Superstitious. The Izmir of Zir was superstitious. In that, and in that alone, lay Blade's one chance of staying alive.

At last he slept. When Valli came for him that night after dark he had grown another year and was beginning to look like a very stalwart infant indeed. His hair was darker and thicker and already inclined to curl. Muscles were developing beneath the baby fat. Valli kissed and hugged him and when Blade drew away impatiently she laughed and said, «If I did not believe before-and all day I have been wondering if it was not a dream after all-then I must believe you now. I think you have gained ten pounds this day.»

«I don't see how,» Blade said crossly, «since I am starving to death. If I do not have meat soon I will never grow back to manhood.»

«You must manage a little longer,» said Valli. «In the morning, if this crazy plan works and we are still alive, you will have food.» She eyed him and with a strange little smile said, «In the meantime, if you want it, there is my breast.»

Blade shook his head, though her breasts were inviting enough. «No. I am grown beyond that now. I must have meat. So let us get on with it. . your lover Ramsus is going to help?»

Valli made a face and sank onto a divan. From an anteroom a single light cast a faint glow over her face. Blade noted that for the first time she was wearing lip salve and that her lashes and brows had been darkened. Her hair smelled of fresh scent and she wore new combs to keep it atop her head. Her kirtle was new, he saw, and shorter than before, and tonight she wore scarlet underpants.

I have, he thought sourly, a most beautiful mother.

«Ramsus is ours,» said Valli. «He will do anything I ask. He should, after this afternoon. He nearly killed me. He is not a man at all-he is a beast, a goat, an animal or a devil. I do not know what he is-except that it is impossible to satisfy him.»