Pearl Of Patmos

Lycus was staring. His men gaped and muttered amongst themselves and cast furtive looks at their officer. Blade pressed on.

«You will see the equity of it. Hectoris has all the advantage. If he defeats me your lives are spared, for the war is over. If I defeat him we will talk of terms and I think there will be no war, and again you will be spared. I have no quarrel with common soldiers or with officers who merely obey orders. Why should you die for Hectoris when I offer him terms that nobody but an arrant coward can refuse? And if your leader is a coward it is time you found him out! What say you to all this, Lycus?»

That officer snarled and spat in the dirt. «I say it is a trap for Hectoris, though I know not how you intend to spring it. I say I will have no part of it.» He glanced about him. «And I say that any who listens to this liar, anyone who passes on such talk, is guilty of treason and will pay for it-I will see his bones broken to powder on the wheel.»

Blade sighed inwardly. He was going to fail with Lycus, and it was he most of all that he desired to win. But there was no help for it. He drew his sword, and approached Lycus. Edyrn gave an order and an outer ring of the Guard began to press in. Bowmen and slingers moved into easy range.

Blade halted six paces from Lycus and spoke past him, over him, to the Samostans huddled behind. «This is not your quarrel. Remain out of it and live. I promised you life and your honor and your weapons and you shall have them if you do not interfere.»

Lycus whirled to face his men. «Do not listen to this Blade. I command you die with me.»

Blade waited. The Guard waited and for a moment silence hung like the dust over the battlefield.

Blade said: «Think well, men of Samosta. If I lift a hand you all die. You have fought bravely and have not been dishonored. Why should you die for the likes of Hectoris-will he comfort your wives and sweethearts? Will he provide them with bread and a roof to shelter them? And think you, Lycus, are you not the equal of Hectoris and might not you be elected in his stead if I slay him?»

The Samostans around Lycus stepped back and lowered their weapons. Lycus spat at them and leaped at Blade. «Your tongue is a weapon indeed, Blade. Let us see if your sword matches it.»

The man was determined to die. Blade, even as he took the first ringing blow on his shield, felt the pity of it. He could have used Lycus. But it was worse than that-now he must kill the man and show proof of his prowess at arms. This he had wanted to conceal from Hectoris until the last moment, had wanted the Samostan leader to reckon him nothing but a braggart and a boaster, a man to be held in contempt. That would not work now. He must play the opposite tactic; he must prove himself to these watching Samostans and let them spread the word and so subject Hectoris to a different sort of pressure.

And yet he made a last effort. He fended off the flurry of blows and spoke loud to Lycus. «This is not a fair fight. I am fresh and you are battle weary. Why are you so intent to die, Lycus?»

The officer was already panting, but he bore in and began to force Blade back. Sweat gleamed through the blood on his face and in his beard. His shorn plumes drooped. and there was a great dint in his helmet.

«I swore my faith to Hectoris,» he gasped, «and that oath I will keep. I have failed my mission and I deserve to die, but if I take you with me it will not be total failure.»

«So be it,» said Blade. And determined to make it as fast as possible. He had wasted a deal of time and the sky was black and the wind steadily rising. He had pla

For a moment Blade took the sword blows on his shield. Then he thrust suddenly and as Lycus skipped back and to one side, for the moment on the defensive, Blade fell to the attack. He went both to the point and to the edge, sudden darting lunges and massive battering blows that spun the shield of Lycus in his grip and sheared away the rim. Lycas began to fall back, gasping, his legs slow to respond. Blade kept after him without mercy.

The circle tightened around them, pressured by the curious Guard who had broken their square and fought for a place with a view of the fight. Blade herded Lycus neatly into the very center of the circle and then, seeming to lapse, offered him an opening by lowering his shield and speaking. «Lycusl You have proven enough. I-«

Lycus made a desperate lunge. Blade parried it, dropped to one knee, took another stroke on his uplifted shield, and slashed at the legs of the officer. It was a savage stroke and cut the muscles of both legs above the knees. Lycus sagged and, with the blood spurting, tried to support himself with his sword. Blade feinted at his throat. Lycus brought his sword up to parry and began to fall as his legs failed him. Blade leaned into the thrust and aimed at a rent in the man's chest armor. His steel went in with a jolting shock felt clear to his shoulder, and stood out half a foot behind Lycus. Bits of gut and lung tissue dripped and fell away as Blade withdrew his sword and, let Lycus sway and topple to fall with a crash at his feet.

Blade did not hesitate. He hacked off the head, thinking that here had been a man indeed, and sent fqr a pikeman. When the pikeman arrived on the run Blade gave orders. The head of Lycus was fixed on the pike and given to a Samostan sub-officer. A way was opened in the square.

Blade stared at the sub-officer and said, «Take that to Hectoris. Remind him of my terms. I will be at the beaches in a few hours and, unless he be craven, I will expect to find him waiting for me. And if you are wise, and as weary of war as you seem, you will spread word of what you have seen and heard here. Come to wisdom, man, you and all your fellows! Let Hectoris take the risks for once.»

As the remaining Samostans were filing out of the square Blade called the sub-lieutenant back.

«Remind Hectoris that Juna is part of the bargain. I will expect to find her on the beach as well. Tell him this from me-that he brought Juna as a bargaining point, so now let him deliver on his word. Go. I will give you half an hour start of me.»

Blade remounted and listened as Edyrn gave him a report of the dead and hurt. «Dose and bandage those who can walk,» he ordered. «We must leave the others.»

Edyrn agreed. «It is the custom to cut their throats, sire. It is an easier death than lying hurt and waiting for wild beasts and vultures.»

For a moment Blade hesitated, then shook his head. «No. 1 do not act for God. Let them be. A man may sometimes live no matter how grave his hurt. I will not deprive him of that chance.»

A mounted officer cantered up. «Your man returns, sire.'

Nob made a sour face as he approached Blade. «I knew it, master. I told you it would be so-I have missed all the fun.» He glanced at the heaps of Samostan dead and whistled softly. «Aye, you handed them a better whipping than even I thought, by Juna's Reece. And me without a chance to unsheath my sword. I tell you it was not fair, master. I owe these Samostan dogs for many a blow and curse and I-«

Blade looked at him and Nob closed his mouth.

«What of the beaches, man?»

Nob wanted to grumble more but dared not. «Nothing of them,» he said sullenly. «The wind at the coast is twice as strong as we feel it here and the waves are tall already. The Samostan fleet lies off in the harbor and will not venture. I have called off the crying of my beggars because the wind drowns their words.»

Blade cursed. «Do not exaggerate with me, Nob. Surely the storm is not that furious yet? That small boats ca

Nob nodded dourly. «Oh, that can be done, master. And no great skill required. A small boat has no draft and will not catch on the reefs, though it may founder in the surf. But the fleet, the great battle ships of Hectoris, they all retreat to the outer harbor and I do not think there will be an invasion today.»