Recovering her balance, she swayed back, and the gaff missed her nose by half an inch. Whirling the weapon over bis head, he rushed her yet again.
She smiled, for she understood what he was doing. Since his tricks hadn't worked, he was playing the big man's game, trying to overwhelm her with sheer might and relentless aggression. It was a strategy that had won many a fight for many a strapping fellow like himself, but it was incompatible with a strong defense. If a fighter possessed the skill to withstand his onslaught for long enough-and Shamur reckoned that she did-Avos would inevitably leave himself wide open for a riposte or stop cut.
She gave ground, parrying, gritting her teeth at the appalling power in the strokes that stung her fingers and once or twice nearly bashed her weapons from her hands. Until finally Avos blundered forward with a poorly aimed attack, so poorly aimed, in fact, that she was confident he would be unable to correct and strike her if she simply sidestepped. As he plunged past her, she swept her gaff low, hooked his ankle, and pulled.
Avos crashed face down on the floor. His foot flailed free of the hook, and he tried to scramble up. Shamur swung the gaff high and slammed it down on top of his head, splitting his scalp anew. Losing his grip on his weapons, he slumped. Dropping the gaff, she sprang on top of him, wrenched him onto his back, and poised her short sword at his throat.
The spectators howled. Avos gazed up at her with astonishment and fear in his eyes. 'I yield,' he said. Shamur chuckled. 'I figured you probably would.' 'So you can back off now. You're free to go.' 'Those were the terms before the galltrit tried to cheat for you. I think it's appropriate that we amend them. Lord Uskevren and I are both leaving.'
Avos scowled. 'No.' She was surprised that he'd stick at releasing Thamalon with her blade at his neck, but perhaps he felt impelled to try to salvage a bit of his pride, or at least a scrap of his underlings' respect 'He stays.'
Shamur raised her sword to threaten his eyes. 'Tell your friends to let him go right now, or by Mask, mine is the last face you will ever see. Nor will I stop cutting after that.'
'You hurt me, the other Quippers will hurt him.' 'But you'll still be hurt. Don't play that game with me, Avos, you won't like the way it turns out. You should realize by now that I'm not the sort of woman who shrinks at the sight of blood, not even her husband's.'
'All right,' Avos growled, 'let the nobleman go.' Shamur held her breath, for she was by no means certain that the rogues would let such a lucrative prize slip through their fingers merely to save their defeated and discredited chieftain. But perhaps some of them still held Avos in some esteem. Others surely didn't, but maybe they also felt that Shamur had fought valiantly enough to earn her husband's liberation as well as her own. Or perhaps no one wanted to be the first to advocate allowing Avos's mutilation, for fear that nobody else would agree with him. Whatever the reason, after a moment, Thamalon's guards stepped away from him, and none of the other toughs objected.
'Good,' Shamur said. 'Now, someone fetch the weapons, money, and jewels you took from us.'
Donvan collected the articles and handed them over to Thamalon.
'Now get out of here,' Avos said.
'Call me a cynic,' Shamur replied, 'but I can't help wondering whether you'd still consent to our departure if my blade were no longer tickling you. So here's how it will be. You're going to walk us out of the Scab, with our sword points at your back every step of the way. Now stand up very slowly.'
Thamalon sauntered to her side. 'Nicely done,' he said.
She smiled. 'It would all have been for naught if you hadn't killed the galltrit.'
'I believe we still require a name.'
'You're right. I nearly forgot.' She prodded Avos in the kidney with her sword. 'Enlighten us.'
'I don't know who the wizard in the moon mask is,' the ruffian answered grudgingly, 'but the nobleman who paid me to supply men to aid the spellcaster is Ossian Talendar.'
Chapter 18
lhazienne plucked her towel from its peg and wiped the perspiration from her face. Beside her, Talbot poured water from a jug and, throwing back his head, glugged it down. A stray drop escaped the corner of his mouth and trickled down his unshaven chin.
Though stiff and sore from their exertions the night before, the two of them had nonetheless felt a common urge to go to the mansion's training hall this morning. Perhaps they'd wanted to work the kinks out, or hone their skills for battles yet to come. Tazi suspected that Tal at least had hoped some hard fencing would distract him from his guilt.
However, judging from his somber expression, it didn't seem to have worked, and when he spoke, he proved that it hadn't. 'I still don't understand why it happened.'
Tazi sighed. 'Yes, you do, you just don't want to let it go.'
'How can I? I feel badly enough about Jander, but Master Selwick was alive when we fled out the back of the tiring house. I never would have abandoned him if I'd known the other wizard would hold off chasing us long enough to kill him!'
'The enemy wizard was flying, and I saw a couple of our men bounce crossbow bolts off him to no effect. Even if we had lingered, we couldn't have saved Brom.'
'Still-'
'Enough!' she cried. 'Haven't you ever listened to Father's stories? Battles are unpredictable, and people die in them. That's just the way it is.'
'Well, none of our friends died in mine,' Tamlin said.
Startled, Thazienne pivoted to see her foppish brother standing in the doorway. He was as exquisitely dressed as usual in a red and purple ensemble, but to her surprise, he was still carrying the woodcutter's axe from yesterday, now slung across his back. Evidently he'd prevailed upon one of the servants to fashion some sort of scabbard for it.
Tal glowered at him. 'What's that remark supposed to mean?'
'Just that when I was attacked, I wasn't expecting trouble,' Tamlin replied. 'I only had three comrades to stand beside me, not a company of guards, and none of us were slain. I led everyone to safety. It's a pity my brother the master swordsman can't say the same.'
'That's it,' Talbot said. He advanced on Tamlin with mayhem in his eyes.
Tazi had occasionally thought she'd enjoy nothing more than to see Talbot catch their supercilious brother apart from his hulking bodyguard and drub the snotti-ness out of him. Now, however, the prospect simply made her feel impatient.
'Stop it!' she shouted. The two males turned to look at her. 'Remember what Master Selwick said. It doesn't help to fight among ourselves.'
Tamlin grimaced. 'You're right. Brother, I apologize. I know you're not to blame for Brom's death. It's just that I feel badly about it. If he hadn't conjured away the barrier of ice, I'd most likely be dead myself, and Escevar and Vox with me.'
'I suppose that by keeping the masked mage off our backs, he saved Tazi and me as well,' Talbot said. 'Now the only way to repay him is to avenge him.'
'And the same quite possibly holds true for Mother and Father,' Tazi said.
For a moment, they all stood silent, and then Talbot made a visible effort to throw off the somber mood that had overtaken them all. 'What are you doing here?' he said to Tamlin. 'Don't tell me you want to train.'
'The gods forbid,' said Tamlin. 'Actually, I was searching for the two of you. Gale says someone is demanding to speak to us, a factor from one of the warehouses.'
'If it's some business thing,' Tazi said, 'surely you can handle it by yourself.'
'For that matter, Erevis ought to be able to attend to it by himself,' Tamlin replied. 'But he says the woman wants us, all three of us, and such being the case, I see no reason why I should go endure the boredom by myself. It's time you two idlers understood the sort of misery I've been subjected to since Father disappeared.'
'Oh, all right,' Talbot groaned. 'Let's get it over with.'
