Part 30 (2/2)

”It is that,” he agreed.

I opened the case, set it on the ground, and stepped back. He picked up each blade in turn, hefted it, checked it for temper, and made a couple of short thrusts.

”I'll use this one.”

I picked up the other and walked to the center of the clearing. Malebranche followed. I chose a good spot, and turned. Malebranche eyed the ground, and moved to my left, about ten feet distant.

”When the sun first shows, we'll fight,” I said.

”Agreed.”

It grew lighter by the second, and I tensed, breathing deeply, steadily, from the bottom of my lungs as I'd been trained.

I'd taken but three breaths when there was a sudden shout of surprise from the brush behind me, a clang of steel, and a scream and then three dull thunks, like an ax cutting rotten wood. Malebranche jumped in surprise, and his knife slipped into his hand.

From the cover, four hors.e.m.e.n burst out. I had a moment to think-betrayal! Then I saw the first man was Yonge. The other three I did not know.

Malebranche went on guard as the four rode toward us, but they pulled their horses in before they rode him down.

Raw anger filled me, not knowing what the h.e.l.ls had happened. Then I saw Yonge held a man's severed head by the hair. He threw it down in the sand at Malebranche's feet. Two others landed beside it, thrown by his henchmen.

*A fifth horseman, Karjan, trotted out of the clearing's other side. ”Sorry, sir,” he said. ”But some orders come before others.”

I saw the sun's arc through the trees, but no one, including myself, paid any mind. I was completely befuddled, but then saw Malebranche's face, dark with anger... and something else.

”Your friends should learn to watch their back,” Yonge said. ”They'd live but an hour if they were in my hills.”

”I warned you, sir,” Karjan put in.

Now it was clear. That I'd ever expected the Kallian, a man of shadows and dark deceit, to be honorable in any manner was stupid. His letter of concern that we should keep our meeting a secret was the setup for a trap. I recognized two of the heads: They were the men who'd served as Chardin Sher's bodyguards at the ball, no doubt ruffians under Malebranche's command.

The Kallian cursed, lifted his blade, and two of Yonge's friends had short bows up, arrows pulled to the head.

”You tell us, Captaink Cimabue, when we are to kill him,” Yonge said.

I should have told them to loose then and mere. It would have saved some lives and me a certain amount of grief. But I did not Even now, a far older and more hardened man, I don't think I would have given that order.

”No!” I ordered. ”He is mine! Landgrave Malebranche, the sun has risen. We had an agreement.

Ready yourself, sir.” Malebranche grinned, and started toward me. ”If he kills me,” I snapped over my shoulder, ”he's yours.” Malebranche's grin tightened, and became the fixed snarl of a trapped jackal.

I noted how he came at me, sword in a conventional fighting stance, but his knife was held blade down against his hip. Very good, I thought. As I hoped. He does fight like a wineshop bravo. Now we shall see what we shall see.

My small secret was that one of the ways I'd been trained to fight was with sword and dagger, which is a fairly esoteric discipline. In this style the dagger is used as a parrying weapon, and only serves to strike if the two combatants close, to take advantage of a slip or to finish the battle.

Malebranche struck, a feint, and, as I parried, he jumped sideways and his knife shot forward. He was quick, very quick, but that was pretty much the attack I'd expected, and so I slashed at his wrist with my dagger and we were both back on guard.

He circled to his right, trying to get to the outside of my guard, and I turned with him, then sidestepped and flicked my blade for his throat. He jerked his head back, but my sword's keen edge gashed his cheek open, and his blond beard reddened.

He grunted in pain, and struck at me, a slash I barely evaded that cut through my tunic.

Without recovering, he came at me in a continuous attack, and our swords were hilt to hilt, and I blocked his knife away with my dagger. He tried to knee me in the groin, but I turned, smas.h.i.+ng his shoulder muscle with the b.u.t.t of my dagger, leaping away, but not quite quickly enough, as his knife seared along my ribs.

Then sand between us cycloned, and spattered at the Kallian. He shouted in pain, stumbled, and fell, momentarily blinded.

I heard Karjan shout, ”Kill the fughpig!” but I did not move. I somehow sensed that wind's sending.

Malebranche rubbed his eyes, trying to come to his feet, and a voice came: ”Do not move, Kallian, and set your weapons down. If you do not, I shall slay you where you lie.

Obey me, and you shall see no harm.” The voice, of course, was that of Seer Tenedos.

Malebranche gaped, and obeyed. He scuttled backward, and bis eyes were wide with fear.

”There is only one reason you are permitted to live, Landgrave Elias Malebranche, and that is I wish no stain on the reputation of Captain Damastes a Cimabue.

”He is not only a friend, but important to me and soon shall be equally vital to all Numantians.

*”Believe me, you, and your dog of a master, will rue that your villains were not able to murder him, because Kallio will run deep with blood, yours part of that river, because of his doings in the near future, a future I see most plain.

”Now rise, leaving your weapons where they are, go to your horse, and ride away. Do not look back, or your doom shall not be delayed even a moment longer.”

Malebranche, his face as pale as his skin, paying no mind to the blood pouring from his face, scrambled to his feet, ran for his horse, fumbled its reins free, flung himself into the saddle, and galloped away.

Tenedos's voice came once more, but this as no more than a whisper: ”Captain a Cimabue, when you return to the city, and your cut is bandaged, come immediately to my quarters!”

”You are an idiot!”

”Yes, sir.”

”An utter moron!”

”Yes, sir!”

”I thought the tales about Cimabuans being thicker than bricks were falsehoods, but now I wonder!”

Tenedos stormed.

”Yes, sir.” I was at rigid attention.

”I only heard of this matter last midnight, from Yonge, so all I had time to prepare was a spell to hopefully save you from your foolishness.

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