Depths of Madness - Erik Scott De Bie [83]
Twilight let that pass. "Can your magic recognize lies?" "Aye. I know that spell! I can hear lies when others tell them." So it was magic, and nothing else. "How can I help?"
Twilight nodded, and explained. Slip listened. In conclusion, Twilight pointed to a back room, which must have been some kind of storage for tools. "Go into yon chamber and wait. I shall join you shortly." She brushed the back of her hand along Slip's cheek. "And you need not cry-all shall be well."
The halfling wiped the tears away and beamed at her as only a comforted daughter could. Then she scurried into the side chamber and shut the door behind her.
Twilight blew out a long sigh and rose. So that was it.
She touched the sapphire pendant. Was its magic fading?
"I need everyone else to wait here," she said as she dusted herself off. She gestured to the side room. "Davoren-come with me."
"What is it?" the warlock asked.
Ten heartbeats later, Slip guarded the door and Twilight faced the mage from the other side of the room, arms crossed. Davoren had answered his own question.
"An outrage!" His hands gripped the back of a chair and they dripped with flame. The half-circles that formed the seat glowed red. "How dare you? I ought to…"
"Have peace, demon-spawn," Twilight said. "Just answer the question."
The warlock sneered at her and twisted his lip. He shoved aside the curious chair-all curves, no angles, like all this Netherese city. "I have suffered your humiliations long enough. You and your sniveling little rat-"
"That sniveling little rat can hear the truth in your words," said Twilight. "So if you just answer the question, we'll know of your innocence and you can be on your way, back to pray to your devil-god with a hand in-"
Slip blushed a fiery red and stared at her, horror-struck, so Twilight stopped. "Just answer," she repeated. "Are you a spy, or otherwise in league with our enemy, watching our movements so as to catch us in our weakness, or lay ambushes in our path?"
Davoren glared at her, and his eyes promised death. "Nay, I am no spy."
"He speaks true," Slip said behind Twilight.
Davoren sniffed. "Satisfied? I do not need trickery to slay you, filliken."
"Not there, however," the halfling said with a shrug.
The warlock gaped at her and his lips curled into a snarl, "How dare-?"
"Ah," Twilight said. Betrayal's dusky point tapped at Davoten's groin. "Careful. You had better not say something you might regret." She winked at him. "Now. Pass through yon portal." She waved at a rear door with Betrayal. "And wait outside."
" 'Wait outside'? That's meant to be safe?" he asked. "Or do you wish merely to kill me with those foul insect-men?"
"That's why I called you first. You are, after all, the most powerful."
The warlock hesitated for a moment before grumbling an agreement. He spat at the shadowdancer's feet, then stomped off, cursing to himself in Infernal.
Slip grinned at Twilight. "I was halfway hoping he would be the one," the halfling said. "I would've liked to see that fight."
"Yes," Twilight agreed, and from Slip's expression, she knew it was not a lie.
Gargan was next, pacing in with his arms crossed, and Twilight shifted uneasily. The goliath wore the great black sword on his back-a weapon he could wield in one hand-but he could easily powder Twilight's skull and shatter Slip's delicate bones with just those fists. She did not grip Betrayal's hilt, but her fingers were not far from it.
"I come," the goliath said in the Common tongue. He looked to Twilight and spoke in his own gruff language, which she understood by virtue of Taslin's earring. "Why have you brought me?"
"I have questions," she replied in Common, the only way to be understood.
"I have answers." "Let us see if they fit."
There was a breath's pause as he contemplated what that might mean. Then he nodded. "Blades in scabbards," the goliath agreed in Common.
That would have to do. "Are you Gargan Kaugathal, called the Dispossessed?"
"So I am called." Slip frowned at his words-she didn't understand