Chapter nineteen
Saffi the golden lion-maidThe dagger bit into my left shoulder, high. I thumped the fellow on the nose, but the blow lost most of its force, for I was entangled with the clothes around my legs and had not the space to lean into the punch. He snarled at me and slashed again and I managed to get my left hand around his right wrist. I could get no real grip, for the dagger-cut stung. We wrestled for a moment, he trying to tear free and sink his blade into my belly, I trying to untangle myself and sprawl out and so get at him. I recognized him, for he had come in the retinue with Vad Garnath, and I guessed he was one of the Kataki, the Chuktar Strom’s men. My remarks about a rotting tail falling off had occasioned this clumsy attempt at reprisal. As a stikitche, this fellow l
