By now Gribbon had his sword drawn and raised. From the way he was looking at Khraishamo, he would cheerfully have run the pirate through. By now Rhodina was embracing Khraishamo, both consoling him and restraining him. Gribbon couldn't strike at the pirate without hitting the woman.
Slowly the Maghri chief rose to his feet, wiping his nose on a filthy sleeve. He looked at Khraishamo, then drew his knife.
«Back, woman,» he said. «Now you will come to Sigluf's tents and stay. This fishman-he will die for my blood.» He looked at Gribbon, Gribbon nodded, and the chief raised the dagger.
Rhodina screamed again as Khraishamo threw her off and whirled to face his enemy. Gribbon raised his sword to strike. Blade saw that all of Gribbon's men were too busy watching Khraishamo's coming death to hold their weapons ready. He charged.
One of the men was in Blade's path. Blade swept him out of the way with a karate chop, then closed with Gribbon. The man struck clumsily, leaving Blade half a dozen useful openings. He took the best one, disabled Gribbon's sword arm, twisted the sword loose, then pulled Gribbon around in front of him. The edge of the sword was against the man's neck, right over the jugular vein.
«Gribbon,» said Blade quietly. «Order your men to hold back. If one of them so much as blinks an eye, you're a dead man.»
«That fool Bloodskin-«
«Give the order, Gribbon.» The man couldn't see Blade's face, but he heard the ice in his voice.
«Lower your weapons,» he shouted. «Let Blade speak.»
Blade lowered his sword, but didn't let go of Gribbon. He looked at Khraishamo. The pirate had Sigluf disarmed and spread-eagled on the ground. The man was struggling to free his hands, but he might as well have tried to free them from iron shackles. Khraishamo was holding on with all his strength.
«Let him up, Khraishamo,» said Blade. The pirate looked sharply at him. «Let him up, I said.» Blade controlled his voice with care. Privately, he agreed with Gribbon's description of Khraishamo as a fool, but he wasn't going to let anyone else know that. If he and Khraishamo could still work as a team, they might not undo the damage already done, but they could prevent more.
Khraishamo let go of Sigluf and stood back, pocketing the man's knife. The chief seemed too angry to speak coherently, so Blade filled the silence.
«Khraishamo has offered you a mortal insult. Is that true?»
Sigluf nodded.
«Yet I say you gave him an equally great insult first. You said he was no true man, and unworthy of the woman Rhodina. She is far too good for you.»
Sigluf sputtered and hissed, then managed to get out some coherent words. «Who are you, to speak to me about this?»
«I am the sworn blood-brother of Khraishamo,» said Blade. «His enemies are mine, and his honor and woman I will defend as I would my own.»
«You, sworn to a-«began Gribbon. Blade raised the sword again until the rebel leader could see it.
«Gribbon, I didn't ask you to speak.» Blade looked around. A good many of the Maghri were crowding closer, obviously interested but apparently not yet hostile.
«Warriors of the Maghri!» Blade shouted, in a voice intended to be heard all over the farm. He used the Maghri language, and Gribbon and the other Mythorans stared in surprise. So did Khraishamo and Rhodina. He ignored them.
«Warriors of the Maghri.» He pointed at Khraishamo. «This man is my sworn blood-brother. Your chief Sigluf has offered him a mortal insult. Yet my brother Khraishamo cannot fight your chief in the manner of the Maghri, on horseback. The gods so made him that he cannot ride a horse.
«l, on the other hand, can ride any horse the Maghri may offer me. I stand in my brother's place, and I offer challenge to Sigluf. Meet me on horseback, at a time and place of your choosing, and prove whether you are fit to call Khraishamo ugly names and claim Khraishamo's woman.
«Warriors of the Maghri, what say you?»
What they said wasn't clear, because all of them were talking at once. What they thought was obvious. Blade had their attention and even some of their sympathy. Perhaps not much, but if he'd got any, his gamble might be a winning one.
Sigluf apparently heard what his men were saying more clearly than Blade, and didn't like it. His face twisted, and his hands gripped his belt until Blade thought the heavy leather would tear like paper. Then he spat on the ground.
«I will spit on your body like that, when we have met and I have cut off your manhood,» he snarled. «Tomorrow, at dawn.»
Gribbon cursed and with a sudden jerk pulled himself free of Blade's grip. He strode over to Sigluf. «No, damn it! We can't afford to wait for you to get your quarrels done. We've got to meet up with the others, and-«
«Blood is between us, and such a quarrel will not wait.»
«It must.»
«It must not. You dishonor not just me but my-«
«Damn your honor. Is there honor in putting all your men as well as mine in danger?»
Gribbon now seemed to be angrier at Sigluf than he'd been at Blade or even at Khraishamo. It looked as though the argument was going to continue for a while, whoever won. Blade motioned his two friends to step aside with him, into the shadow of the back porch of the farmhouse.
Even in the darkness, Blade could see Rhodina was as pale as chalk. Yet she shook off Khraishamo's supporting hand and faced Blade almost defiantly.
«Blade, why'd you do this? Why save me from someone like him? You know what I've been. You know I've had worse in-«
«I do know. That's one reason why I spoke up. You shouldn't have to face any more trouble like that.» Blade's words reduced Rhodina to silence and gave Blade a chance to turn to Khraishamo.
«As for you, my quick-tempered friend-«
The pirate looked on the edge of tears. «Blade, I've put you in danger because I didn't think. What can I say?»
«As little as possible, until we've settled this matter one way or another.»
Khraishamo looked grim. «If he kills you, I'll-«
«Do nothing. We'll have to accept the outcome of the fight, or break up this whole alliance between the Maghri and the rebels. The alliance may not do us much good, but it can shake Gohar's rule over Mythor.
«In any case, I don't think it's my friends who have to worry about this duel. The English ride with foot-straps like the Maghri, and so do many other peoples I've met in different ages. I wasn't boasting about my riding.»
«It was still a gamble, challenging him in the first place,» said Khraishamo.
«Maybe, but I was using my own dice. I don't know much about the Maghri. I do know that people like them are always foolish about duels. Sigluf couldn't refuse my challenge.
«Also, I don't think he's too popular with his own people. A blowhard like that-«
«A what?» said Rhodina.
«Blowhard. You know-a man full of wind, like the storm we went through.» The others laughed. «Anyway, a man like that, who insults total strangers and grabs for every good-looking woman he sees-even his own men might like to see him lose.»
Rhodina let Khraishamo put an arm around her and pull her against him. «I hope you're right,» she said, her mouth muffled against the pirate's broad chest.
Blade hoped so too. He hadn't been lying at any point, but he'd be happier when this quarrel was sorted out. Damn Khraishamo's temper! There'd been a moment when he was almost sorry he'd used the flat of his sword instead of the edge, in the fight aboard Blue Swallow.
Now Gribbon came over to them, looking like a man who'd just swallowed a large dose of life-saving, foul-tasting medicine. «He'll fight after we meet the others,» he growled.