The Black Bouquet r-2

by Richard Lee Byers

  Aeron threw a knife at Tharag. The creature wrenched himself sideways, and the blade pierced his forearm instead of his chest. A painful wound, perhaps, but it wouldn't stop the creature. An instant later, Tharag's body swelled, becoming bigger and likely stronger than an ogre's. His clothing and gear grew with him, though for some reason, Aeron's dagger didn't. The process of enlargement shoved it out of the wound to fall and clank on the floor. Tharag raised his cudgel, bellowed a battle cry, and rushed the human who'd hurt him.

  Huge as the bugbear was, his head nearly brushing the high ceiling, he seemed as terrible an opponent as the brass mantis. Aeron was sure he lacked the strength to parry a blow from the heavy club, so he dodged the first vicious stroke instead. He told himself it was just possible that, by drinking the potion, Tharag had outsmarted himself. At his present size, the Red Axe wouldn't be able to pursue his foes down the servants' stairs.

  Nicos cried out in dismay. Hard-pressed though he was, Aeron risked a glance over his shoulder. A mesh of slimy gray cables, sticky enough to adhere to the walls, floor, and ceiling, sealed the entrance to the narrow steps, as if a gigantic spider had spun a web there. Obviously, the man with the blackwood cane had conjured the strands to cut off the intruders' retreat.

  Miri and the orc circled one another near Kesk's throne. The Red Axe opened its mouth wide and seemingly spat out its own tongue. The pink flesh flew through the air, meanwhile stretching into a cord a dozen feet long. It slapped and whirled around the startled ranger's legs, yanking her off balance and binding her to the heavy chair. The orc sprang at her with its short sword leveled to pierce her belly.

  Aeron wanted to rush to her aid, but it was impossible. He didn't dare ignore his own opponent. He hastily faced forward, and Tharag swung the cudgel down like a man splitting wood. Aeron dodged. The weapon clashed against the floor.

  Maybe Aeron could hamstring the goblin-kin before he could lift the stick for another stroke. He sprang in close, only to find that Tharag had anticipated the move. The bugbear's boot lashed out at him.

  Aeron tried to dodge, but the brutal kick still struck him a glancing blow. That was enough to smash the breath from his lungs and send him staggering. As he did, he caught a glimpse of Miri, still alive but still bound as well. The orc was trying to stab her from behind, and she was only barely able to twist around far enough to fend him off.

  Snowballs pelted her. Plainly, it was another conjuration, one that looked almost comical, though it was evident from the way she jerked that the white barrage inflicted actual pain. The orc lunged, and once again she managed to turn its blade with her buckler. Her riposte, however, was a feeble, fumbling action easily avoided. In fact, it looked like she almost lost her grip on her broadsword.

  Nicos had picked up a bronze cuspidor to use as a makeshift bludgeon, then limped to intercept the Red Axe with the unkempt whiskers. The old man had been a formidable brawler in his day, but it was obvious from the way Nicos moved that, without sufficient strength or agility to back them up, his rusty skills no longer posed a threat. The Red Axe thought so, too. Leering, he advanced with his guard lowered, daring Nicos to strike at him.

  Two more ruffians appeared in the far doorway.

  Tharag rushed in. Aeron flailed his arms and recovered his balance just in time to dodge the next sweep of the bugbear's cudgel. It was hard to imagine it mattered. He, his father, and Miri might last a little while longer, but the Red Axes were inevitably going to prevail.

  CHAPTER 14

  Perched atop a gabled slate roof overlooking Kesk's mansion, Sefris peered down, watching for Aeron and Miri while munching on a cold toasted roll with a greasy sausage-and-apple filling. She'd brought food and a canteen because she'd known she might have to remain at her post for hours before the red-bearded thief made his play. Indeed, it was possible that Aeron wouldn't try to rescue Nicos at all, but Sefris considered that unlikely. He'd be eager to retrieve the old man before the Red Axes snipped off any more pieces.

  She was certain that, after confusing the gang with raids throughout the city, Aeron meant to invade their stronghold. No other plan would give Miri a reason to work with him. The difficulty was predicting how the pair would try to enter a building theoretically accessible from the Scelptar, at ground level, and via the Underways.

  After some thought, Sefris had ruled out the river. Kesk had found and patched the breach in the portcullis defending the water gate, and anyway, it was unlikely that Aeron would attempt the same approach twice. The Underways also seemed an implausible choice. She'd seen that the passage connecting the cellars to the lawless tunnels was well fortified, and Aeron surely had some inkling of that. That left advancing up the street and across the yard. Kesk undoubtedly had a sentry on watch, and kept his doors and windows locked. But Aeron would trust in his ability to avoid detection by the former and tease open the latter, for after all, it was his trade.

  The lawns and gardens surrounding the mansion were overgrown and weed infested. Slinking about just after sunset, Sefris had cast spells of warning on the best hiding places. If a second intruder used those choice bits of cover to sneak up on the house, she'd sense it. Then she climbed up on top of a neighboring building to wait.

  In time, another watcher's attention might have wandered, but her teachers had trained her to suppress boredom as efficiently as any other emotion. She gazed down at Kesk's residence as patiently as a python hanging in a tree waiting for prey to happen along beneath.

  Yet even so, she almost missed the light, for it was just a momentary flicker at the periphery of her vision. By the time her head snapped around toward the north and the river, it was already gone.

  She wondered what the pale radiance had been. The moon, peeking momentarily from behind a cloud? No. The sky was clear that night, and Selune, her Tears, and the stars had shone brightly right along. It must have been magical, then. Firelight wouldn't be so white, nor could it blaze and die so quickly.

  Maybe a priest or sorcerer out sailing, or on the far shore, had cast a spell that kindled a momentary glow. But she wondered about Kesk's employer. The last time she'd seen the wretch, it had been in the solar on the opposite side of the house. Suppose he lingered there still, and his magic had produced the flare. The light could have pulsed out the long row of windows and reflected off the surface of the river.

  Maybe, but even if the masked wizard had used his art, it didn't have to be because he was engaged in a confrontation with Aeron sar Randal. Sefris strained, listening for shouting, the clash of blades against shields, or some other sign of strife. All she heard was the constant murmur of the city around her.

  Still, over the course of the next minute or so, she felt a growing certainty that somehow Aeron and Miri had slipped past her and into the house. Either they'd free Nicos and make their escape, or more likely, the Red Axes would kill the scout and take their fellow outlaw prisoner. However it worked out, it could result in The Black Bouquet passing beyond Sefris's grasp forever.

  That was unacceptable. She'd hoped to capture Aeron before he had a chance to enter the mansion, not make another foray into a place she'd fled with some difficulty the night before, but she saw no alternative. She sprang off the edge of the roof, snatching and releasing the irregularities in the wall to slow her plummeting descent.

  When she hit the ground, the impact jolted her but did no real harm. She rolled to her feet and charged the house. Given a choice, she would once again have skulked up in hopes of remaining undetected, but she felt speed was more important.

  Nobody shouted or sent a quarrel or sling stone flying in her direction. She was certain Kesk routinely posted a sentry, but if she was right, if something was happening inside the house, perhaps it had already diverted the guard's attention.

  The primary entrance was a pair of massive double doors. Neither their solid weight nor the intricacy of the lock would have hindered her spell of opening, but she begrudged even the moment it would take to stop and recite the incantat
ion. She raced up the wide steps, leaped into the air, and thrust-kicked at the juncture of the panels, attacking it as if her entire body was a battering ram.

  The doors bucked in the frame, and something crunched. Sefris rebounded and fell onto the porch. She scrambled to her feet and kicked a second time. The two leaves flew apart.

  As she sprinted on, she heard the clamor that had been inaudible from outside. Sure enough, it was coming from upstairs. She smiled slightly to know she'd guessed correctly, and two ruffians scrambled out of a doorway up ahead. Evidently they were rushing toward the noise as well, but faltered when they spotted her.

  While a tolerated guest, Sefris had taken the trouble to learn the floor plan of the mansion. Thus, she knew the bravos were blocking the shortest route to the solar, and likewise knew she needed to clear them from her path. Considering that they were still several yards away, magic might have been the safest way to go about it, but she'd already wasted a measure of her power creating the alarms her quarry had somehow bypassed, and she wanted to save the rest to address more serious threats. So she simply charged.

  One Red Axe threw a dagger at her. He had a good eye, and it would have plunged into her heart if she hadn't slapped it spinning off course. She responded in kind with a backhand flip of a chakram. The razor-edged ring sheared into his neck, and he fell. Blood spurted from the wound to spatter his companion.

  The second outlaw winced but stood his ground, a slim needle of a thrusting sword cocked back in one hand and a parrying dagger extended in the other. Maybe he fancied himself a duelist, for his stance, spine straight and knees flexed, bespoke some formal training in the fencer's science. Sefris kept on charging, one cestus-wrapped fist raised and threatening a punch. Confident that proper timing and the length of his blade would protect him, he'd almost certainly respond to her seemingly reckless advance with a stop hit.

  He did. He stepped backward, and his point leaped at her breast. She dropped underneath it, smacked down on the floor, and still carried along by her momentum, slid at him feet first. She kicked at the proper moment, bone cracked, and the duelist went down with a shattered ankle.

  It was unlikely he'd give her any more trouble, but Sefris saw no reason to chance it, not when it would take only a split second to finish him off. She scrambled onto his chest, crushed his windpipe with a jab of her stiffened fingers, leaped up, retrieved her chakram, and ran onward.

  Nobody was on the marble staircase. Judging from the muddled racket issuing from the top, all the other Red Axes who'd remained in the house had already reached the solar. When she charged up the steps and peered into the hall, she saw that the situation was just about as inconvenient as it could be.

  Along with Miri and Nicos, Aeron was at the far end of the room, up by Kesk's chair. The only way to keep him out of the Red Axes' hands and wring the location of The Black Bouquet out of him herself was to kill her way through a dozen or so gang members and the wizard in the green cloak, too.

  So be it, then. At least Kesk's henchmen were all facing away from the door. That would give her a brief initial advantage. She sprang into the solar and punched, breaking a hobgoblin's spine. The tall, hairy creature needed to fall first to give her a clear toss at the small man. She'd already concluded he was no seasoned combat wizard-he was too hesitant and miserly with his magic in a fight-but he was still the most dangerous opponent in the room.

  She was just about to fling a chakram when she glimpsed movement at the edge of her vision. She pivoted. Sewer Rat rushed her, clawed hands extended to rake. After the trouncing she'd already given it, the stunted, green-skinned savage should have known better, but maybe it ached to avenge its earlier humiliation.

  She sidestepped out of the meazel's way, cracked its skull with an elbow strike as it blundered past, and returned her attention to the wizard. He'd spotted her and was jabbering a spell at her. Futilely. He wouldn't finish in time.

  She hurled the chakram. It hit the mage in the forehead and bounced away. He bore an enchantment to shield him from missiles.

  Even so, the mere fact of a blow to the face would have startled many a spellcaster into botching his conjuration. The small man, however, maintained his focus. He spoke the final word, and a ragged fan-shaped distortion, like hot air rippling over pavement on a torrid summer day, shot from the head of his cane.

  Sefris tried to dodge, and nearly made it. The edge of the magic grazed her, however.

  It didn't make her feel any different, and for a second imagined it hadn't affected her at all. Then she perceived that the wizard was backing away with an implausible quickness. In fact, everything-Aeron's battle with a gigantic bugbear, Miri's clash with an orc, the other Red Axes maneuvering to close with one foe or another-was scuttling and jerking around more rapidly than before.

  Sefris realized that wasn't actually so. It just looked that way to her. The man with the cane hadn't sped the rest of the world up. He'd slowed her down.

  Had the enemy allowed her a moment, she probably could have dissolved the enchantment with a counter-spell, but suddenly, or so it seemed to her, other Red Axes were rushing her. A dagger slashed at her eyes. From her perspective, the blade came in as fast as if one of her teachers was wielding it, and she nearly failed to duck. She riposted with a punch to the jaw, and the outlaw jerked out of the way.

  She flowed into one of the combinations her instructors had drilled into her, following up with a blow to the ribs. The Red Axe didn't dodge that one. Her knuckles smashed bone. He stumbled backward and fell on his rump.

  But already two more Red Axes, one human, the other a slavering, hyena-headed gnoll, were spreading out to flank her. She realized that, in her present condition, she could no longer count on simple trained reflex to snatch her out of harm's way. She had to read their stances and predict how and where each attack would come.

  It looked like the gnoll would cut to the head and the human would try a low-line thrust, and when they pounced at her, it was so. She evaded both attacks and retaliated with a snap kick to the knee that crippled the goblin-kin. Unfortunately, that gave the remaining cutthroat time for a second stab, and she couldn't pivot fast enough for a clean, fully effective block. She kept the dagger out of her lung, but it pierced her forearm, grating on bone before ripping free.

  It didn't hurt, not yet, and wouldn't until she allowed it to. Mere force of will, however, wouldn't stop the bleeding or the weakness it would eventually produce. She realized she was genuinely in trouble.

  Aeron crouched before Tharag, and when the enormous bugbear swung its club, the rogue lunged forward, safely inside the arc of the blow, and swept his Arthyn fang in an overhand stab at the creature's stomach. The point plunged through magically thickened layers of tanned horsehide armor and clothing to pierce the Red Axe's flesh.

  Tharag roared in rage and snatched at Aeron with his offhand. Aeron ducked and stabbed a second time. The bugbear lunged forward, trying, apparently, to knock his foe down and trample him. Aeron sprang aside, and Tharag lurched past.

  In the instant it took the Red Axe to spin back around, Aeron had his first chance to survey the entire room in… he realized he had no idea how long. He'd lost all track of time trying to contend with Tharag.

  Miri was still alive. Indeed, she was faring better than the last time he'd taken note of her situation. She looked as if she'd shaken off the shock of the snowballs, and at some point had managed to chop through the coil of pink flesh that had bound her legs to the chair. She stood facing both the orc and the bravo with the matted beard, who'd already finished with Nicos. Aeron felt a pang of fear and rage to see his father sprawled motionless on the floor.

  A second tongue-rope lay twitching on the floor. Evidently the wizard's elixir enabled the orc to spit more than one. But the second such attack had failed to take its target by surprise, and Miri managed to dodge.

  Aeron was surprised to see that Sefris Uuthrakt had appeared at the far end of the room. Something was wrong with the way she
was moving, though he couldn't make out precisely what. Still, the wizard and the rest of the Red Axes had turned to engage her. Apparently they weren't all on the same side anymore.

  Aeron realized that could be his salvation. It was possible that he, Nicos, and Miri could make their escape while the gang was busy battling the agent of the Dark Moon. First, however, they'd have to dispose of their current opponents, and that wouldn't be easy. It was plain from the way Tharag turned, quick and surefooted as before, that the Arthyn fang might have jabbed his skin, but hadn't reached his guts. Aeron felt as if he might as well have pricked the towering brute with a pin.

  Then he thought of a ploy that might enable him to do some actual damage. Another idiot idea, perhaps, but the only one he had. He retreated toward Miri, and Tharag lumbered after him.

  The problem was that he couldn't simply tell the scout what he had in mind, or Tharag would hear, too. He could only hint at it, praying she'd understand and the bugbear wouldn't.

  Aeron said, "If we could trip him…"

  "Right," Miri panted.

  A few heartbeats later, the man with the tangled whiskers feinted a cut to the leg, then lunged at Miri in earnest. She caught the true attack-a head cut-on her buckler, but to all appearances, the impact staggered her.

  Aeron could only assume she was faking. He hopped backward, and Tharag compensated by taking a stride forward, into what ought to be the proper position.

  Hoping to take advantage of Miri's seeming incapacity, the orc spat a third extending tendril of flesh. The guide wrenched herself out of the way. The wet, meaty strand flew past her and lashed itself around Tharag's ankles. The bugbear pitched off balance, but didn't fall.