by Barb Hendee
And then he saw Darmouth at the table's far end.
Leesil's throat tightened.
A sickening surge of revulsion rolled in his stomach. The very real presence of the tyrant made any surging memory but a shadow.
Darmouth's face was clean-shaven and his hair was cut short, but he still wore the steel-reinforced leather breastplate. Two long war daggers were mounted on his belt, and he wore a heavy shortsword sheathed at his hip. He took more care with his appearance than in the past, but Leesil saw only the murdering, self-obsessed dictator who'd made him kill over and over. Darmouth, who'd used his mother for… "You!" Darmouth shouted.
Omasta reached for his shortsword. "Guards!"
"I'm here to warn you," Leesil said with great effort. "Assassins are inside the keep."
"Yes," Darmouth answered. "That's plain to see right here."
Beneath the aging tyrant's anger, Leesil saw an eager hunger in Darmouth's glare. Omasta charged.
Leesil rolled across the table. He started to reach for a stiletto, but it would be no defense against a sword, unless he was willing to duck inside Omasta's guard and kill him. He pulled his right punching blade instead.
Omasta vaulted the table and came down swinging. Leesil blocked and ducked away at the clang of metal. He leaned into the wall and kicked up into Omasta's chin.
The solid impact whipped Omasta's head back, but he kept his feet, staggering against a high backed chair. Darmouth drew his own sword and charged around the table's end. Leesil dove across the table again before Omasta could right himself.
"Listen!" he shouted, and words stuck in his throat for an instant. "I'm not the one who's come for you. There are elven assassins inside the keep."
He believed that deep inside Darmouth was a coward, like any who saw deceit and betrayal everywhere and beat down dissention wherever it was perceived. Leesil hoped the man's own paranoia would plague him enough to listen.
"Liar," Darmouth growled, holding his sword out. "Traitor and liar, like your mother. I'll gut you alive on the west wall while the whole city watches."
Leesil's hatred for Darmouth began eating him up inside.
Omasta sidled along the table toward the archway, while Darmouth backed to the far end, circling to Leesil's other side. Blood trickled from Omasta's mouth into his beard.
Leesil tried to think of some way to convince one of them of the truth. Five soldiers appeared in the archway. His panic and fury made the dim room sharpen in his sight.
"I want him alive!" Darmouth shouted.
Magiere ran down the south corridor with Chap and Emel following behind. She skidded out the corridor's end in time to see five armed men come up to the archway of the council hall. Darmouth's voice echoed out into the entryway.
"I want him alive!"
Magiere glimpsed Leesil at the hall's right side, and her breath caught. He looked desperate, sweating in the keep's cold air. The lead soldier in the archway rushed him, and Magiere raced across the entryway.
Leesil sidestepped so quickly that the soldier stumbled, then he pivoted in a complete turn. His winged blade sliced through the guard's side. The man toppled against two chairs and fell in a heap. Two more guards surged forward as Omasta waved them on.
"Leesil!" Magiere shouted.
He saw her and then ducked as the next guard came at him.
The soldier closest to Magiere started to turn toward her. She hammered the falchion's hilt into his skullcap, and he toppled into the man in front of him. Magiere kicked out into her target's back, and both men fell to the floor at the table's end.
Magiere spotted Omasta, and for one breath he seemed ready to come for her. But he turned, running down the table's side. Magiere saw Darmouth at the back of the council hall. Omasta grabbed the tyrant's arm, pulling him toward the back wall even as Darmouth tried to jerk away.
Chap leaped over the men Magiere had downed and landed atop the table. He wheeled about, snapping and snarling at the two soldiers closing on Leesil. One of the downed men rose up to face Magiere while the other fumbled for his fallen sword. Emel ducked around Magiere.
"Try not to kill them," he barked, and closed on the rising man.
Magiere swerved around the table after Omasta. As she passed Chap, a soldier turned from Leesil and swung down at the dog's head. Magiere faltered, ready to lunge across and block with the falchion.
Chap hopped aside. The soldier's shortsword bit into the table's edge, and before the man could pull it back, the dog launched into his chest. Magiere's gaze flicked about the room.
Leesil managed his one opponent. Emel backed another soldier into the room's corner. She spotted a skullcap rising over the table's end-the first man she'd struck down. She stepped back and brought the flat of her blade down with a clang. The skullcap vanished from sight as she heard the soldier slump to the floor.
When Magiere looked back, Darmouth was gone. Only Omasta stood at the room's far end near the swaying tapestry of the lone rider. She rushed toward him.
"Leesil!" she shouted, and dodged Omasta's first thrust. "Behind the tapestry!"
Leesil dodged away from his opponent. Omasta turned from Magiere to intercept him, and she felt a wave of dread. Leesil would kill Omasta if the man didn't get out of his way. Magiere slapped down his sword with her own, and threw herself at him.
They both hit the back wall beside the tapestry and recoiled to the floor. Magiere rolled blindly away and scrambled to her feet.
The tapestry swayed wildly, and Leesil was gone. Omasta climbed to his feet to face her.
Only three soldiers were still conscious. Chap rolled on the floor with one. Emel still battered steel with another in the corner who wouldn't give up, though the man made no headway in getting clear of the baron. Omasta tried to rush for the tapestry. Magiere slashed across his path with the falchion's tip. The lieutenant backed away.
"Move!" he yelled.
"Leesil is trying to protect Darmouth," she snarled back.
Omasta glanced to his left. The first soldier who'd assaulted Leesil lay huddled on the floor with his side split open.
Magiere's last hope faded. Omasta would never believe her.
Emel sliced his opponent neatly across the right shoulder, and the guard dropped his blade, crying out. The baron followed with his fist, and the man twisted and dropped to the floor. Chap had bitten both wrists of the soldier he fought, and the man retreated against the table, weaponless, as the dog snarled every time he tried to move.
The guard Magiere had bludgeoned twice was rising again at the table's far end. Emel raised his boot and stomped the man down.
Omasta saw all this and seemed appalled by Emel's actions. He looked back at the tapestry and Magiere.
"Don't," she warned. "It's over. You have to believe what I told you."
He inched forward. There was no fear in his eyes, but he didn't come at her immediately. "Move, Magiere… now."
She didn't want to hurt him, and it was clear he'd rather not harm her. She had to keep him back if Leesil was to protect an entire province.
Magiere mirrored Omasta's slightest move. His face filled with anger. This time he swung hard. When she blocked, the force between their blades made them both stumble. Magiere's frustration became rage, and her vision sharpened.
The room brightened before her as the ache filled her jaws.
Omasta hesitated as he looked her in the eyes.
Magiere feinted with the sword, and he caught it on his own blade. At the instant of contact, she lunged low.
Her shoulder caught below his rib cage, and she drove him back into the wall. He slammed against the stone, and she hopped back before he could rake her with his shortsword. One of his feet slipped, but he didn't fall. He grunted and swung at her. Magiere twisted aside and brought her blade down on top of his.
Both swords' tips hit the floor, and the impact of steel on stone echoed off the walls. She stomped down on his blade, rising up on her own force with her fist cocked back
. Omasta stumbled as his weapon jerked from his grip. Magiere struck downward, sinking her weight into the blow.
Her fist cracked down the side of his face and collarbone, and Omasta crumpled, unmoving.
The only guard still standing was Chap's. Emel grabbed him by the throat and pounded his saber's hilt into the man's forehead.
Panting, with hunger burning her insides, all Magiere could do was shove the tapestry aside and assume the others would follow.
Darmouth fled down the stairs from the council hall to the old sergeant's office. One moment he'd been eating supper with Omasta in the safety of his own stronghold, and now his keep was breached by the one traitor who'd ever escaped him.
He'd never forgotten. When Leesil hadn't been found, anger grew inside of Darmouth like consumption. He couldn't abide such a useful tool in service to anyone else, most particularly any other province ruler in the
Warlands. Emel was in league with this half-blood. Darmouth was surrounded by betrayal, with only Omasta to depend on. He slapped the old tapestry aside at the bottom of the stairwell and emerged into the old sergeant's office.
There were his wolfhounds asleep on the floor. Kana, the tallest, raised his head and blinked, looking dazed and tired. With no time to stop, Darmouth hurried out the door into the storage area. He headed straight through the archway for his family's crypt.
The Hall of Traitors had the heaviest door in the keep.
Darmouth pulled out the key to unlock the ornate door, but he fumbled for a moment. Once it was open, he stepped inside.
Warm orange light washed over him from small braziers on the columns that were always kept lit for the dead. There were iron braces on each side of the door, and he reached for the oak bar resting against the wall. The door swung sharply inward, catching his shoulder, and Darmouth stumbled back.
He caught himself on his father's crypt, and his shoulder throbbed from the impact.
Leesil-that mongrel traitor-stood in the doorway, panting.
He looked like some mad creature out of the forested hills below the mountains. His hood was pushed all the way back, and white-blond hair framed a narrow face that glistened with sweat. His amber eyes sparked in the braziers' glow.
Darmouth's rage faltered. He knew what Leesil was capable of.
Leesil took a step into the room, and his gaze shifted between the crypts of Darmouth's father and grandfather. His eyes grew calm.
Many years had passed, and Leesil's face had changed. A strange realization occurred to Darmouth.
He looked so much like his mother… born out of treacherous blood.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Shouts and footfalls echoed into the council hall from the main entryway as Magiere headed down the concealed stairway. She heard both Chap and Emel close behind her.
Her eyesight was still sharp in the darkness. At the bottom of the stairs she saw the opening covered by a hanging cloth and swatted it aside. She stepped out into a room with a chair, table, and broken quills. They had returned to the abandoned office adjacent to the storage area.
The two wolfhounds slept near the door. Both dogs looked drained and tired. Magiere ignored them and hurried out into the storage area.
She glanced about, searching for Leesil. Stepping between the piled crates, she saw that the ornate door through the center archway to her right was open.
Leesil stood with his back to her just inside Darmouth's family crypt. And Magiere saw the tyrant beyond two raised stone coffins.
The sight brought only partial relief. Leesil had cornered Darmouth in a place they could secure. They need only lock the warlord in and wait for the keep's contingent to eventually flush out the Anmaglahk. But Magiere wasn't about to leave Leesil in there alone. She reached the center archway, only steps from the door.
Two gray forms dropped from the ceiling inside the crypt and landed to the outsides of each coffin.
Magiere froze. Both were dressed alike in tied-up cloaks, cowls, and face wraps a color between charcoal gray and forest green. The one to the right was taller than Darmouth.
Anmaglahk. They'd been waiting there. Somehow they'd known Darmouth would come to this place.
The sound of distant voices and feet echoed from the north and south stairwells. Magiere couldn't tell if they came this way or not, and there was no time to make certain. If Darmouth's soldiers interfered, trying to take Leesil, she wasn't sure how far these elves would go to finish their mission. The soldiers' misguided efforts would make things worse.
Magiere glanced at Emel and Chap coming up behind her. The color in Emel's face drained when he looked past her and into the crypt.
"Keep out anyone who comes down," she said, and hoped the two of them could.
"Wait-" Emel began.
Magiere darted inside the crypt and slammed the door shut. The last things she saw as it closed were Chap's perked ears and astonished face.
All eyes in the room flicked toward her once.
With her back against the door, Magiere spotted the wooden bar. She grabbed it and slammed it down in the braces, locking them all inside.
Leesil pulled one punching blade and held his empty hand out toward Darmouth. "Get back."
The two Anmaglahk shifted toward the tyrant along the outsides of the stone coffins. One might get to Darmouth the moment Leesil committed to going after the other. And behind him was Magiere.
He knew how strong she was in her dhampir state, but he was afraid it wouldn't be enough in close quarters against one of the elves. She needed more room than he did to wield her blade.
Leesil took in the lay of the room. To the left and right were archways between plain and stout stone columns. He'd seen the two blocked-up doors outside, and there had once been three separate rooms here. The spaces beyond the archways were dark, as the braziers upon the columns spilled most of their light into the center space holding the coffins. Perhaps Darmouth's hunger to legitimize his rulership extended to this room, where he would lay to rest the dead who would mark his descendants as true kings.
The far back wall was dimly lit, and Leesil saw a series of black pockets, row upon row of stone cubbies. Each one contained something the brazier light couldn't quite reveal.
Darmouth remained poised, watching everyone in the room. Then his gaze settled on Leesil.
Leesil went hollow inside when he saw any sign of fear fade from the man's eyes.
Darmouth gripped the stout hilts of both war daggers on his belt, and pulled the long blades from their sheaths.
"Come on, boy," he said. "I'll send you to your mother!"
Leesil's thoughts ground to a halt in confusion. His mother was with her people. What did Darmouth mean?
The warlord's weapons were as long as his forearms, the blades' bases wider than a hand's palm. Their edges ran straight to pointed tips, with a tapered ridge along the middle of each blade to reinforce its strength.
Darmouth was older now. Leesil couldn't see the man holding his own against one Anmaglahk in close quarters, even in his prime, let alone two. Leesil's panic rose as he realized Darmouth was now ready to die… just to kill him.
Both elves watched Leesil out of the corners of their eyes, but their prime attention remained upon their target. Leesil couldn't see their mouths, but the tall and solid one had strands of silver hair hanging down his forehead from under his cowl. There were long scars around one of his eyes.
"Stand aside," he said to Leesil and pointed at Darmouth. "This one's life is forfeit, and you, of all who breathe, should have no reason to save him."
His manner was different from Sgaile, the Anmaglahk whom Leesil had encountered in the city of Bela. This one was cold but polite, as if making a request and waiting to hear Leesil's reply. The tall elf spoke in perfect Belaskian with his lilting accent. His words struck Leesil.
This one knew him-knew at least who he was-knew some small part of his life enslaved to the tyrant.
"I can't," Leesil answered, with a fleeting hope that r
eason might work. "Kill him, and the people here will suffer more in the following conflict than they suffer under his rule."
The elder one spoke quick Elvish words to his companion and then fell silent. Leesil knew that the time for talk had ended. Both elves ducked through the archways into the dark spaces beyond.
They were trying to close in on Darmouth from both sides.
Magiere raced by Leesil on his right, heading after the elder Anmaglahk, and Leesil almost cried out. He didn't want her facing the one so obviously the superior. The younger elf lunged at Darmouth from the far archway on the left, and Leesil had no choice but to run to the tyrant's
Magiere slashed at the elder elf, hoping to turn him aside, to block him from Darmouth.
He did turn, but only for an instant. As her blade dropped low, he leaped upward.
His foot touched halfway up the column. One fist clenching a stiletto braced against the ceiling.
Magiere passed under him in her rush and heard him drop down behind her. She couldn't turn quickly enough and blindly swung the falchion back. It clanged against the stone column as she finished her pivot.
She caught only a glimpse as he ducked through the previous archway into the room's center section. Magiere twisted back the other way and stepped through the archway to get between the elf and Darmouth.
She knew he'd try to break inside her guard with his stilettos. She knew he would underestimate her strength.
This wasn't an undead she fought, but if she didn't kill him, he would kill her. Leesil would be alone against two of the Anmaglahk. More than he could face himself or to save Darmouth.
Rage fed her strength and speed, and she needed both to keep up. The tall elf charged her from between the columns and the nearest stone coffin.
Magiere spun the falchion low, cutting upward in the narrow space. As she'd hoped, he leaped, stepping off the coffin to plant his other foot sideways at the column's top. He twisted aside as her blade passed before his face. Before he could come down on her, Magiere reversed her swing downward.