By now Blade was fully tumescent and the cloth that covered him was bulging. Valli cast a glance downward and smiled. She put her hand on him gently.

«You see, Blade. You are ready. You desire me as I desire you. So am I to beg? You did promise, you know, and, though I doubted then, I do not doubt now. You are a god, no matter how you deny it, and the child I have will be the child of a god. Please, Blade. I implore you. Keep your promise.»

Blade was lost. Indeed, as he drew her to him and kissed her, he wondered if this had not been in his mind all along. He did have a task for Valli, but had it not been secondary? Had he not from the very first, even with his infantile penis, wanted this girl? For that was what she was-a girl. No mother to him now. Nothing of incest here. He realized then, as he and Valli rolled over on the bed, that he had not yet shaken the mores of Home Dimension completely. Like shackles, some habits of thought persisted. He would have to do better, get completely free, if he meant to survive in Zir.

Valli, as a harem woman, had been well schooled in all the arts of love. Even had Blade not known this he would soon have guessed that, ever since she had been old enough to understand, she had been learning the ways in which men are best pleased. Her kisses were sweet and her tongue made of honey. She soon took command and, gentle-voiced, bade Blade relax and let her minister to him. And in exciting him who needed little urging, she soon excited herself.

She laved his big body with her tongue and her fingers were agile and knowing. She directed where his hands should go and what they should do. She drew it out and out and out, to such excruciating length of ecstasy, that Blade sworled in passion and began to think he would go mad. Always, when making love, he sought to keep a portion of his mind cool and detached, but with Valli it did not work. She took complete charge of him, she consumed him, and when she mounted him at last and was panting toward climax, all sweet sweat-covered, it took all his willpower to force her over and take command as he liked to do. As he insisted he do. He went into a flurry of brutal last strokes, pounding and pounding away, and then he moaned as she screamed and they collapsed into exhaustion.