When he did, bright sunlight stabbed into them, which did not make his throbbing head feel any better. He closed his eyes again and turned his head to one side and kept it in that position until the headache had faded. Then he opened his eyes, lifted his head, and looked around him.

He first saw mountains-high mountains, snowcapped, rearing jaggedly against a blue sky. For a moment the mountains seemed so close that he thought he could reach out and touch them-or they could rise up and topple over on him.

Then his vision cleared, and perspective returned. It was the crystal clear air and the flat land between him and the mountains that made them look so close. In fact they must be forty or fifty or even more miles away. It was hard to tell how high their summits rose into the flawless blue sky, but some of them must be close to twenty-five thousand feet. From one jagged peak a long white plume of snow whipped out in the wind, like a feather in a lady's hat.

Slowly, flexing each limb to see if it still worked, Blade rose to his feet. He was as naked as ever, but apparently uninjured. He went through a quick series of exercises to make absolutely sure, and to work some of the tension out of his mind. Physical activity had always helped him relieve mental strain.

Even a short spurt of physical exercise made his breath come short, quick, and hard. This was something he hadn't anticipated while he lay resting. Even the place where he stood must be at a fairly high altitude, ten or twelve thousand feet above sea level at least. Air this thin would not hold heat very well.

For the moment it seemed to be near noon, for the sun blazed hotly almost straight down from the clear sky. But it would be cold at night-colder than Blade wanted to face naked and unequipped.

Now he made a more careful survey of his surroundings. All around him was a level blue-gray plain-hard, dusty earth with patches of gravel and boulders. There was not a tree in sight, and precious little vegetation of any sort.