Another arrow sank into his stomach. But as the first enemy came within reach, his sword flashed through a deadly arc. The first man's head wobbled on its shoulders, then thumped to the floor. The headless body drove on for a few steps more until it collided with the dying dabuno. Both went down, neither got up.
Before they hit the floor, Blade hurled his spear at the archer. It drove into his chest just below the breastbone. The impact at close range nearly knocked the man off his feet. He staggered, then swung around in a circle. The jutting shaft of the spear got in the way of one of his comrades. As he ducked under it, he was for a moment wide open. That moment was all that Blade needed to step forward and bring his sword down. Steel bit through bone and flesh again, and another headless body hit the floor. Then Blade had to leap back as the three surviving enemies came on.
For a moment things looked bad. He was one against three, and he had only his sword. But the three men had just seen three of their comrades die in less than a minute. No loyalty to Lord Geron could give them the courage to approach Blade too closely. He found it easy to guard against their cautious strokes. But he began to wonder how long this might go on. If more defenders appeared, to take him in the rear…
He had barely finished the thought when he heard something swish through the air. Then a jinai's throwing dart blossomed in the right eye of the center man. He squalled like a wounded panther and plunged forward. On the fringes of his field of vision Blade saw a slim black-clad figure bounding forward to meet the dabuno. Lady Musura dove to come in low, the dabuno seemed to fly into the air, then both crashed to the floor and rolled over and over. They struck against the wall with a crash and Lady Musura bounced to her feet. The dabuno kicked twice and lay still.
Blade flashed a silent smile of greeting to the woman, and turned back to his two remaining opponents. Before he had finished the turn there was only one, as Lady Musura cut in to the left and took out the dabuno there. A quick dart under his sword, a kick to his kneecap, and a knife thrust up under his chin until the point went into his brain-then there was another corpse on the floor.
Blade fended off a cut from his last opponent and smiled again.
«Leave this one for me.»
He saw her nod and step aside to keep a watch down the hall, then he turned his full attention to his opponent. They had room for footwork now, and they went around in a circle three times. Then the dabuno attacked. Blade held his ground, beat the other's sword upward and away from his head, then drove in with a cut that hacked through the other's left arm at a single blow. As the man shifted his sword to his right hand and tried to come at Blade again, Blade's own sword darted first right, then left. As it darted right it smashed the man's sword out of his hand. As it swung left it slashed across the throat, half-severing his head. The dying man fell across his own sword. Blade and Lady Musura stepped over the body and headed down the hall.
After a moment Blade remembered to look behind him and see if anyone was following them to guard their rear and if necessary their line of retreat. No one was. He did not stop-there was not time for that. But he swore to himself. Damn those hotheads! They were dashing off as the impulse took them, everybody too bloodthirsty and eager to think clearly. Even Doifuzan didn't seem to care about making sure the house was thoroughly searched and all exits guarded. That was going to leave him and Lady Musura with too damned much work for any two people to handle. But there wasn't anything they could do about it.
They moved on down the hall, checking each room as they passed. A few yards farther on they came to a wide flight of stairs. There seemed to be another, more brightly lit hall at the top. Blade nodded toward the stairs and Lady Musura followed him up. He couldn't help thinking that this was a bloody good way to be ambushed or killed by mistake by your own side, let alone by the enemy! But the second floor had to be cleared, and it looked as though the job was going to be up to them.
The hallway at the top seemed deserted. But Blade wasn't taking any chances. He kicked down the door of each room as he came to it, while Lady Musura covered his back and kept an eye on the hall in both directions.
He found no one, armed or unarmed, alive or dead, in any of the rooms. Some of them must have been living quarters-their floors were covered with sleeping mats. Overturned cups and bottles, scattered sandals, and tumbled blankets showed where some of the rooms had been hastily evacuated.
The thick wooden floor muffled the sounds of the battle that still seemed to be raging below. Blade was beginning to worry. Was everybody in such a blind fury that nobody was going to think of the second floor? That might give Lord Geron a good chance to escape.
They came to a bend where the hall turned at right angles to the left. Thirty feet farther on it came to a dead end. The walls on either side were bare plastered wood, and the floor underfoot was unpolished and scarred. About halfway to the blank end of the hall was a small door in the left-hand wall.
Blade scanned the empty hall so thoroughly that he would have spotted a cockroach if there had been one crawling across the ceiling. He didn't like the silence in this isolated hall. It was unnatural in the middle of a battle. If someone was lying in ambush in that side room…
Then he noticed that there was a faint line at the edge of one of the panels at the far end of the hall. A dark line for most of its length. But about halfway up Blade saw a faint, flickering yellow glow seeping through the crack.
Silently he took Lady Musura by the shoulder with one hand and pointed with the other. She nodded. Then he pointed at the side door. She nodded again and stepped cat-footed down the hall, stalking along until she was directly opposite the door. When she was in position, Blade made his slow, careful way down the last stretch of hall. He felt sweat trickling down his back as he passed the door, and he wished for the hundredth time that he had eyes in the back of his head. By the time he was ten feet from the end of the hall, there was no mistaking it. A light was burning in some concealed compartment behind that panel. Then he was only five feet away-and the lamp went out.
As it did, the door Lady Musura was watching flew open and the room behind it spewed fighting men into the hall. Lady Musura sprang forward. Blade's mouth opened in a shout as he realized she would never survive, wading into a fight against such odds at close quarters.
She was moving fast as she crashed into the five men who were already out in the hall, her swords reaching out to either side. Blade saw the point of her long sword go in under one man's chin, her short sword drive downward into another's groin-and a third man's spear take her in the chest. The point drove into her right breast and came out between her shoulder blades. Her body arched, but one leg shot up and a foot took the spearman in the groin. He howled and staggered, letting go his grip on the spear. Lady Musura slashed him in the back with her long sword. Then a fourth man struck downward, laying her thigh open to the bone. She fell on her back, writhing as the spear twisted itself about inside her.
The forth man had about three seconds to savor his victory. Then Blade's sword split his skull from crown to chin and he collapsed on top of Lady Musura. The fifth man was vanishing down the hall already. Blade turned, saw more dabuni crowding out of the room, and attacked.
It would have been safer for him to stay out in the hall and take the men as they came out, no more than one or two at a time. It would have been safer, but it wouldn't have matched his mood. He was not a cold-blooded professional now, he was a killing machine in a white-hot rage. He sprang through the doorway, landing on the shaft of a spear thrust toward him. The shock pulled the spearman forward. Blade's short sword jabbed up into the man's throat as he toppled down onto it. The man thudded to the floor, jerking the short sword out of Blade's hand. Blade leaped clear of the corpse rolling at his feet and slashed at a man to his right. Flesh and ribs split under Blade's sword and the man crashed backward against the wall, knocking over a lamp. It broke, spilling burning oil down the side of a large crate and onto the mats. The oil also ran onto the fallen man's face. His screams drowned out the crackling of the flames as they ran across the mats and began to climb the wall.