The Dark Glory War (31 page)

Heslin mounted the steps to the tower’s door and passed a hand through the air before it. In the wake of his hand I saw what appeared to be strands of a web glowing a milky jade green, though the lines wavered and twisted as if I were viewing them through rippling water. The mage studied the web’s shape for a moment, then he reached out and touched the door. A purple light pulsed from beneath his palm, then the stone door evaporated.

Heslin led the way. I moved into the tower behind the prince and Lord Norrington. The Archmage strode into the tower with a confident ease and strength he’d lacked since his wounding at Atval. It almost seemed as if he drew power from the building itself, which did not surprise me, since I found the place very odd.

The tower, though round, appeared to have all manner of angles to it. The place definitely seemed larger on the interior than it did on the exterior, which I found disturbing. Even more so was the fact that, as Heslin led us deeper into it, the features I saw—such as stairwells and windows, fireplaces and arches—vanished to be replaced by things just as utilitarian, but different in locations.

I pondered that for a moment, then Seethe hissed from my right. “This place stinks of illusion. Can’t you do something about that, Heslin?”

The mage snorted and glanced at her over his shoulder. “Destroying the enchantments would take more time than does warping them. Besides, the traps here will kill more Aurolani when they come to see why we entered the tower.”

“Good reason, then, to keep things as they are.”

“I’m so glad you approve.” Heslin smiled at her. “It’s probably worse for you than others since you are so open to magick.”

The Vorquelf shrugged. “It’s worth the trouble.”

Heslin led us up through a circular stairway that had been cored in one wall. We went up past two landings and came out near the top of the tower. The room up there occupied the whole level. Windows and a doorway leading to a balcony ringed the tower. The floor had been made of blond oak planking, fitted well enough that walking on it elicited no creaking.

Hanging in the air at the center of the room was the DragonCrown fragment. The metal holding the single, fist-sized stone appeared to be gold. It looked so smooth I wondered if it weren’t still fluid and if, somehow, I couldn’t feel the heat from it. The stone it encircled shone with the same sort of starlight found in a sapphire, but the stone itself was a deep, rich green with hints of gold. In addition to its being breathtakingly beautiful, palpable power radiated from it.

Tables with glassware, odd tools, colorful concoctions, and dried pieces of creatures I’d never have been able to identify had been arranged around the crown in a circle that had only three breaks in it. Heslin held up a hand to restrain us in the doorway, then slowly approached the circle of tables. He paused in one opening, then waved his hand through the air much as he had before the door below.

More ethereal webwork made itself visible. Three spheres—blue, red, and yellow—surrounded the fragment, one inside the other. They slowly spun, the blue to the right, red to the left, and yellow down. While it might have been possible to reach through the webwork and grasp the fragment, the spinning webs would catch the arm. I recalled what had happened to the vylaens trying to enter the tower and could only imagine the trouble these spells could cause.

“Smart folk, my brethren, but only by half.” Heslin reached out and grabbed the blue sphere. He stopped its spinning easily enough, but the other two globes sped up. “A nice trap, this.”

Kirill frowned. “What do you mean smart by half?”

“Well, if they were fully intelligent, they would have taken the fragment with them when they fled instead of leaving it here. As it is, this spell would ward it well, for one person cannot steal it all by himself. Seethe, if you would not mind …”

The elf sheathed her sword and stalked forward. “I am not schooled in magicks. I merely use those burned into my flesh.”

“No matter; you are open to power.” He took her right hand in his left and brought it to where he held the blue globe. “Just grasp it here and keep it still.”

She nodded and curled her hand over the glowing blue strand of light. Heslin released his grip and the elf gasped. The blue sphere started to shift and seemed as if it would drag her off the ground, but she pulled back and the blue sphere stopped moving. “Be quick about your task, wizard.”

Heslin smiled and moved to a different part of the table circle. From one of the tables he grasped a silver device with twin hooks on each end. He reached through the still blue sphere and snagged the red sphere. He quickly attached it to the blue one, stopping its spinning, but pulling a grunt from Seethe. She redoubled her effort to hold the spheres motionless and the yellow one spun yet faster.

Heslin quickly moved around the circle of tables again and laughed aloud. Though the yellow sphere somersaulted with enough speed to form a yellow curtain between the doorway and the crown fragment, he came at it from one of the poles of the axis around which the sphere rotated. He reached through the blue and red spheres, then pushed his right hand into the polar opening and grabbed the green stone. He pulled it free, then nodded at Seethe. She released her grip, starting the spheres spinning.

I ducked as the silver implement Heslin had used came whirling toward the doorway. Seethe staggered back toward me as Heslin and the prince went out onto the balcony. Kirill waved his arms, and inside a minute one of the Gyrkyme landed and slipped the piece of the DragonCrown into a pouch strapped to his right thigh. Three other Gyrkyme, armed with bows, circled near him. The four of them departed for the inner city and the ships that would carry us all away.

A great cry arose from outside the tower and we all hurried back down the stairs and out. A force of gibberers had formed and attacked the gate. A few tried to come up over the walls, but on the left Locquelf arrows pitched them back into the street, and on the right, Leigh danced along the wall top, Tem-mer blazing with gold fire. He twisted and dodged arrows, rocks, and spears, then slashed through arms and faces as gibberers sought to climb the walls.

Faryaah-Tse cleared the wall in one leap again, this time descending on the group gathered in the street. I shot above and around Nay’s form as he stood in the gateway and bashed away at the gibberers. He finally spun away, his left thigh opened by a longknife slash. Seethe dashed forward, filling the gap he left, then Leigh dropped over into the street. Kirill, lodged firmly on his horse, ordered the gate cleared.

Lord Norrington followed on his horse, checking the surge of gibberers that would have closed around Kirill and dragged him from the saddle. Abandoning my bow, I drew my sword and rushed forward, attacking the gibberer flank as they turned to go after the horsemen. Kirill and Lord Norrington slashed left and right with their blades, splitting muzzles and shattering arms raised to ward off blows. Seethe moved into their wake. Her blade darted snake-tongue quick, puncturing a belly, opening the inside of a thigh, or slipping beneath a buckler to skewer a heart.

Compared to her delicate swordwork, I was a forester hewing at trees with a dull ax. I blocked a cut at my head, then shifted my grip and smashed my pommel into the gibberer’s muzzle. As it fell back, I slashed down, cutting it deeply across the chest. I cried out as a gibberer’s longknife stroked me across the left side of my chest, but he cut more leather than; he did flesh. I lashed out with my left fist, catching him in the throat with a mailed punch. He staggered back, caught his heels on a dying comrade, and went down. One of the Okrans soldiers gutted him with a sword thrust.

The gibberers broke, and of our company, I saw eight down. Faryaah-Tse was helping another to his feet, and Nay came limping back. Prince Kirill had slashes opened on his boots and his horse bled from a cut on the right shoulder. Blood stained Lord Norrington’s left sleeve, and even Seethe dripped from a cut high on her right arm. In fact, not a one of us save Leigh seemed to have escaped without injury.

We turned toward the inner city to retrace our path to the tower and saw a sight that sent a chill through us all. A Gyrkyme lay in the roadway, his wings unfurled and back arched unnaturally because of the black arrow that transfixed him. A white temeryx clawed at the Gyrkyme’s right thigh with its forepaws and hooked the pouch that contained the DragonCrown fragment. The beast tore it free, then began to scamper off to the east.

Kirill spurred his horse forward and galloped down the road. I sprinted after it, as did Leigh, Faryaah-Tse, and Seethe, each of them making better time than me. As Kirill reached the intersection where the Gyrkyme lay, a black shaft flew from the east and struck his horse through the forequarter. The horse went down, spilling Kirill onto the dead Gyrkyme. The prince tried to get back up, but his foot slipped in blood and he fell again.

Another arrow passed just above him and shattered brick in the building on the other side of the street.

I reached the intersection a second or two after Leigh, Seethe, and the urZrethi. Off to the east ran a knot of four temeryces; on one rode a vylaen holding the pouch. Faryaah-Tse started after them, but a dark figure, tall and slender, stepped from an alleyway a hundred yards down the street. Between him and us lay the temeryx-slashed bodies of the other Gyrkyme warriors.

The figure looked elven, no doubt about it—an impression reinforced by the shape of the bow he bore. Unlike the Loc-auellvn silverwood bows, however, his appeared to be black and flecked with gold. Out behind him billowed a cloak th; seemed to float on a breeze I could not feel. More unsettlir than that was the frequency at which wisps of it would curl u like flames and then leap free, evaporating into nothingness His hair matched the midnight hues of his cloak an clothes, while his eyes glowed with the same purple light th; had lit the Iron Prince’s gaze. There was no denying that ar othersullanciri had indeed been part of the Aurolani hos And this one, being able to fight at range, could kill us a before Leigh could get close with his magick sword.

The Dark Lancer nocked another arrow and let fly. I sa‘ the black shaft coming straight for me and I could do nothin to evade it. I watched it grow larger and larger, knowing would split my breastbone and burst my heart. I wanted’t shift my body, pull one of my shoulders back in the hopes the it might miss me, but I knew with uncanny certainty that th arrow would not miss its target.

Then the arrow twisted in flight, turned the street cornei and flew on down toward the Vilwanese tower. Heslin’s hea> came up as the black shaft veered toward him. The arrow too the wizard high in the chest, just to the right of center, an< spun him to the ground.

“Leigh, go! At him!”

Leigh looked up as I yelled, then glanced at his sword am turned down the street. He began to run down the right sid and Faryaah-Tse started her sprint down the left. I dove fo one of the Gyrkyme bodies and snatched up one of thei bows. That it was longer than my horsebow and had a heavie draw didn’t matter to me. I nocked an arrow, drew it as fa back as I could, and let fly.

My arrow, a golden wood shaft with bright red fletching tore through the Dark Lancer’s cloak. I could have sworn i also passed through his flank, but the figure gave no indicatioi of any injury. I snarled in frustration, realizing it would take ; magickal weapon to hurt him. I dipped my next arrow ü Gyrkyme blood, hoping that might enchant it, but that sho passed through him without drawing so much as a glance ir my direction.

Thesullanciri drew and shot at Farvaah-Tse Shp lpanpH nr to evade the shot. The arrow jerked in flight, shifting sharply. It pierced her left thigh, then shot through to the right. She spun in the air and flopped onto her back, screaming in pain.

Leigh had halved the distance to the Dark Lancer. Gold flames whirled around Temmer as if the sword were a torch in a windstorm. Leigh shouted at thesullanciri in words I did not understand and kept driving at him, not shifting or dodging or evading.

The Dark Lancer loosed an arrow at Leigh and somehow it missed. I didn’t know how or why it missed him, when the shots so clearly were magicked to hit their target. Faryaah-Tse’s leap couldn’t have been anticipated, yet the arrow was drawn to her.And the shot that missed Kirill missed because he slipped, something he did not anticipate. All of a sudden I realized the arrows somehow knew the mind of the target.

Regardless of that, Leigh’s charge had brought him so close that no enchantment would be needed to hit him. The Dark Lancer drew his arrow, laying his hand beside his cheek, and waited for Leigh to close even further. None of us could hurt him or kill him, and that meant he was free to kill Leigh at his leisure.

I refused to let Leigh die. I don’t know where the idea came from, but as I nocked and drew a third arrow, I knew exactly what I had to do. I aimed, breathed a quick prayer to Kedyn, then let fly. As my arrow sped to its target, the Dark Lancer loosed his shaft.

My arrow struck the broad face of thesullanciri’s bow up by the elf’s ear. The impact tipped the bow up a bit. Not much, but just enough to launch the dark lancer’s shot high, so it passed above the level of Leigh’s left shoulder. The arrow did slash at his left cheek and split his earlobe, but Leigh never seemed to notice.

Temmer arced. An unearthly scream split the air as the fiery blade swept through thesullanciri’s middle. Golden fire burst up into the Dark Lancer’s eyes, then poured out like molten tears. He snorted gold flames, then bent forward to vomit more of the same. The figure then fell toward the ground, smacking his face against the cobbles. A gold pillar of fire shot into the sky, then collapsed into a greasy black a umn of smoke.

Of the Dark Lancer itself there was no trace, though 1 bow lay on the ground. Leigh dropped to one knee beside and held himself up on his sword. Nay ran to Faryaah-Tse ai Seethe ran to help Leigh. Lord Norrington pulledKirill in the saddle behind him, and the others from our party can running up.

I stood, looking for Heslin. “The mage, where is he?”

One of the Loquelves shook his head. “Heslin said he w dying and there was no saving him. He said to leave him in tl tower and he would see to it that the Aurolani paid dearly take it.”