This time Blade did not dash wildly toward it. He knew perfectly well that he had no hope of outrunning the mounted Steppeman. The Steppeman would be there first, no matter how often he tried to retrieve his sword. In fact, he would be giving the Steppeman an easy victory by moving along a predictable path.
Blade could not use speed or the power of his sword any more. That did not mean he had no resources left.
There was still his own enormous strength and the element of surprise.
Blade pushed the cheers of the Steppemen and the howls and groans of the pirates and Kukon's men out of his mind. He concentrated all his attention on the Steppeman, as his opponent whirled his horse around and swung back in toward him. This was going to require extremely fine timing, and he would get only one good chance.
As the Steppeman approached Blade, he slowed his horse almost to a trot. Perhaps he too wanted to put on a show. Perhaps he wanted to slice off Blade's head with a single neat stroke. Or perhaps he wanted to come in slowly merely so there would be no chance of a miss or a sloppy cut to the chest or arm or belly.
As the Steppeman's sword swung toward him, Blade fell into a crouch. The sword hissed over his head. Blade sprang up, whirling as he did so. His arms shot out and his hands clamped on the horse's tail as it swept past him. Then Blade threw himself backward. The horse screamed as it was dragged to a stop in midstride with its tail half pulled out by the roots. It reared. The Steppeman forgot about Blade, clutched his sword with one hand, and tried desperately to get his mount under control with the other.
That was a mistake-the Steppeman's last one. Blade let go of the horse's tail. As it settled back onto all fours he vaulted up onto its rump behind the rider. Again Blade's arms shot out and his hands clamped shut. This time they clamped shut on the Steppeman's throat.
Again Blade heaved. Both men sailed backward off the horse and landed with a crash on the ground behind it. The Steppeman's sword flew out of his hand. The horse snorted, shook its aching tail to make sure it was still there, and trotted off, obviously happy to have nothing further to do with this nonsense.
Blade landed with the Steppeman on top of him but almost helpless. The man tried to struggle as Blade's hands tightened on his windpipe. Then he stopped trying. His eyes bulged out, his swollen tongue thrust itself out between his teeth, and he stopped moving completely. Blade stood up and let the body drop to the ground at his feet.
There was a moment of the most total silence Blade had ever heard, as nearly ten thousand men tried to realize what they'd seen. Then the pirates and Kukon's men began to cheer. Their cheering swelled from a murmur into a roar and from a roar into a sound that was something tangible, battering at Blade like a landslide.
He started to brush himself off. Before he could finish, Emass ran out onto the field, just ahead of Kukon's men, led by Prince Durouman. The Speaker for the Seven Brothers was practically dancing with excitement.
«Prince Blade, that was magnificent, that was unbelievable, that was done by the favor of the gods to you and yours. The Free Brothers will stand beside Prince Durouman. Yes, absolutely, they will, now and forever. Oh, yes, it is certain that they will.»
For a moment Blade considered mentioning the Steppeman's treachery with the snake. Then he decided against it. In the present mood of the pirates, that would lead straight to a pitched battle with the Steppemen. The Steppemen were probably ready for a battle, but the pirates certainly were not. Such a confrontation could very well undo the results of his victory by getting the pirates and himself and Prince Durouman all slaughtered together. Even if they won, the pirates would be weakened, and many hundreds of men would die for no reason.
No one would hear of the snake if he kept his mouth shut. He hoped that the pirates kept a very good watch tonight-and that dawn would see the Steppemen well on their way home.
Then Prince Durouman and Dzhai were each catching him under one arm and hoisting him upon their shoulders. All of Kukon's men were crowding around, screaming at the top of their lungs, waving swords, spears, and muskets, and beyond them were the pirates making even more noise.
Chapter 23
Blade munched a piece of boiled salt pork on a toasted ship's biscuit and looked out across the dark water toward the shore. Lights flickered there, cooking fires among the tents of the Steppemen, lanterns in the house of the Seven Brothers, campfires and torches among the huts of the tribesmen, where the pirates were celebrating Blade's victory and their new alliance.
Blade did not blame them for celebrating. The new alliance meant an end to the terrible feeling of being alone against whatever Kul-Nam might hurl at them.
Unfortunately, it also meant a relaxation of their guard. Blade didn't like that at all, and he spoke against it as long and as loudly as he dared. He accomplished nothing, and neither did Prince Durouman. In the end both men gave up. Their new alliance might not survive their openly telling the pirates that they were fools.
The pirates were still prepared to meet attack from the sea. All thirty galleys were anchored in a great half-circle, bows pointing seaward. Their guns could easily fire on an enemy approaching from that direction. It would also be easy for them to weigh anchor and row out against that same enemy, as soon as the rowers were back on board.
There was the problem. Tonight at least half the pirates were ashore, drinking beer and captured wine, gambling, wrestling, competing for the favors of the tribal girls and women. Their barges, boats, and fishing craft were lined up three deep along the beach, ready to take them back aboard their ships at dawn. How fast could they regain their ships in the darkness?
Inside the half-circle Kukon lay at anchor. She was in the place of honor, normally reserved for the senior captain's own ship. There all could see her and no enemy could come at her without passing through the ring of galleys around her.
The honor was flattering, even to Blade and Prince Durouman. It seemed to mean that the pirates were genuinely interested in making this strange alliance work.
It also meant that Kukon lay anchored within two hundred yards of the shore. To both Blade and the prince, that was far more important. Both expected trouble tonight; both expected it would come on land-from the Steppemen.
Neither man could believe the Steppemen would do nothing to avenge their defeat. If they'd been prepared to stoop to treachery to win the duel, they would almost certainly be unprepared to tamely accept losing it. With more than three thousand warriors camped fifteen minutes' fast walking from the celebrating pirates, they could do a good deal. Perhaps they could do enough to cripple the pirates, making them fatally vulnerable to Kul-Nam.
Not that the Steppemen would really wish to serve the cause of His Magnificence Kul-Nam. They would not be thinking of him or of Saram at all, only of vengeance on enemies who had humiliated them. They would take that vengeance if they possibly could, and in taking that vengeance they might give Prince Durouman's cause a blow from which it could never recover.
The Steppemen could afford to be indifferent to that. Blade and Prince Durouman could not.
So after the two men failed to persuade the pirate captains to keep their men aboard ship until after the Steppemen had left, they returned to Kukon. There they gave certain orders, and then settled down to wait out the night.