Sentinelspire - Mark Sehestedt [103]
"Kheil, please!" said Talieth. "You don't understand!"
Lewan stepped around Sauk, snatched up the hammer, and moved behind Berun.
"Order your men back," Berun told Talieth. Even through her heavy cloak, he could feel the shape of her body. Although his mind tried to resist, his body remembered how she felt against him so many times. To hold a knife against her now…
"I already ordered them back, Kheil," she said. "Now listen, Pi-"
"You ordered them to stop. I want them gone." Sauk stood, and from somewhere above and behind Berun, the tiger roared like thunder on the mountain.
Chapter Thirty-Two
“That hurt," said Sauk, rubbing his neck and jaw with his left hand. His other hand rested on the pommel of the sword at his waist. "Definitely going to bruise."
Lewan crouched just behind his master, his heart beating a frantic rhythm in his chest as he glanced between Sauk before them, the tiger crouched on the wall above, and an array of assassins spread just beyond Talieth along the path. Every way, he and Berun were surrounded.
"Kheil never struck from behind," said Sauk. "Thought it was cowardly."
"If Kheil were here," said Berun, "you'd be dead. My-"
"Name is Berun," said Sauk. "Yes, I know."
"Stop this!" said Talieth. She spared a glance at the blade near her neck. Although both of her hands were free, she did not struggle against Berun, and her face showed no sign of fear. Even her voice sounded more angry than frightened. "Both of you! Kheil, listen to-"
"I said get those men out of here!" said Berun.
"Berun, listen to me," said Sauk, his voice much calmer than Talieth's. "Let her go and we'll talk. You continue this nonsense and I'll have Taaki take your boy."
"You'll all leave now," said Berun, "or I'll kill her."
"No, you won't," said Sauk. He shook his head, and the smile on his face was almost sad. "Even Kheil would never have done that-not to her. And as you have said so many times: You are not Kheil."
Lewan looked at his master. The Berun he had known would never kill a person in cold blood. But had he ever really known Berun? In all their years together, Berun had never once mentioned Kheil, Sauk, Talieth, the Old Man, or any of this.
"Ask your boy," said Sauk. "We have shown him nothing but kindness. Even got him a girl to warm his bed. Eh, Lewan?"
Lewan paled. The guilt and shame of his actions brought before so many was bad enough-but before his master… "Master Berun, I… I…"
"Berun," said Sauk, his tone soft, almost gentle, "let her go. And I swear to you on the brotherhood we once shared that no harm will come to you or Lewan. We only want to go somewhere and talk."
Lewan saw his master risk a glance up at the tiger, then survey the half-dozen assassins around them. Four had blades in hand and two held bows with arrows nocked.
"Your boy is cold," said Sauk. "I'm going to count to three, Berun. If you haven’t ended this by then, I'm going to have Taaki end it. One…"
Lewan glanced up at the tiger. Her rear haunches twitched in preparation to strike. "Master, I-"
"Two," said Sauk-
–and Lewan heard the rustle of foliage overhead. He turned in time to see the tiger coming down on him, a huge dusky shape that in the gloom seemed to fill the sky.
Taaki hit Lewan, and he went down beneath her bulk. Had her claws been extended, Lewan surely would have had the skin and flesh ripped from his chest. Lewan hit the brick pavement hard, his eyes squeezed shut, not so much out of pain but because more than anything, he did not want to see Taaki's teeth closing round his throat.
But the tiger did not put her full weight upon him. As soon as Lewan was down, she was gone.
Lewan opened his eyes. The tiger had bounded away but was coming round again, her eyes fixed on Berun. Talieth was on the ground, and Berun was doing all he could to avoid swing after swing from Sauk's sword and fist. The half-orc was much taller than Berun, and the length of his sword gave him a much farther reach than Berun's knife. But Lewan noticed that