Fistandantilus Reborn - Douglas Niles [87]
“What is it?” Frantically the lad threw himself at the rock wall, scrambling up a short distance and then, slipping in his haste, tumbling back to sprawl on the ravine floor. He looked up and felt the hope drain from his body.
Kelryn Darewind stood there, and in his arms, he held the squirming figure of Mirabeth. His hand was clasped over her mouth as she stared, wide-eyed with terror, at Danyal Thwait.
“Well, there you are, my young friend.” The bandit lord was cool, even dispassionate, and that aloofness brought Dan’s hatred burning through every other emotion. But he could only stare in impotent fury as Kelryn continued. “It seems you must have wandered off in the night. It’s really quite a relief to find you again.”
Trembling, Danyal stared bitterly upward, knowing that even if he clawed his way up the cliff, it would be a simple matter for the bandit lord to kick him loose when he neared the top.
“I think I’ll take this little prize with me to Loreloch!” taunted Kelryn Darewind.
Only then did another figure saunter into view, as Zack joined his captain. The knifeman fixed Danyal with a cackling glare, his one eye flashing wickedly.
“Run!” screamed Mirabeth, suddenly twisting her mouth free from Kelryn’s hand. “He’s going to kill you!”
Danyal couldn’t make his feet move. He cried aloud as the false priest clapped a rough hand over the kender-maid’s mouth. Only when Kelryn nodded forcefully at Zack did the youth perceive the imminent threat and break into flight.
He heard the clump of something heavy landing on the ground behind him and didn’t need to look back to know that Zack had leapt into the ravine. The bandit’s thudding footsteps were loud and clumsy as he pounded after Dan, and the boy couldn’t suppress a sob of terror as he felt that menacing presence closing in. He sprinted as fast as he could, dashing around corners in the winding ravine, desperately seeking some place that might let him scramble upward to safety.
And knowing that he left Mirabeth in Kelryn Dare-wind’s merciless hands somewhere far behind him.
Zack uttered a bark of cruel laughter, and Dan knew from the sound that the man was only a few steps behind. Eyes blurring, the lad thought of Mirabeth, horrified at the prospect of her captivity among the merciless bandits. Strangely, that fear seemed much more real and more terrifying than the prospect of his own imminent death. He fought back another sob, his grief rising from the fact that he was so utterly unable to come to Mirabeth’s aid.
When he attempted to leap over a rock that blocked the ravine bottom, Danyal’s strength and agility came up a fraction of an inch short. His foot caught at the top of the boulder, and he tumbled headlong, landing heavily on a patch of sand. He rolled hard into the steep wall of the gully and looked up to see Zack’s villainous face leering down at him.
“Well, laddie-looks like I get to wet my blade again after all!”
Danyal clawed to either side, trying to find a rock or a stick, anything he could use as a weapon. But his hands couldn’t do more than scratch at the smooth, hard-packed sand.
Zack threw back his head and laughed-the last sound he ever made. A heavy piece of granite, jagged with a multitude of sharp edges, plummeted from above, striking the knife-wielding bandit in the middle of the forehead. Zack’s head snapped back like a cracking whip, and he toppled like a stone statue. Danyal vaguely heard the thump as the man’s head smashed onto the rocky ground.
Only then did he look up, squinting against the sky to see Foryth Teel leaning over the lip of the ravine. The historian dusted off his hands and shook his head in agitation, clearly distressed.
“Did you throw that?” Danyal asked, looking once more at the piece of granite that had smashed Zack’s skull.
“I’m afraid-tsk, that is, yes, I did,” Foryth admitted sadly. He sighed, as if he had just committed a grave act of injustice. “I just don’t seem to be able to keep from getting myself involved. Er, is he dead?”
Danyal stepped