Stormlight - Ed Greenwood [88]
There was a general roar as the men at her back scrambled to follow her.
Fifteen
CAT, AND MOUSE, AND DARK LORD
"Ah, they come at last," the man who was not Maxer purred. He perched on the broken edge of a room that was no more. "Full of fear that makes them desperate, willing to face even the fabled phantoms of the Haunted Tower-we know what makes them run, though, don't we?"
Shayna opened her mouth to reply-and closed it again in horror as the unmistakable voice of her grandmother Pheirauze came out of the shapeshifter's mouth. "Of course we do, Gallant One. Make them truly fear the Summerstars, so that none dare set foot in Firefall Keep without our leave! Let them taste the fire I did, my Dark Master!"
The laughter that followed veered sickeningly from the cold, brittle mirth of Pheirauze to the hearty bellow that was the shapeshifter's own.
They call me the foe," he mused aloud, breaking off his laughter abruptly. "Astonishingly apt." He smiled thinly, and said, "Yet if I am to prevail against them when they're finally sensible enough to come at me all together, I'll need to burn me another wizard or two."
He leapt up. His eyes went vacant, the way they looked when he was impressing commands on the Hungry Man. This time, no doubt, the Dark Master would be sending him away from the coming fray.
The shapeshifter swung around so that his lips could brush hers. "You, my pretty one," he murmured, "must be the lure that endangers Storm. Do not mind-speak to me unless she brings clear doom to you; she can hear when we talk so. Lead her on a dance-topple stones upon her, appear where she cannot follow, wear her out running… but take her away from the stalwart men of Firefall Keep, after I split them. Slay her not-for that is to be the finale of our feast."
"It shall be my pleasure, Master," Shayna whispered in his ear, and kissed it. He gave her a savage grin, slapped her shoulder, and growled, "Let us be about it, then! To war, for the bloody joy of it!"
He grew a tentacle that soared across the open area of his devastation. The limb snapped around the end of a roof beam. Another tentacle took her by the waist, and then the air was rushing past their ears as they swung across the emptiness of the night.
Shayna saw a few stars glittering above them, and then felt stone and tile under their feet again.
Her master said, “Don’t mind-speaking now, but heed: if you see Strom, cry out her name-sob, as if you’re terrified-and run toward her. The moment you get behind cover, stop and dodge away. Once you’re both away from the others, just try to stay ahead of her. I’ll do the rest. Hold still.”
He murmured something, touched her eyeballs with cook, feather-gentle fingertips, and said, “There. Now you can see in darkness.”
She could. "How long does the spell last?"
He shrugged. "If it fails and Storm's close behind you, feign collapse, and I will free you when you awaken."
She looked down at her hands and her tattered gown. "Shouldn't I have a weapon? I-I'm all but naked."
"And that will be a weapon, if any of the men ever get close to you. Don't worry about who sees you. Save for Storm, none of them will see another dawn."
* * * * *
The torches wavered. One of the men cried out and swung his blade at something that moved in the gloom beside him. It faded away almost mockingly: a ghostly helm on the shoulders of a spectral warrior striding along a corridor that was no longer there.
"Easy," Ergluth said, his voice deep and calm. "We're in the Haunted Tower, now-there'll be other phantasms."
No one lowered a weapon. The two war wizards had their wands out, and only Storm walked barehanded, her blade riding ready on her hip.
The flickering torchlight showed them chaos ahead. Stone rubble was strewn everywhere, in some places heaped almost to the ceilings of chambers it had flowed into. The twisted, half-buried form of a chambermaid spoke silently of how swiftly and violently the collapse had