[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

as yet had discovered no remedy.
This time, still lost in sleep, something not unlike a mortal dream touched the edge of his
awareness. He felt as if something unseen watched him in the dark. He could see at night
better than a mortal, but sight still required some form of light. This was blackness even
his gaze couldn t pierce. But he felt that presence in the dark just the same, always moving
and shifting, trying to catch him from behind.
So many years had passed since he had thought of dreams. Such visions and concerns
were for the living, not the undead. What pulled at him? With a sudden rush of anxiety,
the presence in the dark moved inward toward him, and his eyes opened.
Before he could act, his coffin s lid was jerked open from the outside.
Torchlight illuminated the chamber behind a shadowed figure above him, but he could
see easily in such light. The hunter stood over him holding a sharpened stake. Her eyes
widened slightly. Both of them froze in surprise, and then she thrust downward with the
stake.
Snarling more in rage than fear, he grabbed her wrist, the stake s point halting above his
chest. Her sleeve and arm were wet, and his hand began to smoke.
Half shouting in pain, Rashed released his grip as he kicked out. His foot struck her lower
chest, and she stumbled back. He instantly rolled over the coffin s side to his feet. What
had she done?
A pungent smell reached his nose and stung his eyes. Garlic.
He remembered Ratboy s whining about what the old woman in the tavern had done to
him. The hunter had doused herself in garlic water.
He could move his left arm a bit, but not enough to use it in fighting, and now his right
hand was badly burned as well. The hunter flipped the stake to her left hand and drew her
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
falchion with her right. Rashed reacted immediately, teeth clenching as he pulled his own
sword with his burned hand.
She was dusty and grimy, with strands of loose hair sticking to her pale face as if she d
been crawling through dirt, but her expression was hard and angry. She was a hunter,
indeed cold and pitiless, an invader who d entered his home to kill him and those he
cared for. He had not felt true and full hatred since the night he d taken Corische s head,
but it filled him now.
A silver-furred dog howled and snarled wildly from across the cavern, where a red-
bearded man held it at bay. Beside them knelt the light-haired half-elf, loading a crossbow.
 Ratboy, Rashed called.  Get up!
The hunter rushed him, swinging the falchion. To his own surprise, he dodged instead of
parrying, instinct acting for him. He could not allow that blade to touch him. If he were
seriously injured again, he was finished, and there would be no one to protect Teesha.
Disarming the hunter was his first and only real priority. He needed to back her into the
tunnel where she couldn t swing and his strength might give him an advantage. But the
wound in his shoulder from their last battle still burned. Feeling slightly off-balance by his
near useless left arm, he gained good footing and charged back at her.
 Yes, my dear, Edwan said, peering down at Teesha s fluttering eyelids, his head merged
through the coffin lid.  Wake up. We have to flee.
She wore her velvet gown of deepest red, like rich wine, and her thick curls of chocolate
brown spread about the coffin s bed, framing her lovely oval face. He still remembered the
first time she had smiled at him. It was one of the few old memories that stayed with him
after death.
Like Rashed, Teesha refused to sleep in dirt and spread a white satin comforter over the
earth of her homeland. As she sat up and pushed open the coffin s lid, Edwan pulled back
out of her way. She blinked at him, and he noted how the pale quilt lining of her resting
place made the color of her dress more vivid.
 We have to flee, he repeated.
 Why? she asked.  What is wrong?
He started to tell her about the stranger at The Velvet Rose, then realized that telling her
of that was foolish. He must tell her about the hunter first, so that she would escape with
him. Rashed was fighting the hunter. If fortune was kind, the warrior would be killed and
Edwan would have Teesha to himself again.
 The hunter has entered the tunnels, he said.  She brought the dog and other mortals
and many weapons. We must go.
Alarm altered Teesha s pretty features.  Where s Rashed? Didn t you wake him?
 The hunter found him first, and Ratboy. They can fight her. Come with me, now.
She quickly climbed out of her coffin and ran into the runnel toward the warrior s cave.
 No! Edwan called in shock. He flew past her and stopped directly in her path.  The
hunter is there. You are running toward her. We must escape through the tunnels on the
other side.
 Move, Edwan, she cried out.  I have to help Rashed ... we need him.
Edwan s shock increased when she ran straight through him. He could not believe this
course of events and followed after her in stunned confusion. Sounds of growling and
shouting and clanging steel grew louder as they approached Rashed s cave. Teesha
stopped, leaning close to the wall of the tunnel at its opening.
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
Edwan saw Rashed battling the hunter. Every clash and rush of steps moved them both
closer to the opening on the far side of the cave. Rashed was trying to back the hunter out
into that tunnel. To the far right, just beyond Rashed s resting place, the half-elf and a
large red-bearded man, holding the silver hound, were about to open Ratboy s coffin.
Teesha s eyes shifted back and forth between the hunter and her companions.
 Edwan, she called,  help Ratboy, now!
Edwan hovered behind her. She had not even looked at him, just ordered him.
 No.
Teesha turned back to stare at him in shock. Her mouth opened, but not a word came out.
When she looked back into the cave, Rashed had the hunter two steps from the opening.
He made a sudden rush forward, trying to close in, slashing down hard with his blade.
The hunter shifted to the right against the cave opening and slashed down on top of
Rashed s sword, driving it to the floor. Her other hand, gripping the stake, swung out and
struck his wounded shoulder.
The large warrior spun halfway around until his back flattened against the cave wall, his
chest fully exposed. At the same time, the upper half of Ratboy s coffin lid shattered
outward into the air. The hunter twisted back into the cave, facing Rashed, ready to strike
again with the stake.
Before Edwan could say anything more, Teesha launched herself wildly into the cave and
leaped on the hunter s back. Edwan s beautiful wife screamed as her arms began to
smolder.
Leesil crept closer to the coffin s bottom end, crossbow aimed downward to pin the
beggar boy with the first shot. His sack of supplies hung off one hip from the strap slung
across to his opposite shoulder. The sound of Magiere s falchion clashing against the
nobleman s long sword came from behind him, but he could not turn to look. He would
have to trust her to keep her opponent busy, just as she trusted him to get the beggar boy. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

zanotowane.pl

doc.pisz.pl

pdf.pisz.pl

razem.keep.pl