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arm, her grip tight in Sapphire's hair.
No! Sapphire mouthed, as she raised a hand to shield herself.
Magiere slashed crosswise, pulling on the woman's hair at the same time. As
her arms scissored outward and apart, the falchion swung level through the
dark room.
One final sob from Sapphire ended halfway as the blade passed cleanly through
the forearm of her raised hand and then her neck. The hand spun and dropped to
the floor first.
Magiere's gaze never left the pale, painted face as the body collapsed and
the head hung suspended in her grip, draining black fluids onto the carpet.
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She stood a moment longer before realizing she was panting. Her grip had
tightened so severely that the dark-blond hair began to tear out between her
fingers.
This thing had tried to take Leesil.
The room dimmed around her, though her settling vision still picked up
details in the dark. She looked down to see the topaz dim and lifeless against
her hauberk.
Magiere dropped the head onto the rumpled folds of the corpse's gown.
Running footsteps on the stairs broke her fixation as Leesil hurried into the
room with Chap close behind. He crouched down immediately by the corpse,
stared but a moment, and reached for the head.
Magiere was about to stop him. It wasn't time to collect proof for the
council, but he waved her off.
"I may need this," he said simply.
He took a dark blue drawstring bag from the corpse, placed the head inside,
and tied it to his belt. Taking out flint, he struck it several times with his
blade until he ignited the torches he'd brought with them. He handed one to
Magiere.
"Find Chane and get Wynn back," he said. "Chap's already tracked him to the
first sewer grate up the street. I know where Ratboy has gone."
Before she could ask, he stepped out of the parlor toward the foyer. Magiere
followed him to the opening in the wall. Inside were narrow stone steps
leading both up and down.
"Chap's already confirmed it," Leesil said, staring at the steps leading
downward. "Ratboy is mine."
"Take Chap," Magiere told him."And this."
She unhooked the topaz amulet's chain and went to fasten it about his neck.
Leesil was about to stop her, but she shook her head.
"I don't think I need it anymore," she explained with a glance back toward
the parlor. "I can feel them now when they're close. If we can't find each
other later, we'll meet back at the sages' barracks."
Leesil nodded and motioned Chap into the passage. As Magiere was about to
head for the front door, he grabbed her by the arm.
When she looked at him, all the warmth and wry humor she'd become accustomed
to finding in his face, his eyes, his smile was gone without a trace.
"You stay alive," he said.
Magiere felt cold inside.
Leesil wasn't just hunting anymore. This was vengeance. Or some fool's need
to rectify what he thought was a failure from the past. Somewhere in the back
of her mind she'd probably always known this, and now there was no time to
stop him.
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"And you," she said.
Magiere slipped out the front door, down the steps, and into the cobble
street, running for the first grate she saw.
From the shadows between two houses across the street, Sgaile watched the
unfolding events with an unsettling ambivalence. He had followed the renegade
andmajay-hi all day as they looked at houses in the city's wealthier
districts. He did not know why.
He had already ignored the wish ofAoishenis-Ahare  Most Aged Father and yet
he could not leave well enough alone. He had not been told all and nearly
spilled the blood of his people, even though it ran through the flesh of a
halfblood mongrel. And themajay-hi would not keep company with a traitor. It
was not possible.
As dusk settled, the half-blood renegade and his companions had entered the
house across the way. Sgaile settled in to watch. For a while, nothing
happened. Then a tall man ran from the house, carrying the gray-robed woman
over his shoulder, and disappeared into a sewer grate. A short while later the
renegade, the human female, and the small boy appeared. The boy ran off down
the street, and now the armored woman went straight to the same sewer grate
and disappeared below the city.
Sgaile waited longer, but the renegade half-blood did not emerge. Neither did
themajay-hi. He slipped from his hiding place and approached the house, the
front door half-open.
Snapping a stiletto into his right hand, he stepped inside and walked
silently along the hall past the base of the stairs, watching in all
directions. As he passed an archway to his right, he spotted a headless body
upon the floor. The room was a shattered mess all around.
Sgaile froze in place, listening in the dark, but he heard no sounds in the
house. When he turned back to the front door, he looked at the wall at the
bottom of the stairs.
The wall had a crack in it.
More than a crack; it was a portal in the stone that had not been fully
closed.
Sgaile pulled the door open and slipped inside and downward.
Chapter 19
Chane splashed along the dark sewer tunnel, carrying Wynn and following the
ankle-deep flow toward the bay. At the city's low side, he could emerge into
the poor district inside the third ring and disappear into the side streets.
With luck, Toret would take his second death at the hands of the dhampir and
the half-blood, and he would be finally free.
Wynn choked from either the stench or the pounding of his shoulder into her
stomach as he slogged through the sea-water used to flush the city's bowels.
"Chane, please," she uttered. "Put me down."
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He glanced behind but saw nothing except mortared stone walls, and so he
carefully set her on her feet. She still clutched the glowing crystal in her
hand. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]