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get those damned reserves back where they belong, now! They can't do a thing
standing around here like that and gaping."
Yekran nodded and sprang down into the crowd. Blade heard his voice rising
loud and clear and profane. A moment later the reserves began to break up and
drift back south.
And a moment after that, from the east, came a single great burst of sound.
Hundreds of voices were all shouting the same name at once.
"Krog!"
The terrible cry seemed to paralyze every man and woman in sight. Except
Blade. He bounded down the wall, ignoring the pains the violent motion sent
shooting through his head. Yekran too was already on the move, heading toward
the east-west street at a dead run. Blade bulled a path through the reserves
and caught Yekran as they both turned into the street. Then they halted.
Streaming toward them came a mob of Dreamer fighters, fleeing in a mad panic
from what was behind them. Blade recalled that Erlik had been in command here
but could not see him in the confusion.
The wall itself was alive with Wakers shouting "Krog!" and "Blue Eye!" at the
top of their lungs and pouring forward. The Dreamers on the roofs continued to
hurl down stones, fireballs, and arrows, but the
People of the Blue Eye ignored them. And the wall was abandoned! With the wall
abandoned, there was nothing to stop Krog's fighters from storming straight
into the heart of the enclave.
Blade whirled on Yekran. "Back to the north side. Send all the trained
fighters from the reserve down here. Then get ready for another attack from
the north. They're trying to hit us from two directions at once."
Yekran vanished at a run. Blade whirled around and faced the fleeing Dreamers,
drawing his sword and whirling it high over his head. His voice roared out,
louder than even the war cries of the oncoming
Wakers.
"Stop and fight, you damned cowards! Do you want to be slaves? Do you want to
see Pura in ruins forever? What kind of fools are you?"
Some of the Dreamers, ignored him and pelted right on past him as if he had
not been there. But others jerked to a stop as if Blade had thrown a rope
around their necks. They turned and stared at him.
"Yes, you!" he bellowed. "Stop and help me, you idiots. We can still win this
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battle. We can still win
Pura!"
Whether they understood his words or only his tone, more of them stopped.
Blade pointed back toward the oncoming Wakers and waved his sword again. "Come
on, then!" He ran toward the enemy, and a dozen men followed him.
Blade had never been more certain in all his adventures that he was rushing to
his death. But even a few minutes delay in the rush of Krog's fighters & He
stopped worrying about possibilities and fixed his attention on the oncoming
Wakers. They had slowed from a run to a fast walk. But in the excitement of
being inside the enclave with victory in sight, their discipline was going.
They were coming on in a formation as ragged as that of any other Waker gang,
fighting pairs scattering and breaking up. Blade saw Halda just behind the
front rank, waving her arms and yelling at the fighters. Everyone seemed to be
having trouble with discipline.
Blade pulled his little band to a stop just outside accurate spear-throwing
range. At the sight of them the Wakers stopped and started pulling their
formation into some sort of order. Good. That meant a little delay right
there. Then Halda sprang out in front of the line, bloodstained and filthy but
so magnificently alive that for a moment Blade almost found himself admiring
her.
"Blade," she shouted. "Why are you fighting for these stupid cowards? Come
back to the People of the Blue Eye and help my father rule Pura!"
"Do you want that, Halda, or do you just want me to come back so you can stick
a knife in my ribs while I sleep? Maybe you're afraid of fighting me here?
You'd rather torture more helpless women?"
Halda screamed in raw, incoherent rage, and for a moment she could not say a
word.
Blade stepped forward a few feet and shouted, "Let Krog himself come out and
tell me this! Then maybe I'll believe it!"
Blade licked his dry lips. He had already delayed the Waker charge by several
minutes. If Krog came out, exposed himself &
A familiar slim figure pushed his way through the front rank of the Wakers and
stood facing Blade, hands planted on his hips. He threw his head back and
shouted, "Blade, my daughter speaks with my voice. Come over to us now, and
live. Stay where you are, and die!"
Blade nodded. This was going to be delicate. If the Dreamers thought he was
really betraying them, one of them might put a spear in his back as he walked
toward Krog. But he didn't dare say anything to them.
Slowly he moved forward, a step at a time, arms spread wide, hands empty,
sword well-sheathed.
Behind him he heard the Dreamers mutter and swear and spit on the pavement.
"Who's a coward now?"
one of them snarled. He heard a rasp of metal and took another step. He
expected to feel a spear tearing through him before he took the next one.
He didn't. There was less than a hundred feet between the Dreamers and the
Wakers, but Blade had walked ten miles with less strain and tension. Soon Krog
seemed close enough to touch. Meanwhile the thunder of the battle to the north
continued. Blade licked his lips. Time, time. Where were those damned reserves
he had told Yekran to bring? If this didn't work &
Krog took a step forward until the two men were only a yard apart. Blade held
himself completely motionless, giving no sign of his tension. Krog took
another step forward and Blade moved.
Flat-footed, with no build-up, he launched a kick at Krog's kneecap. The man
reacted while the kick was in midair, but he jumped sideways, not backward. He
was still in range when Blade launched himself forward. One arm beat down
Krog's guard by sheer brute force and the other fist crunched into the side of
the man's head. Krog would have gone flying into the air if Blade hadn't
grabbed him by the collar of his tunic. Before Blade could make another move;
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Halda's voice shrieked, "Kill him!" and a building seemed to fall on Blade.
The Wakers did not dare use their weapons while Blade held Krog, for fear of
slashing their own leader to pieces along with Blade. For a moment Blade held
the unconscious man up as a shield, then half a dozen pair of hands clawed at
both of them and snatched Krog away. Blade drew his own sword and had it up in
time to ward off a whistling slash. A backhand cut opened one man's neck, a
blow to the groin dropped another. Several more went down from wounds
inflicted by their comrades. The Wakers were too closely packed to safely
swing their weapons the way they were doing. That was all that kept
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