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As the last Treeman went limp, Meera sank to her knees at Blade's feet, shaking all over. She pressed her face against him and threw both arms around his waist. As tenderly as if he'd been handling a child, Blade lifted Meera to her feet and held her against him until she stopped shaking. Finally her breathing slowed. She even managed to smile as she wiped her face and tied her clothes together as well as she could. "Your new bow it does what you promised!" Blade nodded. "I was hoping for the best, but I'm surprised things turned out this well. I know how to make such bows easily enough with English woods, but the woods in your Forest are new to me. I couldn't have worked so fast or done so well without your help." Blade told her about his battle with Guno. She listened, saying nothing but obviously not much surprised. Blade finished with, "Now let's collect the bodies and make things look right, in case anyone should come along this way. I don't want anyone to know this wasn't just another battle between hunters and Treemen." The job of covering their tracks was long and bloody. The bodies of Guno and his men had to be brought to where the Treemen lay. Then all the wounds had to be altered with knife and spear until they looked normal. Finally all the Page 59 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html bodies had to be arranged naturally, as if they'd fallen where they lay in the fighting. By the time the job was done, Blade was covered from head to foot in blood and sweat. Meera told him he looked gruesome and smelled worse. Unfortunately the nearest water was the river, still a few hours away. The insects were already swarming around, impartially settling on Blade and the dead bodies. The only thing to do was move on as quickly as possible. They started picking up their equipment. Most of it had survived the fight, although the iron pot was cracked from being thrown against a rock. Blade thought he might be able to fix the pot, and if he couldn't there might be villages or hunting parties where he could find another. "If I can't do anything else, I can always try hollowing out a section of log. I can fill it with what we want to boil, then heat stones over a fire and drop them into the liquid. I've seen it work with soup, so maybe it will work with the Shield of " Wssst-whunk! An arrow stood vibrating in the trunk of a tree a yard to Blade's right. It was short and thick, with a blue shaft and elaborately carved fins. Blade had never seen one, but he'd heard enough descriptions to know what he was seeing. The Sons of Hapanu were within bowshot. Blade's eyes met Meera's and he knew that she was thinking the same thing he was. If we get deep into the Forest, we're safe. Otherwise Blade didn't like turning his back and running from any opponent, but he liked even less fighting when he didn't know the odds. They turned, and as they did five more arrows hissed out of the trees. All of them flew low, at no more than knee height, and four of them missed. The fifth drove through Meera's left calf, making her jump and scream in surprise and pain. She went to her knees, and Blade turned to help her. I'll have to carry her, he thought, and that will Before he could complete the thought, armed soldiers of the Sons of Hapanu swarmed out of the trees. At first glance there seemed to be hundreds of them, and even at a second look there were at least forty. Too many to fight, said Blade's common sense, but Blade's fighting instincts weren't listening to his common sense. He and Meera couldn't hope to get away, so the only thing to do was kill as many of these bastards as possible before they went down themselves! Blade hit the ranks of the Sons of Hapanu like a battering ram, so hard and so fast that he would have done damage if he'd been completely unarmed. As it was, he carried a spear in one hand and a club in the other, and he killed a man with each one in the first moment of the fight. Another man came at him now, shield up and sword thrusting. Blade struck the shield down with his club, crippled the man's sword arm with one spear thrust, then drove the spear into his throat. The man jerked so violently the spear was torn out of Blade's hands, then reeled away, dying on his feet. Blade tried to follow the man to retrieve his spear, found a soldier with elaborately-decorated armor in his path, and started fighting the man with club against sword. The man's sword opened a gash along Blade's ribs as Blade's club came down on the man's shoulder. He dropped his sword, Blade raised the club to smash his skull, then what felt like half a dozen men tackled Blade around the legs. He went down on top of them, still lashing out with his fists as he fell, satisfied to feel his fists connect and hear men grunt and cry out. Then there were more men looming over him, hoisting a stark-naked Meera into the air. She plunged down out of sight among the men and screamed as if she was being torn apart. Blade echoed her screams with a bull's roar, then something came crashing down on his skull. Blackness filled Blade's eyes, then his ears. Pain roared through him and tossed him like a wind. Then at last the blackness swallowed him. Page 60 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html Chapter 14 «^» Blade came awake lying face-up on a prickly mat of some kind. Overhead the sky showed through a lacework of branches and leaves. Close by he could smell wood smoke and roasting meat, and a little farther off water plants and the mud of a river bank. His head throbbed, his scalp itched, and his mouth was as dry and painful as if it were filled with thistles. He was bound hand and foot with lengths of chain fastened with heavy locks. He turned his head to get a better look at his captors and the world around him. Someone took two quick steps toward him, then a boot toe smashed into his temple. Someone else shouted in anger or surprise, and the boot came in a second time. Blade felt blood flowing from his scalp and suspected he'd lose consciousness if he was kicked a third time. Then a man was looming over him no, two men, one with his sword out, pointing it at the other's stomach while he held the man by the arm. "Cha-Chern, get back, or Hapanu help me, I'll " "You and how many others?" "Push me, and you may find out." The man with the sword pointed at his stomach wore the same kind of elaborate armor as the man Blade had wounded. He seemed to consider the warning worth taking seriously. Slowly he backed out of Blade's sight, but the conversation went on. "What's he to you, anyway?" "Only my share of what we'll get for sending him to the Games, that's all. So keep away from him. That's an order." "You can't " [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ] |
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