If they'd dashed straight up the road they could have reached Esseta's villa in a few minutes. Kubin had no intention of riding into any ambushes the Thieves might have set out. He turned aside at the Bridge of the Three Brothers, fording the canal under the cover of a fruit orchard several hundred yards away.
On the far side of the stream he led the way through a maze of vineyards, vegetable patches, abandoned villas with tumbled walls, and patches of woodland. At times the ground was so rough that the men had to dismount and lead their horses to keep them from stumbling and breaking legs.
«We lose a little time coming this way,» whispered Kubin. «But we have cover almost up to Esseta's gate. Then the surprise will be theirs, not ours.»
Blade hoped so. Surprise was the only way six men had of overcoming the fifteen or twenty the Thieves could have sent to Esseta's.
After a few more endless minutes, Kubin whispered an order to dismount. The horses were tethered to some bushes and the six men drew swords. Crouching low, they made their way down between the rows of a vineyard, to come out on the bank of a ditch filled with scummy water. On the far side of the ditch was a rutted gravel road, and on the far side of the road the gate of Esseta's villa.
The gate stood open, which it should not have done. There were three armed men crouching in the bushes on one side of the gate, who shouldn't have been there. Just inside the gate Blade could make out horses with sacks wrapped around their hooves to muffle the sound of their movements. No respectable customer of Esseta's house would ride up on horses equipped like that.
They were too late to keep the Thieves away from Esseta's house. Were they too late altogether?
Only one way to find out. Kubin drifted to the left, Blade to the right, while the other four men took positions between them. Then Kubin raised his sword and all six men hurled themselves across the ditch.
They'd gained the surprise they needed. The first thing the Thieves' sentries knew of the attack was when six men seemed to rise out of the road. One of them had time to scream before he died, then all three were twitching and spurting blood. The six charged through the gate so fast they trampled a fourth Thief underfoot without raising a weapon. Then they were in the courtyard of Esseta's villa.
«Cut loose the horses,» snapped Kubin, pointing at two of his men. They darted off toward the animals, while the others ran toward the house. A Thief leaped out from behind a tree and Blade whirled to meet him. Clanging swords threw off sparks, Blade gave ground briefly to improve his footing, then the Thief's head flew from his shoulders. The headless body sprawled on the cracked tiles of the courtyard.
As it did, light blazed in the doorway of the villa, silhouetting four men. Two of them were carrying something wrapped in a blanket-something the size and shape of a small woman. Beyond the men Blade could see two bodies sprawled on the floor. One was a masked man, the other a young woman bare to the waist. Her stiffened hand held a knife that was driven up to the hilt in the man's chest.
The four men stepped out into the courtyard, and behind them came a fifth man, holding a lantern. Across his back was slung a two-handed sword. Like their dead comrade, the five men wore masks.
As the fifth man appeared, Kubin let out a screech like a mountain lion and charged. The Thieves reacted instantly, dropping their burden and spreading out to meet their opponents. The blanket unwrapped itself as it fell, revealing Esseta's pale face. The man with the lantern whirled it over his head, then hurled it straight at Blade. Blade ducked aside, raising his sword as he did, and found the man coming at him with his own sword carving the air in front of him.
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.