Kallist had just long enough to regret the loss of his broadsword. He missed its solid, comforting weight; the guard-issued longsword with which he'd absconded during their escape just didn't have the same heft. Then there was no time for thinking at all as his shoulder collided with the tenement's outer door. The flimsy planks disintegrated before him, and he found himself pounding up multiple flights of shaky, mold-ridden stairs.
The first story disappeared beneath him, then the second, then more; even the tenements in this damned place were taller than they'd any right to be! The thundering of his footsteps echoed in the stairwell, as though an entire host of trolls followed him up. Doors slammed shut, and he heard the sounds of bolts sliding home, as the people who dwelt within decided it would be wiser to hide from whatever was happening than to step out and investigate it.
As he neared the upper floor, he saw a woman he recognized as one of Semner's thugs. Precisely what had happened to her, Kallist couldn't say, but she lay sprawled across the topmost steps and was only now rousing herself from unconsciousness. Kallist wondered briefly how Semner had tracked Jace here without the aid of the corrupt watchmen, but wasn't about to take the time to inquire. Without so much as breaking stride, he ran his blade through the back of the woman's head as he passed. There would be others to question at a more appropriate time.
At the top of the stairs, Kallist took a heartbeat to orient himself, to determine which of the various doors should lead to the chamber from which he saw the flash of balefire. Then, as with the portal below, Kallist set his shoulder to that door, and the door went away.
And Kallist froze. No matter the urgency, he could not tear his gaze from the room around him. Jace hadn't abandoned his standard of living; he'd simply hidden it.
The chamber beyond occupied a majority of the top floor, someone having knocked out the interior walls that separated one apartment from the next. The remaining walls were pristine, polished to a gleaming oceanic blue; there was no trace inside of the cracks that ran through the old stone without. The carpets were thick, the furniture comfortable and well maintained. A small dining table lay on its side, the tablecloth and dishware scattered about the floor. Even amid the signs of struggle, the scent of incense hung in the air, overpowering the odors of the city.
At the sound of a dull thump, possibly that of a body hitting the floor, Kallist finally shook off his amazement. Striding toward the room from which he had heard that familiar sound, he covered perhaps half the distance when the door was thrown open from within.
For the first time in half a year, Kallist stood face to face with Jace Beleren, the man who had once been his best friend.
They could have been brothers, and in fact had passed as such on one or two occasions during their service with the Infinite Consortium. Less than two inches separated them in height, less than twenty pounds in weight. Perhaps Jace was more clean shaven, Kallist's hair half a shade lighter; not identical, certainly, but very much alike.
Jace, clad in a heavy blue cloak he'd thrown over his bedclothes when first attacked, froze in the doorway, his own eyes as wide as the saucers that had spilled from atop the table.
'You!' Never before had Kallist heard so mundane a word loaded so heavily with bile. 'It wasn't enough to steal her from me? Now you want me dead, too?'
Kallist, a small part of whom had briefly been glad to see his old friend, found himself scowling with rekindled rage. 'Damn it, Jace, you know better than that! We came to warn you! Not,' he added, with a quick glance at the trio of fallen bodies visible through the bedroom doorway, 'that you seem to have needed it.'
'After all this time, I'm supposed to believe that?' Jace demanded.
'Yes.' Kallist squeezed the hilt of his sword until he felt the leather wrappings start to fold. 'Now, if you-'
He couldn't breathe; couldn't talk; couldn't think. Kallist froze as though struck by a basilisk's gaze. He felt a fist around his mind, keeping him from moving, from reacting, holding him firmly in place while Jace took the extra few moments he needed. Kallist felt the faintest touch, the legs of skittering spiders across the surface of his dreams.
Kallist gasped in shock and found himself slumped to the floor.
'Damn it, Jace!' Kallist couldn't decide if he wanted to kill or to cry, and settled for an enraged shout.
'You swore never to read-'
'We both of us made promises back then, didn't we?' Jace snapped in turn. But the lines of his face had softened. As though forcing himself through rising water, he stepped slowly across the room and extended a hand to help Kallist off the floor.
'I'm sorry.' The words were little more than a mutter, and Jace's mouth twisted as though they'd turned sour on his tongue. But still, he said it. 'And I believe you,' he added, as Kallist hauled himself to his feet on Jace's arm. 'But I had to be sure.'
'Fine. Whatever. So what happened here?' Jace shrugged and stepped away, as though even proximity to the man who'd betrayed his trust was painful. 'Some men came through my door and window, and tried to kill me.'
'And?'
'I didn't let them.'
'Was one of them Semner?'
Jace's jaw clenched. 'Semner's here?'
'These are his people.' Kallist frowned. 'If he's not here, there's another attack coming.'
'The Consortium send him?'
'I'd imagine so, but I can't be sure. You know Semner's reputation. He'd hire himself out to a warthog if the money was right. We need to get out of here, find someplace a little more secure to figure out our next step.'
'And Liliana?' Jace asked softly.
Kallist cried out, cursing himself for ten kinds of idiot. She'd been only a few steps behind him when they left the alleyway. But so distracted had he been by his encounter with Jace, he'd not taken a moment to wonder why she hadn't followed him through the door.
Perfectly on cue, a sudden scream, terrified and clearly feminine, echoed through the stairway.
Months of anger and recrimination vanished. Kallist and Jace stood side by side, the one raising his sword in expert grip, the other focusing his will to deceive the sight or burn the mind of any who would bar his path. Neither could imagine what might draw such a reaction from Liliana, but whatever it was, Kallist intended to visit it thrice over on Semner's beaten corpse.
Kallist reached the open doorway first-and simply folded, falling back into the main room of the apartment, sword tumbling from his fingers. He hadn't seen what hit him, but whatever it was struck hard. His jaw ached, his head pounded, and he could scarcely even see, let alone consider rising to his feet. He spotted a small streak of blood staining the carpet and realized it was his own.
Footsteps behind him, but he could not turn. He saw two pairs of worn and dirty boots, doubtless belonging to more of Semner's thugs, but he couldn't even raise his head. Across the room, he saw Jace retreat several steps, ready to cast any of a score of devastating spells. From the hall beyond the doorway, he heard Liliana's voice cry out his name and then begin to intone another of her dark chants. He gave thanks that she still lived, but still he could not turn.
The pounding in his head grew heavier; the blood rushed in his ears, the lights of the room blinked and flickered. Everything was unfocused, spastic, moving in slow-motion fits and starts.
Semner's men stepped forward, naked blades extended, closing in on Jace.
The first man fell, screaming until his throat bled at the nightmares the mage's spell seared into his conscious mind.
The second was within reach before Jace lashed out. From his outstretched hand, a sky-blue eel wiggled and writhed its way through the air to wrap about the torso and neck of his attacker. Serrated fins sliced into flesh while the beast's jagged maw clamped hard upon the bandit's face, shredding skin and bone, blood and ocular fluids, into a slippery stew that flowed smoothly down its winding throat.
For just a moment, as his vision continued to fade in and out, Kallist dared to hope it might be over.
Jace's eyes grew wide at the sight of some fresh danger in the hall beyond Kallist's fallen form. Kallist saw the mage's mouth moving; saw, as well, a new hesitation, even fear, in his face. Jace took a step back, retreating
