Erlik, however, nodded in the same resigned way he usually did when he heard bad news. He said with a sigh, «Well, if they catch up with us it won't be as easy for them as it would have been back in the spring. We've given them a good run so far, and we'll give them another before we go down» Then he shrugged and turned away to take up his place at the end of the left-hand line.
Back in formation again the seven moved north two blocks and then turned right. Blade did not want to get too far north of the avenue. If all else failed, they could always try to reach it and then try outrunning any pursuing Wakers. Two forlorn hopes.
They moved forward in leap-frog fashion, hurrying down each block where buildings on either side rose high enough to block the view on either side. At each north-south street they halted to make sure that it was clear in both directions and then scurried across the street and on along the next block. Occasionally masses of rubble from collapsed buildings forced them into a noisy scrambling climb. Once they found the decaying body of a Waker who, must have fallen while climbing a tower. Blade wondered if the man had been killed instantly or died slowly in the darkness.
Now they were perhaps halfway to their goal. no hunted looks of the six Dreamers were slowly beginning to ease. Then a swsssssh sounded close overhead. Down from a building high above flashed an arrow, trailing a thick cloud of blue-green smoke. The arrow smacked into the street fifty feet ahead, and the smoke poured up in a thick column, rising steadily and greasily into the damp air. Even in the morning gloom it would be visible from a great distance.
Blade went cold inside. Instead of his finding the trained Waker gang, the gang had found him. There was at least one archer, with marker arrows that could give away their position and make both flight and concealment hopeless. Would the Wakers have other bowmen to pick off the patrol when they had been surrounded and trapped? Or would it come to a final, hand-to-hand clash of weapons in the streets of the dying city?
Blade waved the patrol forward. They followed at a run, up the block to the next corner, where they continued around to the right and headed south toward the avenue. The avenue offered their last hope for escape. They pounded down the block, hearing another arrow swssssh so high overhead and so far away that for a moment Blade hoped they had given the bowman the slip. The corner was only fifty yards away now; beyond it only one more block to the avenue. Fifty yards, forty, thirty, twenty.
And from both east and west Wakers poured into the intersection with a great pounding of feet and howling of war cries. Blade did not even need to look at them to know that they would form in pairs, one with a sword and one with a spear. In the next few seconds he put together more than twenty years of training and experience.
Instead of stopping dead, Blade kept on going, closing in to less than spear-throwing distance before the Wakers realized that he was still moving. He held his own spear out in front of him like a knight's lance as he crashed down into the ranks of the Wakers. His thrust was aimed at a tall, bearded man who appeared to be the leader. But the man jumped aside at the last possible split-second. The sharp spear point tore along his upper arm and sank deep into the chest of the man behind him. The man died so quickly that he did not even have the time to look surprised before the light went out of his eyes and he sagged downward, pulling the spear out of Blade's hands.
Seeing a gap open in the Waker line, the other Dreamers charged toward it. For a moment Blade was in as much danger of being trampled or speared by his companions as he was by the Wakers.
«Head for the avenue and run! Run!» he roared. But as the Dreamers tried to push on through the gap, Wakers came up on either side to close it. Two of the Dreamers went down, thrust through with spears. One of them rolled against Narlena's legs just as she gathered herself to sprint forward through the confusion, knocking her to the ground. In an instant four Wakers pounced on her, three pointing their spears down at her stomach while the fourth reversed his with a lightning snap and brought the butt end crashing down on her bead. She went limp. Blade let out an animal roar and charged at the four men.
The one who had struck Narlena died before he could reverse his spear again. As he raised it across his chest like a quarterstaff, Blade's descending swordstroke chopped through the solid metal shaft, the man's collarbone, most of his ribs, and his heart. The blood spewed all over Blade's arms and hands so that he nearly lost his grip on his sword. He held on to it, batted a spear-point down with the fiat of the blade, thrust the spearman through the neck, then kicked another swordsman in the stomach and sliced his head off as he crumpled.
As the space around Blade suddenly cleared, another clump of Wakers surged toward him, furiously dueling with Erlik and the other two surviving Dreamers. Before another attack could move against him, Blade charged at the new clump with the speed and ferocity of a springing tiger, hitting them with the same deadly suddenness.
With a spear he snatched from the ground, he hurled his two hundred plus pounds forward and tore the clump of Wakers apart like a rotten cabbage. The Wakers leaped aside in every direction and the two Dreamers broke free. Blade saw Erlik turn toward him, raising his bloody sword with a savage look in his eyes.
Before the man could start back into the fight, Blade yelled again, «Run, you fool! Run for your life!» He had the small joy of seeing Erlik turn away and sprint for the avenue as though monsters were at his heels, sword still waving in his hand. Then Blade turned back to the Wakers crowding around him.
They did not crowd too closely. Although he now panted for breath and his body glistened with sweat and the blood from half a dozen minor slashes and punctures, he could still lash out with deadly skill at anyone who approached too closely. Two more men went down, one dead with a spear in his stomach, the other dying with his hand hanging from a spouting wrist. Then the tall leader loomed up before Blade again. The other Wakers fanned out on either side to tighten the circle around Blade. Then the tall man dropped his hand and the Wakers rushed in.
Blade had only a few seconds to realize that they were approaching with their spears turned butt-end on and their swords swinging with the flat of the blades toward him. But he had no time to be surprised at this. There were too many of them. He knew he had destroyed one man's leg with a spear thrust to the thigh before a spear butt slammed down across the back of his skull. He went forward down onto his knees. He thought he thrust upward with his sword into another man's stomach before more blows on his head and shoulders drove hi m to the ground. And after that he knew he did nothing. He drifted down into blackness to the sound of the shouts of the Wakers all around him.