Ascendancy of the Last - Lisa Smedman [88]
The wet hiss of something slithering on stone drew nearer. A chill seeped out of the tunnel behind Valdar.
"You're right," Kвras lied. "We'd better get moving." He pointed at the right-hand corridor. "That's the way to Skullport."
Valdar turned to the tunnel. "Lead the-"
Kвras lunged-but Valdar leaped aside. Kвras's dagger struck nothing but air.
"So that's how it is," Valdar said in a soft, lethal voice. He drew his own dagger-a black-bladed weapon that Kвras didn't remember him having before. "Let's finish it, then-that little dance we began three years ago."
Kвras shifted his weight, as if readying for a lunge.
Valdar's other arm whipped up. The wide sleeve of his robe fell back, and his wristbow twanged. Kвras shouted a holy word and flicked his hand. The bolt glanced off the invisible shield the Masked Lord had just bestowed and shattered on the wall behind him.
Valdar lunged. Kвras met it with a lunge of his own that drew blood from the other male's hand. Their blades clashed, bright steel sliding past black metal. Valdar flicked a hand at Kвras and spat a word, but Kвras twisted aside. Whatever spell Valdar had been trying to catch him with missed its mark.
Kвras feinted and hurled a prayer back at Valdar. It should have left Valdar shaken and open to attack, yet it had no visible effect. Was that their mutual deity, preventing them from harming one another with their prayers? Or was Valdar's will simply too strong to be overcome by Kвras's spell?
They rushed each other. A blade whispered past Kвras's ear, nicking it. The point of his own dagger snagged Valdar's robe. They danced apart.
As they circled, Kвras saw movement in the tunnel behind Valdar: a patch of roiling darkness, momentarily backlit by a temporary ripple of Faerzress. It looked like an enormous blob of shadow, smooth and bulging. Kвras's pulse quickened as it flowed into the room. Shadow and ooze, together? Was its presence a sign that he'd guessed wrong? Perhaps the Masked Lord had indeed aligned himself with Ghaunadaur. Killing Valdar might have been the wrong choice.
"Ooze!" Kвras shouted. "Behind you."
Valdar laughed. His fingers flicked. A flicker of light danced at the edge of Kвras's peripheral vision: a forceblade, forged from moonlight and shadow. It streaked toward Kвras-only to slam into his magical shield and explode in a halo of moonlight. Yet in the instant that Kвras's attention was diverted, Valdar's other hand whipped forward. Kвras felt a blow like a dull punch, then an ache. He looked down: Valdar's black blade had buried itself hilt-deep in Kвras's gut.
Valdar started to gloat-only to grunt in pain as the shadow-ooze engulfed his legs, knocking him prone. His face paled to gray, and his eyes widened. He struggled in vain to free himself as the shadow-ooze flowed slowly up his body. "It… You weren't…"
"Bluffing?" Kвras edged back, one hand pressed to the blood-slippery shirt where Valdar's dagger had punched home. He knew better than to draw the blade out. It would only do more damage. "No."
He stepped back again, keeping out of range of the bulging shadow-ooze. He sang a prayer to the Masked Lord that should have squeezed the dagger from his gut and stitched the puncture shut.
Nothing happened.
"No use," Valdar gasped. "It's a life stealer."
Worried now, Kвras tried to yank the dagger free. It didn't budge. A cold centered in his midriff, and he felt his life spiral down into the blade.
Valdar lay on the floor, the ooze covering all but his shoulders and head. The magic sustaining his disguise bled away, revealing his mask. He tried once more to crawl-painfully, slowly-as the ooze sucked him fully into itself.
"You were wrong," Kвras told the vanished Valdar. His voice quavered-and not just from the drain of the magical blade. Yet he kept speaking, if only to convince himself. Blackness crowded the edges of his vision. It wouldn't be long now before he'd go to the Masked Lord's embrace. He gestured weakly at the ooze. "This wasn't… what the Masked Lord… wanted."
The last of Kвras's life-force drained away,