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Flaming Fist, men who fought in the memory of Scar and Eltan, almost pushed the half-elf forward.
"This way?" Abdel said finally, "Yes, I think so, but I can't be sure."
"Maerik," Angelo called.
The stocky sergeant pressed through his comrades, nodding expectantly.
"Take your men and Ferran's," Angelo ordered, "back to the last side passage. Err to your left."
Maerik said, "Yes, sir," and was off faster than even Angelo expected. These men were fighting for their homes now.
"Temil," Angelo said to a short, thin, gray-haired woman in flowing satin robes, "you and your men go left up there
and try to circle around. I'm going with Abdel and taking Julius's men with me."
The mage smiled and swept her robe around in a flourish. Her men followed her warily, obviously not used to taking
orders from a sorceress, but knowing their duty.
 Abdel didn't wait for Angelo to catch up. He was off down the passage fast, stepping lightly on his toes, ready for
anything. Angelo followed more cautiously, and his men slowed him down. Abdel heard their voices and their
footsteps growing more distant as he moved on, but he just couldn't wait for them.
When Tamoko stepped out in front of him he slid to a halt, and he realized who she was before he killed her.
"Tamoko," he said, "where is "
She drew her strange curved sword as fast as anyone Abdel had ever seen draw steel. Her eyes blazed at him, but
Abdel couldn't tell what she felt at that moment. She was injured. Her black silk clothes were stained a darker black.
Abdel knew as much by the smell as anything that she was bleeding, and bleeding badly. A trickle of blood was
running down the right side of her face from under her black hood. She was breathing heavily, and Abdel saw her
fighting not to stagger as she advanced on him, one pained step at a time.
"Tamoko ..." he said, and she shook her head. Abdel saw a tear trace a line down her left cheek.
"I was . . . orokashii," she said, "I was disloyal... I was disloyal."
Abdel put his sword up, ready to defend, but not to kill.
"He killed Jaheira," he told her, though he wasn't sure exactly why.
"I know," Tamoko whispered. "Of course he did."
"He needs you," Abdel told her, "but he doesn't deserve you."
"It is I who does not deserve him," she said and attacked.
Abdel was staggered at his own ability to block her Z-shaped assault. It was fast for any other swordsman but her.
She stumbled at the end of it, throwing herself off balance in what must have been the first time in years, maybe ever.
"I won't kill you," he told her.
"I have to kill you," she replied and attacked again, this time taking a nick out of Abdel's side. He roared more with
frustration than pain. She stepped back quickly, and her knees gave out all at once. Her chin hit the flagstone floor,
and Abdel heard her teeth clack together. She put her arm out to stop her fall a good second after she'd already hit the
floor.
"He killed you too," Abdel asked her as she lay there on the floor trying to move, then just trying to breathe. "Didn't
he? For helping us?"
Angelo came up behind Abdel and asked, "What is this " but Abdel stopped him with a hand to his chest.
"Tamoko?" Abdel asked the dying woman.
From the floor, she said, "I release you ... from your vow. I cannot... he must.. . shiizumaru ... he must die."
"Tamoko," Abdel said, but by the time he finished saying her name, she was dead.
It wasn't absolutely necessary, for the completion of the ritual, for the other sixteen priests in the inner sanctum of
the High House of Wonders to be chanting. It was an aid in concentration for High Artificer Thalamond Albaier,
though, and a chance for the lesser priests to see the greatest of all Gond's miracles.
The fact that the woman lying sprawled and lifeless across the marble altar had elf blood in her veins didn't help, but
the high artificer had been asked to perform this ceremony at the request of the new leader of the Flaming Fist, so he
was doing everything in his substantial power to see that it happened. The candles that burned in the room were [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]