A Dragon's Ascension - Ed Greenwood [128]
Weeping in earnest, now, she turned her head away, and let go of her dagger, kicking it away before Craer could. "I-I…"
She whirled back to glare at him again, jerking Craer with her as if he was a child's puppet, and snarled, "I've sworn to slay you. And now, I- damn you!"
She bent over, lost in sobs and shaking. Blackgult put a hand on Craer's shoulder and jerked his head in a silent "get hence" command. The procurer nodded, let go of the sorceress, and quietly stepped back.
Blackgult reached down, heaved-and suddenly a startled Tshamarra Talasorn was being carried in his arms like a little girl, cradled against his torn and dusty black as the Regent of Aglirta strode carefully along through broken marble and fallen rubble, heading for the most empty corner of the room.
She stared up at him, face contorting as she fought to control her tears and her rage. Ezendor Blackgult set her down on a slab of fallen stone so large that it could serve as a seat, reached to his belt, and then put a worn and heavy dagger in her hand.
She stared at it, and up at him in bewilderment, sniveling.
Blackgult stooped until he was facing her, with their heads level-and his face and throat were within easy reach of the dagger. "Lady Talasorn," he asked gravely, "how much blood is an oath worth?"
She set her teeth, jaw trembling, and said, "I don't know." It was more a sob than a firm utterance.
"Nor do I," he told her, "and I've shed a lot of blood and broken a lot of oaths. I've kept more, but I don't know if the Three look down on me any more kindly for that."
He looked over her shoulder and years into the past, sighed, and said, "I've made two bad mistakes-two very evil deeds. Seducing Embra's mother without slaying her husband first, and invading the Isles. Both of those, I deserve to the for."
He looked straight into her eyes, and added firmly, "As for the rest of my deeds or misdeeds, I ask no forgiveness nor feel any need for it. I did what I had to do. I am sorry your family has paid so much, in lives and grief. I've felt such pain, too, but I suppose such words seem empty comfort to you."
Tshamarra looked back at him, and then down at the dagger in her palm. She'd still not closed her fingers around it. "Why," she whispered, "have you given me this?"
Blackgult shrugged. "If you slay me, it will be… a release. I've nothing to hide from the Three; they know me all too well." He smiled faintly. "Yet they never seem to want to see me."
"It's a failing we share, I think," Hawkril said softly, from behind him. For all his size, the armaragor had come up to them out of all the drifting smoke and death in uncanny quiet, a borrowed blade ready in his hand.
"Or perhaps," Craer said slowly from behind Tshamarra, over the keen edge of yet another ready dagger, "they judge us to be a source of peerless entertainment."
White waves curled up from the bows of four barges as they raced up the Silverflow, thrust knifelike against the current by magic.
The tersepts on the second boat glanced often at the two hired Sirl wizards in their midst. Those mages were white-faced and sweating already from the strain of holding their spells together, but the barges were racing along, faster than the Tersept of Haeltree had once sailed down-river-and that had been in a small boat whose sails were filled with a strong wind.
Baron Cardassa smiled and drew his sword. It gleamed mirror-bright, and when he flourished it, the blade gave off a faint green glow. "While we were in Sirlptar," he announced, "I bought this blade. It's enchanted-to cleave armor like a kitchen maid guts an eel, I'm told!-and I don't think I'll tell you just how much I had to pay for it!"
"Either he stole it, or he can't count without servants holding out their fingers," Haeltree murmured to Shaeltor-who snorted in agreement.
"With this goodly steel," Maevur Cardassa boasted, waving it above his head as if to hack invisible river gulls into diced fowl and drifting feathers, "we cannot fail! The River Throne shall be ours forthwith!"
They were moving very fast,