The Diamond - J. Robert King [10]
In the silence that followed, the armsmen stared at a small pebble rolling hypnotically between Khelben's fingers as the wizard shaped gestures in the air. With a sudden pop and a hiss, the stone collapsed into gray ash, and tracers of smoke whirled out from the mage's fingers to smite each guard between the eyes.
The silence held until Khelben spoke again. "This second enchantment will enable you to fight as a unit, for once." Khelben made two quick gestures, uttering a word that sounded both old and cruel. "You'll share an only slightly unpleasant dream, but in the end, you get to be heroes." Twenty-some guards stared back at him in silent confusion.
Khelben saw their expressions, shrugged, and made another gesture. "You needn't be upset by any of this. In fact, you'll forget all about our little conversation-and that I was even here. I'm completely invisible to you until highsun tomorrow. You can't even remember my name until then. If you see me before that time, you see nothing at all. Understand?"
Helmed heads nodded in unison, and Khelben smiled grimly. "Back to work!" he barked. "You've a pair of condemned men to guard!"
* * * * *
Midnight was fast approaching, yet still no Lord Mage. Noph sat alone on a bench well down the passage from the cells. Only five hours remained before sunrise and a double execution. Where was the Blackstaff?
For that matter, what good would his warding magics be now? If Entreri and Trandon hadn't tried to escape yet, they wouldn't.
"'Ware!" a Watchman shouted. Noph blinked. A gangly, redheaded armsman stood outside Entreri's cell, struggling to free his sword from its scabbard. "The assassin's loose! He's picked the lock with his fingerbones!"
Boots pounded on flagstones. Noph joined the general rush. Armored shoulders and helmed heads jostled in the passage ahead. Blades slid and rang from their sheaths, glinting in the lantern light. Noph shouldered forward through the press of guards, peering to see what was happening by the cells.
The redheaded guard's sword grated out at last, aided by a muttered curse. Its owner promptly lunged at the cell door, thrusting the blade between its bars to the hilt. If Entreri were there, he'd be skewered. The guard's hand, arm, and shoulder-suddenly thinner than they should be-followed his sword through the window. Steel clanged on stone. The guard hissed in pain and snatched his arm back into view. The sword was no longer in it.
"He bit me," the armsman growled, clutching his wrist.
"Now he's got a blade, dolt!" someone shouted. The hurrying guards reached the cell door, and stopped suddenly, those in front shrinking back from something Noph couldn't see. He charged on into his packed fellows. There were stumbles, grunts, and the skirl of metal-clad elbows and knuckles on unyielding stone. Struggling to keep his footing, Noph peered ahead.
A strange fight was in progress. The gangly guard ducked as if a sword swept the air above his head, but Noph saw no blade nor attacker. Springing desperately aside, the red-haired armsman barreled into two other guards, and all three sprawled along the passage wall.
A lithe guard leapt over this pile of armsmen to the cell door, his sword dancing in intricate thrusts and parries before him. "Clever with a blade, Entreri?" the guard taunted. "Aren't you more familiar with dagger thrusts into kidneys from behind?" He lunged twice more before dodging away from an unseen blow.
Something massive and invisible slammed into the guard's head with a sickeningly damp crack. He toppled like a piece of lumber, stiff and uncaring.
"Watch that door!" someone shouted. "He's killed a man with a door!"
"Watch that sword!" another guard snarled.
"Watch that bony hand!"
"Back! Back! Give me room to fight!" bellowed a hulking guard at the head of the crowd. He swung a spiky mace once, twice, and then with a roar he charged, seeming to think he was backing someone up against the wall. Noph could see no one. The giant swung his mace, growling, and then yelped and stumbled back, trampling two men behind him.
"Fire! Fire!