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any other two men of the village. He had friends who might not be ready to
make trouble for Swebon, but would certainly not hold back from making trouble
for Blade.
Fortunately Blade had no trouble finding his own quarters. Everyone was glad
to oblige a man who'd slain a rogue Horned One single-handed, and as it
happened the carpenters had just finished a new houseboat for the eldest of
the village blacksmiths. Unfortunately the blacksmith died the day before the
houseboat was finished, so the carpenters were happy to offer it to Blade.
Blade moored his new home at the far north end of the village, and put on
longer ropes to allow it to float well clear of the bank. He also made a rough
"burglar alarm" in the form of a long stick with sharp nails sticking up
through it. By day he kept it covered with a thick grass mat, but at night he
removed the mat. Anyone jumping from the bank to the bow of the houseboat
would land on the nails, and after that his yells would be enough to bring
Blade out armed and ready.
"You are farther from the light of the village than I am happy to see," said
Swebon. "I would not see you taken by a Horned One."
"It will take a strange Horned One to attack me so fast that I do not wake and
leap to shore," said
Blade. "In any case I do not fear Horned Ones as much as I do men or at least
one man." He didn't want to say any more, but judging from Swebon's expression
he didn't need to.
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Blade took his spear and club, pots and bowls, sleeping mat and water jug to
the houseboat on his fifth day in Four Springs village. He passed a quiet
night and spent the next day talking with the village bowmaker. The man had
many complaints about the poor quality of the wood the carpenters were
bringing him.
"Oh, if there was wood in the Forest to make a bow strong enough to send an
arrow through a
Treeman or the metal shirt of a Son ! But the carpenters say there is none,
and perhaps they know. If there was such a wood in the Forest, they would have
found it long ago."
"Very likely," said Blade politely. He'd been thinking about the bow problem
ever since he heard of it. He didn't want to raise anybody's hopes, though,
until he knew a good deal more. So he and the bowmaker talked of other things
over a leisurely dinner, then Blade returned to his houseboat for the night.
He'd just fallen soundly asleep when an explosion of shouting and screaming
jerked him awake. He grabbed his club with one hand and his spear with the
other, then whirled toward the bow. Any attack would be coming from there.
After a moment he realized that whatever was going on wasn't aimed at him, at
least not yet. Keeping down, he crept forward and peered through the screen of
leaves.
In the pale light of the campfires, people were running around as if flames
were licking at their heels, shouting and crying out to one another. Mothers
were clutching children, while stark-naked warriors with clubs, spears, and
shields were herding clusters of weeping women ahead of them. For a moment
Blade thought the village was being raided by another tribe. Then he heard
shouts of "The Treemen! The
Treemen! Gather by the river! The Treemen are upon us!"
Blade knew that the Treemen were seven-foot apemen like the one he'd found
dead at the little camp on his first day in this Dimension. He didn't know
much else about them, except that they were deadly enemies of the Forest
People. He did know that he was going to need his weapons before long. He bent
down and began pulling on the ropes to the bank. Slowly the houseboat crept
toward the land.
Blade was no more than ten feet from the bank when a moving shadow in the
branches of a tree caught his eye. The shadow froze as if it sensed Blade's
eyes on it, then started moving again as three women and two gray-haired men
came toward the base of the tree. Blade opened his mouth to shout a warning
and raised his spear to throw, but the Treeman was quicker than Blade.
Like a pouncing lion he leaped down from the tree into the middle of the five
people below. A sweep of one long arm knocked a woman and a man flat, while
the other arm clutched another woman around the waist. She screamed, clawed,
and bit. The Treeman tightened his grip, ignoring the woman's struggles until
her teeth finally worked through the hair into his skin. Then he let out a
roar more like an animal than a man and smashed his other fist into the
woman's head. She went limp, either stunned or frightened into paralysis. The
Treeman reached for a branch overhead with his free hand.
As he started hauling himself and his victim up into the trees, an arrow
whistled from behind a hut.
The Treeman roared again as the arrow hit him in the left shoulder, but didn't
stop or drop the woman.
With the arrow still in his flesh he hauled himself up into the branches and
disappeared into the darkness.
Blade rose to his feet and leaped to the bank. As he landed, the fallen man
and woman started struggling to their feet and the archer from the hut darted
out into the open. Blade reached for the woman, then the roars of more Treemen
made him turn.
This time there were three of them. Blade hurled his spear with all the
strength of his right arm. It drove into a Treeman's thigh so deeply that the
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bloody point came out through his buttock. He took a couple of staggering
steps forward, then dropped to his hands and knees and started crawling. Blood
poured out around the spear and he roared with pain at every movement, but he
kept on coming.
The other two Treemen swung to either side of their maimed comrade. The archer
nocked an arrow to his bow and sent it squarely into one Treeman's stomach at
close range. The Treeman howled,
charged, plucked the arrow out of himself with one hand, and snatched the bow
from the archer with the other. The archer gave a wild, wordless cry and
raised his club.
Against the Treeman the club was no more use than a toothpick. The Treeman
grabbed it and the hand holding it, jerking the archer off his feet and
holding him at arm's length in midair. Then the
Treeman started smashing his fist into the dangling man's face, throat, ribs,
and stomach. The man screamed, spraying blood through smashed teeth, then
choked and fell silent as his chest caved in.
That was all Blade was able to see before he had to meet the third Treeman's
attack. He backed away, to give himself room and make sure the first Treeman
wouldn't try grabbing him by the ankles. The
Treeman followed, arms spread wide, hissing and rumbling in his throat, pale
eyes and black-lipped mouth both wide open. The mouth was lined with broad but [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]