Jeffrey Lord Blade 17 The Mountains of Brega

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Chapter 17
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Immediate and total pandemonium.
The shrieks and screams that rose from the Blue section were echoed seconds
later from all around the arena. The women in the Green section rose in a
body. Some of them scurried for the exits, while others drew their swords and
started scrambling toward the Blues. Elsewhere in the stands women sat as if
turned to stone; still others were dropping down onto the sand. Were they
coming in to attack Idrana's archers or join them?
Blade didn't know, and badly wanted to. He wanted even more badly to find some
place well out of the battle that would certainly be raging within a few
minutes. If it was a place that offered an escape route, even better. He began
looking around the arena.
Meanwhile, Idrana's archers kept up their fire, pumping flight after flight of
arrows into the Blue section. That section was becoming a mass of writhing
bodies and blood now, although a few of the Blue warriors had unlimbered their
own bows and were shooting back.
As Blade ducked an arrow screaming toward him, he saw six women in the dirty
gray clothes of manual workers leap down from the stands. The one in the lead
waved her arms frantically at Blade.
Blade stiffened as he recognized Truja.
He didn't wait. Shoving two of the archers aside, he dashed toward the
approaching women. Truja leaped into the air in delight, then waved her arm at
one of the open doors under the stands.
Blade and the women sprinted toward the door. As they ran, Blade heard a
shriek of rage behind him Idrana had seen her chosen male getting away. Blade
tried to keep his head as low as possible.
But Idrana could not afford to waste arrows needed for the Blues on a fleeing
male. Only a single flight came whistling over. All were aimed at Blade; none
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of them hit him, but by ill chance two struck one of Truja's women in the
back. She screamed and staggered, then went down. Blade bent to help her up,
but Truja stepped in front of him.
"No!" she snapped. Her hand darted in under her robes and drew out a sword.
The woman writhing on the ground looked up and nodded. The sword plunged into
the woman's neck, and she heaved convulsively in a death spasm and lay still.
It was a quicker death than Idrana would have given her, and now she could not
be tortured into betraying them.
The five surviving women and Blade charged into the door at a dead run,
drawing their swords as they did so. The underground chamber was full of cages
of Senar and chained women. The guards were already on the alert from the
uproar above. They raised their swords as Truja's party charged in.
"Out of my way!" she snapped. "Business of the House!" "Business of the House"
meant the affairs of the House of Fertility. None in the city except the
Guardians of Fertility and Mistress herself might question these words. The
guards drew back, the massive door rumbled open, and Truja led the way out
into the underground corridor.
"Business of the House!" got them past the other two guard posts under the
arena and several parties of armed women who were rushing about in a frenzy
like ants in a broken nest. None of them paid any attention to Blade, although
it was impossible to conceal him.
Truja grinned at that. "With everything else they've got on their minds now, I
don't think they'd notice if you were fourteen feet tall and had two heads and
long purple fur."
Then they were outside the Arena. The roar from inside was, if anything,
growing louder. The women in the streets were staring toward it in curiosity
and mounting fear. They were much too busy to notice the five women and the
strange-looking Senar who slipped out of one of the underground passages.
Now the women stripped off their workers' robes. Under them they
wore hunting costumes, complete with short, heavy bows and quivers. They
tossed the robes to Blade, who made a rough cloak and loincloth out of them.
Then all six headed for the gates of the city.
They covered the three miles at a dead run, without stopping once or slowing
more often than the wretched streets underfoot required. After three weeks of
confinement and nearly three hours in the arena, Blade found the run an
ordeal. His heart seemed about to burst out through his ribs, and his lungs
felt as if they were full of flaming-hot gas. Hot needles drove into the
muscles of his legs. But from somewhere he found the strength to keep going.
The city gates were still open when Blade and the women came in sight of them.
They promptly slowed down to a walk and tried to get their breathing back to
normal.
The officer commanding the gate peered down out of the gatehouse at them as
they approached. The uproar from the arena was beginning to be audible even
here. And someone must have started setting fires. Several columns of black
smoke were swirling up from the quarter of the city around the arena.
"What in the name of the Mother is happening?" the officer shouted.
"There's a riot at the arena," Truja called back.
"The Greens and the Blues?" the officer asked.
Truja shrugged. "Who else?"
"Damn them!" said the officer. "Where are you going? "
"Out to warn the farms and the patrols," Truja said. "The thing with us is a
Senar the House of
Fertility is sending out to a farm near Ufol Valley. He's an odd one, and they
want to see how well he can work."
"All right," the officer said, and waved them on through. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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