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raw blast.
Blade winced at the sound. Then from behind him the hiss exploded again. This
time it did not die away.
And then he heard the clank and clash of iron, scrapings, thumpings-and a
chorus of mad screams of panic.
Blade whirled around. His eyes flicked from the queen, frozen motionless on
her balcony, to the great snake rearing up in the middle of the scattering
slaves. Horun shouted an order, and several of the soldiers ran forward,
drawing their swords. But instead of attacking the snake, they waded into the
ranks of the slaves, slashing and thrusting. The slaves were screaming in
agony now, falling and writhing on the ground. Some of them abruptly stopped
screaming as the snake writhed over them, its tons of scaled mass crushing the
last bits of life out of them.
Blade could not contain himself. "You idiot!" he roared at Horun. "Get that
snake and let the slaves alone!"
Horun whirled and backhanded Blade across the face. "Keep your mouth shut,
boy. This is just another slave trick. I don't need you to tell me how to
handle it."
Four soldiers were holding onto Blade, so he did not lunge forward, pick up
Horun, and break the officer in two with his bare hands. He watched the snake
slowly coiling and uncoiling itself, as the fact penetrated to its tiny brain
that it was free. Its head bobbed up and down like a yoyo, sometimes rising
twenty feet above the ground, sometimes lying flat on the grass.
Now the head rose again, and swiveled toward the balcony. The snake's blank
green eyes flickered open as they caught sight of Roxala, still frozen by the
railing. Blade's mind was yelling at the queen, "Get back inside, you stupid
woman! Don't just stand there gaping like an idiot!" He knew that in another
second he was going to shout it out loud.
Then the snake moved. Perhaps it was cunning, perhaps it was blind rage. But
the huge head shot forward and then up, rising under the balcony, smashing
into it with a tremendous clang. The queen staggered and went sprawling. The
head rose again with another clang. Blade heard the screech of metal twisting.
A third time the snake drove its head like a battering ram into the balcony.
This time the whole balcony pulled free of the wall. Balcony, queen, and
trumpeters plunged down fifteen feet to land with a thundering crash on the
stone walk. The snake reared up and back, then swung forward again. Now its
jaws opened, revealing foot-long teeth and a tongue the thickness of a fire
hose. The tongue flicked in and out, the eyes stared down at the victims
below. The queen lay sprawled on the walk, motionless, her gown half ripped
off by the fall.
Horun seemed as stunned as his queen. The officer stood motionless. His mouth
kept opening and closing, but no sound came out.
"Do something, you useless little palace pimp!" roared Blade. "Don't just
stand there." But Horun still did
not move, nor did he give any orders to his soldiers. Both soldiers and slaves
had scattered in panic.
Some had hidden under the bushes, others had vanished into the porticoes and
peeped nervously out from behind the pillars. The four soldiers holding Blade
had not fled, however. Either they had their orders, or like Horun they were
too paralyzed with fear to move an inch.
Suddenly Blade slumped backward, catching the four men holding him by
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
surprise. He let himself fall to the grass, feeling himself slide through the
soldiers' hands. He felt the last set of hands let go-and suddenly jackknifed
at the waist and shot to his feet, bowling over the nearest soldier. Before
the others could reach for him or draw their swords, he leaped high over a
line of bushes. Ignoring Horun, he ran for the iron stake lying on the grass.
He saw the snake's head swaying still, but dipping lower and lower toward the
sprawled bodies on the walk. Blade knew he would first have to draw the snake
away from the queen. To fight it where it was might kill the queen just as
surely as letting the snake close those foot-long teeth on her.
Blade reached the stake. He lifted it, feeling his muscles strain under the
weight, then jerked. Chain and collar flew off the ground, into the air, and
nearly caught in the branches of a tree. Before they came down, Blade spread
his legs wide for balance and began whirling the stake around his head. The
chain and collar swung through the air like a whip. The massive collar sailed [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]