Wings Over Talera - Charles Allen Gramlich [24]
“You’re next, Kuurus!”
A guard lunged at me, tripped over the body of his friend, and I cut him across the neck just deep enough to let him know how easily he could have been dead. The man dropped his weapon and grabbed for his throat. He rolled away from me and I shouted at Rannon’s brother again.
“That’s seven, Kuurus! How many more do you have?”
The prince panicked, forgetting that he needed to capture us, in terror now for his life. I saw it come over his face and cursed myself as a fool for pushing too hard.
“Kill them!” Kuurus shrieked. “Shoot them! Kill them!”
Two of his men backed away, reaching for their crossbows. It was my turn to enjoy fear. Kreeg was hard pressed by a massive fellow who hacked madly at his defenses. Another pair of enemies stood between me and the crossbowmen. I attacked those two, cutting left and right, driving my foes back with a sustained flurry.
It wasn’t going to be enough.
Already, the two disengaged guards had drawn their crossbows. I heard the mechanisms lock as they chambered their bolts, the sound like a rusted snarl.
“Watch out!” I shouted desperately at Kreeg, as I wished for a shield and raised my sword for one slim chance at blocking a flashing quarrel.
“Tell them to hold!” a voice boomed, cutting through the murk of violence. “Tell them to hold, Prince Kuurus. Or I will kill you.”
Everyone stilled. Fingers locked on crossbow triggers, or on the hilts of swords and staves. We all glanced up. Valyan stood there, the gleaming point of his rapier pressed against the pale throat of Kuurus Jystral.
“Do as he says,” Kuurus growled, his eyes seething...and scared.
“And have them put down their weapons,” I added.
Kuurus nodded, and the clack of steel on stone that followed made a pleasing music.
I met Valyan’s gaze. His skin looked sallow beneath its normal emerald tint, and he wore bandages like another set of clothes. But his eyes smoked with threat and the point of his rapier did not waver.
“Thanks, old friend,” I said.
“I came as soon as I heard what happened,” he replied. “They overlooked me in the infirmary and I came here, knowing how unlikely it was that you’d allow anything to thwart your plans.”
I only nodded as I bent and picked up a crossbow. Valyan understood me well.
Kreeg opened the cell for Diken Graye and we herded Kuurus and his dozen guards into the room as Graye left it. None of them were wounded so badly that their bleeding could not be patched with strips of torn clothing.
I slammed the cell door; Kreeg locked it. Kuurus grabbed the bars of the small window, stabbed me with blue eyes.
“You’ve destroyed yourself here,” he sneered.
I shrugged and turned away. Diken Graye armed himself with a sword and crossbow. I well remembered his skill with the latter and did not tell him nay. We might have need of his skills. He followed Kreeg and Valyan and myself as we left the interrogation chamber and started up the steps away from the dungeon.
Behind us, I heard Kuurus ranting. “Traitor! Bastard! I’ll kill you! You’re finished, Maclang!”
None of it hurt except the last.
“Rannon will hate you for this!” he shouted.
CHAPTER NINE
A MORNING OF WINGS
“Should we gag them, at least?” Diken Graye asked, speaking of Prince Kuurus and the men we’d left locked in Graye’s cell when we’d freed him. “Do you not worry that they’ll be heard?”
I said nothing as I strode on.
Graye continued with his questions. “So our escape will be swift? How? A flyer?”
“Those will be watched,” I snapped.
“Saddle birds then? How far is it to the stables?”
“We’re not going to the stables,” I said.
There was a building on the palace grounds, of course, where both land and air mounts were normally kept. But we weren’t going there.
I knew that Diken Graye must have glanced at Valyan and Kreeg then, seeking confirmation that the man they followed was mad. I didn’t think he would get what he wanted. The Emerald Llurn and