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a blanket. Tamlestari nodded numbly as Aejys wrapped Cassana and rose with the
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slain Sharani noble in her arms. Tamlestari followed close. Aejys crossed the
courtyard. Smoke billowed from two burning tents. The night wind caught it and
blew it across them, stinging their eyes. Several soldiers beat at the flames
while others dragged water from the well to throw on it. Already the brothers
were out, moving the wounded and the dead from the battleground, the former to
the infirmary, and the latter to the chapel. Several people started to speak
to Aejys, but caught the look in her eye and let her pass unhindered.
The tall doors to the chapel stood open. Aejys stepped inside and looked
about. The brothers were laying the dead reverently on the pews and covering
them.
"Let us have her," a gentle voice spoke at Aejys' elbow. Father Keikero had
seen and followed her in. Two brothers stood beside him, waiting.
Aejys hesitated.
"Please, Aejys, my friend," Keikero said. "Your myn need you. She is past
needing what you can give."
Aejys heaved a long, heavy sigh and let them take Cassana's body from her.
Keikero slipped his arm around Tamlestari. "Come with me, my child," he said,
leading her to a pew.
Aejys watched for a moment, and then turned on her heel. As she started
across the courtyard Tagalong rushed up breathless. "They caught the cockwhore
killed Sana," Tagalong said in a rush. "And yer not gonna like this."
"Like what? What did you do to him?"
"Not to him, what he is."
Aejys stopped in her tracks, "What?"
"He's sa'necari."
Anger blazed up in Aejys' eyes. "Margren's sleeping with the enemy," she
snarled and spat on the ground.
* * * *
The sa'necari archer stood with his arms wrapped around a tree and tied
behind him. One arm bled heavily where Brundarad had bitten a chunk from it.
His face was savage as he spit curses at his captors. His narrow eyes slanted
in, not out like the sylvans, and glowed like deep violet fires with neither
pupil, nor iris, nor whites. His mouth bled from being struck. Johannes stood
before him, his huge hand raised to hit him again.
"No!" Aejys said, the crowd making a path for her. "He'll never talk." Her
words were calm, her face like ice, her eyes burning with a cold, controlled
rage so intense no one could meet her glance.
"I could make him, Aejystrys Rowan," Hanadi said, quietly appearing at her
side. She was Euzadi by birth and rearing: the nomads dealt harshly with their
enemies, torture being a favorite pastime to play with captives. When her
guildsmyn training warred with her upbringing, the latter usually won out.
"No. The Brothers would never countenance torture, not even of an enemy." She
motioned Johannes aside.
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Hanadi shrugged. "We could take him with us, torture him outside this
valley."
"No. That would let Margren track us even more easily than she does now.
They've probably got a link in his mind."
Johannes moved aside as Aejys approached, almost wincing at her gaze.
Aejys simply stared at the assassin a moment, remembering how Cassana died.
The Waejontori spit in her face. She wiped it calmly on her shirtsleeve, and
drew her dagger as he started to scream curses and imprecations. Aejys grabbed
his tongue and cut it out. "No reason to trouble the Brothers with your
noises," she said with such chill matter-of-factness that even Tagalong
shivered. In more than thirty years she had only once seen Aejys like this:
when she'd captured the Waejontori general who had butchered the people of
Shaurone's West Temple.
Aejys slit his clothing open, then shoved her dagger in just above his crotch
and ripped up savagely all the way to his breast bone. His entrails spilled
around her hand as she worked the blade up. She draped them around his neck,
stuffed them in his mouth. Then she wiped her dagger clean on his shirt and
walked off without speaking or replying to anyone around her.
Hanadi cocked her head, staring after her. "To bad the Guild can't hire her,"
she whispered softly to Brundarad. Then, because her God, Hadjys the Dark
Judge did not believe in torture of the flesh, she went to the Waejontori and
gave him the stroke of mercy through his heart.
* * * *
The courtyard was thick with blood bears as Aejys approached the main
building, intending to rejoin Tamlestari beside Cassana's body. Brothers moved
around her, finding and carrying the wounded inside. A slender Eldari brother
extended his hand to attract her attention.
Aejys paused. "What is it?"
"Eli needs you," the brother said softly. "Come with me."
Aejys nodded and followed him into the sanctuary. She started to turn toward
the infirmary as they entered the ambulatory that linked the sanctuary to the
other buildings. The brother touched her arm lightly and shook his head. "This
way."
He led her down a hall that she had never been down before.
"Why isn't he with the others?" Aejys asked and feared the answer.
"Please, do not ask. Just come."
Worry creased the lapsed paladin's face. He's dying. That must be why they
have placed him away from the others. It must be. My friend two friends in
one night.
The brother halted at a door and opened it. Aejys stepped in. The door closed
behind her.
Eliahu lay on his side, his face pale and drawn, the glaze of pain and
exhaustion in his eyes. A brother sat on a chair drawn up to the far side of
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the bed, bathing and bandaging Eliahu's back. Grawl curled at the foot,
watching.
Aejys pulled another chair up and sat down beside him. His hand was curled
around his staff. "How bad " she started to ask and her words trailed off as
her eyes took in the staff. Eliahu was too weak yet to restore the illusion.
CallThunder lay beside him in full glory. She knew then who had called the
storm that forced the demons and harpies within reach of their blades.
"Who are you?" she asked gently.
Eliahu tried to smile, but it emerged as a grimace, the lines of pain
deepening in his pale face. "Eliahu Solistis," he gritted out low, "High Mage
of Winter. Lord of the Iron Glacier." He closed his eyes, slipping into a
drugged slumber.
Aejys gently brushed back a strand of long yellow hair that had slipped
across his face. She felt grateful that it was not the approach of death, but
a secret, that had brought him to a room apart. She lifted her eyes to the
brother working on his wounds. "How bad is he?"
"His back is a mess. The flesh hangs in tatters from his shoulders to his
hips. Two ribs are broken, another is cracked," the brother pronounced
solemnly, then allowed a reassuring smile, "but he will live."
"Let me speak for him," Grawl sat up. "I am Grawl, High Shaman of the blood
bears of St. Tarmus."
Aejys' eyes widened in surprise, for she had not known the bears could speak.
"As you will," she replied.
"Your mage wishes to remain your secret weapon against the darkness." Grawl
related all of Eliahu's reasons for the deception, leaving out the fact that
he had gotten his information, not from the mage himself, but from Josh.
* * * *
Aejys returned to her tent in the mid-morning, having not slept since before
the battle. She found Tamlestari's medicine satchel, but no other sign that
the youth had been there. She returned to the courtyard and saw Tagalong.
"Tag! Have you seen Tamlestari?"
"The girl's takin' it hard, Aejys. Real hard," Tagalong admitted. "They've
put the dead in the chapel ta pray over them. That's where you'll find her.
She just sits there weeping."
"She needs me."
Tagalong gave Aejys an odd, thoughtful look. "Ya know, way she looks at yuh
I'd say she's got it bad."
"I know. Now come on." Aejys started for the door with Tagalong following. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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a blanket. Tamlestari nodded numbly as Aejys wrapped Cassana and rose with the
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slain Sharani noble in her arms. Tamlestari followed close. Aejys crossed the
courtyard. Smoke billowed from two burning tents. The night wind caught it and
blew it across them, stinging their eyes. Several soldiers beat at the flames
while others dragged water from the well to throw on it. Already the brothers
were out, moving the wounded and the dead from the battleground, the former to
the infirmary, and the latter to the chapel. Several people started to speak
to Aejys, but caught the look in her eye and let her pass unhindered.
The tall doors to the chapel stood open. Aejys stepped inside and looked
about. The brothers were laying the dead reverently on the pews and covering
them.
"Let us have her," a gentle voice spoke at Aejys' elbow. Father Keikero had
seen and followed her in. Two brothers stood beside him, waiting.
Aejys hesitated.
"Please, Aejys, my friend," Keikero said. "Your myn need you. She is past
needing what you can give."
Aejys heaved a long, heavy sigh and let them take Cassana's body from her.
Keikero slipped his arm around Tamlestari. "Come with me, my child," he said,
leading her to a pew.
Aejys watched for a moment, and then turned on her heel. As she started
across the courtyard Tagalong rushed up breathless. "They caught the cockwhore
killed Sana," Tagalong said in a rush. "And yer not gonna like this."
"Like what? What did you do to him?"
"Not to him, what he is."
Aejys stopped in her tracks, "What?"
"He's sa'necari."
Anger blazed up in Aejys' eyes. "Margren's sleeping with the enemy," she
snarled and spat on the ground.
* * * *
The sa'necari archer stood with his arms wrapped around a tree and tied
behind him. One arm bled heavily where Brundarad had bitten a chunk from it.
His face was savage as he spit curses at his captors. His narrow eyes slanted
in, not out like the sylvans, and glowed like deep violet fires with neither
pupil, nor iris, nor whites. His mouth bled from being struck. Johannes stood
before him, his huge hand raised to hit him again.
"No!" Aejys said, the crowd making a path for her. "He'll never talk." Her
words were calm, her face like ice, her eyes burning with a cold, controlled
rage so intense no one could meet her glance.
"I could make him, Aejystrys Rowan," Hanadi said, quietly appearing at her
side. She was Euzadi by birth and rearing: the nomads dealt harshly with their
enemies, torture being a favorite pastime to play with captives. When her
guildsmyn training warred with her upbringing, the latter usually won out.
"No. The Brothers would never countenance torture, not even of an enemy." She
motioned Johannes aside.
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Hanadi shrugged. "We could take him with us, torture him outside this
valley."
"No. That would let Margren track us even more easily than she does now.
They've probably got a link in his mind."
Johannes moved aside as Aejys approached, almost wincing at her gaze.
Aejys simply stared at the assassin a moment, remembering how Cassana died.
The Waejontori spit in her face. She wiped it calmly on her shirtsleeve, and
drew her dagger as he started to scream curses and imprecations. Aejys grabbed
his tongue and cut it out. "No reason to trouble the Brothers with your
noises," she said with such chill matter-of-factness that even Tagalong
shivered. In more than thirty years she had only once seen Aejys like this:
when she'd captured the Waejontori general who had butchered the people of
Shaurone's West Temple.
Aejys slit his clothing open, then shoved her dagger in just above his crotch
and ripped up savagely all the way to his breast bone. His entrails spilled
around her hand as she worked the blade up. She draped them around his neck,
stuffed them in his mouth. Then she wiped her dagger clean on his shirt and
walked off without speaking or replying to anyone around her.
Hanadi cocked her head, staring after her. "To bad the Guild can't hire her,"
she whispered softly to Brundarad. Then, because her God, Hadjys the Dark
Judge did not believe in torture of the flesh, she went to the Waejontori and
gave him the stroke of mercy through his heart.
* * * *
The courtyard was thick with blood bears as Aejys approached the main
building, intending to rejoin Tamlestari beside Cassana's body. Brothers moved
around her, finding and carrying the wounded inside. A slender Eldari brother
extended his hand to attract her attention.
Aejys paused. "What is it?"
"Eli needs you," the brother said softly. "Come with me."
Aejys nodded and followed him into the sanctuary. She started to turn toward
the infirmary as they entered the ambulatory that linked the sanctuary to the
other buildings. The brother touched her arm lightly and shook his head. "This
way."
He led her down a hall that she had never been down before.
"Why isn't he with the others?" Aejys asked and feared the answer.
"Please, do not ask. Just come."
Worry creased the lapsed paladin's face. He's dying. That must be why they
have placed him away from the others. It must be. My friend two friends in
one night.
The brother halted at a door and opened it. Aejys stepped in. The door closed
behind her.
Eliahu lay on his side, his face pale and drawn, the glaze of pain and
exhaustion in his eyes. A brother sat on a chair drawn up to the far side of
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the bed, bathing and bandaging Eliahu's back. Grawl curled at the foot,
watching.
Aejys pulled another chair up and sat down beside him. His hand was curled
around his staff. "How bad " she started to ask and her words trailed off as
her eyes took in the staff. Eliahu was too weak yet to restore the illusion.
CallThunder lay beside him in full glory. She knew then who had called the
storm that forced the demons and harpies within reach of their blades.
"Who are you?" she asked gently.
Eliahu tried to smile, but it emerged as a grimace, the lines of pain
deepening in his pale face. "Eliahu Solistis," he gritted out low, "High Mage
of Winter. Lord of the Iron Glacier." He closed his eyes, slipping into a
drugged slumber.
Aejys gently brushed back a strand of long yellow hair that had slipped
across his face. She felt grateful that it was not the approach of death, but
a secret, that had brought him to a room apart. She lifted her eyes to the
brother working on his wounds. "How bad is he?"
"His back is a mess. The flesh hangs in tatters from his shoulders to his
hips. Two ribs are broken, another is cracked," the brother pronounced
solemnly, then allowed a reassuring smile, "but he will live."
"Let me speak for him," Grawl sat up. "I am Grawl, High Shaman of the blood
bears of St. Tarmus."
Aejys' eyes widened in surprise, for she had not known the bears could speak.
"As you will," she replied.
"Your mage wishes to remain your secret weapon against the darkness." Grawl
related all of Eliahu's reasons for the deception, leaving out the fact that
he had gotten his information, not from the mage himself, but from Josh.
* * * *
Aejys returned to her tent in the mid-morning, having not slept since before
the battle. She found Tamlestari's medicine satchel, but no other sign that
the youth had been there. She returned to the courtyard and saw Tagalong.
"Tag! Have you seen Tamlestari?"
"The girl's takin' it hard, Aejys. Real hard," Tagalong admitted. "They've
put the dead in the chapel ta pray over them. That's where you'll find her.
She just sits there weeping."
"She needs me."
Tagalong gave Aejys an odd, thoughtful look. "Ya know, way she looks at yuh
I'd say she's got it bad."
"I know. Now come on." Aejys started for the door with Tagalong following. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]