Fistandantilus Reborn - Douglas Niles [88]
Finally he nudged the bandit’s knee with his toe, drawing no response.
“Yes, he is.” He was about to turn away when he saw the big knife, the keen edge shining like quicksilver in the sunlight. The weapon lay in the stones where Zack had dropped it, and Danyal impulsively reached down and picked it up. The hilt was smooth and comfortable in his hand, and the blade was well balanced and clearly lethal.
At the thought of killing, an urgent thought grabbed him. “What about Mirabeth?” he shouted. “We’ve got to help her!”
“I’ll meet you up ahead!” Foryth called back.
Danyal was already racing back along the ravine floor. When he reached the spot where the kendermaid had ascended, he stuffed the knife into his belt and climbed as quickly as he could, drawing himself onto the rim of the precipice as Foryth came huffing up to him.
“They went that way,” the historian said, pointing into the woods.
Danyal was about to start along the trail when he caught sight of something unnatural on the forest floor.
It was a wedge of tan wax, and when he picked it up he clearly saw the resemblance.
“It’s the tip of a false ear-a pointed ear!” he exclaimed, his mind churning.
“Do you think-that is, could Mirabeth have lost it?” Foryth asked.
“Yes!” Picturing the kendermaid with the twin to knots, the pointed ears, and the webbing of age lines around her mouth and eyes, Danyal’s mind whirled with questions. “Why would she wear something like this-a fake tip for her ear?”
The answer was obvious in his own mind, but just in case any doubt remained, Emilo Haversack came into view, trotting from the direction of their cave. He saw the ear, looked into the questioning faces of Foryth and Danyal, and nodded in understanding.
“I remember now,” the kender confirmed. “Mirabeth is really a human.”
CHAPTER 31
Pursuing the Pursuers First Bakukal, Reapember 374 AC “She is a human girl!” Danyal gasped, remembering his impressions of Mirabeth’s bouncing walk, the shyness of her smile, and the musical sweetness of her voice.
“Yes-or, rather, a young lady, actually.” Emilo’s brow was furrowed, and the lad wondered if his companion was trying to recollect other details. But then he realized that the kender’s expression was related to his news.
“Her story’s like yours, in a way,” Emilo told Dan. “She’s the only survivor of a catastrophe, a murderous attack that killed everyone in her family, including their servants and guests. Mirabeth was lucky to escape with her life, and she only did so by donning a disguise.”
“As a kender? But why?”
“Ahem.” Foryth Teel cleared his throat with dignity. “I’m never one to ignore the details of a story, but I wonder if perhaps our discussion should wait for another time. If our attentions now might not be better directed toward pursuit?”
“You’re right.” Danyal was nearly overwhelmed by a feeling of helplessness, but the tautness in his limbs and the palpitating of his heart were caused by another emotion as well: He felt a burning fury, a rage that he knew could drive him to savagery and violence. When he thought of the way Kelryn Darewind went about calmly, arrogantly, destroying the lives of so many people, he wanted only to kill.
His hatred for the bandit lord roared into an angry flame. The man seemed to represent everything frightening, terrible, and unfair in the world. He was a deadly foe, but unlike the dragon Flayze, he was not invulnerable.
And he had Mirabeth.
“Which way did he take her?” Foryth asked. “I saw him here at the edge of the ravine with Zack, but then I chased after you, Dan. I’m afraid I lost sight of him.”
“We saw his men down by the stream. I’m sure he’ll take her there.”
Danyal started along the most direct route to the clearing, plunging between the trees, holding his arms before his face to brush the branches aside. He heard Foryth and Emilo charging behind him and, in a surprisingly short time, saw the open sunlight of the meadow expanding before