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.He handled the next cut as well, but then Hesh whipped a quick backhand too low for Aeswiren to counter.The sword slid by and struck Aeswiren across the chest.The mail held, but the force of the blow drove the Emperor to his knees.Hesh came on and Aeswiren could only block the next blow.Hesh landed astride him, and drove his sword down two-handed at his chest.Instinctively, Aeswiren's sword deflected the stroke a few degrees, just enough to have it slice wide of his body and bury itself in the wooden floor of the library.It stuck fast there.Aeswiren sucked in air that felt red hot in his lungs and punched Hesh in the face with every ounce of strength he could muster.Hesh fell backward, and Aeswiren heaved himself clear and started back onto his feet.Hesh sprang up with an eery, inhuman speed again and tackled him around the legs.Aeswiren went down once more, but wriggled around just in time to block the dagger in Hesh's hand.Aeswiren had Hesh's wrist and Hesh had Aeswiren's.The struggle swayed there for a moment, but Hesh's terrible strength was beginning to tell.And then Klek drove his sword into Hesh's back while wrapping an arm around his neck and hauling him back from the Emperor.Aeswiren got to his feet, shaken.Grimes was dead.One of the guards was dead, the other was back on his feet, also looking shaken.Hesh was arched over on his back, his face rigid in death.Except that Hesh was not yet dead.With a strange squeal he sprang back to life and came back onto his feet as if he were made of rubber.Then he reached over and tore his sword free from the floor.The guard was the first to reach Hesh.Their swords rang as they clashed.The guard shoved Hesh with his shield, and then Hesh stabbed over the shield with the rapidity of a striking snake and the guard collapsed.The next moment Klek smashed into Hesh, but slipped on the bloody floor and fell heavily.Hesh ignored him and came straight back at the Emperor.Aeswiren met the sword, turned it, went chest to chest with Hesh.The man's eyes were focused on eternity, there was a strange gasping sound coming from his throat.Aeswiren shoved with his free hand, turning Hesh slightly, an ancient trick of the swordsman.Hesh's thrust missed, but Aeswiren felt his own blade slide deep into Hesh's belly.He ripped upward and dumped the man's guts on the floor.Aeswiren stood back thinking it was over.It was not.Hesh kept fighting, the strange gasping sound never stopped.Aeswiren felt his helmet fly from his head as Hesh hammered him with the sword.His head was ringing, he came close to blacking out.Again, Klek saved him.This time he struck at the base of the neck, and Hesh's head was half severed from his body.Blood fountained over them, and the head of the thing flopped over grotesquely.And still Hesh lived, for he spun around and drove again at Aeswiren.Horrified, almost unnerved, the Emperor barely parried the first blow, felt the second break the chain mail and cut into his ribs.Aeswiren stumbled, the killing blow missed him by a hairbreadth and then Klek caught the thing around its chest and pulled it aside while working his own sword into its chest cavity.Hesh's guts were all over the floor.The room was a charnel house.Hesh hammered Klek in the face and knocked him aside.It turned back to the Emperor.Aeswiren dug deep for his last bit of strength and swung again two-handed.Hesh's head flew across the library and struck a bust of Norgeeben in the far window.Hesh's body fell headlong and lay still.Aeswiren looked into Klek's face and saw his own astonishment and dread reflected there.The air carried a stench of blood and shit.Blood was running from Klek's battered nose."We must hurry, my lord, your enemies are on the move."CHAPTER FORTY-ONEThrough the lamp-lit corridors of the east wing, the Emperor staggered, with faithful Klek at his side.Treachery was abroad, assassins were at work.On the floor just below the library of Euphasian, they found twenty of the Fierce Fists bodies.From blood trails in the hall, it was clear the young men had been killed in various places and then brought there.Apparently Grimes had not been the only traitor in the Fists.On the ground floor near the east gate, a half dozen officers, stood in a group, looking lost.The ranker was Colonel Culchep.The sight of the Emperor, covered in blood, limping, shook these men."Where are the five hundred men I ordered stationed here?" wondered Aeswiren."Back in the barracks, my lord.We received orders, under your seal, to return to barracks while officers waited here."Aeswiren sucked in a breath."And who delivered those orders to you?""Grimes, my lord.I did not question them.Are you saying they were not your orders?""Yes, Colonel, that is what I am saying.There is treachery at work here
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