'Derg may not live anyway. He's not as strong as the priest. You may have given him the jasper too late. Were he the object of the transference…'
Rakon trailed off, the dark possibility dangling before Nix.
'What are we talking about here?' Baras asked.
Rakon continued. 'If you'd have known, if you'd have been asked to choose, you'd have chosen Egil.'
'Of course I'd have chosen Egil,' Nix said.
But Egil hadn't chosen Egil. That was the rub. The priest had known what he was doing and had made his decision. That's why he'd asked Nix if he had another stone.
Alms. Grace.
Maybe Egil was a real priest, after all.
But Nix wasn't. He tried to reconcile what he wanted to do with what he knew he should do.
'Nix…' Baras said, perhaps understanding at last.
'I already told you to shut up, Baras,' Nix said. 'Just keep your mouth shut. You have nothing to say here.'
'These are the choices life forces us to make,' Rakon said, though Nix wasn't entirely sure whether he was talking to Nix or to himself. 'We do what we must for the ends we desire. It's why I put a spellworm in your guts. It's why you'd kill Derg.'
'I won't allow Derg to be murdered for the priest,' Baras said.
The other guards nodded, murmured agreement.
'Wait, is that what you're saying, Nix?' Jyme asked.
'You'd do exactly as I command,' Rakon said to Baras.
'My lord!' Baras said, appalled.
'I haven't said anything,' Nix said. 'But you couldn't stop me if I wanted to do it. All of you couldn't stop me.'
'It's wrong, Nix,' Baras said.
Nix looked up and glared at him. 'I know it's wrong! But Egil dying is wrong! I won't have it, Baras! I need another option-'
An idea struck him, a divine bolt of inspiration perhaps. He jumped to his feet and whirled on Rakon.
'You said someone has to die? What about one of those things, one of the Vwynn? You said they were the descendants of the people who lived here once. That means they'll work for the transference, yeah?'
Rakon raised his eyebrows, nodded after a long pause. 'Yes. But then-'
'I'll get one,' Nix said.
'Get one?' Baras asked. 'What do you mean?'
'Fakking follow along, Baras,' Nix snapped. 'There are thousands of them just beyond these ruins.'
'Thousands?' Jyme asked.
'No,' Rakon said.
'No?' Nix rose and went nose to nose with the sorcerer. The spellworm roiled his guts. Not even Baras tried to move him away. 'I'm going to get one. I'll bring it back and you'll cast your transference.'
'You're going to go get one of those things?' Jyme asked, incredulous.
'I forbid it,' Rakon said. 'You can enter Abn Thuset's tomb alone, retrieve the horn alone. I don't need the priest.'
' I need him,' Nix said.
'Stop him, Baras,' Rakon ordered.
Baras made no move toward Nix. 'He seems determined, my lord.'
'I'll kill him if I have to,' Nix said to Rakon. He looked at Baras. 'I'll kill you, Baras. No offense.'
Jyme put a hand on Baras's shoulder, restraining him. 'Not your fight.'
'I'm telling you that you cannot leave,' Rakon said.
'And I'm telling you to fak yourself. I'm leaving.'
With that, Nix turned and walked toward the road. He'd take it back through the mountain of ruins, capture one of the Vwynn from the thousands lurking outside, and bring it back.
'Stop,' Rakon said.
Nix's legs felt leaden almost immediately. He lifted one, then another. He tasted bile, felt nausea rising. He fought it, sought the hidey-hole he'd made for himself.
I'm Nix Fall of Dur Follin.
He thought of his days prowling the Heap, and took a step.
I'm Nix Fall of Dur Follin's Warrens.
He thought of Mamabird and took another.
He felt as if he was dragging boulders, but he kept walking. He reached the road. Vomit rushed up his throat and he puked in a spray before him.
'I… will… keep… going.'
'My lord,' Baras said.
'Shut up, Baras,' Rakon snapped. 'It'll stop you, Nix.'
'It… might… kill… me,' Nix said.
He thought of the old man he'd stabbed for bread and took another step. 'But… it… damned… well… won't… stop… me!'
'I cannot have it, Nix. My sisters.'
'My brother,' Nix spat in answer. 'Now loosen the compulsion or kill me, sorcerer. If Egil dies, I will not enter the tomb. I promise you that. I'll die first. And then so will your sisters. And even though they want you dead, I know you don't want them dead.'
He glared at Rakon, wobbly on his numb legs, his hands slack and heavy at his sides.
The sorcerer stared at him, eyes narrowed. The guards looked on wide-eyed, gazes moving from Rakon to Nix, Nix to Rakon.
'Loosen it!' Nix demanded. 'Or everything you've done will go for nothing.'
Rakon's thin lips tightened, the gears turning between his snake eyes.
'Let him go,' Jyme said. 'Gods. He's owed the chance.'
Rakon glared at Jyme, then at Nix.
'My lord,' Baras said, 'if any of us can get one of those things and bring it back, it's him.'
Rakon stared at Baras, then at Nix. 'Go, then,' he said, and the sorcerer's willingness to release him loosened the pressure holding Nix in place. His body recovered immediately from the nausea and pain.
'You're still bound to me, Nix,' Rakon said. 'This is a just a temporary loosening of the compulsion. You bring one back — alive — and I'll kill it to save your priest.'
Nix nodded at Baras and Jyme, turned and started to head off.
'Wait!' Baras called. 'I'll help you. Least I can do for… everything.'
Nix shook his head. 'You'd be in my way, Baras. Nothing personal.'
With that, Nix put the hilt of his falchion in one hand and the hilt of his punch dagger in the other and headed off. The ruined tumble of stones bordered the road closely to either side, almost a tunnel cutting through the ruins that circumscribed the sea of glass. He hugged the deeper darkness to one side of the road.
Ahead, the ring of ruins ended, opened onto the wider expanse of stones and rubble that littered the plains beyond. He felt exposed the moment he crept out of the tunnel and into the moonlit ruins. Crouched low, he darted to his right and sheltered behind a megalith. There, he listened.
He heard movement out in the darkness, first from one direction, then from another: the scrabble of a claw over stone, the low growl of a Vwynn, the crunch of weight on the rocks. In his mind's eye, he saw the thousands of Vwynn he and Egil had seen from their perch atop the ruins. Thinking of their numbers accelerated his heart, but he pushed the fear down. He needed only one.
The wind blew from east to west, a steady breeze that whined over the rubble. He put his face into it and prowled the darkness, moving in silence, hugging the jagged hummocks of stone, all eyes and ears. He didn't have long to wait before he encountered the Vwynn.
Movement ahead froze him: a low growl, a curious chuffing. He licked his lips and moved forward in a crouch, hands tight and aching around his blade hilts. Lurking in the shadows of a towering pyramidal stone, he crept
