Read Swords: 08 - The Fifth Book Of Lost Swords - Coinspinner’s Story Online
Authors: Fred Saberhagen
Swords: 08 - The Fifth Book Of Lost Swords - Coinspinner’s Story (27 page)
Her master, hesitating again, hardly seemed to hear her. “Or would it be better not to win the Sword of Chance again, but to destroy it now? I wasted one opportunity to do so, and now here’s another; who can say if I shall ever gain another?”
Still, as before, Wood was tempted to keep the Sword of Chance and use it for himself—anyone, any being, human or otherwise, who managed to get Coinspinner and Shieldbreaker in hand at the same time would be very powerful indeed.
And Sightblinder was here, too, in the same room. The Sword of Stealth, with either of the other two Swords present, would also form a very powerful combination.
“Will you call upon the demons, sir?” asked Tigris.
“I think not. Many of them are still scattered. And I’d be surprised if the damned young whelp there lacks the power his father and grandsire seem to share against my pets.”
Suddenly the master wizard was decisive. “It will be the gaming table. Save your efforts, I’ll get him out of his box myself.”
Adrian, coming to the table with another bet chosen by Marland, in his hurry and concentration did not at first recognize Wood among the crowd.
Once Wood had reached the table, he observed Amelia’s next bet. Then Wood, having provided himself with the necessary tokens, placed his own wager in direct opposition.
There was, as on other crucial turns, a silence as the wheel spun. This time the silence was broken only by a sound as of a single drum, doubtless held by one of the musicians. Then came a gasp from the crowd. The lady had lost, a huge sum this time.
Marland, who had been watching closely, hurriedly left his seat. His first thought was that either Amy or Adrian had blundered. His second was that one or both of them were deliberately betraying him for some reason.
Only at the last moment did Marland remember to sheathe and conceal his Sword before he plunged into the crowd. He pushed his way through the crowd and toward the table.
Kebbi, seeing his employer rush out of the box in an agitated state, hastily followed.
* * *
Murat, still patiently observing from the post where he had established himself on the floor of the big room, decided that matters were somehow coming to a head, and started toward the table also.
* * *
Adrian had turned from the table when the noise of the crowd made him look back. Coinspinner’s choice had lost. For a moment the Prince could only gape. Then he realized that Shieldbreaker must somehow be arrayed against Marland.
And Shieldbreaker must mean that Wood was present. A moment later, the boy saw and recognized the Ancient One among the crowd that pressed around the table.
Wood smiled evilly in Adrian’s direction.
There would be no raising an elemental here. Not against this man’s effortless power. Adrian now realized that he was lost. There was only one way out. There was only one way, as every heir to a warrior’s throne must know, to fight against Shieldbreaker. Barehanded.
Resisting the impulse to run away, Adrian began to work his way through the crowd directly toward Wood.
Wood saw him coming, smirked at him at first, then frowned. Against an unarmed opponent, even one physically much weaker, there was only one way for the holder of the Sword of Force to win, and that was to rid himself of his peerless weapon as quickly as possible.
Adrian, having committed himself, darted forward with the speed of desperation. Wood, still fumbling to draw his Sword, could only jump aside. It was almost a panicked move, that of a powerfully built man avoiding in desperation the attack of a mere child.
Still in the act of drawing Shieldbreaker in order to throw it away, Wood attracted the full attention of the armed guards who had been steadily reinforcing the security presence near the table.
The guard nearest to Wood was extremely good at his trade. He had his short sword fully drawn, menacing this troublemaker, even before Shieldbreaker in Wood’s clumsy hand had finally and fully cleared the scabbard. But against the handiwork of Vulcan, mere human skill was futile. The drum-note of the Sword of Force was sounding now, and it laid a slight emphasis upon one single beat. The guard’s weapon was shattered into flying bits of steel that stung and bit at everyone they struck.
Wood paused, shuddering. Shieldbreaker was fully drawn now, hilt nestled in his right hand. It would begin, it was already starting, to meld itself into that hand. In another moment he would not be able to cast the Sword away, and it would mean his doom if he were attacked in that state by some unweaponed foe.
Meanwhile howling confusion, panic, had exploded in the room, following the blast of shrapnel from the shattered sword. Many here were armed, and weapons were now coming out. Accidental wounds were being inflicted in the crowd.
Rostov, Sightblinder in his right hand, was trying to fight his way toward his struggling Prince, but the General could make little headway against the mob of bodies. Half of the people surrounding Rostov saw him as some loved one, the other half as a dread enemy.
Tigris found herself bewildered by the simultaneous appearance of two Woods, who shouted contradictory commands. The enchantress had long known in a theoretical way what the Sword of Stealth might do to her, but the actual event was still difficult to deal with.
Before she could decide which of the images of Wood was genuine, she found Karel’s magic surrounding her, the old man’s craft blocking her own magic, at every turn.
Marland, stumbling amid the sudden melee around the table, tripped and fell softly to the carpet, just as the wild swing of someone’s fist passed through the space vacated by his head. He was just starting to crawl, trying to distance himself from the fighting, when a surge of struggling bodies against the far side of the table tipped it over in his direction.
Missed me
, he thought,
of course
. And then he saw Amy.
The fallen table, now turned completely upside down, had not missed her, and in fact she was pinned under it. For just a moment, in the way that the mind will twist things sometimes, Buvrai thought he saw his brother Talgai once again, head gray with dust protruding from the rubble of a fallen building.
But it was Amy. She lay so pale and still, prone, with the edge of the table across her back. Buvrai scrambled closer.
While a horde of people stamped and struggled around him, the guards trying to overcome mass panic and quell fights among the customers, Buvrai pulled Coinspinner from its sheath and wrapped her inert fingers around the hilt. “Amy, don’t. Don’t be dead. Amy, I love you.” Then he let go of the Sword himself.
In the next moment he felt himself grabbed from behind, hauled to his feet in the grasp of a brawny security man.
“I recognize you! You’re the one who was sentenced—” The guard broke off, let go of Marland, rolled his eyes and fell.
Kebbi, fulfilling his duty as bodyguard until he could learn from Marland what had happened to the Sword, had smashed the fellow in the head from behind with the hilt of his own weapon.
* * *
Meanwhile Wood, struggling desperately to rid himself of Shieldbreaker, tried instinctively to hack at Adrian. It was a mistake. Of course the slashes of the Sword of Force had no effect upon the unarmed youth.
Then Wood by a supreme effort managed to discard the Sword of Force just before it immovably attached itself to his right hand.
After that Wood, relying on his own powers, managed to make his getaway. Adrian saw him vanish.
Murat had hurled himself into the melee with the idea of rescuing Adrian. Then to his utter astonishment the Crown Prince suddenly beheld Princess Kristin before him—and restrained himself only in the nick of time from grabbing General Rostov with some idea of carrying him to safety.
Murat plunged back into the fray, helped lift a heavy table off a young woman who was screaming too loudly to be seriously injured. A few moments after that, the Crown Prince pulled out Adrian, still intact, from amid the struggling bodies and upended furniture.
Minutes passed before the fighting ended. When peace had finally been enforced by the house guards, the last bets were still required to be honored, by house and customers alike. On the last play the house had in fact won back a substantial portion of its night’s losses. And if, according to the strict rules, any money was still due to the mysterious Sir Marland, payment would be suspended until he could be found. The High Priest breathed a sigh of relief when it became apparent that the suspension of payment might well be permanent. Rumors now rapidly spreading from several sources indicated that the man calling himself Sir Marland was really someone else.
* * *
As order was being finally restored in Sha’s, Adrian was just outside, getting into the saddle of a riding-beast. Escorted by an accomplished wizard, a determined General still armed with Sightblinder, and four Tasavaltan troopers, the Prince was preparing himself for the long journey home to Sarykam.
For some minutes now there had been no sign of either Murat or Kebbi, and neither Adrian nor his escort expected either Culmian to make an appearance now.
Karel had been the last Tasavaltan out of the casino. Before very quietly taking himself away, the old man had searched as best he could, with eyes and magic, for both Shieldbreaker and Coinspinner. He had had no success. Wood or Tigris might have recovered Shieldbreaker, he supposed—but if so, why had they fled the scene?
And Coinspinner? Sighing, the old man reflected that the Sword of Chance had most likely simply taken itself away again, no one knew where. Or had someone else simply picked it up in the confusion? There was no way to be sure.
About The Author
Fred Saberhagen is widely published in many areas of speculative fiction. He is best known for his Berserker, Swords, and Dracula series. Less known are the myth based fantasies: Books of the Gods. Fred also authored a number of non-series fantasy and science fiction novels and a great number of short stories. For more information on Fred visit his website: www.fredsaberhagen.com
