Implied Spaces by Walter Jon Williams Read Free Book Online

lock—and then Grax was among the bandits, striking left and right with a flail made out of linked iron bars.
    Aristide reached the barrier, parried a half-hearted spear thrust, and swung Tecmessa horizontally. Half a dozen bandits vanished with a bang. The remainder, a many-headed monster that seemed composed entirely of staring eyes and shuffling feet, drew back.
    The rest of the Free Companions reached the barrier. Some reined in and thrust with their lances, some jumped the barrier like Grax, some tried to jump and failed. In the sudden wild stampede, Aristide flattened himself against the rocky side of the pass and tried to get out of the way.
    The bandits were broken in any case. Their efforts to escape were impeded by the narrowness of the pass, the mass of their fellows behind them, and the large herd of riding beasts which they had picketed just behind their position. The outlaws were packed so tightly that the Free Companions could hardly miss, and the bandits’ tangled mass hampered any efforts to strike back or defend themselves. Many bandits died, many were trampled, and many threw themselves into the river and were swept away.
    “ Prisoners!” Aristide shouted. “ Remember to take prisoners!”
    The general slaughter continued without cease. Aristide glanced at the rocks above. The bandits that had been holding this key feature had seen the rout below, and many as a consequence were abandoning the fight, hoping to clamber down the steep boulder-strewn slope and reach their mounts before the Free Companions did.
    There was a clattering of hooves and a cry, and Aristide saw the next company charging to the fight. The chances of getting trampled seemed stronger than ever, and a place above the fray consequently more desirable, so Aristide vaulted the barrier and began to climb the slope.
    Green-skinned Nadeer reached the summit before Aristide did—bellowing, half-a-dozen arrows standing in his chest, hurling rocks left and right. The bandits broke completely. Aristide saw one bandit running past and swung Tecmessa. The flat of the blade caught him full in the face and he went down, stunned. Out of the corner of his eye Aristide saw another darting figure, a broad-shouldered man in black with a recurved bow in one hand, and he thrust the sword between the archer’s legs. The bandit fell face-first onto the stony ground, and then Aristide was on his back, the edge of Tecmessa against his neck.
    “Take me to your leaders,” he said.

03
     
    “I count a hundred and eighteen bodies,” Grax announced. He was in buoyant spirits: even his chain mail seemed to be jingling with satisfaction. “We lost six, and three of those were lost because they fell off their mounts and got trampled by our own side, or drowned in the river.”
    “‘Tis a famous victory,” said Aristide.
    Leaning on his scabbard, he sat on one of the great granite rocks above the pass while he watched the convoy guards demolish what was left of the barricade and hurl the stones into the river. His two prisoners, thoroughly bound, crouched at his feet.
    Bitsy sat on a nearby rock, licking her anus.
    Grax carried a sack of heads thrown casually over his shoulder, in hopes the sultan would offer a bounty. Since there was no pool of life in which to deliver the bodies that choked the roadway, the bandits’ headless torsos were given to the river.
    Aristide had made a point of refilling his water bottle upstream from that point.
    The troll’s gaze turned to Tecmessa.
    “Your sword is magic?”
    Aristide considered his answer. “It performs miracles, to be sure,” he said.
    “I’ve seen other swords that were supposed to be magic. They were all used in the past by heroes—well-made swords, all of them. But so far I know they never—you know— did anything.”
    “This one never did anything until I touched it,” said Aristide. “It seems to work only for me.”
    Which, in addition to being the truth, might dissuade anyone—Grax, for