Viperhand - Douglas Niles [114]
"Hear me, my people!" A dull silence settled over the assembled masses of warriors, extending slowly, like a ripple across a pond, to the far limits of the plaza.
"My heart knows the pain you feel, and my soul understands the needs of honor! But this is a time when we must swallow our pain. As for honor, my own allows me to dwell here, as the guest of the foreigners. Does that not prove that we are not dishonored?"
A rumble of displeasure rose from the Nexalans. Below them, next to the palace wall, the Kultakans nervously fingered their weapons.
"I must ask you to to show patience-more patience even than you have shown already. I understand the difficulty of restraint."
Howls of indignation, shrieks, and whistles of anger, all these sounds erupted from the multitude of warriors and priests gathered below. Upon many, Naltecona saw the gleaming red scar of the Viperhand. The cult seemed to lead the way, but the counselor knew that all Nexal stood prepared to follow.
"I have seen the future! If we follow the path of war, only disaster can follow-disaster such as our fathers could not have imagined!" Naltecona's voice grew strident as he strived to make himself understood. "My people, listen to me!"
But by now it was already too late.
Full darkness settled over the room before the sinuous body of Chitikas Couatl encircled Erixitl. The feathered snake drove his wings with that same leisurely beat.'tet somehow, without visible effort, he propelled himself faster and faster, his rainbow-hued form blurring into a ring of color around her. Sudden light flashed, very bright, in the room.
In the next instant, Erix stood upon the roof of the palace, still encircled by the whirling Chitikas. The Cloak of One Plume billowed outward. The snake quickly floated to a stop, coiled in the air beside her, but she had already forgotten him.
Instead, her eyes locked onto the scene before her-the exact image of her dream!
Nahecona stood at the edge of the flat roof, against the rim of wall, perhaps two feet high, that encircled this portion of the palace. The peak of thatch towered behind her, sheltering Chitikas and Erixitl in its shadow.
The rest of the area, of course, stood clearly illuminated in the pale wash of the just-risen full moon. Cordell, Darien, the Bishou, and the dwarven captain, Daggrande, stood around the Revered Counselor in a loose semicircle. Beyond them, filling the plaza like a thick carpet of humanity, seethed the warrior mass of the Nexala.
Erixitl stared as cold, inexorable fear gripped her soul. She felt as though she was observing a play on a stage, a performance aloof and detached from her involvement. She could do nothing as events unfolded.
Then she shook her head, her black hair floating tike a cloud around her. She had been brought here for a purpose, she knew.!n her determination to act, she had overlooked a thing she had learned before.
The purposes of Chitikas Couatl were not given easily to understand.
"Push! The cursed thing has to open! "urged Halloran, below Poshtli on the narrow ladder.
"I-I-can't move it" gasped the warrior, slumping away from the tightly shut trap door above them.
"Let me try!" Hal squeezed to the side as Poshtli dropped several rungs to allow his companion to reach the top.
Hal feared for the destruction of this land, for he believed implicitly in Erixitl's premonition. But mostly he drove himself forward because of fear for her and bitter hatred for those who imprisoned her and threatened all his hopes. He had to reach her!
Feathermagic pulsed around his wrist. His fist crashed upward, and the trap door cracked in two, each piecaflying back from the opening. He sprang through the opening, drawing Helmstooth in the same motion, not knowing whether they had reached a palace chamber, courtyard, or garden.
Or roof. He looked around at a broad, flat expanse. He saw a group of legionnaires some distance away and heard a vague rumbling from the vast square around them. The sound had apparently masked the noise