Blade swung toward the man's right as the sword hissed toward him. The two swords met with a clang like a badly tuned gong, jarring Blade's arm all the way up to the elbow. He slashed hard to keep his opponent in play while he drew his knife. With the longer sword, his opponent would be at a disadvantage if Blade could get in close.
The man knew this, and kept his sword moving continuously, keeping a barrier of sharp-edged steel between himself and Blade. Perhaps he was playing for time, and certainly he was gaining it. Blade couldn't afford that-this battle had to be won quickly. How many Thieves might be close enough to join in, he didn't know. Nor did he want to find out the hard way.
Blade leaped forward, inside the arc of the other's sword. His own sword rose, to block the other's next swing. Again the swords crashed together and sparks blazed. The enemy's sword smashed Blade's out of his hand and swept it high into the air. The collision deflected the longer sword over Blade's head. With precise timing and all his speed, Blade gripped his opponent by one arm, immobilizing the sword and simultaneously jerking him forward. The man flew at Blade, to meet a knife in his throat.
Blade turned away without waiting for the man to fall, ready to take a hand in the rest of the battle. He saw two of the Thieves down. He saw one of Kubin's men leaning against the wall, hands clamped over his stomach. He saw Kubin fighting single-handed, against two Thieves, and moved to join him.
Before Blade could join the fight, Kubin ended it himself. His sword bit into the thigh of one Thief, sending the man staggering back. Before Kubin could guard, the other Thief slashed down with a heavy knife. Kubin raised his left hand to take the slash on his glove, but miscalculated. The knife bit into his unprotected wrist, shearing through flesh and bone, taking his left hand off as neatly as a surgeon could have done.
Kubin finished turning, dropped his sword, and closed with the Thief. The man seemed paralyzed to see Kubin shrug off the loss of his hand as though it was nothing more than a mosquito bite. Kubin approached the motionless Thief and clamped his right hand around the man's throat, lifting and squeezing in a single motion. The man's windpipe collapsed with a crackling sound as his head smashed against the wall. Kubin hammered the man several times more against the wall, until the back of his head was visibly flattened. Only then did he let the body drop, pull off his sash, and start tying it around the stump of his left wrist.
With Blade's help, Kubin finished the job while he was still able to stand. As Blade tied the final knot in the tourniquet, the Thieves' horses behind him exploded into wild panic, then bolted for the gate. The two men Kubin had sent to deal with them came running up, both waving bloody swords.
Kubin's face was pale and sweat was breaking out on his forehead, but he was still in complete control of himself. «We'd better be on our way,» he said. He pointed to Esseta. «You two-pick her up and carry her. Gently.» He shook off Blade's efforts to help him and led the way toward the gate. Again Blade brought up the rear, his face grim. He didn't know whether Esseta was going to live or die, or how many of her people the Thieves had killed besides the one girl. At least they'd made sure that Esseta wouldn't die as a prisoner of the Thieves and their allies, in agony, all her secrets torn from her by unbearable pain.
Now they were crossing the road. Blade heard hooves approaching down the road. Two horsemen appeared, one with a crossbow, the other with a sword. Both weapons came up, both horses jumped forward in a spray of gravel, and both riders shouted wild cries as they charged.
Blade had the two-handed sword of his last victim slung across his back. In a single motion he drew it, then stepped forward to meet the horsemen's charge.
The bolt wssshed from the crossbow and Blade heard it sink into flesh without seeing who'd been hit. The swordsman came down on him, filling his vision, weapon raised to slash. Blade's sword whirled, biting deep into the man's body, sinking so deeply that it was jerked out of Blade's hands as the horse rushed past. The dying man's sword swept harmlessly over Blade's head, and the rider fell to the road. The archer tried to rein in his horse, but came too close. Before he could wheel and ride off, one of Kubin's men leaped up behind him. One hand gripped the Thief's hair, pulling his head back, the other gripped a knife and drew it across the Thief's exposed throat. Kubin's man leaped off the horse's back as the animal bolted, driven into panic by the sudden outpouring of its rider's blood.
Kubin was bending over Esseta, his remaining hand clamped on her neck. Blade looked closer, and his face set even harder. The bolt from the crossbow had torn through Esseta's neck, gouging the flesh deeply. Not deeply enough to get the jugular vein, fortunately-the blood was only trickling around Kubin's fingers, not pouring out. Blade pulled off his own sash, tore off a piece, wadded it into a compress, and tied it over the wound with the rest of the sash. Then he straightened up, wiping his hands on his trousers to clean Esseta's blood off them.
«We're going to have to hole up somewhere,» said Blade. «Neither you nor Esseta will survive if we have to travel. So we're going to the nearest house and settle in there, while one of the men goes to your villa for help.»
Kubin nodded. «What if the people in the house object?»
Blade hefted his sword. «I don't think they will.»
Kubin motioned to one of his men, holding up his right hand. «Ride to the villa and bring back the doctor and ten men. Take this glove so they'll know the message is from me.»
«Yes, Lord Kubin.» The man pulled the heavy glove off Kubin's hand and dashed away. Blade bent down, lifted Esseta gently in his arms, and led the way across the ditch and into the vineyard.
A few minutes later they came out on the other side, near a small white farmhouse. Blade led them across the farmyard and hammered on the door with his sword.
«Open, in the name of the Baran!»
There was the scrape of a bolt being- drawn, and then the door crept open a few inches and a woman peered out. She took one look at Blade, appearing twice human size and splattered with blood from head to foot, then screamed and fainted. Blade thrust his sword into the opening before anyone could slam the door, then pushed the door the rest of the way open. The woman's children scurried out of the way and huddled in a corner. Blade strode in, picked up the woman, carried her out of the way, and turned back to the door just in time to see Kubin faint. Shock and loss of blood had finally caught up with him.
Blade made both Kubin and Esseta as comfortable as possible, and assigned one of the men to keep an eye on them. He and the remaining man went around the house, closing and nailing all the shutters, locking the door, and putting buckets of water handy in case the Thieves tried to burn them out.
Blade hoped the Thieves couldn't call up reinforcements before Kubin's men arrived from his villa. He also hoped his rough first aid would keep both Esseta and Kubin alive until the doctor came.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much he could do for a while, except hope.
Wherever the Thieves went after their defeat, it was not to Kubin's villa or the house where Blade mounted guard over his two helpless charges. An hour passed in silence, except for the heavy breathing of Kubin and Esseta.
Then suddenly armed men seemed to drop from the sky, until there were enough around the farmhouse to fight a pitched battle against the Hashomi. First came the men from Kubin's villa, thirty of them, with the doctor and two priests of Junah. Then fifty of the City Riders came clattering up. Hard on their heels was a column of soldiers from the city garrison. After that came another strong force of horsemen-more than Blade could count. These were the elite cavalry of the Baran's Guard, armored from head to foot, mounted on mail-draped horses, armed to the teeth, and each of them a match for half a dozen Thieves or a couple of Hashomi.