Blade drew his sword and hacked a broad triangular opening in the paper. Several men ran up as he did so, and dove through the opening as he stepped back. After that came Lady Musura, both swords drawn, leaping like a gazelle through the window in a single ten-foot bound. Only after that could Blade enter the house.
As his feet hit the mats inside, he heard a smashing and splintering of wood as the door toppled inward. Several of Lord Geron's household dabuni sprang back in front of it. One didn't move fast enough. The falling door caught him and slammed him to the floor. He screamed once, then life and breath went out of him in a gasp as Doifuzan and a dozen attackers came trampling across the door and his body.
The dozen took the little cluster of defenders head-on, crashing into them like a tidal wave. Noise exploded through the room as both sides swung fast and furiously. The defenders were too surprised and too badly outnumbered to think of tactics. The attackers were in too much of a hurry.
So there was no maneuvering for position, no complicated footwork, none of the delicate style common in Gaikon swordfighting. Doifuzan himself led the attackers, chopping downward with his sword as crudely and brutally as a butcher beheading a pig. But his stroke smashed down an enemy's guard and bit through the man's collarbone and ribs into his heart.
Some of the other attackers weren't so lucky. Two went down from crude slashes and cuts, writhing on the floor under their comrades' feet, howling and screaming. But four men had no chance against ten who could get around their flanks. Swords fell, then rose red and dripping. The smell of blood filled the room. Then the four defenders were down on the bloody mats, along with another of the attackers. Seven men dead, in less than a minute.
Doifuzan led the survivors off deeper into the house at a dead run. Some of the dabuni who had come in through the window started off after them. All of the attackers were shouting and yelling loudly enough to wake anyone still sleeping in the house.
Blade grabbed one of the dabuni by the collar as he was about to dash off and bellowed in his ear, «Follow me, in Kunkoi's name! We've got to spread out!» He waved a hand off to the right, where a hall led away into the shadows.
As if Blade's gesture had conjured them out of the floor, six armed men appeared in the hall, pounding toward Blade at a dead run. One was carrying a bow. He shot, and the arrow sank deep into the thigh of the dabuno beside Blade. The man gasped, reached down, jerked the arrow out, threw it to the floor, then clamped a hand tightly over the spurting wound. Sword raised, he staggered toward the oncoming men.
Another arrow sank into his stomach. But as the first enemy came within reach, his sword flashed through a deadly arc. The first man's head wobbled on its shoulders, then thumped to the floor. The headless body drove on for a few steps more until it collided with the dying dabuno. Both went down, neither got up.
Before they hit the floor, Blade hurled his spear at the archer. It drove into his chest just below the breastbone. The impact at close range nearly knocked the man off his feet. He staggered, then swung around in a circle. The jutting shaft of the spear got in the way of one of his comrades. As he ducked under it, he was for a moment wide open. That moment was all that Blade needed to step forward and bring his sword down. Steel bit through bone and flesh again, and another headless body hit the floor. Then Blade had to leap back as the three surviving enemies came on.
For a moment things looked bad. He was one against three, and he had only his sword. But the three men had just seen three of their comrades die in less than a minute. No loyalty to Lord Geron could give them the courage to approach Blade too closely. He found it easy to guard against their cautious strokes. But he began to wonder how long this might go on. If more defenders appeared, to take him in the rear…
He had barely finished the thought when he heard something swish through the air. Then a jinai's throwing dart blossomed in the right eye of the center man. He squalled like a wounded panther and plunged forward. On the fringes of his field of vision Blade saw a slim black-clad figure bounding forward to meet the dabuno. Lady Musura dove to come in low, the dabuno seemed to fly into the air, then both crashed to the floor and rolled over and over. They struck against the wall with a crash and Lady Musura bounced to her feet. The dabuno kicked twice and lay still.
Blade flashed a silent smile of greeting to the woman, and turned back to his two remaining opponents. Before he had finished the turn there was only one, as Lady Musura cut in to the left and took out the dabuno there. A quick dart under his sword, a kick to his kneecap, and a knife thrust up under his chin until the point went into his brain-then there was another corpse on the floor.
Blade fended off a cut from his last opponent and smiled again.
«Leave this one for me.»
He saw her nod and step aside to keep a watch down the hall, then he turned his full attention to his opponent. They had room for footwork now, and they went around in a circle three times. Then the dabuno attacked. Blade held his ground, beat the other's sword upward and away from his head, then drove in with a cut that hacked through the other's left arm at a single blow. As the man shifted his sword to his right hand and tried to come at Blade again, Blade's own sword darted first right, then left. As it darted right it smashed the man's sword out of his hand. As it swung left it slashed across the throat, half-severing his head. The dying man fell across his own sword. Blade and Lady Musura stepped over the body and headed down the hall.
After a moment Blade remembered to look behind him and see if anyone was following them to guard their rear and if necessary their line of retreat. No one was. He did not stop-there was not time for that. But he swore to himself. Damn those hotheads! They were dashing off as the impulse took them, everybody too bloodthirsty and eager to think clearly. Even Doifuzan didn't seem to care about making sure the house was thoroughly searched and all exits guarded. That was going to leave him and Lady Musura with too damned much work for any two people to handle. But there wasn't anything they could do about it.
They moved on down the hall, checking each room as they passed. A few yards farther on they came to a wide flight of stairs. There seemed to be another, more brightly lit hall at the top. Blade nodded toward the stairs and Lady Musura followed him up. He couldn't help thinking that this was a bloody good way to be ambushed or killed by mistake by your own side, let alone by the enemy! But the second floor had to be cleared, and it looked as though the job was going to be up to them.
The hallway at the top seemed deserted. But Blade wasn't taking any chances. He kicked down the door of each room as he came to it, while Lady Musura covered his back and kept an eye on the hall in both directions.
He found no one, armed or unarmed, alive or dead, in any of the rooms. Some of them must have been living quarters-their floors were covered with sleeping mats. Overturned cups and bottles, scattered sandals, and tumbled blankets showed where some of the rooms had been hastily evacuated.
The thick wooden floor muffled the sounds of the battle that still seemed to be raging below. Blade was beginning to worry. Was everybody in such a blind fury that nobody was going to think of the second floor? That might give Lord Geron a good chance to escape.
They came to a bend where the hall turned at right angles to the left. Thirty feet farther on it came to a dead end. The walls on either side were bare plastered wood, and the floor underfoot was unpolished and scarred. About halfway to the blank end of the hall was a small door in the left-hand wall.