'My boots!' Lewan protested.
'No time,' said Sauk, and threw Lewan in front of him. When Lewan tried to stop, Sauk pushed him onward.
'Lewan!' Ulaan called. He looked back and saw her standing in the open doorway.
'Go inside and bar the door!' he said, then Sauk pushed him round the bend in the hallway. Even if the half- orc had not held two feet of naked steel in his hand, Lewan knew he would be no match for Sauk, so he went along. 'Where are you taking me?' he asked.
'Out,' said Sauk.
'Why? What's going on?'
'Someone made it inside the walls,' said Sauk as they walked down the stairs. Sauk took them two at a time and saw to it that Lewan did the same. 'Got through the guardians on the mountain and inside the tunnels. Took out the guards we set-either killed 'em or hurt 'em so bad that they wished they were dead.' A feral smile lit the half-orc's face. A wolf's smile. 'Only two people alive know the tricks of the tunnels and could do all that.'
'I don't understand. Who-?'
'Me, for one.'
'And the other?'
'Kheil.'
'Kheil is dead.'
Sauk snorted. 'Berun, then.'
'Berun died too. You saw it yourself.'
They reached the main floor and Sauk forced them into a slow run. 'That man cheated death once already,' he said. 'Looks like he's back again. Damned if Talieth wasn't right.'
The obvious question hit Lewan then. 'Why drag me out?' He gave Sauk's short sword a meaningful look.
Sauk stopped at the door. Hand on the lever, he turned and grinned at Lewan. 'Kheil's a killer, a hunter. You want to catch a hunter, you put out the thing he's hunting.'
'You mean bait,' said Lewan.
'I mean you.' Sauk pulled open the door and dragged Lewan out into the storm.
They were not alone. A group of five, cloaked against the weather, waited for them at the bottom of the stairs.
Talieth stepped forward and eyed Lewan, but she spoke to Sauk. 'Did you have to drag him out bootless?'
'You said hurry,' said Sauk. 'I hurried.'
'No matter.' She looked to Lewan, her hood up against the rain. The lamps set to either side of the door gave off ample light, and he could see her face, could see the regal look she turned on him. It was not the look of a benevolent queen, but of a ruler ready and eager to pronounce judgment. 'What happened on the mountainside today,' she said, 'what you saw, what you were told. We will speak of it later. At length. For now, you're with us.'
'I won't help you capture him.' There. Lewan had said it, though it took all of his courage. He half expected to be slapped, maybe even beaten to submission and tossed over Sauk's shoulder.
Instead, Talieth turned to face him and said, 'I'm not out to capture your master, Lewan. I'm out to stop him from doing more foolishness. He's already killed several of my men. I'm hoping that your presence will be a… calming influence upon him.'
'But,' said Sauk, and he laid the full weight of one hand on Lewan's shoulder, 'you are coming with us. One way or the other. Don't make it the hard way.'
'Truly spoken,' said Talieth, and she turned away. Her men followed in her wake. Sauk pushed Lewan after her, and he followed. For now.?+++++
The first sight of the Tower of the Sun only increased Lewan's fear. The physical layout of the Tower seemed unchanged since the last time he'd looked upon it. But something set Lewan's teeth on edge, almost as if the Tower hummed at an octave just out of his range of hearing. It had a…presence to it. Something inside that tower was watching him.
As they drew closer, Lewan saw the lights. Like bits of mist that glowed, the lights filled the garden in the courtyard below the Tower. Lewan had no gift for the arcane, but even he could recognize magic of this magnitude. Some of the lights were no larger than fireflies, but some were big as faces, and they seemed all too watchful as they wafted soundlessly through the boughs and climbed the Tower like sparks lifted by the heat of a fire.
'I don't like this,' one of the guards muttered.
'Be silent,' Talieth ordered him. She led the way round the wall to the main gate.
Six men stood before the entrance, and Lewan could see the eldritch lights reflecting off bare steel in their hands. Talieth walked up to them, and they bowed before her.
'Lady Talieth,' said one of them-a pale-haired man with a rapier. His bow deepened, but he did not put away the blade.
'Erluk, is it?' said Talieth.
'Yes, my lady. At your service.'
'Why are you here? Has the Old Man ordered you to stand watch?'
'No, my lady. When we heard the alarm-'
'You were to take your stations.' She cast her gaze over the other men. 'All of you. So I ask you again: why are you here?'
Two of the men looked down at their feet, but the others only stiffened, and Lewan saw one of them flexing his hand around a thick dagger. This did not bode well.
'Forgive me, Lady Talieth,' said Erluk. 'We thought it best to see to the Old Man's safety.'
'You thought it best?' said Talieth.
'Yes. I did.'
Erluk held her gaze, and by the looks her guards gave, Lewan knew he was not the only one to notice the omitted my lady.
'The Old Man rules the Fortress,' said Talieth, 'and the Tower is his inviolate domain. But order the blades of Sentinelspire. As you can see, I have brought men to guard the Tower. You men will go to your stations. Now.'
'Our place is here,' said one of the men behind Erluk. 'Is it?' said Talieth.
Erluk opened his mouth to answer, but before he could, Sauk struck. The half-orc thrust Lewan aside and brought his short sword down into the space where Erluk's neck joined his shoulder. The sheer force of the blow slammed Erluk to the ground. His comrades were so stunned that Sauk's follow-through, a backhand strike, beheaded the man stepping away from Erluk before the others had even raised their weapons.
It was over in moments. Talieth's guards struck down three others, almost with ease, while a sole survivor fled for the open gate. He made it no more than a half-dozen steps before a dusky shadow hit him from behind. Taaki bore the man to the ground with her claws. Her jaws grabbed the screaming man by the back of his neck. Lewan heard the bone snap and the man went limp.
Talieth had barely moved through the entire confrontation. She looked at the six corpses lying in pools of blood and said, 'Throw them in the foliage and take your positions. Lewan, you are with me.'
Chapter Thirty-One
The Fortress had changed since Berun had last seen it nine years ago. The buildings, statues, and canals were much the same. The interior had always been verdant-cultivated gardens, fountains, flowers, and fruit in every street-but the greenery inside the walls was lush to the point of choking out the stone. Some structures were completely encased in vines. The building that had once been used to house prisoners was now roofless, one wall fallen, and trees grew in the midst of the floor. Even the youngest of them stood well above the building's walls.
In that crumbling, brush-infested building, Berun hid, huddled with his back against the wall, the branches of
