«I wake,» Blade corrected her. «As for welcoming you-we shall see.» He decided to be blunt. «Are you part of the duke's hospitality to a stranger?»

«Oh yes, it is so that I am,» said the girl, controlling a giggle. Then her smile faded and she spoke very softly and earnestly, with none of the sing-song quality in her voice now.

«Yes, I was to come to your tent. The duke thinks I come only because I know it is my duty as a slave girl. He does not know that I also come out of gratitude.» She hesitated. «He must not know it, either. I would be punished terribly for it if he knew.»

«Then why do you tell me?» said Blade. «Do I need to know it?»

«Yes,» said the girl bluntly. «You are a stranger in the Empire. Most strangers who come to Saram die, some very soon, some later. Some of those who die, die because they have no friends. It is against the laws of the Empire to be a friend to a stranger. But you have two friends now. You must know this. It may save you.»

That depended very much on who the friends were, even if the girl was telling the truth. «Who are these friends?»

«I am one. I am Haleen, a slave girl in the house of the Dukes of Kudai as my mother and my mother's mother were before me. I have come to you because I am your friend, and because I want to tell you that I am.»

Blade nodded. «I thank you for your friendship. But you said I have two friends. Who is the other?»

Haleen fell silent for a moment, apparently listening for sounds from outside the tent. Then she went on, her voice barely above a whisper. «The other is Dzhai, the fighting man whose arm you crippled and whose life you asked be saved. Saving him made both of us your friends. Dzhai is my brother, son of the same father by another woman. His mother was a free woman and his father was not known to those who had charge of such matters, so he was born free. If anyone else knew this secret, he would be enslaved or slain at once. I trust you to keep silent. You have already saved him once, so I do not think you will say anything now that would slay him.»