[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

the sprayer. The warrior's weapons dropped from his suddenly limp fingers.
He collapsed facedown on top of the stolof, then rolled off onto the ground.
Another warrior sprang up on top of the fallen stolof, a lighted firemaker
swinging in one hand. He hurled it straight into the nearest window of the
workshop. Blade yelled for fire buckets. Answering shouts came from inside.
Then Neena dashed out into the courtyard. In her hands was a bow, an arrow
already nocked to the string. She took aim and shot, and the warrior who'd
thrown the firemaker screamed as an arrow suddenly sprouted in his left eye.
He did not go down, but he turned and reeled away, still screaming.
The man's screams seemed to paralyze all of his comrades and their animals.
For a moment nothing moved and not a weapon was raised in the crowd at the
gateway. Blade and Neena could look out
clearly, to see Lord Desgo ride up on a meytan, holding a naked Queen Sanaya
in front of him.
Neena shrieked like a madwoman and snatched frantically for an arrow. As if in
answer to her scream, angry shouts and war cries exploded from the forest.
Then came the sound of scores of running feet and the crackling of scores of
men pushing through bushes. The stolof killers were moving into the attack.
Neena shot, the twang of her bowstring lost in the uproar. Her arrow flashed
toward Lord Desgo, but the nobleman's reflexes were even quicker. He ducked,
jerking Sanaya across in front of him as a shield.
The arrow sank into her body just below the left breast. She shrieked, clawing
at the arrow, then shrieked again as Desgo heaved her off the back of the
meytan and dug in his spurs.
Neena slung her bow and she and Blade leaped forward. They sprang up onto the
back of the fallen stolof, facing two warriors. Neena whipped her threebo up
and over and down on one man's shoulder, and his sword arm dropped limply. The
threebo scythed in a deadly arc from the left, and the man's head snapped
violently to one side as temple and jaw caved in.
Blade's man tried to run. Blade thrust him through the neck from behind, so
that the sword went through the man's spine going in and through his windpipe
coming out. Blade jerked his sword free and let the man topple.
Then the stolof killers of Draad swarmed out of the forest and charged past
the gate. Some of them threw away their sprayers and drew clubs and axes as
they saw how few stolofs there were to kill. One team of four faced a live and
healthy stolof and its master, and Blade shouted for joy as he saw them put
their training to work.
One dashed around to engage the stolof's master, stone-headed axe against
sword. Two others stood ready to attack the stolof, and the last raised his
sprayer. As he took aim, the stolof launched a ribbon.
The ribbon fell on his shoulder and one arm, but he did not flinch. He rammed
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
in the plunger and the sleeping water jetted out in a precisely aimed spray
and fell on the stolofs breathing holes. The stolof's master whistled, trying
to make it rear and jerk the sprayer man off his feet. The stolof would not
obey. It only stood there, quivering and chittering softly. The sprayer man
fired again. At the same moment the stolof's master thrust his sword through
his opponent's belly, and died as the other's axe crashed down on his skull.
Then the remaining two warriors of Draad charged in, sinking an axe and a
spear into the stolof's eyes. It chittered one last time, hissed, sprayed
yellowish mist and foam, then collapsed and lay still. Blade shouted again.
By now all of the men and beasts of the raiding party were either dead,
caught, or fleeing for their lives.
Blade caught a glimpse of Lord Desgo pounding away toward the safety of the
woods, alone. Neena saw this too, and unslung her bow. It was a long shot,
made harder by the darkness and the fast-moving target, but Neena's eye was
deadly and her aim nearly as good. Blade saw Lord Desgo jump high, nearly
leaping out of his saddle, then clap his hands to his buttocks, where Neena's
arrow stood out like a suddenly sprouted tail. Blade threw back his head and
roared with laughter as Lord Desgo vanished into the dark. Then he threw his
arms around Neena, and they laughed and shouted and pounded each other on the
back and danced each other around in a circle.
They were still doing that when they realized that the battle's uproar was
fading away around them. They stepped apart and Blade told Neena to go seek
out her father. He himself turned and went back into the workshop compound.
There he found everything surprisingly well in hand. Two of the raiders had
tried to climb over the rear wall, to make a diversion. One had fallen off and
knocked himself out. One of the assistants had
ambushed the other in a dark alley between two sheds and hit him over the head
with a bucket. Both men were still alive, and Blade gave orders to keep them
that way. A little interrogation would do nobody (except possibly the
prisoners) any harm. The firemaker had done some damage to the living
quarters, but none to anything else. Blade looked in briefly on Kulo, who had
somehow managed to stay asleep through the whole battle, and went back
outside. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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