shame still made Amalrys blush.
It did, but far more slowly, this time. Perhaps she was getting used to wearing only chains, under the eyes of every Dark Helm who met with him.
Hmm. Time to let the dogs take their pleasure with her? A matter for consideration, certainly, but-
'You are the Dark Lord!'
The cry was faint but clear, rising like a war-shout from the third crystal along of the row of seven under the window.
Arlaghaun stiffened, of course. What wizard wouldn't?
When he whirled to stare at the glow in that sphere's depths, he knew his eyes were flashing, betraying his own eagerness to his apprentice; giving her a tiny weapon at last.
Uncaring, he hurled down the book and strode across the room toward the crystal. He'd waited years for this moment.
In an alley in Arbridge, a dozen Dark Helms turned their heads as one, helms snapping around in unison as they all stared across a street and beyond into a burial yard.
An underground crypt stood open. One of their fellow Dark Helms was crouching over it, but the cry that had sung so loudly in their heads had come from another who must be down inside the tomb.
A few swift, brutal thrusts slew the snake-men they'd been tormenting. Hurrying, the Dark Helms turned and stalked down the alley, heading for the crypt.
'Dark Lord,' rose their murmur. 'Dark Lord, Dark Lord,
The candle-lantern on the table was almost entirely hooded. Only a thin line of feeble light shone up off the tabletop onto the masked Arbren merchants and shopkeepers huddled around. This cloak of concealment was more by choice than necessity; Lord Tharlark encouraged the Vengeful, as hounds he need not pay, who did his work for him: finding and slaying all wizards.
Yet the Vengeful dared not relax. Lordlings had turned on even their most faithful hounds a time or fifty before, and in the end Tharlark would, too, if they were any judge of men. He was too full of rage and suspicion, and too swift to draw sword, that one.
Wherefore the Vengeful kept their own suspicions honed sharp; hence this meeting, late at night in an upper room above a shop owned by one of their number.
A man had come to Arbridge, and taken a room for the night at the Drowned Knights. A man no one had heard of, said by his companion to be old, who said little. And that companion was an Aumrarr.
'…and Aumrarr seem always to be near anyone who wields magic,' the shortest, fattest masked Vengeful hissed fiercely, tapping the table with his forefinger as if it were a drawn dagger.
'An Aumrarr without wings,' one of the men standing in the shadows put in, his voice almost resentful in its puzzlement.
'Aye, what does that mean?'
'Well, someone cut 'em off her, look you!'
'A lover who didn't want her to fly away!'
'The man we're speaking of, to force her to stay near!'
'Bah! Did ye not see the two of them? She could break him into bloody bones with her bare hands, even if she bore no sword! He's a blundering innocent, like a seer or a herb-cook!'
'Or like a wizard,' the short man snarled, waving his finger.
A tall, grim Vengeful standing in a corner waved a hand in disgust. 'So because he walks with an Aumrarr, that's enough to make him a wizard to you? She told Orstras she was working off a blood-debt, and I'm inclined to believe the winged sisters when they say such things. So, tell me now: if an Aumrarr owed a blood-debt to a babe in arms, you'd suspect the babe of being a wizard?'
'But this one's not a babe. And, aye, if what they say is true, they do owe him a blood-debt. Why? Isn't it likely that the kin of his they killed was deep in magic, somehow? The Aumrarr are fascinated with magic; they seem to smell it, as my hounds nose out scamper-rats, and wherever there's magic, there are Aumrarr, flapping and wheeling and hovering.'
'Just like vaugren.'
'Just like vaugren, indeed.'
'Well,' another of the masked men at the back of the room spoke up, 'you are all of Arvale; if these two travel on, come morning, they pass off your platter and become a problem for other Falconaar. I'm traveling on to Galath with my wagons, and I suspect they will be, too. I'll watch them, and if your suspicions are correct, do what has to be done.'
'I'm bound for Galath, too,' the only woman in the room put in, scratching thoughtfully at her mask. 'I'll do the same, and as a woman may well learn more from the Aumrarr through friendly chatter than you can with your blade. You know how Aumrarr are with ladies.'
There were chuckles. 'Aye, we know,' the short, fat Vengeful said meaningfully.
The chilling hand on Rod's trembling shoulder thrust him firmly aside and let go; Rod Everlar cowered away, whimpering, 'but could not keep from looking at what strode past him.
A skeleton, tall and terrible, its bones black and shimmering with blue fire at every joint, the rotting tatters of a shroud clinging to its limbs as it climbed up two stairs and jabbed one bony hand into the Dark Helm's face- actually
Those skeletal fingers closed together and pulled back, tearing away the front of the man's head, leaving his skull like… like Rod's mailbox, gaping open after he'd pulled all the letters out.
The Dark Helm's body pitched forward, collapsing down the steps, and his fellow Helm rose from crouching over the top steps with a frightened curse, whirling around to flee.
'Stop him!' Taeauna cried feebly. 'He must not live!'
The skeleton clambered down a couple steps and bent in one fluid motion, for all Falconfar as if it were a sleek and strong giant serpent rather than a thing of bones, and plucked up the huge stone lid of its coffin. Rod glimpsed an elaborately carved likeness of a warrior in battle, sword raised in victory, above a long and flowery inscription, before the skeleton leaned forward and threw the great slab of stone up the stone stairwell as a warrior hurls a shield, edge-on and spinning, at foes in battle.
It struck the Dark Helm in the back of the neck, smashing him off his feet and up into the air, head almost severed. When man and stone slab crashed on the stairs together, and bounced wetly once, there was little left of the fleeing warrior's head.
As an onrushing crowd of Dark Helms came to a wary halt, Taeauna crawled hurriedly up the steps and plucked up the grisly crushed helm from the broken body under the slab.
She bore it, dripping with its contents, back down the crypt stairs to Rod. 'Drip some of your blood on it,' she panted, 'and the magic that compels it should burn away.'
Wonderingly, he did just that. The metal hissed and smoked, Taeauna hurriedly let it fall to the stone steps, and together they watched the helm melt away to nothing.
Standing over his crystal, the wizard Arlaghaun arched over backwards with a startled cry of pain, and clawed at the air as the sudden agony of being burned raged up within him.
With a shriek and a rattle of chains, honey-blonde hair flying, his apprentice flung down the guttering candles and fled.
Unnoticed, the book of spells on the floor glowed and started to turn its own pages, tiny voices hissing out incantations that went unheeded.
The dozen Dark Helms roared in common pain, clutched their heads, and staggered away into the night, some of them dropping their swords and all of them hurrying.
'Come,' Taeauna whispered. 'Swiftly! Take up my sword; let's be up and out of this place of death!'
Rod did as he was told, grinning wryly at how used to swiftly obeying her he was getting, and pleased as Punch that she was awake and alert and with him again.
As they went up the steps, Taeauna sucked greedily at Rod's fast-vanishing wound, seeming to gain strength with every step. Behind them, the dark and gaunt skeleton reached out beseeching hands and begged hollowly, 'Shaper, give me life again! Raise me to the living, and I'll serve you! I-'
'You can't,' Taeauna whispered in Rod's ear. 'You musn't!'
