Anauroch's sands drifting past a thousand feet below.
'I will be here,' he called, taking one hand off the haik to swat at the vulture pecking at his fingers. 'Just sprinkle the sand and be gone. By the time this is sorted out, you and Galaeron will be far away.'
Aris did not withdraw. 'You are certain Ruha will not suffer for this?' 'Did she not say she wished to help?' Aris nodded. 'Yes, but-'
'Then let her help. No harm will come to the witch- I am not that lucky-and you know I cannot lie.' Malik struggled to hold his tongue but was compelled by Mystra's curse to add, 'Except by my silence, and when have you ever known me to hold my tongue ‹for more than two minutes?'
Aris considered this, then said, 'Only when you are sleeping.' He tested the haik to make certain it was securely wedged in place, then waved. 'Fare you well, my friend… and thank you.'
Before Malik could reply, the battling vultures obscured his view, and Aris was gone by the time he could beat them aside again. He spent the next few minutes fighting off birds and cursing all creatures with feathers as the wind slammed him into the enclave's rocky exterior time and again. Though his body ached from a hundred horrible bruises and his cramped muscles burned like someone had pushed hot pokers into them, Malik did not worry that his strength would fail him. As the Seraph of Lies, he had been gifted with the ability to suffer any amount of pain and still perform his duties to Cyric, and while helping Aris and Galaeron escape the city did not necessarily serve the One, the second part of his plan most assuredly did.
When he judged he had allowed the giant sufficient time to leave the trade warrens and be on his way to the Cave Gate, Malik began to scream for help. 'Save me! Help!'
After a few minutes of screaming, someone finally poked her head out of the hole. She had long sable hair, dark sultry eyes, and, above the veil that covered the lower part of her face, a dusky complexion. The face was the last one he had hoped to see.
'So there you are,' Ruha said. She squatted above the teeth where her haik was caught, scared the vultures off, and reached down to grab the cloth. 'And with my haik, no less.'
'Meddling witch!' Malik said. 'What are you doing here?'
'Looking for you, of course. And now that we are alone, I think the time has come for us to take our leave of this flying city.'
Still holding onto the haik, she held her free palm in front of her face and blew on it lightly, then began the incantation of one of her Bedine nature spells.
'Stop!' Malik began to climb the haik hand over hand. 'Shrew! Harpy!'
Ruha finished her spell, then wrapped her hand into the haik and looked down, a smile in her dark eyes. 'Is that how you talk to the one who holds your life in her hand?'
'Who will feed my poor Kelda?' Malik cried. He was halfway up the haik, almost within striking range. 'I am going nowhere with you!'
'You prefer to fall?' Ruha twisted around, reaching back to collect something behind her. 'Because that is your only choice.'
'Not my only choice.' Malik wrapped a hand into the haik, then reached under his aba and grabbed the hilt of his jambiya. 'I have another I like much better.'
Pulling her kuerabiche shoulder bag around with her, Ruha spun around to face him, exposing her throat just as he had hoped, and started to reach for her own dagger-then she fell backward as a swarthy Shadovar hand caught the strap of her kuerabiche and jerked her away from the edge.
Malik shoved his jambiya back in its sheath and began to scream. 'Help! I am down here!'
Hadrhune's amber eyes peered over the edge. 'I know where you are, Malik.'
The Shadovar whispered some barely audible shadow spell, then Malik floated up through the hole into the goodshouse that had been serving as Aris's workshop. The place was crowded with Shadovar warriors but still looked as though a troop of bugbears had crashed through it. Statues lay toppled on their sides, some- mostly half-finished pieces that had little value anyway- shattered or irretrievably broken. The walls were marked with streaks of soot and pocked with hollows the size of a giant's head, and a broad smear of Aris's blood ran along the wall, pointing out the huge hole through which Malik had just been retrieved.
After taking all this in, Hadrhune turned to Ruha. 'Did I not warn you what would happen if you violated our guest guard?'
Eyes widening, Ruha looked around the workshop and shook her head. 'This is not my doing.'
'Do not lie to me, Harper. With my own ears, I heard you give Malik the choice between death and leaving in your custody. That is violation enough.' Hadrhune looked to Malik. 'Where is the giant?'
Biting his tongue lest he speak and give himself away, Malik simply turned and looked out the big hole where he had been dangling.
'I see.' Hadrhune flicked a hand in Ruha's direction, and suddenly she was swaddled in black shadow web. 'You will be executed as soon as the Most High pronounces your sentence. What do you wish done with your property?'
'Nothing. I killed no one, and he knows it' Ruha glared at Malik, and in her stare he felt the unspoken threat to reveal Galaeron's escape plans. 'Ask him. He has no choice but to tell the truth.'
Hadrhune considered this for a moment, then nodded. 'A reasonable request.' He turned to Malik. 'Did she kill Aris?' 'I have no wish to see her executed,' Malik said. 'You don't?' This from Ruha and Hadrhune both.
'Not at all. It will be enough to banish her from the city.'
Hadrhune frowned. 'I didn't know Cyric-worshipers were so merciful.'
'Oh, we are not,' Malik said, allowing a half-smile to crease his lips, 'but I can think of no greater torture for Ruha than to know I am living like a king in Shade Enclave while she is sucking the dew out of sand down in Anauroch.'
'That is not how justice works in Shade Enclave,' Hadrhune said. 'Tell me if she killed Aris or not.' Malik shook his head-truthfully.
'If I banish her, Aris's life will be your responsibility,' Hadrhune warned. 'Tell me now, or the weight of her crime will rest on your head.' 'On my head?'
This was something Malik had not planned on. He glanced at Ruha and found her smirking at his predicament-that he had to either exonerate her or be executed for the crime he had accused her of. He shook his head in despair.
'Let me make certain I understand,' he said. 'If she killed the giant, then you will execute her, and I will remain in Shade Enclave living like a king?' Hadrhune nodded. 'Did she kill him?'
Malik raised his hand. 'But if she did not, you will banish her and execute me?'
Hadrhune nodded. 'Yes. When someone is murdered, someone must pay. That is the law.'
'My miserable life is only one unfair circumstance after another,' Malik complained. He took a deep breath, then said, 'I have no wish to die, but the truth is this: No one killed Aris. He and I staged this whole thing so that he and Galaeron could escape into the desert.'
'Malik!' Ruha gasped. 'I should have known you would-'
'Silence!' Hadrhune raised his hand toward her. The shadow web rose to cover her mouth. The seneschal glared at Malik for a moment, then said, 'As you wish, little man.'
Still pointing at the Harper, Hadrhune swept his hand toward the jagged hole, and Ruha flew from the room and arced down toward the desert. When her black cocoon finally tumbled out of sight, he pointed at Malik and whispered something arcane. Malik found himself swaddled in sticky black shadow.
'Now you will stand before the Most High and answer for the giant's death,' Hadrhune said. 'To think, I nearly believed Galaeron when he said you could not lie.'
CHAPTER EIGHT
16 Mirtul, the Year of Wild Magic
Escanor's army cascaded from the Cave Gate in a long river of flapping wings and shadowy pennants that curved down toward the east and vanished into the umbral mists beneath the city. Galaeron waited until the last rank of riders was well past the Livery Most High, then walked his veserab out to join the rear of the great
