Hazezon Tamar had also been a pirate and freebooter, but decades ago. Now he looked a governor's part, a man who plied wits and diplomacy, not magic and might, and prospered in his trade. An embroidered vest of satin and a silk shirt met flaring pantaloons above yellow boots. His seamed face and white beard were framed by a nomad's keffiyeh that swished at his broad shoulders. Clearly he was thirty years or more Adira's senior. Yet the divorced pirate queen and prominent governor could still glare with murder in their eyes and hands itching to jerk a brass-hilted scimitar or twin matched daggers.
Adira's Circle of Seven and Hazezon's clerks held their breaths as if awaiting lightning.
It came from the wrong direction.
Roaring loud enough to raise the roof, still clad in his barbarian disguise, the outlander warrior Jedit Ojanen exploded into the room like a thunderbolt.
Chairs and stools upset, papers and mugs flew, and tables tumbled as if a whirlwind struck the town hall. Hazezon, Adira, scribes, soldiers, and pirates vaulted from their seats and ripped weapons from scabbards, blades glittering in torchlight.
'Who in the seas is this squid?' roared Badger.
'Who cares?' shrieked Simone. 'Kill him!'
'Adira, get down!' shouted Hazezon.
'Fend for yourself, puffer fish!' Adira hoisted an overturned table for a makeshift shield. Twin daggers appeared as if by magic in her right hand. She hobbled stiffly, for in months past she'd broken a leg and arm battling Johan's troops, and now another skirmish came calling.
Masked as a barbarian, with his brain befuddled by sorcery, Jedit Ojanen charged blindly at Hazezon and Adira. He'd never seen them before, had only glimpsed them through a window, pointed out by Johan. It was unlikely he even noticed the dozen other people in the room. With the bestial fury of a berserk jungle warrior, Jedit plunged headlong, mindless as a ballista bolt. A fairykin and swordsman were hurled aside like rag dolls. Jedit kicked a table aside, knocked down two others, trampled a trio of stools. Both hands were out straight as he raced in magic-mad rage at Adira.
When the monster closed to six feet, the pirate queen pegged both daggers at his head. Jedit flicked a great hand and the daggers cartwheeled, one bouncing into a corner, the other sticking in a ceiling beam.
'I don't believe it!' gasped Adira. 'No one could-'
Jedit the juggernaut smashed into the table she held aloft. The wooden legs shattered, boards broke. Only a crazy leap over another table kept Adira from being crushed.
She shouted, 'Pitch me a cutlass, someone!'
Mindlessly, Jedit bashed the wall, cracking adobe in great flakes, then rebounded for another target. Hazezon Tamar stood with his mouth hanging open. Many people had tried to kill him of late, but nothing matched this fury.
'It must be magic!' the desert mage blurted, then plied his own attack. 'Blast of winters past!'
Hazezon blew across his hand at the barbarian. Instantly frost rimed Jedit's thatched hair and broad, stupid face. Ice crystals clotted his eyebrows and pug nose, even made his huffing breath blow like steam. The man-killing cold didn't slow him. Roaring like a tiger, Jedit charged the mage.
Old he might be, but Hazezon had long ago learned a pirate's habits. Rather than bobble another spell, the mage flung a heavy candlestick while ripping his scimitar from his sash.
Too late. Jedit smashed into Hazezon with a bone-breaking crunch. The mage toppled across spindly furniture that crumbled underneath him. The barbarian clutched Hazezon by the throat with two hands and shook him like a terrier shakes a rat.
'Love of Lustra, stop him!' Simone the Siren was buxom in clothes brilliant as a tapestry. She slung a round iron-rimmed shield that bounced off Jedit's back.
'He'll snap Haz's spine!'
'Stand aside!' Murdoch, the brawny ex-sergeant in green and gold, snatched a spear from the corner. A boar spear, it had a diamond-shaped head and stout crossbar meant for stabbing, not throwing. Yet the soldier made do. Slinging it past his shoulder, he skipped twice to gain momentum, then hurled the wicked lance. The shaft whistled in the close hot room, and every watcher flinched as it struck.
Yet it didn't. Alerted by inhuman jungle senses, Jedit dropped Hazezon with a thump and squatted, cocking an elbow so the flying spear spanked off the wall.
Murdoch barked, 'Impossible!'
More attacks came thick and fast. A small, dark-skinned nomadic woman named Echo, formerly a clerk of Hazezon's, drew her sword and dashed behind Jedit to jab his spine. One flick of a hand like a ham, and she caromed off a wall to tumble in a tangle. A woman in a purple-blue tunic and skirt flicked open a sling, plopped in a round knot of hardwood, whipped the weapon twice, and let fly at the barbarian's head. That too the brute dodged.
The druid sang, 'Mask of Makou! That's no northman! He's too fast!'
'Children!' Badger carped and lobbed whatever came to hand at the invader: stools, a book, a candlestick, two redware jugs that slopped red wine in artful spirals. Simone the Siren cocked a crossbow and fumbled a quarrel to the nock, but her sizzling bolt only thudded into a chair someone else pitched. A female fairykin no taller than a fawn drew a rapier and slithered under two tables. Skidding behind the barbarian, she whisked her blade at the back of his knee to hamstring him. Dodging, she was still clipped by a foot kicking backward, a foot she'd supposedly crippled forever. She was stamped underfoot to howl like a banshee.
In the whirlwind of flying feet and fists and furniture, the battle was difficult to follow, for two torches had been wrenched from the walls and many candles spilled, and dust swirled as the brawl raged. A hardwood sling ball cracked adobe by Jedit's head, but more objects hurled his way failed to hit, for the barbarian launched his own offensive. — 'Adira,' shrieked Simone, 'look out!'
Adira Strongheart ruled her mercenaries with her heart, head, and fists, but her game leg slowed her down. Terrifying as a tiger, the towering barbarian snagged Adira's sore leg, his hammy hand encasing ankle to calf. The pirate queen was hoisted in the air, so her chestnut hair dangled on the dirty floor. Anyone else might have panicked, but even upside down, Adira snatched a table leg from the floor and rapped the stranger's knee and ankle with fearsome cracks. When she tried to slam his crotch, he dropped her with a shoulder-crunching jolt. Bravely she bounced and rolled and grabbed for any kind of weapon while keeping one eye on her enemy.
'Adira!' croaked Hazezon Tamar, still half-strangled by his earlier throttling. Choking and spitting, he lurched to rescue Adira with scimitar raised. Simone the Siren rushed with her cutlass, as did Badger and the new crew member Murdoch. Four converging blades threatened Jedit, but he charged anyway with hands outspread. Roaring, he swiped left and right with his fingers, raking the adventurers across the heads, shoulders, and chests. Badger was stunned and knocked spinning, and Simone had her vest ripped clean off, but otherwise no one was hurt, which some onlookers found strange.
'What kind of attack is that?' Scrambling to her feet, cursing her stiff leg, Adira Strongheart still could observe the fight coolly. She asked aloud, 'Why does he slash like a sawfish in a school of mackerel?'
No one heard. The barbarian's stiff fingers swatted Murdoch's nose and made it spurt blood. The sergeant lashed out with a straight-arm sword jab that skidded off the barbarian's ribs and punctured the wall. Badger, sprawled on the floor, whisked his cutlass in one hand and pegged it like a throwing knife. The blade pinked Jedit's knee. Yet Badger frowned.
'This's one queer sea-wight! It's like he's there and not there!'
Slower, Hazezon Tamar rushed from the side. He gasped with pain from cracked ribs as he threw his weight behind a stroke to lop off the barbarian's head. The shaggy assassin sliced at Hazezon with stiff fingertips that only ticked his embroidered vest. The curious attack fuddled the mage, then he tumbled backward as fearsome hands tried to rake his face.
'That's a tiger's attack!' Adira's shout rose above the havoc. 'He's slicing with claws! He's Jaeger!'
Even bewitched, the name of Jedit's beloved father made the disguised cat man whip his head around. Jedit hesitated, hands in the air, while the cogent part of his brain warred with the spellbound portion. For the briefest instant the room was silent, hung in a lull like that between lightning and thunder.
A rapid pattering resounded as two more of Adira's Circle of Seven made a concerted attack. The glum Virgil and the iron-armed archer Wilemina charged, huffing, lugging a heavy oak table. Jedit turned from Adira's astonishing pronouncement just as the table rammed his midriff at a full run. Jedit smashed into the back wall so
