The Kindness of Dragons by I. J. Parker

Author:I. J. Parker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ingrid J. Parker Inc.
Published: 2018-07-23T00:00:00+00:00

20

The Kindness of Dragons

Saburo knew he had reacted too late! And with that came the knowledge that he had no time to waste. He rolled, pushing the creature on his back partially off, then threw himself on top of him. It was a risky maneuver if the knife had still been in his back, but it was not. The force of his reaction had caught his attacker by surprise and his knife hand underneath his body. Saburo seized him by his neck and squeezed.

But he had a child in his grip and released the pressure. Immediately his attacker fought back with astonishing force, gurgling and kicking, and Saburo realized that he was an adult male, though hardly full-grown. He had a dwarf in his grasp. Increasing the pressure again, he looked for the knife, but it was too dark already.

He had felt no pain, but now he became aware of warm blood running down his back. His clothes felt soaked already and a strange dull paralysis spread across his shoulders and into his right arm. He was badly wounded and there was no time to consider what to do with the dwarf who started bucking and kicking again. Saburo quickly finished the job by breaking his neck.

He felt light-headed and nauseated when he got to his feet. Looking around carefully, he found the knife and put it in his boot. Mercifully, the dwarf had been by himself. He bent to take the small man’s arm and pulled him into the dense shrubbery, then he staggered away, gasping as the pain began, back toward the front of the temple. He was not quite sure how he got to the entrance. The blood loss had weakened him and made him dizzy.

He paused. Escape seemed impossible. It had been hard enough climbing this mountain when he had been well and rested. He could not manage to go back the way he had come while losing more blood all the way.

It was very nearly dark even in the open area in front of the kondo. He dragged himself up to the veranda and collapsed there. The wound was still bleeding. He could feel it. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he used the dwarf’s knife to cut the legs off his pants and the sleeves off his jacket. The sleeves he fashioned into a thick pad. The pants legs he cut into strips. Then came the hard part. He had to place the pad under his jacket on his wound and tie it down firmly by looping the makeshift bandages across one shoulder and around his back, bringing them to the front and knotting them tightly. This was made more difficult by the fact that his right arm was little help. He had to stop twice to rest. The first time the pad slipped and fresh blood ran down his back. During his labors, the crumpled fan fell from his jacket. To keep it safe, he wrapped the bandage over it. The second time the pad stayed in place, but Saburo passed out as he tried to get up.

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