him in Moonburg and came myself to--" * * * * * He hit the Chief Engineer with a smack of bodies and his hands closed around the thin neck. Thunder and stars exploded in his skull. He reeled aside, falling to the ground, and the Engineer rushed on him with the club he had pulled from his long sleeve. Rikard kicked out, and the Coper flew backward, grunting. The barbarian snarled and lurched to his feet. Swords and daggers gleamed as the others yanked them from concealment. Trapped. They weren't stupid, these Engineers, and now he was trapped! Rikard hurled himself forward in a flying tackle, hit the nearest man and rolled over on the floor with him. Wrenching the fellow's dagger loose, he bounded back to his feet and rushed another Engineer. "Alive!" screamed the old man. "Take him alive!" For the torture cells--no! Rikard closed with the Engineer, stabbing him in the shoulder before he could slash with his sword. He pulled the glaive loose and backed toward the wall, growling, sword in one hand and dagger in the other. The men formed a defensive line around their Chief and brandished their blades. The wounded Engineer rose suddenly and sprinted for the door. Rikard threw the knife after him, missed, and groaned as the door was swung wide and the four guardsmen entered. "Ha, Nyrac!" he yelled and threw himself upon them. His sword whistled, clanged off the metal shaft of the nearest pike, and raked the cuirass beyond. Another guard hit him with the butt of his pike and he staggered. Now the blows rained on him, smashing thunder of violence and lightning-shot darkness. The sword fell from his hand and he toppled, still cursing. Someone kicked him as he fell. He lay there, half conscious, mumbling through a mask of blood while they bound him. When the reeling and the blurring ended, and only the thumping pain and the slow drip of red were left, he sat up and glared at them where they stood around him. "I thought Rayth was wiser than that," muttered an Engineer. "It wasn't a bad trick." The old man fingered his throat with a wry smile. "He almost made it. But who are you, so bold as to go alone and unarmed in war against the Temple?" * * * * * Rikard shook his ringing head. The sickness in him was as much from stupefied dismay as from his hurts. That he should have failed--that he should have been captured and bound like a pig for slaughter the second time!
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