Tangled webs - Elaine Cunningham [157]
"Besides, who can you tell?" Dagmar continued, her voice ringing with amusement as she pulled her long fish knife from her belt. "Even if you were to live out this day, to whom would you take this tale? Fyodor?" she asked mockingly, and something in her tone froze Liriel in place,
her black fingers tightly gripping the hilt of her dagger. "i'He had his doubts about me, of course, but he put them aside easily enough," Dagmar said in an arch voice. "You must have been denying the poor man, to send him to me in such a state! i was only too happy to comfort him. After all, he was a fine figure of a man."
The woman's cruel emphasis was not lost on Liriel, and the warmth drained from the drow's face. "i'He is dead," she murmured tonelessly. Grief would come later; she felt numbed to the soul.
"i'A pleasure deferred," Dagmar mocked. "i'And now that he is gone, no Ruathen warrior wililisten to any word you speak against me!"
"i'But they will listen to me," proclaimed a deep voice behind them.
The two females whirled, identical expressions of consternation on their faces. So deep in conversation were they that neither had noted the approach of the red-bearded sailor. Ibn stood a few paces away, his massive arms folded across his chest and angry little puffs of smoke bursting from his pipe.
But ibn, like most men of Ruathym, had not reckoned with a woman like Dagmar. She darted at him, her long knife leaping toward his heart.
Liriel seized one of the woman's flying braids, dug in her heels, and held on. Dagmar's head snapped back as her attack on ibn came to an abrupt and unexpected halt. Before the woman's startled curse left her lips, Liriel pivoted on one heel and lifted the other foot in a high, hard kick. Her booted foot connected with Dagmar's kidney, and the woman let out a howl of pure anguish.
The drow kicked out again, this time at the back of Dagmar's legs; the Northwoman's knees buckled and she went down. In three quick steps Liriel circled around to face her foe. On her knees, the much taller Dagmar was not far below the drow's eye level, and Liriel held her pain-glazed stare for a long moment. Then she balled up her fist and drove it into the woman's temple. Dagmar swayed but did not go downin no small part because Liriel still held her grip on the woman's braid. Holding the Northwoman upright by her own hair, the drow coldly dealt another blow, and then a third. At last Dagmar's eyes rolled up in her head.
it took all of Liriel's self-control to refrain from beating the beautiful face into a bloody mask. She flung the unconscious woman to the ground and turned to face ibn, ready to fight yet another battle if need be.
But ibn merely nodded and calmly took the pipe from his mouth. "You should have killed her," he observed.
"i wanted to," Liriel said with fierce candor. "Fyodor would die anew were he to hear me say this, but that felt pretty damned good!"
"Can see how it would," ibn agreed, scowling at the woman sprawled senseless at his feet. "The elf-loving bitch had it coming to her."
Liriel fell back a step. "i'Pve missed something, haven't i?" she inquired, not at all certain whether ibn was to be counted a foe or an ally.
"No less than i have," he admitted grudgingly. "i'Might be that it's time to settle the scores between us and lay things out plainlike."
The drow responded with a cautious nod.
"To my way o' thinking," ibn began, "Ruathym's troubles came out o' the sea. I had my eye on them sea elves, and you for taking up with 'em. Tried to warn Hrolf, but would he listen? So Pve been watching for since the day we came ashore. 'Twas no surprise when the fisherfolk netted those two. But then i saw one of them again, and Dagmar with him. Pve been following the wench ever since-followed her up to Holgerstead, though i didn't do much good for the folk there."
"So that's why you went to Holgerstead," Liriel mused. "Pm surprised you didn't suspect she might poison the mead."
ibn huffed and leveled an angry glare at the drow. "Don't be starting down that path again!" His expression softened