Страница 62 из 149
"Let them get fairly close," he went on, looking down at the white faces of his companions. "I don't see any distance weapons at all, but we can't afford to waste arrows. We're none of us what you'd call crack shots with these things yet."
He picked up his bow and reached over his shoulder for a shaft.
"And I really hope Will gets the rest of the A-list here quickly," he said.
"Haakkaa paalle!"
Havel shouted the ancient battle cry as he rose and lunged. The ca
As he went, half a dozen others popped up from behind boulders or bushes and threw a barrage of rocks. Havel ducked down and lifted his shield, swearing, keeping his sword hilt and sword hand behind the targe as the fist-sized missiles banged and rattled painfully off his mail and shield and helmet. If he lost the use of his right arm they'd overrun the Bearkillers in minutes.
"Yuk-hei-saa-saa!" Eric shouted behind him, from where he sat-a bone-bruise on the right leg left him unable to stand. "Ho la, Odhi
Gasping, Havel spared a second to grin at him. "Well, we've all got our traditions," he said. "Keep an eye out for-"
The younger man's bow sounded, a flat snap through the clatter and shouting. A ca
That brought a squeal like a pig in a slaughter chute and panicked flight. The other ca
"Watch your own side, goddamnit!" she shouted as she moved.
It was good advice. A lump of stone glanced off Havel's helmet with a dull bongggg sound, and he whipped his gaze back to his section, shaking his head against the jarring impact. Ca
"How many arrows left?" he asked.
"Six," Eric said.
Couldn't tell he's hurting from the voice, Havel thought with approval. He really is shaping up good.
"Make 'em count," he said. "There are a lot more of them than I thought."
The rocks picked up again; the two mail-clad Bearkillers huddled back, protecting the more lightly armored Lars-son, moving their shields to catch as many of the heavy stones as they could. After a moment Eric shot; a miss this time, but a close one, and the enemy grew cautious.
"Four left," Eric said.
"I'm surprised they haven't run," Pamela said. "We must have killed or crippled more than a third of them."
"Nowhere to go," Havel replied, keeping his eyes busy. "Wolves don't eat members of their pack who're injured. Men do, men and dogs, and I think literally here. Also that spring down there is probably the only water they know about."
The rocks slowed for a moment. "And they're probably more than half mad by now," Pamela panted, ducking low. She took a quick sip of water and carefully recorked her canteen. "Wanting to die on some level."
"Then they could obligingly try to slug it out toe-to-toe," Havel said, knocking a jagged four-pound lump of basalt out of the air with his shield, and feeling the weight all the way down his back. "We'd have killed them all if they'd kept on doing that."
"I said they were crazy, not stupid," Pamela said.
Well, if nobody turns up soon, we're toast. In fact, we're di
"Here they come," he said a second later.
This time they were doing it smarter; half throwing rocks, the other half scuttling forward. Far too many…
They must have been recruiting among the people they attacked, Havel thought. Those who refused to turn ca
He saw the faces and the eyes now that they were closer; there was little human left in them. Animals, but cu
And Pam's right too.
"Di
Eric shot his last four arrows, and put two more of the enemy out of action. Then they were close, three in front of Havel with blades, more behind carrying stones-one woman in the tattered remains of a business outfit clasping a rock the size of her head, ready to sling it into him at close range.
Not good.
He stepped forward, the downward slope giving added force to the cut. The backsword blurred down and caught the axman at the join of neck and shoulder, and the eyes in the dirt-smeared face went wide. Shock vibrated up his arm as bone parted with a greenstick snap.
He wrenched at the steel with desperate haste, beating aside a spearhead with his shield; the blade was fastened immovably by the dead man's convulsion and the sagging weight tore the braided-leather grip out of his hand.
The time lost let a man with a hatchet too close. He dodged and the spearhead from the other side went by his face; the hatchet skimmed off his shoulder, rattling along the rings of his armor. The hatchetman stepped in, trying to grapple, and Havel lashed out with his steel-clad forearm.
The vambrace took his enemy in the face. Bone crumbled. He snapped the puukko into his hand and struck as he stepped in towards the spearman, the vicious edge grating on bone as he slashed it down the haft of the spear, trying to ward off a third attacker with his shield…
"You didn't come!" the woman with the big rock screamed. "You left us!"
Whatever the hell that meant, she was entirely too close, raising the rock in both hands, and he couldn't dodge-not in time. Two of the ca
Then the one with the rock looked down at the point of the sword that had appeared through her chest, dropped the big stone on her own head and collapsed forward.
Signe stood there instead, revealed like a window when the shade rattled up, leaning forward in a perfect stepping lunge, her eyes going wider and wider as she looked down at the results. Havel took a pace back and clubbed the ca
The other turned to run, and had just time to scream when he saw the line of blades coming up the ridge. One scream, before Eric's fist closed on his ankle and dragged him back towards the knife.
Havel took the time to draw three heaving breaths, straining to pull air that felt like heated vacuum into his lungs, then stepped forward to plant a foot and wrench his sword free of the body of the ca
"Thanks," he said to Signe.
"You're-" She bit back a heave. "You're welcome."
Relief was like a trickle of cool air under his gambeson.
The A-list of the Bearkillers swarmed up onto the ridge as the ca
Then they sheathed their swords and unlimbered their bows.
"You're late for the party," he said to Will.
The Texan shot; a shriek of pain followed right on the heels of the bow-string's slap against his vambrace.
"But not for the cleanup chores," Will said.