F O U R (9 page)

As it had been instructed, the zombie stepped out of a doorway at the other end of the hall. Its arms were extended in a beseeching gesture.

Pharaun took a few steps toward it and  faltered. Drunk or not, he had finallnoticed that, despite Greyanna's efforts  to keep it warm, it was m     y

oving stiffl

awkwardly                              y,,  as Sabal, even in  the throes of her illness, never had. But he'd spotted the

anomaly too late. He'd  already advanced  to  th

Greyanna whispered a spell  of paralysis. Pharaun stae very center of the trap. ggered as his muscles all

clenched  at  once.  The  fighters  swarmed  out  of  their  hiding  places,  surrounded  him

clubbed him  repeatedly, and threw him  down beneath them.            ,

She laughed with delight. Then her henchmen, more or less clumfloor                          ped in a pile on the

that Pharaun did not lie crushed, bloody, cried out in surprise  and consternation. They star, and helpl  ted to stand up, and she saw ess  on the  floor beneath them.Impossible as it seemed, somehow  h

e'd  resisted  the  paralysis, then used his wizardry

to extricate himself from the  midst of his attackers.

Knowing that Sabal was dead, Pharaun must  likewise assume  that without  the aegis of a high priestess he could no longer survive in House Mizz

rym. Certainly he

couldn't count on his vicious mother, who hadn't bestirred herself to save one

daughter  from  another,  to do more  for a  paltr

the exit.                y son. He was surely running back toward

"That way! Fast!" Greyanna shouted, pointing, goading her agents into motion. When they rounded a corner, they saw Pharaun sprinting along ahead of them, his

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War Of The Spider Queen

Book 1

Dissolution

piwafwi billowing out behind him.  He wasn'tdesperation had cured his intoxication—but     weaving or stumbling—evidently

a trail of bloody drops on the polished floorhe was clutching his head, and leaving done at least a little good.          . Evidently all the bludgeoning had

Greyanna's  minions shot their hand crossbows, but the darts bounced off the wizard's cloak, which had obviously been  enchanted to serve as arm

or.  She

stopped running long enough to conjure a blaze of fire under Pharaun's feet. Her assassins cried out and shielded their eyes

her brother stayed on his feet and kept  going. The flam against the glare. Though surely burned, es winked out behind himas suddenly as they'd  appeared.

The chase rounded another corner. Ahead  of Pharaun was an adamantine  double

door, which swung open seemingly of its own accord. In reality,  Greyanna  knew

the wizard had used his silver-and-jet Mizzr                 ,ym  House  token to open it. She tried to use her own insignia to slam

Pharaun plunged through the exit. He was it shut again, but she was just out of range. on the landing, a sort of balcony from

which the  occupants of the  stalactite  castle  that  was House  Mizzrym  could  look

down on the city. As was the custom, a comGreyanna screamed for them to stop the m pany of guards stood watch there, and

age.

They no doubt intended to be obey.  She was a high priestess and he, a mere  male,and m

anifestly trying to run away to boot.  But alas, since their primary  function  was

to look for miscreants trying to enter the  castle,  Pharaun  had  taken  them by  surprise.

He had time to conjure some  sort  of hindering spell and dash on.

When Greyanna made it to the door,  she saw what manner of hindrance the fugitive had chosen. The guards were   all  bewildered,

some

stupefied or milling aimlessly                   standing,  a couple fighting with each other.

her head around to the right. At the far eA clattering, followed a split second latend of the landing, a second contingent of r by grunts and cries of pain, snapped sentries also looked at least tem

pelted them         porarily  incapacitated, these because Pharaun had db      with a conjured  barrage of ice. He disappeared down the exit they'

een guarding, the winding  crys

which connected House Mizzrym with the cavtal staircase, gorgeous with magical luminescence, e  floor below.of annoyance, but only that. Apparently sh         Greyanna felt a twinge

e wasn't  going to  get  a  chance  to  torture

Pharaun,  but  he  was  unquestionably  going  to  die.  He  really  had  nowhere  to  run,  andif

the  wretch  weren't  mired in  a blind panic, he'd  know it.

At least she could deliver the stroke that  would seal his doom. She hurried to the

edge of the landing, saw that the blistered, bloody-headed fool was better thanhalfway down the radiant diam

the long, awkward arcane wordond steps, and pronounced, as quickly as possible, that would make  the  staircase  vanish.  That  alonewouldn't kill him  unless he lost his head. The ability to levitate granted by the sam

e

brooch that  allowed him  to pass through  the Houses doors would keep him  from

falling. Limited to strictly vertical movement, however, he ought to make an  easy

mark for spells and arrows.

Pharaun leaped, his long legs mShe spoke the final syllable. Just  as the steps seemed to pop like a  bubble, aking him look  like a pair of scissors spread to the

maximum  possible width. He barely made it onto the flattened apex of the gigantic

stalagmite that served as the stair's lower terminus.Greyanna was impressed. That  jum

p  was an impressive display of athleticism  for a battered scholar of hedonistic habits. Not  that it would do hi

m any good.  He  reall

had run to the end of his race. She leaned  out and shouted for the foulwings to kill y

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War Of The Spider Queen

Book 1

Dissolution

him.  Winded,  still stumbling off-balance from hurdling  across  the empty  sp

Pharaun surely couldn't fend off b                    ace,oth ofthem at once.Grotesque winged predators that com

monly reeked of their caustic ammonia

breath, the foulwings bespoke the Mizzrym's  power and mathe first step on the path to their citadel a certain style th  gical prowess and lent

at mere soldiers could not

match They also made terrifying watch beasts. With a snap of their clawed, bat like

wings,  in  no  wise  hindered  by  their  lack  of  legs,  they  spun  their  long-necked  bodies

around to loom  over Pharaun. Forked snouts with fanged jaws at  the end of either

branch came  questing hungrily down. From  her perch, Greyanna looked on with a

rapacity no less keen than theirsPharaun shouted som   , albeit a rapacity of the soul.

ething. Greyanna couldn't quite make it out, but it  didn't

seem to be a magical word,  j ust a cry of fear or a desperate plea for mercy—a plea the giant beasts would not heed.

Except that they did. They hesitated, and he lifted his hands. Their deadly jawsplayed delicately about his fingers, taking in his scent.

She cried again for the brutes to kill  him.look at her                 They twisted their heads around to

,  but he spoke to them  once more, and they ignored her command.Greyanna stared in am

azement. Pharaun had no doubt had some  limited contact

with the foulwings, for after all, he lived  in the same  castle  with themknew he'd  never ridden one.  O                  , but she

nly  the females  of  House          that

privilege, and it was only by riding that  you established genuine mMizzrym enjoyed astery over the

creatures.  How,  then,  could he  pos

own?              sibly enjoy a rapport with them  deeper than her

Pharaun scrambled onto a foulwing's back, and both it and its fellow sprang into

the air.  Obviously her brother had managed to dissolve the enchantment that made

the beasts want to sit contentedly at their post. The wizard m

anaged his mount more deftly

done without benefit of saddle,  bridle, and goad. He shot her a m than Greyanna herself could have ocking grin as he

turned  to  flee.  The  other,  rider  less  foulwing  soared  and  swooped  aiml

enjoying its liberty                          essly,. Gre

yanna  shook off her stunned disbelief. She  still desperately wanted  to know how Pharaun had learned to ride the cr

but how had they m         eatures—probably Sabal had taught him,anaged it without anyone  else  finding  out?—but  she  wasn'tgoing to stand there pondering the question.  The answer was less im

kill.                            portant than the

She turned and looked around. Those guards whom  Pharaun  had addled were disoriented still, but som

e  of the soldiers  he'd  battered with hailstones appeared to

have regained their com"Shoot him! " she shouted, pointing at the rapidly receding tarposure.

get. " Shoot!" With com

mendable haste, they obeyed. They took up their crossbows, aimed, and

the bolts leaped forth in a ragged clatter.Pharaun's foulwing lurched, then  plum

meted down and down and down

crashing to earth somewhere                        ,amid the hollowed stalagmite  edifices of the city. "Got him

," said the captain of the guard.  d no difficulty knocking the m

ale to the

floorBigger and stronger than he, Greyanna ha.

"You got the foulwing," she said. "We don't  know that you hit Pharaun at all. We

don't know that he didn't use his wizardry or  his levitation to cushion his fall. We

don't know that he isn't down  there  alive  and  well  laughing at  us.  I need  to  see  his

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