Realms of Magic - Brian Thomsen King [94]
Teza ran a hand down his silken neck. "A few minutes more, my beauty," she whispered.
Teza!" Rafbit's voice echoed out of the darkness.
The horse-thief winced at his volume. "I'm here," she called softly.
The half-elf s lean form and a second taller figure stepped out of the shadow. "Do you have it?" Rafbit questioned. His voice sounded strung tight with tension.
Teza hesitated answering until the aughisky stopped about five paces away from the two forms. The intense darkness that shrouded the bay and the pier around them was so black Teza could barely make out Rafbit's face. She could see nothing of the person beside him. "Who is your companion?" she asked, stalling for time.
"The customer," Rafbit snapped. "Do you have the book?"
The woman stared at her friend. His white skin glimmered, as pale as a winter moon, and the hand that held the tiny lamp shook perceptibly. His eyes looked everywhere but at her. An alarm went off in Teza's head. "I have a book," she replied carefully. "But can your customer identify it so we all know the book is the right one?"
The stranger spoke then. "It is large, heavy, bound with a braid of red, and bears the sigil of the Wizard Ashroth." His words were colder than ice and deep with menace. "Dismount and give me the book," he charged.
Almost against her will, Teza slid off the aughisky, compelled by the powerful voice. "What do you want with this book?" she hissed.
The lamp in Rafbit's hand flared to a brilliant star, throwing a veil of light over the three people and the horse. As the stranger strode forward, the sudden glow exposed his clothes as robes of crimson red.
Teza backed up against the aughisky, appalled. A Red Wizard of Thay-one of Rashemen's bitterest enemiesand he was standing brazenly on the docks of the Huhrong's own city.
"The book is mine!" the Red Wizard snarled viciously. "Stolen from me nearly thirty years ago. I traced it at last to Lord Duronh's library, and if you have it now, you will give it to me before I flay you alive."
Teza's eyes narrowed. She could see the wizard's face now, lean as a wolfs, gray and cruel, but with the same dark intensity as the young man in the book. She recognized immediately the man who had raged at his lover enough to strike her and then imprison her in a book.
The young thief felt her blood begin to burn, not only at the danger of facing a Red Wizard and the ferocious pos-sessiveness he exuded but at Rafbit as well. Her friend had betrayed her, and from the shifting look of his eyes, he had done it deliberately.
Teza thought no more about her decision. With the swiftness of a practiced pickpocket, she pulled a slim dagger out of her boot, drew the book from her cloak, yanked it open, and stabbed the blade deep into the pages.
The wizard roared with rage.
A pool of blood welled up over the wound. Almost immediately, a bright silver beam flared up from the book, followed by another and another until the tome resembled a starburst. Momentarily dazzled, Teza dropped it on the muddy ground and fell back in astonishment.
"No!" shrieked the wizard. He raised his hands to countermand the dissolved spell, but he was too late. The cover of the book began to expand. Pulsating with its silver light, it stretched taller and taller until it reached the height of a full-grown woman. The red hair cascaded down her shoulders. Her face resumed its shape, as lovely and as young as the portrait in the book.
A frigid draft from the lake swept around the docks, swirling the fog. The silver light faded. The lady of the book stood before the three people, proud and fierce. Blood trickled unnoticed down her shoulder. She flung Teza's dagger at the wizard's feet.
"How dare you," she breathed in a voice thick with contempt. "How dare you think to possess me!"
Stunned and mute, Teza stared from the woman to the wizard. They were glaring at each other, so totally absorbed in their confrontation they did not acknowledge anyone else.