Read Online After the Downfall by Harry Turtledove - Free Book Online Page B

they had a point.
    He’d done this at Castle Svarag, but Orosei looked like a much rougher customer than Sholseth or his buddies. This guy didn’t just have muscle. He had technique, too. Hasso could see that at a glance.
    “So you know tricks, do you?” Orosei said. His gaze went here, there, everywhere. He wouldn’t give himself away by eyeing his target before he went after it.
    Hasso shrugged. “Maybe a few.”
    “Well, let’s get on with it,” Orosei said. “Nothing personal, you understand.” I make my living squashing people. You’re just another one.
    “Nothing personal,” Hasso agreed. If I can beat you, I look like a big deal. You’re in the way - like Poland.
    They circled warily. Hasso took it on faith that Orosei was good. The master-at-arms didn’t seem inclined to take chances on anybody. Once things started happening, fights could - often did - end in seconds. Someone would make a mistake or just move an instant slower than he should have, and that would be that.
    “Did you come here to fight or to dance?” Orosei asked. In the middle of the question, without warning or even raising his voice, he sprang.
    The next few seconds were one of those frantic flurries that happened when two pros went at each other without any rules. One of Orosei’s boots thudded into Hasso’s chest - not quite in his solar plexus and not quite hard enough to break ribs. The Lenello’s thumb didn’t quite take out Hasso’s left eye, either and Hasso didn’t think he quite broke it when he bent it back. He got in some licks of his own, too. They broke apart again. Orosei would sport a mouse under one eye, and he definitely had hurt that hand. He saluted Hasso Lenello - style, clenched fist over his heart. “You’re good, all right,” he said.
    “We can use you.”
    “You are good, too.” Hasso didn’t like plodding through a language he barely spoke, but he had no choice.
    They circled some more. Hasso fired a kick at Orosei’s knee. Orosei grabbed his foot and launched him, then jumped on him like a starving tiger. But Hasso had expected to get thrown, and greeted him with a boot in the belly. It was like kicking planks, but it got the master-at-arms off him. Orosei bounced to his feet. He saluted again, saying, “You’re bloody good. Show me those flips I’ve heard about.”
    “We go slow?” Hasso asked, and the master-at-arms nodded. Hasso knew a moment’s relief that he’d proved himself without getting maimed and without wrecking the other guy, who was bound to have friends in high places. He said, “Come at me - not very fast.”
    Orosei did. He made a perfect practice partner. Hasso grabbed his outthrust arm, twisted, got him on his hip, and flipped him over his shoulder. Orosei thudded down on his back with a big grin on his face. He sprang up. “That’s good, by the goddess! Do it again!”
    Hasso sent him ass over teakettle a couple of more times at half speed, and then at something closer to full speed. Orosei was a glutton for getting things right. If he took some bruises doing it, he didn’t care.
    “Let me try,” he said when he thought he had it.
    “Half speed,” Hasso said, and the master-at-arms nodded. Hasso approached. He extended his arm. Orosei twisted and flipped him smooth as could be. Hasso hadn’t expected anything different - this guy was a pro.
    He proved what a pro he was a moment later. After he’d tossed Hasso around three or four times, he said, “That is the move, and it’s very fine. What is the counter?”
    “Ah!” Now Hasso gave him a German - style salute. “Good question! Right question! I come half speed. You - “ He mimed doing the flip. “You see.”
    Some of the soldiers drifted off when they found that Hasso and Orosei weren’t going to ruin each other for their entertainment. Others crowded closer to watch Hasso show the master-at-arms how not to get thrown. A lot of them wanted to try the moves themselves, on one another and on the men