Sam completed reloading the pistol and strode away, looking for Joe Miller. But he saw Livy reeling backward as a big Ulmak, whose left arm dangled bloodily, drove her back with blows of a stone ax on her shield. Her spear had been broken and in a few seconds he would have beaten her to her knees or shattered the shield. Sam reversed the pistol and broke the Ulmak’s skull from behind with the butt of his gun. Livy fell exhausted and weeping on the ground. He would have gotten down to comfort her, but she seemed all right and he did not know where Joe Miller was. He plunged into the embattled mass and saw Joe on his feet again, demolishing heads, trunks and arms with sweeps of his great ax.
Sam stopped a few paces from a man who was coming up from behind Joe, a large ax in both hands. Sam fired, and the bullet took part of the man’s chest off.
A minute later, the invaders were running for their lives. The sky was graying. By its light it was evident that Parolandoj were coming in from north and south. The other two columns, had been shattered, and the reinforcements were outnumbering the invaders. Moreover, they brought rockets which blew up the boats and canoes waiting for the defeated.
Sam felt too exhilarated to be depressed by the losses and the damage. For the first time he came out of the blue funk that always seized him during a fight. He actually enjoyed the battle during the last ten minutes.
A moment later his pleasure was gone. A wild-eyed and naked Hermann Goring, his scalp caked with blood, appeared on the battleground. His arms were raised straight up, and he was shouting, “Oh, brothers and sisters! Shame! Shame! You have killed, you have hated, you have lusted for the blood and the ecstasy of murder! Why did you not throw down your arms and take in your enemies with love? Let them do with you what they would? You wauld have died and suffered but final victory would have been yours! The enemy would have felt your love—and the next time he might have hesitated before again waging war. And the time after that and the next time he might have asked himself, ‘What am I doing? Why am I doing this? What good is this? I have gained nothing—’ and your love would have seeped through the stone over his heart and—”
John, coming up behind Goring, struck him on the back of the head with the hilt of his knife. Goring fell forward and lay on his face without moving.
“So much for traitors!” John shouted. He stared around wildly and then yelled, “Where are Trimalchio and Mordaunt, my ambassadors?”
Sam said, “They wouldn’t be stupid enough to hang around here. You’ll never catch them. They’ll know you know they sold out to Arthur.”
John’s striking of Goring was illegal, since free speech was every one’s right in Parolando. But Sam did not think that arresting John would be the right course at that moment. He, too, had felt like hitting Goring.
Livy, still weeping, staggered past. Sam followed her to where Cyrano sat on a pile of corpses. The Frenchman was wounded in a dozen places, though not seriously, and his rapier was bloody from tip to guard. He had given a splendid account of himself.
Livy threw herself on Cyrano. Sam turned away. She had not even thanked him for having saved her life.
There was a crash behind him. He turned. The rest of his house had fallen in, bringing the pylons with it.
He felt drained of strength, but there would be little rest for him today. The casualties and the damage had to be assessed. The dead had to be taken to the rendering factory up in the hills, since their fat was used to make glycerin. The practice was gruesome but necessary, and the owners of the bodies did not mind. Tomorrow they would be alive and well again somewhere far away along The River.
In addition, the entire population would have to be kept ready for a call to arms and the work of erecting the walls along the Riveredge would have to be speeded up. Scouts and messengers would have to be sent out to determine just what the military situation was. The Ulmaks and the Kleomenujoj and the New Bretons might launch a fullscale attack.