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.His sword smashed down against Blade's until each impact jarred Blade from head to foot and made his sword vibrate like an iron rod hammered on by a blacksmith.Dahrad launched an overhead slash, the strongest attack yet.Blade's sword leaped up to block it.Dahrad's sword smashed down against Blade's, hard up against the crossbar of the hilt.With a sharp metallic crannnng, Blade's sword broke off at the hilt.Dahrad's furious slash sent his heavy sword whistling on down until its edge sank deep into the ground.Blade dropped his useless sword hilt and closed in.His booted foot came down on Dahrad's sword faster than the man could raise it.For a moment the sword was immobilized Blade pivoted and kicked out hard with his other foot.Dahrad Bin Saffar sprang back, just in time to keep Blade's foot from smashing his jaw to a ruin.As he sprang back, he let go of his sword.Blade swung down out of his pivot and snatched the fallen sword from the ground.He swung it three times about his head, so fast that it hissed and whistled.Then he charged in at Dahrad Bin Saffar.The Rauf stood as if he had one foot caught in a trap.He seemed paralyzed by the spectacle of his own sword coming at him in the hands of an enemy.Blade swung the sword three more times.Dahrad Bin Saffar drew a dagger, but the first swing of Blade's sword knocked the dagger out of the man's hand and sent it flying.The second swing chopped deeply into his thigh, and his lips curled back from his white teeth in a defiant snarl.The third swing slashed clear through Dahrad's neck, and his head flew ten feet and rolled along the ground.The spouting body collapsed backward as Blade dashed to retrieve the head before any of Dahrad's tribesmen could rescue it.When he picked it up by the beard, the snarl was still frozen there on the lifeless face.As Blade stood there, holding Dahrad Bin Saffar's head, he heard the rumble and squeal of the gate opening.He whirled as someone shouted his name and saw Mirdon running toward him."Champion! Champion! We have the edge on them, and I have ordered the gate opened.We must get back into the tower, or-" He broke off and stopped abruptly as Blade held out his grisly trophy."Gods above!" exploded Mirdon."Him!" He shook his head in a daze."A second miracle has come indeed! You-you killed him?"Blade nodded."I also killed Jormin, after he killed Katerina.""Ka-" began Mirdon, even more dazed and bewildered.Blade didn't wait for the Commander to organize his thoughts.He tossed Dahrad's bleeding head to Mirdon, saw him catch it, then turned and ran toward where Katerina's body lay.He knew the kind of battle that would be sweeping through this area in a few minutes.He didn't want to leave Katerina's body lying in the middle of that battle, where it would be trampled and mangled.As he reached Katerina, the roar of Raufi drums and the blare of their trumpets sounded outside the walls.The two thousand mounted men were on their way toward the open gate.Blade lifted the body in his arms and ran back the way he'd come, toward the door of the stairs in the western tower of the Eighth Gate.As he started to run, he heard the rumble of wheels and the pounding of hooves from the direction of the Garden of Stam.The mobile reserve was moving into position.The trap for the oncoming riders was being set, and in a few minutes more it would be sprung.Blade ran as he'd seldom run in his life, leaping over fallen weapons, skirting fallen bodies.Most of the fallen lay still.Some were still writhing feebly.He couldn't stop for any of them, friend or foe.He could only plunge forward, arms locked tightly around Katerina, holding her body as tightly as he'd ever held the live, warm, loving woman.He plunged forward until the door gaped dark before him.Two of the soldiers were still on guard with muskets held ready.They let him through, then dashed in after him, slamming and barring the ironbound door behind them.Just as the door cut off the outside world, Blade heard the swelling rumble of the Raufi as they began moving in toward the wall.Blade ran up the winding stairs of the tower even faster than he'd run across the level ground.His chest was heaving as he burst out into the open air on top of the tower.He laid Katerina gently on the stones, then turned to the nearest soldier."Do you have-"A volley of shots sounded from outside the walls, rising above the swelling sound of the approaching riders.Bullets whistled overhead and spattered on the stones.Soldiers all around Blade threw themselves flat on their stomachs
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