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that off nearly without effort and certainly without thought, reacting by the conditioning of many tourney jousts where the lances were better aimed. Walter was more concerned with his third opponent, who had seen that his sword was extended right and his shield left. |
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There was no time for Walter to bring sword across to trust the lance away to the right or to cover his breast with his shield. And if his horse reared, the animal would take the lance blow in the chest and be killed. Walter had been given Beau when he was a gangly-legged colt. He had trained the destrier himself, and the animal, fierce as a wild boar in battle, would follow him, begging for caresses like a lap dog. Walter would not sacrifice Beau while there was any chance, no matter how slender. |
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Walter prodded his stallion forward sharply, dropped his shield as far as he could, and swung his sword hard down and inward. The lance point scraped across his mail, catching irregularly, but he had hit it hard enough and it skittered past his ribs. As the point cleared, Walter raised his left arm outward, and leaned his body forward and into an enormous backhand blow with the sword. The edge bit through the mail hood of the lance wielder, blood spurted, the lance dropped, its haft bruising Walter's thighand then Beau was past his opponent, and Walter was free. |
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There were a few seconds in which Walter had time to look around. Richard was still slightly ahead of him and did not seem to have suffered any hurt. Just then Walter saw still another lance fly out of an opponent's hand as Richard struck. Then someone, veering away from the earl's too-great strength, came at Walter. He disposed of the lance easily and moved in to strike the man, whose destrier rose and took the blow. |
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Walter shouted a curse; he hated to hurt horses and hated men who used them as shields. Worse yet, the stallion had fallen almost under Beau's feet, but the sagacious animal leapt ponderously over the dying horsedestriers not being built for jumping lightly. The rider had cleared his fallen mount and ran forward, sword raised, to pull Walter from Beau and mount Beau himself. Walter had been watching for that and beat outward with his shield, knocking his enemy aside. He was sorry the man had not approached from his sword side, for he would have liked to kill him, but he was out of reach. |
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