While he was staring at my sword and at the same time bringing his own round for another blow, I did not swing up to protect myself but drove the sword towards where I hoped his heart would be. I also prayed it would pierce the armor.
It did, though not as swiftly as I had hoped and, as the blade struck through leather and then flesh, bone and sinew, his sword came down in a convulsive movement and grazed my right arm. It was not a bad wound but, within a moment, it was painful.
His sword dropped from inert fingers, dangling by its thong as he sat in his saddle, rocking dazedly and looking at me groggily.
I could see that he was badly wounded, though not mortally, I guessed.
As he began to topple from his saddle I reached out and tried to take his weight to stop him from falling. With my own wounded arm it was difficult, but I managed to hold him there while I inspected the injury I had inflicted.
Turned slightly by the padded armor, the sword had gone in just below the heart.
I managed somehow to dismount, still holding him, and lifted him down and laid him out on the moss.
He spoke to me then. He seemed very puzzled.
"What-?" he said in his thick, brutish accent.
"I am in a hurry. There, I have stopped the bleeding. It doesn't look fatal. Your own folk must look after you."
"You-you do not kill me?"
"It is not my way to kill if I do not have to!"
"But I have failed-the warriors of the Argzoon will torture me to death for that. Slay me, my vanquisher!"
"It is not my way," I insisted.
"Then…" He struggled up, reaching towards a knife in his belt. I forced the huge hand away and he sank back, exhausted.
"I will help you to that undergrowth." I pointed to some thick shrubbery nearby. "You can hide there and they will not find you."
I realized I was showing him more mercy than he expected, even from the folk of Varnal. And in helping him I was slowing myself up. Yet a man is a man, I thought-he cannot do what is contrary to his own feelings and principles. If he has a code of honor he must adhere to it. The moment he forgets that code, then all is lost, for even though he forgets on one occasion, it is the beginning of the end.
Bit by bit the code will be qualified, any break with it justified, until the man is no longer a man, in truth, at all.
That is why I helped the odd being I had vanquished. I could do nothing less. As I had told him-it was my way. Such emotions may sound oldfashioned, even prudish, in this modern age where values are changing-many think for the worse-or things are losing their values altogether. But though I realize I may sound stiff arid peculiar to many of my contemporaries, I am afraid that then, in that gentle valley on ancient Mars, just as now, on Earth, I had a set of principles-call it what you will-that I knew I must abide by.
As soon as I had hauled the creature to cover, I sent his dahara galloping away and mounted my own.
Within a few minutes I had reached the gates of the city and was riding desperately through them, shouting my warning.
"Attack! Attack! It is the hordes of Argzoon!"
The men looked startled but evidently they, too, recognized the type of sword I was carrying. The gates began to close behind me.
Straight to the palace steps I rode and flung myself from the exhausted dahara, running up the steps, half staggering with pain, exhaustion and the weight of the sword-proof of what I had to tell!
Shizala came running into the main hall. She looked disheveled and her face bore traces of her earlier anger.
"What is it? Michael Kane! What means this disturbance?"
"The Argzoon!" I blurted out "The Blue Giantsyour enemies-a great horde of them attacks the city!"
"Impossible! Why have we not heard? We have our mirror posts that signal messages from hill to hill. We should have heard. Yet…"
She frowned thoughtfully.
"What is it?" I asked.
"The mirrors have had no messages for some time. Perhaps the stations were destroyed by the wily Argzoon."
"If they have reached this far before, they will have known roughly what to expect."
"But from where comes their strength! We had thought them beaten and quiescent for at least another ten years. They were all but wiped out by my father's army and its allies! My father headed the army which hunted down the survivors!"
"Well, the horde he defeated must have been only a fraction of the Argzoon strength. Perhaps this raid is part of a consistent strategy of surprise, meant to weaken you."
"If that is their plan," she sighed, squaring her beautiful creamy shoulders, "then it was a good one, for in truth we are unprepared!"
"No time for self-recrimination now," I pointed out. "Where is your brother Darnad? As chief Pukan-Nara of Varnal it is up to him to direct preparations for defense. What of the other warriors of Karnala?"
"They patrol borders, keep the peace against roaming bandit bands. Our army is scattered, but even if it were all assembled in Varnal it might not suffice to meet an Argzoon horde!"
"It seems impossible that you received no warning at all-not even a runner from another city.
How have the Argzoon been able to get this far south without you knowing?"
"I cannot think. As you say, it could be that they have been planning this for years, that they have had spies not of their own race working for them, travelling in small groups under cover at night and in disguise, assembling in some nearby remote quarter of our land-and now ride on the city with none of our allies knowing our fate."
"The walls will resist heavy siege," I pointed out.
"You say you have some aircraft. You can bombard them from the air, using your Sheev-guns. That is one advantage."
"Our three aircraft will not achieve much against so large a force."
"Then you must send one of them to your nearest ally. Send your-your…" I paused as memory flooded back. "Send the Bradhinak of Mishim Tep to summon his father's aid-and seek help from your other, weaker, allies on the way."
She frowned thoughtfully and then looked up at me with a strange, half-puzzled look. She pursed her lips.
"I will do as you suggest," she said at length.
"But even at their fastest our aircraft will take several days to reach Mishim Tep-and an army will take even longer getting here. We will have difficulty resisting so long a siege!"
"But outlast it and resist it we must-for Varnal and for the security of your neighboring states," I told her. "If the Argzoon conquer the Karnala, then they will sweep on across other nations. They must be stopped at Varnal-or your entire civilization could go under!"
"You have a clearer idea of what is at stake than I." She smiled slightly. "And you have only been with us a short time."
"Warfare," I said quietly, thinking of my own experiences, "does not seem to change much anywhere. The basic issues remain much the same-the strategy, the aims. I have already encountered two of your Blue Giants and hate to think of this lovely city being ruled by them!"
I did not add that it was not only the city I feared for but Shizala, too. Try as I might, I could not make myself forget the emotion I felt for her. I knew now she was betrothed to another and that whatever she or I felt it was impossible that anything could come of it. Evidently her code was quite as strong as mine and would not let her weaken, just as I did not intend to weaken.
For a long moment we looked into each other's eyes and all this was there-the pain, the knowledge, the resolution.
Or did I simply imagine that she was to some degree attracted to me? I must not think such thoughts, in any case. It was over-and Varnal must be protected.
"Have you more suitable arms for me than this?"
I said, indicating the Argzoon sword.