The White Road - Lynn Flewelling [147]
With his help, they managed to clear the last of Ulan's men from the room and prop the broken door back into place.
"About time you got here!" said Micum. He sounded winded.
"Did you find it?" asked Rieser, not sounding the least bit tired.
"Fight now. Talk later," Seregil gasped, locking blades with another swordsman who'd come through the open window. Alec took on a second man who'd come in at the far end of the room, bringing him down with a blow to the head with the hilt of his sword.
He doesn't want to kill them, either, thought Seregil, swinging his left fist at an unwary swordsman. He misjudged, striking him in the forehead instead of the nose, and felt the long bone in his middle finger snap. The pain gave him strength and he surged forward, taking another man in the face with his sword hilt and kicking him backwards out the window. Micum and Rieser tossed out the last three stragglers and slammed and barred the shutters. Alec wedged the table up against the door.
Thoroughly winded, Seregil took a drink from the waterskin he'd brought and handed it around. He wouldn't admit it, but he was exhausted, and he could see that the others were, too. "Rhal was delayed by the tide. He should be sailing in about now."
"If we run, they'll cut us down," Rieser whispered back, "but we've thinned them out. I count only eleven men left."
"Are you ready to stop this?" someone called.
Seregil went to the side of one of the front windows and looked cautiously out. A man with the look of a captain sat on horseback beside a hooded man. Almost a dozen men were still in front of the house, nearly all of them archers. As he watched, two more staggered out of the shadows, clutching their heads.
That's what I get for being merciful, Seregil thought--though he had rather assumed he'd killed them with his rock throwing.
Just then the mounted man next to Ulan pushed his hood back.
Seregil laughed. "Ilar! I didn't expect to see you again." Even from here he could see the dark, swollen bruise on his jaw.
Alec stepped in beside him, and for an instant Seregil was afraid he was going to charge out after him. Instead, he regarded the other man coldly. "You're worse than a stray cat at supper time. Always turning up when you're least wanted."
Seregil studied Ilar's face and the way he sat his horse. The library had been dark; now he had a better look at him, though, and it simply confirmed his impression. This was not the gloating man who'd made Seregil wash his feet and taunted him with fleeting glimpses of Alec during their captivity. Nor was this the same man who'd tried to seduce him once again during their escape. Even at this distance, Seregil could see fear in his face, and his stoop-shouldered, cringing posture. As their eyes met, however, he also saw the hunger in him. Ilar was Ulan's creature now; no doubt certain promises had been made, which almost certainly did not involve letting Alec or him go.
"Well now, where are we?" he asked, leaning on the window frame.
"Surrender, and I assure you, none of you will be killed," their leader replied.
"Those are your terms? Not very enticing."
"You're as foolish as your friends. Very well. The khirnari only wants Alec. You have his solemn word that he will be well treated. The rest of you can go."
"Even worse!"
Micum, who'd been standing just behind Seregil, disappeared for a moment.
"Well treated?" Alec laughed hoarsely. "Then he's either lying or he doesn't know what he's talking about. It's an abomination. How in Aura's name can you support this, Captain Urien?"
When Micum returned his face was dark with fury. "Rieser is gone, and so are the books. All of them."
Seregil kept his expression neutral and his attention on the captain.
"I was ordered to catch a thief and return what was stolen," Urien told him. "These are the terms I was given. Whatever my khirnari asks