Now the raiders' canoes were swinging in toward the village. Tuk was still standing in the bow of the lead canoe. Two warriors aimed spears at him and threw. Age hadn't dimmed his eye or slowed his arm. His shield snapped up and both spears thudded harmlessly into it. But the impact knocked him off balance, and as the canoe ran aground Tuk went overboard into the water with a tremendous splash. He could easily have been speared or filled with arrows as he struggled to his feet, but everyone on both sides was laughing too hard to use a weapon. Then the other canoes were pulling up alongside the first, the Fak'si warriors were splashing ashore, and suddenly there was nothing to laugh at in the fighting that exploded through the village.
Tuk rose out of the water and took a club blow on his shield. He swung at his opponent, got under the man's shield, and hit him in the thigh hard enough to stagger him. Tuk followed up his advantage so fast that he got out ahead of his men. Two of the Yal tackled him, one from each side. He beat down a spear thrust, but took a gash in the leg from a knife. The man with the knife didn't pull back in time and Tuk's club came down on his shoulder. He dropped and lay writhing. Blade noted that Tuk could easily have smashed the man's skull, but deliberately struck his shoulder instead. Then Tuk's men were all around him again, Guno among them, and the Yal were so badly outnumbered they had to retreat.
Or at least it seemed that way to the attackers landing from the canoes. Blade and Swebon had seen the Yal warriors seeking hiding places. They knew that the attackers were being led into an ambush. Unfortunately there was nothing they could do about it. If they broke out of cover now, they'd be finished before they could shout a warning.
The Fak'si from the canoes came on, and suddenly the air around them was filled with spears and thrown stones. The range was so close that everything hit hard, and the Yal were in too much of a hurry to aim carefully. Blade saw one warrior go down clawing at a spear deep in his chest, and another with his thigh gushing blood. Both would be dead within minutes. Other Fak'si also took bloody wounds, and in return they began to stop pulling their own blows. Blade saw Tuk smash a man's knee with his club, while Guno dropped both spear and shield to grip an opponent with both hands and choke him to death.
Then a wild chorus of screams and shouts erupted from behind Blade and Swebon. The refugees from the village had run into the overland raiders. Swebon signaled to Blade, then leaped to his feet and gave his war cry.
A warrior escorting the women turned, saw Swebon, and hurled a spear. Swebon deliberately lowered his shield, then snatched the spear out of the air with his free band. He whirled on one foot, then threw the spear back at its owner. It sank deep into a tree. The other man pulled it free and raised it in salute to Swebon.
By now the Yal in the village had also seen Blade and Swebon. Several spears thudded into the ground around them, then an archer sent two arrows at Blade. One missed his head by inches, another struck the head of his spear with a metallic tak! Blade decided that the safest place around here was in the middle of the enemy's warriors, where the Yal couldn't shoot arrows or throw spears at him without hitting friends. He ran toward the nearest enemy and Swebon ran beside him.
Two Yal seemed to sprout from the ground at Blade's feet. One held a spear, the other a long-handled ax with a stone head edged with iron. Blade took the spear on his shield, then swung his own spear sideways at the axman's raised arm. The shaft smashed across the man's arm as his ax started down and Blade heard the bone crack. Somehow the man held onto the ax, but his blow was wild and harmless. For a moment he was wide open, and Blade kicked him smartly in the stomach. He gasped and crumpled up, while Blade turned to face the spearman.
The man thrust at Blade twice more. The second time the thrust went through Blade's shield. As the man tried to pull free, Blade swung the shield violently. The swing jerked the man off balance before he could let go of the spear and Blade thrust at him. The man raised his own shield, then Blade hooked his shield around the edge of his opponent's and jerked, leaving the man wide open. Instead of thrusting the man through the chest, Blade jabbed him lightly in the shoulder. Then he dropped his spear and punched the man hard in the jaw. The man went over backward so violently he nearly somersaulted, then lay still, groaning, cursing, and out of the fight.
Beside Blade Swebon was also finishing off his second opponent. Now the Yal seemed to forget about their women and concentrate on Blade and Swebon. Suddenly the two big men found themselves surrounded by what seemed like a dozen opponents. They stood back to back and let the Yal come at them.
Blade successfully used the trick of hooking an opponent's shield aside with the edge of his own twice more: The Forest People didn't seem to have developed this particular fighting technique. Then too many enemies were coming at him too fast for him to risk having his own shield out of position for a single moment.
His battered spear broke off in someone's shield. He used the broken end of the shaft to beat aside someone's club, then thrust over the shield into the man's forehead. As the man staggered back with a bleeding scalp, Blade dropped the spear shaft and unslung his club from his belt in time to meet his next opponent. He struck one blow so hard it caved in the top of a Yal shield, and struck another blow that caved in the man's skull. Then he took a glancing blow that half-numbed his shield arm and crouched down, so he could rest his shield on the ground and still stay behind it.
Unfortunately this slowed Blade down, and three Yal closed in around him. One came too close and Blade swung his club in a flat arc, breaking the man's leg and knocking him down. A second Yal thrust a spear violently across Blade's shoulder. Blade's club swung, breaking the man's spear, then he drove his shield into the man's face and broke his spear arm with another blow of the club.
For a moment Blade had a clear space around him and enough time to catch his breath and examine his shoulder. Fortunately it was only a simple flesh wound, one that should heal all right if it didn't get infected. But it wasn't so light because the Yal had pulled his thrust. The man had been doing his best to kill Blade, and he'd have gone on trying if Blade hadn't disabled him. It looked to Blade as if the bloody sport of war among the Forest People was sometimes more «bloody» than «sporting.»
Then suddenly Fak'si warriors seemed to be dropping from the trees and springing out from among them all around Blade. Blade's opponents scattered, except for one man who stumbled and went down. Two Fak'si warriors clubbed him unconscious before he could rise.
Swebon greeted his men, then turned to Blade. «You did as I hoped, Blade. The Fak'si will not soon forget your fighting this day.»
«Neither will the Yal,» said Blade. Then he realized this sounded like a boast, rather than a warning of Yal anger and possible vengeance. He shrugged. «I will teach your warriors my skills with a shield, if they are willing to learn.»
«They will be,» said Swebon. «But you are wounded. Do you wish to go to the canoes?»
«Not yet,» said Blade.
«Good,» said Swebon. «By custom only the chief and those warriors he chooses may enter the chief's house in a captured village. I choose you to come with me.»