More than once during the three days, Blade was half tempted to steal a horse and slip quietly off into the forest. He was not quite sure what he would do then. The Steppemen's ways sounded no more admirable and no more hospitable than the laws of the Empire. Perhaps the sensible thing to do would be to fade quietly away into the wilderness and live there like a hermit until the time came to return to Home Dimension.
Unfortunately, that would only make matters worse, as he discovered after talking with Haleen. She was horrified at the idea and begged him not to think of it.
«That would prove to all that you were a spy or something else just as bad.»
«Even to Duke Boros?»
«Even to him.»
«Then what would happen?»
«He would have to tell the Emperor at once. Kul-Nam would not be pleased. He would take Tulu as a hostage and send the duke out at the head of an army to scour the country for you. Hundreds of people would be killed or left homeless in the search.
«When they caught you, you would be castrated, blinded, flayed, then smeared with honey and tied across an anthill to have the flesh eaten from your bones. If you were not caught, Kul-Nam would execute Tulu in the same way. Boros would have to watch it, then be impaled alive. The House of Kudai would be abolished, all its slaves executed, all its freemen enslaved, all its wealth forfeited to the Imperial Treasury.»
Blade gave a long whistle of astonishment. «All because of accidentally befriending someone who might have been a spy?»