Chapter 1.5

“You.  Foreigner.  Get up.”

Really, this is too easy,thought Massoud.  As he stood he flicked an etmek to the far side of the room.  As it popped, the two Kaldones wheeled and Massoud slipped into the back alley only to find himself flushed quarry.

“Hello, Massoud.”

“Akane,” Massoud acknowledged, finding himself facing his long time zealot adversary and six hulking Kaldones.

“Dispatch him,” commanded Akane.

Massoud quickly realized that while he had made a strategic oversight by fleeing here, Akane had made a tactical mistake.  Three clubs, two axes, and a giant broadsword had no room in these cramped quarters.  As the muscle to his left swung his great axe at Massoud, the others had to move back a little.  Massoud ducked under the swing and slipped between the man and the wall, placing his long knife in and out of the man’s kidney as he passed.

Akane was right there as he passed, easily avoiding his slash but not returning in kind.  She simply said “think” as he passed by.  As he fled down the alleyways of Blàthan, Massoud was not so sure Akane had made an error in judgement after all.

~ by beinnsgriob on December 30, 2007.