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forward, straight into the swordsman's throat. Flesh, blood vessels, windpipe
parted as neatly as if Blade had swung a giant razor. Blade jerked the spear
back. The swordsman stood for a moment, blood fountaining from his gaping
neck, the life going out of his eyes. Then he fell, landing with a splat in
the spreading pool of his own blood.
Blade pulled off his tunic, which had been spattered by the spraying
blood of his opponent's death-wound. He wiped his bloody spearhead with it.
Then he spread the tunic over the dead man's head, stepped back into the
middle of his own square, and pounded his spearbutt three times on the floor.
It was the signal of victory. It was also the signal for a sudden flurry of
murmuring and whispering.
Blade was conscious that every eye in the room was fixed on him. Then the four
survivors of the
Hongshu's hand started looking at each other. Uncertainty was in their eyes.
Their master's voice slashed through the silence. "Why stand and gape, you
fools? He who lies there did nothing worthy of a wise dabuno. He doomed
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himself by forgetting who had instructed his opponent.
That was no true victory we saw. That was a fool's bungling suicide!"
The Hongshu's voice was loud and harsh. But Blade realized that he was trying
to reassure himself more than his four dabuni. He was certainly not improving
their spirits. Blade noticed sour looks on their faces, sour looks directed at
their master.
Before the sour looks could turn into open rebellion, the Hongshu called
out his move. Blade watched. Would he now send his first warrior or first
swordsman forward against Blade?
Instead the first swordsman moved back and around, on to the flank of the
first warrior. Blade was still within easy reach of both spearmen. Would Lord
Tsekuin ?
Lord Tsekuin would. Blade found himself face-to-face with the
opposing first spearman. He considered his next move.
The first two kills had been crude, at least by Gaikon's highest standards.
How to make more of an impression with the next one? An impression not only on
the Hongshu's mind, but also on the other three opposing dabuni?
Then Blade grinned. There was a standard technique in Gaikon spear-fighting.
In the hands of the average dabuno, it was more spectacular than deadly. But
Blade was not the average dabuno. His arms were stronger and his eyes and
reflexes faster. He could make the "spectacle" turn deadly.
Blade stepped back, out of range of a quick thrust from his opponent. He
raised the spear over his head, holding it horizontally in both hands. Then he
began to whirl it, his hands shifting with steadily increasing speed. The
spearman's eyes drifted up to the whirling spear. No doubt he knew perfectly
well that such a whirling spear could not be stopped and thrust forward
without giving more than enough warning to an opponent. So did the Hongshu. He
could not keep a sneer off his face as he watched
Blade's spear whirl and listened to the mounting hiss as it cut the air. If
one of Lord Tsekuin's men was going to make a fool of himself this way, so
much the better.
Once he had settled into a steady rhythm, Blade could keep a spear going like
this for half an hour without thinking about it at all. He kept his eyes and
mind focused on the spearman, with occasional glances at the Hongshu. He
wanted to go on long enough to get everyone thinking he must be getting tired.
Not long enough to really get tired, though. His one-shot kill might not
come off. Years of single-combat experience told him to keep plenty of
strength in reserve.
He whirled the spear faster. Now the hiss deepened into a drone, like a
distant swarm of bees. He did not bother looking up. He knew that by this time
the spear must be only a half-invisible blur above him, like a hummingbird's
wings. Sweat began to trickle down his face and chest, and he felt the first
twinges of strain in his, arm and wrist muscles. It wouldn't be long now.
Definitely it wouldn't be long now. The spearman was beginning to look
speculatively at him and to shift his grip on his own weapon. Had he decided
Blade was a madman, easily vulnerable? Time to change his mind, then.
Blade focused his attention on the spear for a moment. One, two, three, four
more times around.
Then his breath exploded out of him in a scream.
"Kiiiiy-a-a-ahhhhh!
The spear froze in midair. Before the spearman could blink an eye, Blade took
the one step forward that brought him within thrusting range. The spearman's
weapon jerked upward in a futile effort to guard.
If the man had tried his own thrust, he might at least have taken Blade with
him. As it was, his spear was still rising when Blade's spear drove downward.
It drove into the spearman's belly just below the ribs, drove through the
spine with a sharp crack, and burst out his back in a spray of blood. Blade
jerked the spear free and stepped away as the spearman collapsed backward.
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When the last convulsion subsided, Blade again wiped his spear on the dead
man's trousers and turned to face the Hongshu.
This hadn't been quite as spectacular a kill as he might have managed. He had
trained himself until he could bring a spear to a stop and pick off a fly on
the wall. But why risk missing? The one blow had been struck and the spearman
was dead. The Hongshu wasn't particularly happy about it, either. One hand was
tightly clutching the arm of his chair, until Blade wondered if the hard black
wood would collapse into sawdust under the pressure. He also had the look of a
man trying to keep the shock he felt off his face.
Lord Tsekuin and Doifuzan were also fighting to keep their faces
expressionless. They looked as though they wanted to throw aside their dignity
and applaud or embrace Blade or both at once.
The three surviving dabuni of the Hongshu's hand weren't even trying to look
calm. They had seen two of their comrades die under Blade's spear like rats in
a dog's jaws. They couldn't avoid wondering who was next. Blade noticed the
first warrior looking toward the Hongshu. His face showed a mixture of
anticipation and fear. Blade guessed that this time it would be the Hongshu
who forced the combat.
Probably between the two first warriors.
Blade had guessed right. The Hongshu's first warrior was drawing his sword and
raising it into position as he stepped forward. A simple move through four
squares, and he stood in the square to
Blade's right. Blade raised his spear and turned to face the man.
He was the largest of the Hongshu's outsized warriors, nearly six and a half
feet tall. But there was no fat on his massive frame, only supple muscle. His
feet moved with a delicacy and assurance that told
Blade this man might be faster than he looked. Blade decided not to plan in
advance any particular way of dealing with the first warrior. He would try a
few exchanges first, to reveal the man's weaknesses, relying on his own speed
to keep himself safe.
Blade almost wasn't fast enough. A sudden whuff, and the first warrior's sword
split the air beside
Blade's ear. A few inches closer, and it would have split his head as neatly
as a grapefruit. Blade aimed a thrust at the man's thigh. The sword blocked
the thrust, then smashed the spear aside with a blow that nearly tore it out
of Blade's hands. If it had landed squarely instead of glancing, it would have
chopped the spear in two.
This man definitely wasn't going to be as easy a victim as the first two. In
fact, Blade wasn't even sure that the first warrior was going to be the victim [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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