Realms of Shadow - Lizz Baldwin [127]
All the faces screamed, and King Shadow vanished. Kevin threw himself on the floor and rolled until he was free of the fire.
Then he just sat, too sore and spent for anything else, the strength Gray Dancer had lent him expended, until a shout reminded him that his had not been the only battle. He peered up through the smoky air. The rain felt good on his singed, sweaty face.
Ajandor peered back down at him through the hole. "Are you all right?" asked the knight.
"I could be a lot worse. Thank Helm for wet clothing! We have to move. The other shadows-"
"Seem to have disappeared along with their king," said Ajandor, "dead or fled, who knows? Or cares? I'm coming down."
He stepped away from the hole and came through one of the doors in the room a minute later.
"You're sure they're gone?" the squire asked.
"Well, the ones I was fighting just melted away, and I don't see any of them bursting in on us, do you?"
"Now that you mention it, no. How did you find me?"
"It wasn't difficult. I discovered your note and smelled a trick, but I still didn't want you wandering around alone in a city of shadows. I came after you and ran into one of the captives you freed. He told me where to look for you, and I sneaked into the witch's keep. Eventually, I figured out where you were, but I couldn't reach you. Too many horrors blocked the path. However, I did find a way to get above you and the great flying pudding, and I hoped that if I hurt the thing, you might be able to escape in the resulting confusion. I located some oil old Tilvara had laid in, carried it up to the roof, and the plan fell apart." He grinned. "You jumped up prematurely, and some shadows picked up my trail and followed me up to my perch."
"How did you hold them off without Gray Dancer?"
"With my dagger and a torch. Not the more formidable of weapons, but sufficient to give the creatures pause."
"Evidently." Kevin hesitated. "Sir, are you angry at me for trying to fool you?"
"I was, but… I know why you did it, and maybe it did shake something loose inside me. Maybe it was meeting the fellow you rescued. That shamed me, by reminding me what a knight is supposed to be. Perhaps seeing King Shadow die has made me feel a little better. At any rate, I still sorrow, but I guess I'm no longer in such a hurry to join Pelethen on the other side. I’ll see him when I see him."
"I'm glad." Kevin's gaze fell on Gray Dancer, lying ingloriously in a pool of rainwater. He picked it up and proffered it.
Ajandor made no move to take it.
"Keep it, lad, it fits your hand quite well. I was puzzled what to do with it, but now I see that I have an heir after all."
The Shifting Sands
Peter Archer
13Kythorn, the Year of Wild Magic
The camel's hooves kicked up clouds of dust that added to the swirling mist surrounding the travelers. A hot wind howled around them, tearing at their robes, driving the dirt into every crevice of their clothing, probing them with harsh fingers, seeking to hurl them across the rolling plains into oblivion.
Both men clung to the swaying saddle, their heads bent against the storm. The camel soldiered onward, its head bowed stoically before the blast. Its footsteps were almost immediately buried behind it by sheets of fine gray that blew across the desert steppes, making it appear that the travelers had never been there.
One of the men, the taller of the two, turned in the saddle and shouted something to his companion, who bent his head to hear. The smaller man shook his hood and gestured forward. The other gave a shrug and again bent against the wind.
A flash and thunderous report echoed across the dunes of Anauroch, almost knocking the men and their faithful beast over.
The tall man turned and shouted to his companion, "Lighting! In the middle of the godsbedamned desert! We must stop."
"No!" The other was equally vehement. "We keep on."
He reached behind him and slapped the camel's rump. The beast started forward again, and another report knocked it to its knees, tumbling the travelers to the sand.