"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 25 - Torian Pearls." - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

for breaking records in the hundred-yard dash, but no good for a long-distance run. Blade still knew he
had no choice but to speed up. Otherwise the man would almost certainly catch him, and he'd run too far
and too well to let himself be caught now.

Blade's own feet seemed to barely touch the ground as he poured all his strength into a pace to match
the other man's. Once more his extra sense told him where his opponent might be. The man was gaining,
but only a step at a time, and there was still a large gap between the two men. Would that gap last longer
than the other's strength?

Blade ran now with total concentration, nothing on his mind but taking each step a little faster than the
one before, making each breath a little deeper than the one before. His concentration was so complete
that the man behind him could probably have caught up and stabbed deeply without Blade's feeling it at
all.

Then suddenly Blade's sensation of someone behind him began to fade. He didn't look back until the
sensation was completely gone. Then he saw his pursuer staggering like a drunk as he ran, stumbling and
weaving from side to side. The gap between the two men was widening at every step.

Blade didn't slow down until he was near the end of the third lap. As they reached the end of it Rehod's
friend fell to the ground and lay there, writhing feebly and gasping like a dying fish. Blade ran on,
completing half of a fourth lap at a run, then finishing it at a jog. As he came in from the fourth lap,
everyone except Rehod and his friends was cheering.

Blade drank some water and took a short rest before the test in wrestling. "In fact," said Paor, "if you do
not take the rest, I will knock you down and sit on you until you are strong enough to be fit for the
testing. Show some of the wisdom you showed facing me and my comrades, and the day will be yours."

Blade really needed no such urging. The four-mile run in the hot sun on an empty stomach had taken a
good deal out of him. He was happy to sit for a few minutes, drinking water, breathing deeply, and
working the kinks and knots out of his muscles. Then he rose to be tested in wrestling.

Neither of Blade's opponents in the wrestling test was a friend of Rehod, so Blade did not worry about
painful or fatal "accidents." He was able to relax and do his best.

The Kargoi's style of wrestling turned out to be highly formal, almost ritualistic. There were only a few
standard moves. When Blade learned those, he had no more problems. In fact, he had to take care not
to win so easily that he would humiliate the two warriors facing him. He flattened both opponents in less
than ten minutes apiece, then drank some more water and got ready for the test of swordsmanship.

This would be the last test, and possibly the most important. Certainly it would be the most dangerous.
The weapons lent themselves to "accidents" if anybody wanted to arrange one.

Somebody probably would. Blade's first opponent in the test of swords was Rehod, and open anger
showed in the warrior's face every time he looked at the Englishman.

Chapter 8

For the testing of Blade's swordsmanship, everyone crowded closer. Blade had made quite an
impression in the previous tests. Now everyone was openly curious to see what would happen when he
came up against Rehod. Even the mounted sentries were riding as slowly and as closely as they dared.