When Castelar breaks free from the Exaltationists:
"Varagan was on his feet. Incredibly quick, he dodged a cut that would have laid him open. The room was too cramped for him to get past. Castelar stabbed. Varagan clutched his belly. Blood squirted between his fingers. He leaned against the wall and shouted.
"Castelar wasted no time finishing him." (p. 666)
If Varagan had been slower, then he would have been dead. If Castelar had taken a moment to finish him, then he would have been dead.
15 April 1610, pp. 719-722.
When the Time Patrol attacks the Exaltationists:
"'The ringleader, name of Merau Varagan, took a bad wound when Castelar fought free. A couple of his men were about to whisk him off to a destination he alone knew to tell them, for medical care. So they were in a position to scram with him when we showed up. Three more managed it too.'" (p. 722)
If Varagan had not been badly wounded, then he would probably have been among the majority of Exaltationists who were captured or killed in the Patrol raid. Poul Anderson carefully constructs this sequence of events because Varagan has to be alive and at large in "Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks."
1 comment:
If you're trained for melee combat, you generally don't stop to finish someone who's had a disabling wound. That's inefficient.
(From SM Stirling.)
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