days with his hunting skills, although some of the animals were strange even to him. He was as proud of how well they'd eaten because of his skills as he was of the Doimari he'd killed at the wizards' home.

No one would ever again doubt that Shangbari was the finest hunter of the Red Cats. And Shangbari knew he owed this also to Voros the Wise, a man of the City of Kaldak.

Clearly the G.o.ds had made many kinds of City men-and women.

Now Voros and Ezarn stood beside their machine, waiting for the chief and the hunter to come up. Cheeky and the Red Cat Fija were sitting face to face at their feet, like two human friends saying farewell.

"Farewell, Ikhnan, Shangbari," said Voros. "If it is so willed, I shall return to do you more honor."

"The greatest honor you can do is leading us again in battle, if there is a worthy enemy to be fought," said Ikhnan. Shangbari nodded.

"That would be a pleasure, if it can be so," said Voros. "I have never led better fighting men than the Red Cats."

"I've never fought beside better, neither," said Ezarn, although he looked at the ground as he said it instead of at the two Tribesmen.

Then Voros's face set hard. Cheeky jumped up on his shoulder, and he and Ezarn climbed into the sky machine. It rose, and the other three rose with it. Like birds flying away for the winter, they vanished over the treetops.

Shangbari looked at Ikhnan. "I wonder why Voros looks as if he was going to punishment instead of honor for his victory?"

"Perhaps he has offended someone powerful in Kaldak," said the chief. "There have always been those in the Cities who wanted them to unite against the Tribes, not fight each other. Certainly they would not be happy that he has won his victory with our aid!"

Ikhnan was shrewd, as usual. "They will find him hard to kill," said Shangbari. "Ezarn will guard his back to the death, and so will Baliza."

Shangbari did not know what to make of the woman Baliza, other than that she seemed to be a warrior-woman even more formidable than Sparra. Sometimes she behaved as if she had once been Voros's woman. Other times she behaved as if she was blood kin, unlawful for him to bed. Well, either way she would be sworn to defend or avenge him.

Short of a firing squad, Blade wasn't really sure what to expect on his return to Kaldak. He'd finally stopped worrying about the Dimension X secret to the point where he could see things from the point of view of the Kaldakans. After all, his return from the dead must have thrown a rather large wrench in their works, too!

So it was pleasant but not completely a surprise to discover what Sidas planned to do about the Sky Master's return. Once he'd listened to Blade's story, he thanked Blade, poured out beer, and said: "We're not going to tell anybody a d.a.m.ned thing. Not a word. As far as we're concerned, the raid was led by Cadet Commander Voros, who's going to get a pardon and a company of his own."

The High Commander laughed. "This is partly because we respect you and the way you wanted to keep your return a secret. But don't flatter yourself that's the only reason."

"That's no way to talk to-" began Baliza, but Sidas waved her to silence.

"It's the way to talk to a soldier of Kaldak. I want to think of Blade that way, if I can. And that's another reason why I don't want the news to get out. Consider how few people will even try to think of the Sky Master as just another man. Consider how many are going to think of him as a G.o.d who came to get us out of trouble again. If too many of them think that, they'll be expecting him to come back and save them every time Kaldak gets into trouble.

"Also, from what Blade says, it will be a century or more before we can use his method of traveling between the-Dimensions?" Blade nodded. Sidas went on. "A century, before the 'brains' we use in our Fighting Machines are good enough. But people won't believe that. They'll expect a miracle tomorrow, ask our scientists to produce it, then tear them apart if they don't."

Blade nodded again. He wasn't entirely sure it would take a whole century for Kaldak to develop the computers. They might even find some other method of inter-Dimensional travel. Such existed, and there just weren't that many rules on the subject.

However, Sidas's mistake wouldn't do anyone any harm. If someone in this Dimension did get inter-Dimensional travel, it was more likely to be Doimar, with its Seekers and telepaths. The raid had undoubtedly set them back a couple of generations, but it hadn't completely wiped out their City's advantage.

"Yes," said Baliza "We've got better things to do than hunt the Golden Munfan. Also, if no one knows that Blade saved us again, n.o.body will say anything against the High Command or the Intelligence people."

"What's there to say against me?" said Sidas.

"A lot, when my father's not around to tell me I should be more respectful to a superior," said Baliza.

Sidas grunted. "All right."

Blade smiled. He was pretty sure what Baliza had to say and could almost feel sorry for Sidas. Baliza still wasn't happy about the lack of coordination between her mission and Blade's, even though everybody had been lucky. She was going to have some things to say about desk-bound superiors. They would probably be the same things he'd said in his younger days, when he'd felt he was carrying the can for their mistakes.

That evening Sidas threw a party, for everyone who was in on the secret.

It was a highly informal party, with n.o.body standing on rank. Even Ezarn finally got used to talking to Monitor Bekror and taking a gla.s.s of beer from a tray held by his High Commander. He still looked a bit as if he'd been hit over the head and hadn't quite recovered. Blade expected the man would sooner or later get used to the fact that his old comrade Voros was really the Sky Master Blade: Ezarn wasn't stupid, he was impossible to frighten, and having an a.s.sured future (in the Monitor Bekror's guards, with a farm of his own) probably wouldn't hurt either.

Cheeky ate so much that finally he vomited all over Baliza's tunic. She washed him off, put him to bed, then went around the rest of the evening bare to the waist. For the first time in his life Blade found himself trying not to look at such a good-looking, woman parading around half-bare. However, he finally remembered that this was Kaldakan custom. Blood kin had a complete right to be casually nude around each other.

"It's good to see her that way," Bekror told Blade as they both refilled their cups. "I wouldn't care to have some unnatural fear crawling in her mind when I marry her."

Blade looked at his cup, to see if somebody had spiked his drink. Or maybe he'd just drunk too much?

"I thought you said you wanted to marry Baliza," he said slowly.

"I did," said Bekror. "If she'll have me."

"And if she won't?"

"She's the best woman I've known for a long time. She's not the only one. If she says no, I'll let her go. I value my peace of mind too much."

"Not to mention your ribs, skull, and back teeth," added Blade.

"Them, too."

They talked freely after that. Bekror wanted a wife who would outlive him and be able to take care of his estates and any children she had by him.

"About the taking care, I'm not worried," said Blade. "About the outliving-well, she's got one of my worst habits. She'll always run to find out what's happening, no matter how dangerous it might be."

"She'll have a double dose of it, then. Her mother was like that." They both drank to Kareena's memory. "What do you suggest my doing about it?"

"Learn to live with it, or you'll have to learn to live without her," said Blade flatly.

"That's all?"

"That's all. And you didn't really need my advice, did you?"

Blade wanted out of this embarra.s.sing situation of advising a prospective son-in-law who was almost old enough to be his own father, about a daughter whom the other man surely knew much better than he did! Inter-Dimensional family reunions were a headache.

Blade, Feragga, and Baliza left the party by midnight, while they were all still sober enough to fly. They were going south, to meet the one man Blade wanted to see who hadn't been at the party. It would have caused too much talk, to recall Bairam from his exile in the south.

Feragga was going south with them, to wait out the crisis in Doimar. "I'm going back as soon as I'm sure I'll be heard instead of shot at," she said bluntly. "And if that doesn't happen-if I have to stay in Kaldak-I'm not going to ask anyone to come. Anybody who wants to come to me from Doimar, that's up to them."

"We risked-" Baliza began, but her father put a hand on her shoulder.

"I know what you risked, and I know what you did. That destruction of the cliff-it wasn't your fault, but the Seekers died. My Seekers, more than Detcharn's.

"I'm grateful to be alive. I'm still not grateful enough to be a traitor, and there's nothing you can do to change my mind on that. Nor you either, Blade," she said with a grin. "I've still got a soft heart for you, but not a soft head."

Blade had the feeling that before long the Kaldakans were going to wish they'd left Feragga in Doimar! He couldn't completely share the feeling-he was too glad she was alive. But he wasn't at all surprised at her refusal to be a traitor. That was one more thing he could have told the Kaldakans in advance, if he hadn't been so carefully hiding his ident.i.ty.

He made a mental note to talk with Feragga about the use of rockets for s.p.a.ce flight. If the Doimari got turned in that direction, it might keep them peaceful and would certainly help the whole Dimension recover. If only his son Detcharn had thought of that himself! His name might be honored in the history of this world, instead of cursed.

To their surprise, Geyrna met them at the lifter field. "Do you mind if I come along?" she said.

"Not if you don't mind telling me why," said Baliza.

"I want to talk to Feragga," Geyrna said. "The Koldak Council of Nine is going to ask why she won't jump through hoops for them. I'd like to have an answer for them. It may not save my seat, but it will save my conscience."

"How did you guess what I've just been telling these people?" demanded Feragga. "You aren't a mind-speaker, are you?"

Geyrna grinned sourly. "Just natural shrewdness-no, if I had that, I might still have a husband. And that's the other reason I'm going south. I want to try putting things back together with Bairam. He shouldn't have gone drinking the way he did, but-well, I did give him some reasons. Maybe they would have been reasons for any man, not just Bairam. I don't know. I want-" She squeezed her eyes shut as Baliza embraced her.

They would need two pilots for the flight south. Blade and Baliza tossed a coin for it, and Baliza won the first watch. As the lights of Kaldak faded behind them, Blade crawled aft and curled up on a pile of old parachutes. Cheeky curled up on his chest, one paw twined in Blade's beard. Blade couldn't remember when he'd last had a good night's sleep. While he was as tough as a diesel locomotive, he also knew the need to sleep when he could.

The worst might be over, but he refused to a.s.sume it was until he woke up back in Home Dimension.

Chapter 28.

Something was wrong.

There was a blanket over Blade, and there hadn't been one in the lifter. Instead of the stiff parachutes, there was a cool sheet under him, smooth and with a smell that practically shouted, "Hospital!" Had the lifter crashed.

Perhaps. But Kaldak didn't have hospitals like that.

Blade opened his eyes, then sat up. He was in the familiar room in the Complex's private hospital where he spent a couple of days for observation after each trip. That was the rule, whether he came back wounded or not. The doctors wanted their piece out of him, and that was all there was to it!

He looked around the room. Hanging on the wall was the Kaldakan soldier's uniform he had worn on the flight to see Bairam in his place of exile in the south. Why the Complex's scientists hadn't yet absconded with it to conduct their experiments was a mystery, but then it was as hard now to believe what he was seeing as it had been to believe he was back in Kaldak. However, there was just as little point in ignoring what his senses were shouting to him.

He'd fallen asleep in Kaldak and awakened in Home Dimension. As simple as that-the simplest and easiest transition from one Dimension to another in the whole history of the Project!

And if that wasn't enough, this simple homecoming was the end of the most complicated, nerve-wracking mission in the history of the Project. Well, no. The fight against the Ngaa had been worse. But this return to Kaldak was certainly a b.l.o.o.d.y good second!

Blade laughed. Somewhere up above was a Higher Power with a taste for practical jokes. Whether you called him G.o.d, Buddha, Allah, or the Lord of the Laws, he had to exist. There was no other way to explain this sort of thing.

Then a thought made Blade's heart race so that the nurse on duty monitoring his vital signs nearly punched the emergency b.u.t.ton.