Stormlight - Ed Greenwood [81]
"Oh?" Veteran war wizard that he was, Insprin still had hold of his wand and his presence of mind-but the lady in his arms giggled and said, "No, it's not my grandmother's bedroom or some dungeon cell! Come on!"
They hastened through the wine cellar, avoiding the pantry and its gathered guards, and past the granaries to a back stair. Three halls and a passage later the way ahead turned dark-and the wizard slowed.
"Isn't this the Haunted Tower?"
Shayna gasped with exasperation. “Wizard,” she hissed, “this is my home! Mine, now that I am head of House Summerstar-and I can’t help it if folk call this whole central bit haunted! We just have to pass through it here, to reack the far wing!”
Insprin eyes narrowed, and he stepped back from her and cast a quick spell. She made as if to interrupt, and then said, "Finished? Satisfied? Come on!"
The shield was a feeble one. but it would keep off the first slap of a tentacle or stab of a tail-sting… unless it came from her. Insprin sighed-we all have to take some risks in life, after all-and drew Shayna into his arms once more.
She laughed softly in delight and anticipation, and led him into the darkness. "It won't be long now," she said, guiding his arms around her slender waist, to where her gown seemed to have come undone. "I want to feel your hands… no, don't stop, I want to get there… I've a cabinet full of sherry, and a fire laid ready to light, and-"
Master? Master, I have him. Where are you?
[CHAOS]
Master?
AH THERE YOU ARE MY PRETTY ONE HEIGH-HO THERE'S A BLADE BRIGHT AND READY BUT THE STORMS ARE SO FIERCE, MILORD, THAT WE DARE NOT TRY TO KISS ME NOW YOU WENCH, YOU BRAZEN DOG! WOE BETHRUST IT ALL! THERE'S AN ANKLE THAT MUST BE HIS, IN ALL THIS BLOOD, AND…
It seemed to Shayna Summerstar then that a bright sword of silver flames cut open a door in the back of her mind, and images tumbled in, rushing and overwhelming her, all shrieking and moving and overlaid and shifting at once…
With a snarl, she tore away from the wizard, leaving bits of her gown behind, and barked like a dog. Insprin went pale and backed away from her warily, but the face she turned toward him was streaming with tears. Emerald eyes implored him to stay with her even as she snarled and babbled wordlessly and clawed at the empty air.
"Insprinwizard!" she gasped, as if rising from deep water, "don't leave meeeeee!" She was gone again into a nightmare world of howling and shrieking and staggering. Abruptly she raced off into the darkness of the Haunted Tower, crying out despairingly, "Don't leave meeeeee!"
Insprin took two running steps after her but stopped. He looked around at the dark walls and the scraps of cloth in his hands, cursed softly, and turned back. He ran for all he was worth, his aging heart pounding in his ears. The jaws of the trap could close on him any instant.
The child was trapped, in torment. Alone, and frightened-and the heir of a noble house he was sworn to protect so long as she lifted no hand in treachery to the Dragon Throne. For Shayna to survive Broglan's spells and the silver fire and the bard's sword, he had to find Storm, swiftly, and tell her… tell her everything.
"Storm!" he called, when he could find the breath. "Storm Silverhand! I need you!"
He lost his footing on a stair, stumbled painfully, and with a rueful laugh rebounded off the wall at the bottom. Of course he needed Storm. Don't we all?
Fourteen
TOWERS TOPPLED
As the sun went down over Firefall Keep, something shook the rooms where the two Summerstar lords stood with a few Purple Dragons, a cook, and the grim war wizard Broglan.
"What in the name of the Old Dragon of Cormyr was that?" Erlandar snarled as dust drifted down on their heads.
A dull, rolling boom resounded through Firefall Keep.
"Storm blasting the shapeshifter to little shifting bits?" Thalance suggested hopefully-and then winced as a second explosion flung him hard against the nearest wall. The goblet he'd been holding clanged off stone and rolled away into a corner, trailing its contents.
Abruptly,