• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

"He's free," said Boldovar. "Now throw out the magic, or I'll finish what I started."

Tanalasta reached over Clagi to undo the locking bar, but he caught her hand. "What are you doing?"

"I need Rowen!" she answered. If she had Rowen, she would be strong again, in control. "I can't let him… kill Rowen."

"You won't." Clagi pushed her hand toward the holy symbol hanging around her neck. "Say a prayer."

"But he'll-"

"Don't let Boldovar trick you," whispered Clagi. "Say a prayer, and you will see-or open the door and see your child killed."

The priest released Tanalasta's hand, and her hand hovered below the locking bar for a long moment.

"What is this?" called Boldovar. There was a loud thump and a pained groan, then he asked, "Am I growing bored?"

Tanalasta touched the holy symbol and whispered, "Chauntea, watch over me."

And she instantly recognized the next thud as something more like a wing slapping the wall than a man being hurled into it. "Aaagggh!" The voice was mocking and snide and did not resemble Rowen's at all. "Tanalasta, don't! Stay in where you are safe!"

"I will!" Tanalasta called. She was still terrified, but she felt as though she had regained some measure of command over the situation… if only her body would cooperate. The belt of agony tightened around her middle, and she could feel the baby slipping out toward the world. Fighting to maintain control of her own emotions-if nothing else-she yelled, "I know who you are… you… sick… worm!"

There was a moment of stunned silence, then Boldovar broke into a mad cackle. "Ah, well I see that Rowen loved you more than you did him. He would rather have died himself than listen to you beg for death."

"What?" Though her thoughts remained addled by pain and fear, the little control Tanalasta now had over the situation gave her the strength to grasp the ghazneth's implication. "What did you do to him?"

"Oh, now you're interested," sneered Boldovar. "Throw me the rings, and I'll tell."

There was no need, for even without knowing the details, Tanalasta understood all too well how Boldovar had baited her husband into becoming a ghazneth-and why the ranger had been too ashamed to come through the gate. Only one thing that could cause Rowen to betray his duty to Cormyr: the fear of betraying Tanalasta.

The muffled drumming of boots began to rumble up the stairway, and the princess heard Boldovar's claws clacking across the floor toward the window. She summoned to mind the incantation of her magic bolt spell and pointed her finger toward the seam of the door. She was not going to let the ghazneth escape, not after what he had done to Rowen.

"Clagi, give me a crack to fire through." Knowing the priest would argue, she quickly added, "Now!"

Clagi gulped down a deep breath but pulled the locking bar back and pushed the door up. Boldovar stood across the room gathering himself up to spring out the window, his drink-bloated face pivoting around at the sound of the iron door being unbarred.

"Where you going, lady killer?" Tanalasta's voice was as snide as she could make it. She uttered her spell and sent a single bolt of golden magic streaking high between his legs. It struck the window sill in front of his groin, and the casing erupted into a spray of stone shards. "Afraid the little pregnant princess will make a eunuch of you?"

Boldovar glanced at the fading magic in the shattered window sill, then raised his lip in a yellow-fanged sneer and spun toward the box. Clagi let the door drop and had it barred before Tanalasta could give the order, but even so he was very nearly not fast enough. A loud squeal rang through the box as the ghazneth's claws raked at the seam, then the princess's stomach sank as the iron box rose into the air.

Tanalasta began to feel helpless and panicked again. This was not something she had expected. The box clanged and spun as it banged out the window casement, then the princess lost contact with the padding behind her shoulders as they plummeted groundward. Boldovar's