Страница 89 из 95
He took a deep breath. “Papa, Willon told us why he ran from Jes and me that night in Taela. He wanted us to succeed. He sacrificed his people so Mother would get all the Ordered gems. He couldn’t figure out what was wrong with them, but he thought Mother, He
“What good did that do?” asked He
“Mother has people she cares about,” replied Lehr. “Willon promised not to harm any of us if Mother fixed the gems so that they worked for him. He took Ri
“He took Ri
“No,” Ri
“Phoran rescued you from the Shadowed?” He
“Not exactly,” said Phoran wryly.
Tier tightened his hand on Ri
“He broke free of the Shadowed’s spell and told us how to do it, too,” said Toarsen, with a respectful nod in Phoran’s direction.
“It was an illusion,” Phoran explained, giving Tier a sheepish grin. “Some parts of me aren’t very nice, sir. The idea that a peasant, trumped-up parlor illusionist with delusions of godhood would try and command me, the Emperor, just seemed wrong. I couldn’t believe it would work—so it didn’t. The others had broken free by the time Ri
Toarsen laughed, though there were tears in his eyes. He’d sat on the road next to Kissel, and now he touched him lightly. “Kissel, broke free before any of the rest of us. He said anything you could break free of couldn’t hold him. He talked the rest of us free.”
Phoran nodded soberly. “I chased after Ri
“Too bad,” murmured Seraph.
“He’s dead,” Phoran told her.
“Thank you,” she said. “But I could have made it more painful.”
Phoran half bowed. “The next one I will save for you. I couldn’t be bothered with him because I knew Willon had Ri
Tier turned to look at the tower in question again. “Down the cliff, too? You look good for a man who just fell several hundred feet.”
“Thank you,” said Phoran. “I feel good, too—relatively speaking.” The Emperor tilted his head and looked at Ri
“The Memory threw me off the guard tower after you,” Ri
“What?” Phoran’s eyes flashed, and his hand went to his sword hilt. “It did what?”
Tier was feeling pretty murderous himself.
Ri
All in one breath, thought Tier. Amusement won over the horror of hearing that something had thrown his daughter from a tower. It helped that Ri
Phoran bowed. “Thank you, my lady. I was remiss when I forgot to thank you earlier—though I believe the fear for your life took precedence at the time.”
Ri
Lehr smiled at her. “No one will believe you, pest.”
“Where is Hi
“The Shadowed was coming,” said Jes, who had exchanged his wolf form for the mountain cat. “Hi
“Speaking of which,” said Phoran. “Should we continue going?”
“No,” said He
“Willon burned them,” said Toarsen. “He said he was sealing the temple so no one else could get them again.”
“I remember one of them,” said Phoran.
He
He smiled. “I’m not just a drunken sot, my lady. I am an educated drunken sot. I couldn’t read the maps or the gates, but the alphabet is the same as Old Oslandic, which I do know. If Toarsen has that piece of char still, I can write it on the stones.”
Toarsen fumbled in his belt pouch and handed Phoran the charred stick. Phoran wrote some odd lines on the ground that might have been letters.
“Do you know to which one the name belongs?” asked Tier.
He
“Ah, well,” said Tier. “Either would work I suppose. So what exactly do we do?”
“The six of us, you, Jes, Seraph, Lehr, Ri
“We should wait until Willon comes near?” asked Tier.
He
“Is there something I can do?” asked Toarsen. “He’s not going to make it.” He’d lifted Kissel’s head onto his lap and he touched his forehead lightly. “Lost too much blood. I need to have a hand in the destruction of the man who killed him.”
Tier hunkered down beside the big lad and put a hand on his too-cold cheek. He looked at Seraph, who nodded.
“Don’t give up on him, yet,” Tier told Toarsen. “Kissel’s survived worse than this—and we’ll have a Lark to help him, eh, Seraph?”
“I don’t intend for the Shadowed to kill any more of ours,” said Seraph.
“So there,” said Phoran. “Seraph has said so—Kissel won’t dare to fail her.”
A faint smile appeared on Kissel’s face.
“See,” said Tier. “All men must bow to my wife’s whims. You’ll do, lad.” He looked up at Toarsen. “I think this battle will be beyond steel, but I’ve no objection if you keep your sword handy and use it if you see a moment to do so.”
Toarsen nodded solemnly.
“Seraph,” Tier said. “If you’re ready, Kissel has been doing his best to hold on, but he could really use some help.”
Seraph fingered the tigereye ring and closed her eyes, trying to feel what was different, but she felt the same as she ever had. Just the same as she had when she’d tried to work some healing upon Gura a few minutes ago.
She looked down for a moment upon the young man who’d fought by her side against the Path that night in Taela. When she settled next to Kissel, Toarsen looked up at her with all the welcome of a bitch guarding her pups from a stranger.
“I’m not going to hurt him,” she told him, though she wasn’t at all sure of that.
“There’s not much that will hurt me at this point,” murmured Kissel unexpectedly, with the subtle humor that he liked to employ. He always seemed best pleased when his audience wasn’t quite certain he was trying to be fu