Unholy

still gleamed a little. He nudged the beast before him with his toe, and it made an annoyed, rasping sound and stood up too.

'I don't remember ordering you lads to make a night patrol,' Gaedynn said.

Toriak wondered if a lie would help, then decided it plainly wouldn't. He took a deep breath. 'We're leaving.'

'Remember the compact you signed when you joined the Brotherhood. You can leave between campaigns, not when we're in the field. Then it's desertion, and it's punished the same as in any other army.'

'We already took plenty of loot from the Dread Ring,' Toriak said. 'It's stupid to hang around any longer.'

A dark form reared up, and despite the gloom, he recognized its contours immediately. His voice had woken Dodger, and in all likelihood, the voices of his companions would rouse their particular griffons. He made a surreptitious gesture, hoping they'd understand he was encouraging them to talk.

'I take it,' Gaedynn said, 'that you don't credit the warning of impending universal doom.'

Standing to Toriak's right, Ralivar snorted. 'Things like that just don't happen. Not anymore. Maybe they never did, except in stories.' His griffon raised its head.

'I'm skeptical myself.' Casually, as though making some petty adjustment to his garments, Gaedynn laid an arrow on his bow. 'But it would be embarrassing to bet that it isn't going to happen and then be proved mistaken.'

'I'll risk it,' Duma said. Maybe her griffon hadn't been asleep, or at least not soundly, for it rose to its feet at once. 'It's better than fighting in the vanguard time after time.'

'But that's what sellswords do,' Gaedynn said. 'More to the point, it's what we have to do in this situation. Because we're better than the council's troops, and only we can win the toughest fights.'

'We don't care! Like Toriak said, we're leaving! Do you think you can stop us and four griffons too?' Sopsek half-shouted, making sure his mount would hear. Toriak winced at the loudness, but no answering cry of alarm sounded back in camp, and at least Sopsek's griffon did spring to its feet, cast about, and, like its fellows, come prowling across the field to stand with its rider. Sensing the tension between their masters and Gaedynn, the creatures glared at the latter, and the one steed crouched in front of him.

'I promise that at the very least, I'll stop a couple of you,' Gaedynn said. He still hadn't bothered to draw his arrow back to his ear, much less aim it. 'Would anyone like to volunteer to die first in the hope that his gallant sacrifice will aid his comrades-in-arms?'

To the Abyss with this, Toriak thought. He drew breath to order his mount to attack, shifted his grip on his saddle to use it as a shield against the officer's arrow, and then a huge shape emerged from the gloom at Gaedynn's back. Toriak hadn't noticed its approach because, unlike the other griffons, it was black as the night, except for eyes like lambent drops of blood.

Jet screeched, a cry like an eagle's scream with an undertone of leonine roar. The other griffons shrank back before the leader of their pride, then slunk away from their human masters.

'Now,' said Gaedynn, 'it appears to be two griffons and me against the four of you. Still like your chances? If not, I'd scurry back to camp before Aoth comes to find out what stirred up his familiar.'

Gaedynn watched the would-be deserters until he was sure they actually were returning to camp. Then he scratched Eider's feathery neck and told her she could go back to sleep. The griffon grunted, shook out her wings with a snap that would have knocked him staggering if he hadn't seen it coming and stepped back, then lay back down in the dewy grass.

Gaedynn turned to Jet. 'Thanks for backing me up,' he said.

'Glad to,' the familiar rasped. 'Do you think more men will try to leave?'

'I hope not. With luck, those four will warn other malcontents that we're alert to the possibility. And speaking of them, I need another favor. Please don't tell Aoth they sneaked out here tonight.'

'You don't want them punished?'

'They're good soldiers. It's just that they know we're in a tough spot, and they had a little crisis of confidence, possibly exacerbated by strong drink plundered from the Dread Ring's cellars. They'll rediscover their nerve in the morning. Besides, I have my own reputation to consider.'

Jet cocked his aquiline head. 'Your reputation for not caring about anyone but yourself?'

Gaedynn grinned. 'Unkindly put! But something like that.'

A chunk of rock and soil supporting a single pine tree floated just west of the Lapendrar, one of many such islets in the sky, raised by the Spellplague. It commanded a view of Anhaurz, so Khouryn and Aoth landed their griffons on top of it, dismounted, walked to the dropoff, and surveyed the city.

Khouryn reflected that despite the distance, Aoth's luminous sapphire eyes no doubt made out every detail with utter clarity. Squinting, Khouryn had a harder time of it but fancied he was seeing enough to draw conclusions.

After a time, Aoth said, 'It didn't always look like that, but then, I remember hearing that the blue fire destroyed it. It's been completely rebuilt since then.'

Khouryn dug his fingers into his beard to scratch an itch on his chin. 'The question is, why? The civil war was over, and while this town commands the river crossing, it's also well inland from the edge of the realm. To say the least, the average lord wouldn't fortify it to the extent that this one-or his predecessor-has.'

'Then I gather you wouldn't relish laying siege to the place.'

Khouryn snorted. 'You gather rightly. The bridge amounts to a castle by itself, and combined with the rest, it's as bad as the Dread Ring. Maybe worse.' He grinned. 'In other words, it's perfect!'

Aoth grinned back. 'It's so strong that turning away from it won't call into question our resolve to reach the Ring in Tyraturos. We'll head southwest down the Lapendrar-for after all, the other direction would take us dangerously close to the Keep of Sorrows-looking for a place to ford.'

'Which we won't find,' Khouryn said, 'because the spring thaw and the spring rains have swollen the river. Actually, we'll be headed toward the border even though it will look like we're still trying to march deeper into the country.'

'Not bad, eh? We might actually make it out of Thay with a company left to lead.'

'As long as the bard and the ghost succeed at their task, and then everything else works out. As long as we aren't still diddling around taking in our surroundings when Szass Tam sends forth his tides of death.'

Aoth's smile turned wry and crooked. 'You know, for a moment there, I actually felt my spirits lift.'

Even in Szass Tam's own city, where his undead minions were ubiquitous and the living scurried like mice to make way for them, there were rebels, and Arizima Nathandem was their leader. In her youth, the Red Wizards had taken her as an apprentice, until a training exercise gone awry left her with a persistent stammer and the inability to recite spells with the requisite precision. Then they'd cast her out as a useless cripple.

At first agreeing with that judgment, she'd fallen a long way, her Mulan blood notwithstanding. She'd landed in a festhall and still worked there today, though age had long since wrinkled her face, whitened her hair, and stained some of her teeth and outright stolen the rest. Now she managed the house, and it served the rebel cause admirably. No one questioned it when people of all stripes came and went at any hour of the day or night.

She conducted Bareris and Mirror into a sort of mock torture chamber, equipped with soft leather whips, switches, blindfolds, gags, and restraints, but no implements likely to inflict permanent harm. Just toys to amuse a Thayan noble bored with ordinary forms of sexual congress.

Arizima sat down stiffly on the bed. 'It's b-been a… long time,' she said.

'Your circle wasn't fighting,' Bareris replied. 'Our time was better spent elsewhere.'

The old woman scowled. 'We sp-spy. We can't do anything more, not here at the heart of it all, or Szass… Tam's agents will swoop down on us like hawks!'

Mirror, who currently resembled a blood orc they'd passed in the street, inclined his head. 'We understand that, Lady. My brother meant no offense.'

Arizima cackled. ' 'Lady,' is it? You'd think the b-bard would be the one with the golden tongue.'

'You lead a band of our comrades,' the phantom replied. 'That makes you a knight, or as good as, in my eyes.'

'Thank you,' she said. 'That's kind. Now, why have you… returned, and how can we help you?'