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From its shoulders blue leathery six-foot wings swept backward,
bobbing gently as the thing walked. At its waist was a broad blue belt, and
from the belt hung a long jeweled knife.
Nightmarish as the effect was, it did not bother Blade for very long. Instead,
the apparition acted as a signal for him. This must be the Supreme Brother,
the chief of the whole cult of Ayocan, and his appearance the signal for
the High Sacrifice. Blade's eyes swept in a circle around him. All eyes were
on the Supreme Brother. Now!
He took one step backward, then lunged forward. His solid mass of muscle and
bone crashed into the two warriors just ahead of him. They lurched forward.
They could not go sprawling, because the crowd was too thickly packed. But
they smashed hard into the warriors ahead of them, who in turn did
the same to those ahead of them, and so on. The shock of Blade's attack ran
clear through the crowd, like ripples in water. And as the first two warriors
staggered, they opened a gap in the circle around
Blade.
He plunged through that gap. As he did, both arms lunged down toward the
warriors' belts. His hands snatched their axes free, then swung them hard to
either side. Ribs caved in, blood spurted, and this time both warriors did go
down. Blade leaped ahead, red with the warriors' blood, eyes blazing, both
axes flashing in his hands.
A foolhardy warrior charged him with a sword or perhaps the man had been
pushed. In any case it made no difference. Blade blocked the sword-stroke with
one axe, and smashed the man's throat with the other. Choking, clawing at his
smashed windpipe, blood spurting between his fingers, the Holy
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Warrior reeled backward as far as he could. He tripped over someone's foot and
toppled over. Two warriors and three priests went down with him in a tangle of
thrashing arms and legs. They were not hurt, and Blade could not for the
moment get to them, but they screamed shrilly in panic.
The screams infected everybody with the same panic. In an instant the whole
top of the mound was a mass of priests and warriors, shouting, clawing,
cursing, kicking, and shoving at each other. In every mind was the same
thought get away from this monster in the shape of a man! If Blade had
suddenly changed into the true god Ayocan and started feeding on the blood and
bodies of the priests and warriors, the panic could not have been greater.
But he still needed to clear a path to the edge of the mound before he could
get away. He swung his axe hard at a warrior who blundered within reach,
smashing the man's skull like an eggshell. He stamped down on a leg barring
his path, feeling bone crack under his foot. As the man screamed and rolled
aside, Blade leaped high, came down on somebody's hand, heard another scream,
and nearly went sprawling.
For a moment he was off balance and vulnerable, but only one warrior noticed
it. The man rushed Blade, trying to knock him down by sheer impact. But Blade
had one of his axes up to guard, and the man ploughed straight into it. The
impact brought him to a halt. Blade swung the other axe, and the man gasped
and doubled up as blood gushed from both his mouth and his gaping stomach.
The man fell backward, and suddenly there was a path over his body for another
few feet ahead.
Blade leaped over the body, crashing into a priest at the end of the path. He
did not even bother to kill this man, merely kicked him aside. A warrior who
couldn't get out of the way fast enough was a different matter. Blade kicked
him, too, then cracked his skull with an axe as the man crumpled. Then he
snatched the dying man's sword from his belt, throwing one of the axes into
the middle of the crowd. He needed something with a longer reach for the
fighting now.
With sword in one hand and axe in the other, he carved his way through the
struggling mass of people. Looking over the heads of the ones nearest him, he
could see some of the Holy Warriors beginning to turn, stand, and draw their
weapons. The panic was beginning to ebb. If the Holy Warriors could get at him
& But they were going to have to fight their way through their own people to
get to where he was. And he wasn't going to be there when they arrived.
Now only a single pair of Holy Warriors stood between Blade and the edge of
the mound. These two did not run, but neither were they very good fighters.
They came at him, and as they did, a stumbling priest blundered across their
path. For a moment there was a terrible four-man tangle warriors, priest, and
Blade.
Blade recovered first. He slammed the flat of the axe into the priest's
kidneys, sending him staggering out of the way. As a line opened up, Blade's
sword followed it, straight to the neck of one of the warriors. The
reddish-brown skin gaped and blood poured out and sluiced downward, dyeing the
blue leather armor. The man faltered and fell against his comrade,
immobilizing the other's axe arm. Blade beat
down the second man's sword with his own axe, smashing the sword so hard it
flew out of the man's hand and down the side of the mound. Then Blade slashed
low at the man's legs. A red line opened along his thigh, and he reeled
backward. He went over the edge of the mound, lost his balance, fell, and
began rolling with a clatter of weapons. Seconds later Blade followed him,
leaping out onto the open slope of the mound.
For a moment Blade found it hard to believe that he was out of the deadly
press on top of the mound. He kept looking around for men lurching at him or
falling under his feet to trip him. But he quickly recovered. Now to get down
the slope, through the thin line of Holy Warriors at the bottom, and into the
crowd.
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But now the Holy Warriors at the base of the mound were climbing up toward [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]