Sentinelspire - Mark Sehestedt [98]
"I don't like this," one of the guards muttered.
"Be silent," Talieth ordered him. She led the way round the wall to the main gate.
Six men stood before the entrance, and Lewan could see the eldritch lights reflecting off bare steel in their hands. Talieth walked up to them, and they bowed before her.
"Lady Talieth," said one of them-a pale-haired man with a rapier. His bow deepened, but he did not put away the blade.
"Erluk, is it?" said Talieth.
"Yes, my lady. At your service."
"Why are you here? Has the Old Man ordered you to stand watch?"
"No, my lady. When we heard the alarm-"
"You were to take your stations." She cast her gaze over the other men. "All of you. So I ask you again: why are you here?"
Two of the men looked down at their feet, but the others only stiffened, and Lewan saw one of them flexing his hand around a thick dagger. This did not bode well.
"Forgive me, Lady Talieth," said Erluk. "We thought it best to see to the Old Man's safety."
"You thought it best?" said Talieth.
"Yes. I did."
Erluk held her gaze, and by the looks her guards gave, Lewan knew he was not the only one to notice the omitted my lady.
"The Old Man rules the Fortress," said Talieth, "and the Tower is his inviolate domain. But order the blades of Sentinelspire. As you can see, I have brought men to guard the Tower. You men will go to your stations. Now."
"Our place is here," said one of the men behind Erluk. "Is it?" said Talieth.
Erluk opened his mouth to answer, but before he could, Sauk struck. The half-orc thrust Lewan aside and brought his short sword down into the space where Erluk's neck joined his shoulder. The sheer force of the blow slammed Erluk to the ground. His comrades were so stunned that Sauk's follow-through, a backhand strike, beheaded the man stepping away from Erluk before the others had even raised their weapons.
It was over in moments. Talieth's guards struck down three others, almost with ease, while a sole survivor fled for the open gate. He made it no more than a half-dozen steps before a dusky shadow hit him from behind. Taaki bore the man to the ground with her claws. Her jaws grabbed the screaming man by the back of his neck. Lewan heard the bone snap and the man went limp.
Talieth had barely moved through the entire confrontation. She looked at the six corpses lying in pools of blood and said, "Throw them in the foliage and take your positions. Lewan, you are with me."
Chapter Thirty-One
The Fortress had changed since Berun had last seen it nine years ago. The buildings, statues, and canals were much the same. The interior had always been verdant-cultivated gardens, fountains, flowers, and fruit in every street-but the greenery inside the walls was lush to the point of choking out the stone. Some structures were completely encased in vines. The building that had once been used to house prisoners was now roofless, one wall fallen, and trees grew in the midst of the floor. Even the youngest of them stood well above the building's walls.
In that crumbling, brush-infested building, Berun hid, huddled with his back against the wall, the branches of an oak keeping the worst of the rain off him. Perch clung to his forearm beneath his cloak. The treeclaw lizard was shivering, partially from the wet and cold and partially from the excitement. When the last tunnel guard had made it past Berun and fled, Perch had gone after him. The lizard hadn't been able to stop the man, but barring a particularly talented healer or cleric, the man would be no threat to anyone for many days to come.
The alarm horns had stopped some time ago, but the streets were thick with patrols. Berun had already been forced to kill three more people since entering the walls. They'd been cloaked against the rain, and in the dark he hadn't been able to see any of their features, but the last one Berun had taken down… in the instant before the hammer cracked the skull, Berun could have sworn