He parried me and made me retreat before his own attacks. I tried three more elaborate attacks and was defeated on each occasion. I cursed this, but I couldn't get around it. He was a better man than I was, when it came to the blade. I kept backing away, and the fear and the knowledge came upon me: I knew I still couldn't take him. If I didn't hate him so, I would have applauded his performance. But he dodged everything and came on strong, and I circled to his left and all like that, but I couldn't draw the point of his blade from my left eye. So I snatched things off the desk with my left hand and threw them at Eric. The greatest alive, I knew, was brother Benedict, and he wasn't around to help, one way or the other. We'd both had centuries under the greatest masters of the blade in business.
I suddenly had the feeling that I couldn't take him, and I parried like mad and retreated in the same fashion as he beat me back, step by step. He was perhaps one of the greatest swordsmen I had ever faced. I tried a headcut, which he parried and I parried his riposte to my heart and cut at his wrist.Īnd he lunged then and beat me back, and I felt suddenly that for all my work he was still my master. "What makes you better than the rest of us, and more fit to rule?" "What an enormous chutzpah you possess," I told him. I set it aside, hopefully in the direction of his face, with my right toe, but it missed and he had at me again.Īnd his blade was in his hand and mine in mine. He parried this and kicked a small stool between us. Then I lunged, was parried, was attacked, and parried again myself. But you must recall that I've defeated you twice, mercifully granting you your life on a Shadow world the last occasion." I don't know why we are driven to strive so for this ridiculous position. "It's true, that uneasy-lies-the-head bit. Let's see what you learned on the Shadow Earth." And I'd like to quit your claim right now.
Slay me, and the throne will probably be yours. If you wish to try me at arms, I find myself suitably attired. "Then it is between the two of us now, Corwin," he said.
"Pity," said I, "and how shall we put things aright?"
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