by Джеффри Лорд
Blade leaned toward him. «But one roan, and a horse, and perhaps even a woman-they could come ashore without difficulty?»
Nob shrugged. «If the sailors be skilled, I think yes. But I would not count on it, master. I do not think Hectoris a coward, nor do I think him a fool. I have been thinking and I-«
Blade slapped the fellow’s knee and grinned at him. «You mistake your function, Nob. You are not to think. It will tax your wits beyond bearing. Enough. Ride to Edym yonder and give the order to march at once. Double time to the beaches.»
CHAPTER 12
As they neared the harbor Blade and Nob rode ahead to a point of land overlooking the sea. Blade ordered Edyrn to halt the column and keep it out of sight. Nob was provided with a trumpet.
«If you hear four long blasts,» said Blade, «come with your Guard and be prepared to die. I hope it will not be so.»,
Edyrn gave Blade a long look and clasped his hand. «The spirit of Izmia go with you,» he said. Blade realized then that Edyrn knew what had happened to his grandmother, even though he had not spoken of it.
Blade’s mount lagged somewhat and it was Nob who first spied the beaches. He raised in his stirrups, hooting in joy, and pointed.
«You have done it, master. Hectoris awaits you. Your plan works! You have shamed him into combat.»
It appeared so. Blade reined in the black at the cliff edge and gazed down at the wide beaches that stretched for miles in both directions. Almost directly below him, well above the tide line, was a great tent of black and silver cloth. Before it was a pole and on the pole a shield bearing the circled snake and the legend-Ais Ister. Nearby, fully accoutered, was a massive war horse held by an attendent in Samostan livery. By the flap of the tent, closed now, was a rack of tall lances.
Nob was gazing down with something akin to awe. «It is Hectoris himself, sire, for I have seen that tent before. And that steed. He must be inside.»
Blade merely nodded. He studied the deserted beaches where waves were piling in to crash in thunderous surf, flinging spray far inland and sucking great runnels in the sand as they retreated. He could see for miles both right and left and sensed no trap, and one glance at the surf was enough to know there would be no invasion this day. Whichever craft had brought Hectoris and his war mount to the shore had returned to the fleet.
Nob was counting the ships of war hove to in the spacious outer harbor, using his fingers and making marks on the ground with his lance point. Blade made a fast count of some three hundred; Nob came up with an exact tally of three hundred and nine.
«Two hundred of troops,» he said. «The rest will be horse ships and supply, forges and the like, and some few for camp followers. They are far too many for us, master.» He looked at Blade with resignation. «You will have to fight him now-there is no other way. Even had you thought of trickery-for you do not tell me everything, as I well know-I cannot see that it will avail us.»
Blade watched the increasing gale toss the legions of ships about. There would be thousands — of seasick soldiers out there, and they no threat to him now. He glanced down at the tent again. There was no movement about it, the flap still closed, and the Samostan soldier walking the battle horse up and down. The sky turned darker by the minute and the wind bore occasional spates of cold rain. Blade tamed to Nob.
«We will go down to the beach. When we reach it sound your trumpet once.»
They found a steep path and as the horses picked their way gingerly downward Nob cast a sideways glance and said, «We are alone now, master. None can hear. How is it that you really plan to slay this Hectoris-for I know that the message you sent was only bait, to tempt him.»
Blade looked at his man and laughed. «You are a rogue, Nob, and therefore think the same of others. I sent no lies to Hectoris. I will fight him as I promised-on foot against his horse and lance and whatever other weapons he may choose.»
Nob’s jaw fell in disbelief. «B-but you are no fool, master. I cannot believe this-a man on foot has no chance against a horseman. He will ride you down at the first pass.»
«We shall see. Sound your trumpet now, Nob. One blast only.»
They reached the beach a ‘hundred yards from the tent. They halted and Nob blew a great blast on the trumpet. Blade dismounted and readied his sword and shield. He bade Nob keep to his horse and retreat a hundred paces.
«But, master, if there is some trap here you will need=»
Blade scowled. «Go, man. Do as I say.»
Nob persisted. «That tent could be full of armed men and-«
Blade smacked the horse with the fiat of his sword and that settled the matter. He turned, to stare at the tent now billowing and flapping in the gusts. No sign of life yet.
And then they appeared and were walking toward him. Juna and a tall man.. The man, rangy and thin, with long shanks, was bald except for a few wisps of dark hair blowing about his pate. He was in full armor and carried a shield, but his sword was sheathed. He raised his right hand with the palm open as they approached. Blade did the same, but his eyes were riveted on Juna.
She was wearing a white cloak girdled with a scarlet cord that matched her shoes. Her white-gold hair flaunted in the wind like some bright banner. Beneath the cloak her body moved in the fluidity he remembered, the good breasts rippling, and though the time was not right he felt his loins stir and thought back to how she had made love in the little temple. Temple-temple whore! Yes. And it mattered nothing. If he won today he would have her a last time, for so Izmia had bidden him, and then she would be lost to him and to all men. Watching her stride toward him now, so beautiful, he regretted what he must do to her. If he lived.
Then he forgot Juna. Business was at hand.
The couple stopped some dozen feet short of Blade. Juna was silent. She gave him one blue glance and lowered her eyes. The nian with her studied Blade for a moment and took his time in speaking.
«You are he called Blade?»
«The same. You are he called Hectoris?»
«I am. He called Hectoris. Master of Samosta, of Thyme and of Patmos.»
Blade smiled. «That remains to be seen-insofar as Patmos is concerned. I grant you Thyme and Samosta.»
The slim man, he was as tall as Blade but much thinner, scratched a shaven chin and stared at Blade with dark eyes that were small and well set beside a long thin nose. He wore a wreath of some sort on his high bald forehead that could, Blade thought, be reckoned as a crown. He waited, alert, for he knew he faced a formidable intelligence. Juna stood two paces back, staring at the sand.
Hectoris said, «I have waited long for this meeting, Blade. And hoped it would be otherwise-for I do not wish to kill you.»
Blade nodded. «I am in accord with that. I do not want to die.»
«And yet the terms you sent-you will abide by them? I am to be horsed and you on foot?»
«I will abide by them,» said Blade, «if you meet the other terms I sent.»
Hectoris glanced back at the girl. «Ah if you win you are to have Juna. I agree. But forget dying and come over to me and you may have her in any case. She is no g6d dess, you know, not to us Samostans. She is lovely but there are others lovelier. She is skilled in love but there are others ‘more skilled. She-«
«I know what she is,» said Blade curtly. «I have my own reasons for wanting her.» Izmia’s reasons.
Hectoris stared and nodded. «I suppose so, though I cannot fathom them. Beyond the obvious, but so be it. If you win you shall have her.»
«And Patmos will be spared invasion?»
Hectoris grinned and the dark eyes were amused. «As to that, Blade, there may be some difficulty. You are to blame, for the way you have so cleverly forced me into meeting you. For if you win I must die, and when I am dead I cannot promise for my captains. They will not seek to avenge me, for I am not that much loved, but it may be that they will want Patmos after all, what you have left of it.»
Blade pondered that. He was by now convinced that Hectoris was playing a strai
ght game. Why not? He had all the advantage. And Blade had pressured him into a corner that had no exit. Hectoris had to fight, and fight fairly, or be disgraced before his watching army.
Hectoris was looking at Nob, astride his hack fifty yards off. He looked back at Blade. «That is your only man?»
Blade nodded and gazed beyond Hectoris at the tent. The other man smiled at that and raised a hand. The Samostan orderly left the horse for a moment and pulled a rope on the tent. It came fluttering down, flattened to the sand, and then was lifted and filled and rumpled by the wind: There was no one inside. Hectoris gave Blade a sly look.
«You feared a trap?»
«It had entered my mind.»
Hectoris smiled again. His teeth were long and stained brown. «And mine, too. But you were too clever-trapping you would have stained my honor as much as ignoring your challange. You have outwitted me, Blade, and I admit it. I am a great leader and you put your finger on my one weakness, for a leader must lead! So, since you will not listen to reason and join me, I shall take pleasure in killing you.»
Blade smiled in his turn. «Shall we have at it, then? Your man, and mine, will keep the girl with them. If I live she comes with me, if you live she remains with you. Both men, yours and mine, to be unharmed no matter the outcome?»
«Agreed, Blade. Where will you fight?»
Blade gazed around him, shielding his eyes against the wind-whipped, sand. The beach here sloped gently to the sea and was some hundreds of yards deep and on either side stretched to distant headlands.
«There is space enough,» said Blade. «I cannot run away.» He pointed. «I will take position there.»
Fifty feet in from the surf and the sand wet from the ebbing tide. It might slow the war horse a bit.
«As you will,» said Hectoris. «Make ready then, Blade, and expect no mercy. You ask for this death.»
He made a signal to the Samostan soldier. Blade signed to Nob. His eyes met those of Juna for a moment and he saw, or thought he saw, tears. Why would a temple whore cry for him?
Juna was led away between the two retainers. Blade drew his sword and adjusted his shield and walked down the gentle slope of the beach until he was within fifty feet of the water. As he retreated, as he must at first, he would have the water to his back. That left only three sides from which Hectoris could attack him.
CHAPTER 13
Blade watched as Hectoris was aided into the saddle by his man, adjusted the serpent shield on his left arm and took a lance from the rack, loosened his sword in the scabbard and secured mace to saddle. Blade grinned sourly. Hectoris was taking him at his word and coming armed to the teeth. Blade turned his attention to the war horse, now dancing and snorting and fighting the reins as it scented battle.
It was a magnificent beast. Blade judged it to weigh a ton or more. Superbly trained for battle en masse, but he gambled that it would prove slow and ponderous against a single agile man. In that lay much of his hope. The horse wore head armor, with a. long spike between the eyes, and a quilted covering into which rings of mail were closely sewn. None of this disconcerted Blade: the bronze greaves, from fetlock to knee, did bother him. No use slashing at the shank or cannon in hope of felling the steed. One trick lost to him.
Hectoris, as befitted a man. with supreme confidence in the outcome, was taking his time. He put his mount through its paces, letting it rear and paw the air and slash down with shod hooves. The waiting Blade got the point, but he sneered and made a derisive gesture and halloed into the wind: «I grow impatient, Hectoris. What ails the master of Thyme and Samosta? Cold heart?»
Hectoris reined in his mount and couched his lance. Blade glanced back at the sea behind him. A ten foot wave curled in and broke with a roar on the damp sand,
sending salt spray around him in a haze. Blade retreated ten steps and took his stand for the first attack.
The massive horse gained momentum slowly on the sand. The loose stuff shifted under the great hooves and clung to them. Blade had counted on this when he elected to fight on the beach.
Hectoris bore the lance to his right. Blade moved to offer the target of his — shield, kite shaped and with its secret well-grooved and varnished over. He stood his ground as the horse and rider thundered down on him, Hectoris low in the saddle, the lance steady on the target. The beach shuddered beneath Blade as the animal came on and on and the lance point gleamed pale in the dull light.
Blade leaped to his right, his timing perfect, his movement that of a heartbeat, and Hectoris rushed past. Blade smote the rump of the horse as it brushed him. And laughed loud enough for Hectoris to hear even above the whine of the wind; if he could anger the man so much the better.
The war horse ran nearly into the angry sea before it could stop. It reared, dancing on its back legs, and for a moment Blade thought Hectoris would be thrown. He tensed and started forward, but the Samostan regained his seat and fought the mount into a sideways canter out of the creaming waves that licked at its feet and frightened it. Blade ran quickly to his right, closer to the water, and took up position again. Hectoris would learn from that mistake and would not make it again.
Nor did he. Hectoris rode off a little way and wheeled his horse about; this time he would attack along the beach line. Some gain and some loss for Blade. The damp sand would cling and slow the horse even more, but he no longer had the sea at his back. Hectoris couched his lance again and came on, slowly at first, then faster and faster. He still carried his lance to the right, but in his left hand now he swung the mace.
Again Blade executed the same maneuver, leaping away from the lance point, but this time he took a mighty blow from the mace on his shield. That weapon, a spiked iron ball attached to a short handle by a length of chain, put a dint in his shield and nearly wrenched it from his hand. Hectoris wolf-grinned and snarled something as he passed but Blade did not make out the words. He faced about again and only just in time, for the war steed proved not so slow or clumsy as he had supposed and was thundering at Blade again almost before he could draw breath. Blade took another mace blow on the shield that beat him to his knees. And Hectoris wheeled and was coming back again.
This time Blade did not leap away from the lance. He took the point on his shield, near the boss, and deflected it, but his left side was numbed by the impact. Nonetheless he thrust and drew blood from the horse as it passed him. A superficial wound, of no advantage to Blade, yet it cheered him.
Hectoris did not come again at the moment. He inspected his lance point and went to the rack for a new lance. His manner was that of a man who has all the time in the world. Blade glanced beyond the ruins of the tent to where Juna stood between Nob and the Samostan soldier. She was shielding her eyes against wind and sand, staring down the beaches.
Hectoris couched his new lance and swung the mace a few times over his head. Blade gave attention to his own shield. Time to bring out his trick.
A hole had been bored near the boss of the shield and another near the rim. A groove had been cut so that the thin chain would lie flat and, covered with a heavy coat of varnish, unseen. It was taut nova! and seemed a part of the shield. Blade loosed it on the inside, near the hand grip, and tugged it out of the groove and it fell into a loop. A loop of chain that might catch and hold a lance head.
Blade moved closer to the sea. Hectoris — could not charge him down the slant of the beach, lest his mount run into the sea and founder in the harsh waves, so he moved again to the side. Blade shifted to face him. The war horse began to gain speed, mane waving, teeth and red mouth showing in froth, screaming in shrill rage as it had been schooled. The wind caught the sound and flung it over the beaches like a demon’s cry.
Blade braced for the shock. If he could catch the lance point in his chain loop and wrest it from the grip of Heatoris he would have another weapon. That was well within. the bargain, for he had kept his word and started combat with only sword and shield. And did Hectoris, surprised and unready, cling long enough to the lance he might b
e unhorsed. In the end it must come to that if Blade was to win. Closer now. Closer. .
The computer struck. A maniac raved in Blade’s head and he lowered his shield and screamed in pain, for the moment driven mad by the bludgeoning hurt. Of all times-in all this time-not so much as a twinge to hint that he was sought by Lord L-and novf-now-in the red fog he fell to his knees and twisted away as best he could. Cursing and bitter. The computer sought him too early and too late. It would not take him this first time, it never did, but yet it would be the death of him. He was blind with pain, contorted with it, made helpless by it.
Hectoris, mayhap unnerved by Blade’s scream and sudden crumble and fall, was off the target by inches. His lance point shifted.at the last possible second and tore the leather and steel from Blade’s shoulder and barely scratched the flesh. Blade’s armor ripped away at the join and the lance bore away the sleeve as trophy. Heetoris cursed mightily and reined the mount about. Now to finish it.
The pain vanished. Blade staggered to his feet. He had lost his sword and there was no time to search for it. He had time only to adjust the chain loop and throw his shield high as the Samostan came at him once again.
He stood his ground and offered a fair target for the lance. The dark eyes of Hectoris spoke death as he bent low and forward to make the final thrust. His men in their thousands were watching from the ships and it was time for an end. And, give him his due, Hectoris was not a man to bait and taunt a brave foe.
The lance thudded home. The sharp point engaged the chain loop. Blade felt his arm being torn from his body, but now all his great strength counted and he fell to his knees and twisted the shield and chain. The point slid away and the shaft, caught by the chain, turned in the grasp of Hectoris and exerted a great leverage. Hectoris did not loose it in time. He was pulled from the saddle and fell heavily a dozen paces beyond Blade.