as a sword as big as both of them swept down at them all.
'Ho-hey! Lookee here, Viper!' Garfist strained to reach over the width of a curved and fluted wooden chair and pluck up what had been slung over the ornately carved arm on its far side from him, almost entirely hidden in shadow. 'A little beauty, by the Falcon!'
He held up a finely chased sheath with its own triple-stranded belt of fine leather. When he drew the dagger forth, its blade glowed like that of a lantern, and darkened as he slid it back home.
'Ho ho,' he chuckled in delighted appreciation. 'There's a fine little prize!'
'Indeed,' Iskarra agreed politely, displaying a broad belt that gleamed with jewels that she'd wound twice around her tiny waist before buckling it above bony hips. 'Not that I've been idle, mind you.'
Garfist whistled in appreciation, and then said briskly, 'Well, we'd best be on. The more we snatch, the more we'll have if we run into some apprentice or servant, and have to duel magic with magic, hey?'
'Hey,' Iskarra agreed calmly. 'Any such dueling will be yours to perform; I'll be fleeing into the next kingdom. For now, let us pass into the next chamber. This is a wizard's tower, remember; we're not going to get the chance to wander around here unregarded and unopposed forever, look you!'
They ducked through a curtained archway into a dimly lit room that seemed to be partly given over to storage, the rest dominated by some sort of work desk whose top was scarred with burned-in rings. 'Alchemy,' Iskarra judged. 'Be careful what flasks you snatch, Gar; some of them may flame or burst if shaken overly much.'
'If it doesn't look drinkable, I'll not be touching it.'
'Gar, to you everything looks drinkable.'
The fat man grinned broadly. 'And I'm still here and flourishing, and larger than ever to prove it!'
Iskarra rolled her eyes and started looking along the shelves. Garfist gave her backside a friendly swat and sprang hastily back out of range, but received only a half-amused glare in return.
Still grinning, the onetime pirate turned the other way to peer around and behind the desk.
'Aha!' he cried, almost immediately. In a crock on the floor down beside the desk were a cluster of canes and scabbarded blades, leaning back against the wall and nigh-invisible in the shadow of an untidy heap of parchments. A long, slender blade caught Gar's eye, and in an instant it was in his hand. He hefted it approvingly, drew it, and whistled softly in appreciation.
'Now this,' he said, turning toward Iskarra, 'is a beautiful blade! Might suit you, actually…'
There was a strange wriggling under his hand, a
As the fanged head turned in his direction, jaws spread wide, he darted his other hand at it desperately, seeking to catch hold of it behind the jaws to keep it from striking. The rest of it was coiling angrily around his arm, and there was nothing he could do about it.
Something metal flashed through the air right in front of his fingertips, severing and carrying away the snake's forked tongue and causing it to rear back in writhing pain. Garfist got the hold he wanted, and squeezed as hard as he could as he lumbered forward so he could smash the snake's head against the wall. Repeatedly, hammering it until it was bloody mush all over his knuckles, and the wildly whipping body and tail were jerking in listless, dying spasms.
'Th-thanks,' he gasped to Iskarra, as she marched past him to retrieve her hurled dagger from where it had embedded itself in the wall. She let the fragment of tongue fall away from it, unheeded, as she wiped it clean on a handy tapestry.
'Employ Vipers to slay vipers,' she replied, giving his backside a friendly swat with precisely the same force and aim as he'd dealt her.
Whatever response Garfist might have intended to make was lost in a sudden, loud shout that seemed to come from the very air around them, resounding through the chamber they were in and those behind it that they'd just traversed: 'Klammert! Klammert! To me!'
The echoes of those words were thunderous.
Iskarra frowned. 'Sounds like that wizard.'
Garfist grinned. 'And he sounds a little upset, no?'
'Yes.' Iskarra looked swiftly about. 'Gar, I'm not staying in here; this is a dead end. I want to be somewhere that has doors, or a passage, or somewhere else I can see to flee into. If he unleashes an army of guardians…'
'Then through there!' Gar suggested, pointing hack through the arch and across the room they'd been in earlier. 'We didn't open that door.'
'Which was probably wisest,' Iskarra muttered, following in his wake as the fat man lumbered across the room, hurling a chair aside.
The door swung open under his fist in silky, well-oiled silence, to reveal some sort of studying area with tomes on tables, and a staircase ascending between those tables, up into unseen levels above.
Somewhere above them, a door crashed open. In unspoken accord Iskarra and Garfist each ducked under a table on either side of the stairs.
They were still scrambling in and under when the lofty stairwell echoed with an excited, husky shout, 'I come, master! I come!'
That cry was approaching rapidly, gaining volume as it grew closer, and they could hear hurrying, fast- approaching footfalls on the stairs. 'My chance!' their rough-voiced owner gasped, as he came clattering down the last flight of steps. 'My chance at last. Shine, Klammert, shine!'
Iskarra rolled her eyes, drew her sword, and moved to just the right place. She was hearing only one pair of hurrying boots; this Klammert dolt was alone. Whatever Gar did, she was going to…
Wait until just the right moment, and then bob up and thrust out her sword to trip this Klammert's racing feet, so that he-
Crashed face-first down the rest of the stairs at full rush, her blade clashing against Garfist's as he grinningly rose in perfect unison to do the same thing from the other side of the stairs.
With one accord they turned and watched the fat, young scraggle-bearded wizard slide heavily to a stop, his head and neck driven hard sideways by an unyielding wall.
Neither winced; they were too busy rushing forward to pluck wands and other useful-looking things from the sprawled apprentice.
Trading wide grins, their arms full of loot, Iskarra and Garfist rose to take themselves swiftly elsewhere in this gift-filled tower.
Taeauna and Deldragon stood their ground, setting their teeth and angling their blades-for the velduke, two puny daggers-just so. They were doing so, Rod realized, as he rolled to fetch up against a pair of shapely Aumrarr ankles, to protect him.
The great sword swept down. Deldragon and Taeauna met its force and thrust desperately forward to deflect it from Rod on the floor beneath it, but the sheer force of the guardian's swing drove them both to their knees.
The sword shuddered and squealed against the tiled stone of Ult Tower's floor, right in front of them;
Rod groaned as they ended up kneeling on him. 'Roll under me!' Taeauna gasped, 'and get out behind us!'
The great sword came crashing in again, backhanded, and this time it drove Taeauna and the velduke before it, sweeping them away from Rod so he could roll wherever he wanted.
The great metal automaton strode right after him. It took a slow step forward and swung its sword again; if Rod hadn't kept rolling frantically back down the passage the way they'd come, that gigantic sword would have bitten into him.
With a battle-shout, Velduke Deldragon leaped into the air and crashed into the thing from behind, slashing wildly with his daggers at the places where the metal plates met, and only enchanted air was holding the lumbering construct together. White lightnings crackled briefly along both blades and then died as the nobleman fell past, and Taeauna launched herself at it in his wake, high and hard.
The guardian staggered, swayed, and then started to turn, sword preceding its arms. Deldragon trotted around to keep himself behind it, and sprang again. This time, when he landed, his dagger blade was burning with a white fire, and the armored titan seemed to be limping. Taeauna hit it again, as Rod rolled to his feet, glanced
