"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 32 - Pirates of Gohar" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

Then the black galley ran alongside the merchantman, and a gangplank was dropping across the
merchantman's railing. Swordsmen poured across from the galley, while her archers held their fire as
friend and foe got thoroughly mixed up on the merchantman's crowded deck.
A moment later, the brief lull in Blade's battle came to a noisy end. Drums pounded aboard the last
pirate ship, and grappling hooks flew across to her comrade. Sweating pirates pulled the two ships
together, and then the last ship's crew swarmed across to reinforce the first one's. Among them was a
pirate even larger than Blade, wearing only a heavy leather loinguard and leather braces on both wrists,
wielding an ax nearly as tall as he was. On his chest an immense claw was painted in white. He was
shouting orders, and the others jumped to obey him.
The pirate chief charged straight at Blade. Blade stepped forward, knowing that he'd be in trouble if
he let a man with that ax choose the distance. As he closed, Blade slashed twice, but the pirate chief was
so fast that neither slash struck with its full force or where Blade intended. One left a flesh wound just
above the pirate's left elbow, the other took a chip out of the ax handle. Then the pirate shifted his grip on
the ax and thrust with the spiked head at Blade's stomach. Blade had to dance aside to avoid being
impaled on the spike, but as he did he swung at the pirate's head with his club. The club caught the pirate
just above one ear, not really hurting him but provoking him into a serious mistake.
Instead of leaving both hands on the ax, the chief reached up and gripped Blade's wrist. Blade gritted
his teeth as the huge red hand tightened on his wrist and expected it to snap at any moment, but with his
free hand he swung the sword twice. The pirate's right arm gaped open and bloody, then his right
shoulder, then the ax clattered to the deck. Blade hurled himself backward, jerking his wrist free and
feeling as if he'd left a few fingers behind in doing so. Then he raised his sword high overhead with both
hands and brought it down. The pirate chief was bending to recover his ax, but this second mistake saved
him. Blade's sword came down on his head with the flat rather than the edge, and instead of splitting his
skull it merely knocked him senseless.
The pirate chief collapsed at Blade's feet, and a collective shudder seemed to run through all his
followers. Blade dropped his sword and picked up the ax. Against opponents as tough as the pirates, its
smashing power would be more useful. Then he whirled the ax completely around his head with one
hand, making the air hum, brought it down into striking position, and charged forward.
The pirates' line parted as Blade hit it. The pirate to Blade's right died with the ax crushing his skull.
The pirate to Blade's left sprang clear, but died a moment later with an arrow in his chest. Then Blade
was in the open, with the merchant sailors swarming through the gap in the pirates' line to join him.
The merchant ship's railing appeared ahead. Blade took it at a leap, soaring clear over the narrow
gap of water between the two ships. He landed on the pirate ship's platform, and heard planks crack
under his impact. He leaped again, and managed to get onto the pirates' deck before the rest of the
platform dropped into the sea.
Now Blade was alone on the enemy's deck. For the moment there was no way for his shipmates to
follow him, but he'd attacked so fast that the pirates didn't realize they only faced one man. Now he went
into action so furiously that most of the pirates didn't live long enough to learn the truth. Blade's ax
danced and whirled around him, until approaching him was rather like trying to grab a rotating buzz saw
barehanded. He cleared a circle around him, then started forward, stepping over the bodies and parts of
bodies he'd strewn across the deck.
Before he'd gone three steps he found merchant sailors crowding around him, grabbing his arms and
shoulders to pull back and shouting in his ear: "Enough!"
"Love o' the gods, no more!"
"Ye've done ten men's work today."
"We'll not lose our lucky man!"
Blade shook off the hands and was about to reply when all the sailors started cheering so wildly they
couldn't have heard him. While he was fighting on the deck of the first pirate ship, the last one had taken
aboard all the survivors from both and cast off. She was a hundred yards away and her sails were filling
as she turned to flee. Most of the survivors were crowded amidships. Some must have gone below and