Death of the Dragon - Ed Greenwood [39]
"I've slain at least thirty," a swordcaptain gasped, bringing his blade around in an arc that struck sparks and rang shrieks of protesting weapon steel from a dozen orc swords.
The endmost orc reeled back from that clash of arms, and Swordcaptain Thorn's blade darted in like the fangs of a springing rock viper, in and out of a fat tusker's throat so swiftly that one might have been forgiven for not seeing the slaying stroke-at least until the blood started to jet, and a fat, dirty body staggered helplessly back.
"Is that all, Thorn?" Lord Braerwinter called, over the surging shoulders of two orcs that were hacking an already dead armsman to the ground. "Whatever have you been doing all this time?"
The swordcaptain chuckled. "Sharpening my steel," he roared back, trading deafening blows with a snarling orc captain larger than he was. "And tempering it-"
Both combatants swung as hard as they could, blades cleaving air until they clashed together numbingly, spraying sparks. Tortured steel screamed around their ears. As one, orc and man staggered back, shoulders shaking helplessly from the force of their meeting blades.
One of the gigantic snortsnout's elbows struck a dragoneer's helm, sending the man flying. The warrior fighting beside the downed man gave the reeling orc a look of disgust, whirled despite an orc blade seeking his own ribs, and drove his dagger hilt-deep behind the tusker's ear.
"-in orc blood!" Theldyn Thorn roared, drawing back his warsword in both hands and smashing it forward through the staggering orc's guard with such force that both of his boots left the ground-and the huge, hairy jaw, breast, and ribs beneath all shattered. They fell together, rolling in the mud, sweeping the legs out from under the orc trying to slay the dragoneer.
Someone else fell atop that orc, screaming in raw agony, and two sword blades burst through the tusker's body inches from Thorn's nose, almost blinding him with hot, dark gore. As he shook his head frantically in the stinking darkness, the screaming above him ended abruptly.
The swordcaptain blinked and heaved and spat his way up from under, finding his feet somehow in the muck. When he could see once more, he found he was in a little space clear of living orcs, facing staggering and blood-spattered Purple Dragons across heaps of the dead. He gave the dragoneer a dark look and snarled, "Slay your own orcs, boldblade!"
"Well," the dragoneer growled back, kicking his way free of bodies that were still leaking bright blood, "I humbly beg my lord swordcaptain's pardon. My hand must've slipped."
"No doubt," Thorn grunted, setting his shoulders to hack his way forward through a squalling tangle of bloodstreaked orcs whose blades were caught in the armor of the Purple Dragon they'd spitted together. "No doubt."
In the heart of the fray, Swordlord Glammerhand and the lords Braerwinter and Tolon were grimly hacking and parrying, trying to keep orc blades away from two fellow warriors who refused to be protected: King Azoun and his daughter Alusair. The Steel Princess was leaping and twisting like a mad thing in the heart of knot after knot of snorting, screaming tuskers, hurling herself into danger as if she were eager to die. Black orc blood dripped from her helm and chin, and her blade leaped like a flickering flame amid the gore, rising and falling tirelessly.
Ever Alusair struck boldly forward, and ever her father followed her, hacking and stabbing with cool efficiency as he sought to deal death to any orc who got between him and his daughter and thus necessarily around behind Alusair's back.
Orcs a head taller than she was snorted in anger as they put their shoulders down and rammed forward, together. One paid for his lowered guard with his life, his gorget cut away and the throat beneath opened in a hot flood-but the other sent Alusair staggering and chopped sidearm with his blade like a forester hewing down a sapling.
She grunted-it was more of a sob-as his blade bit home, and almost fell. An orc blade had drawn royal blood!
Roars went up from both sides