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.Several aimed bows at Geran."Well, here they are, lads," one of the shadowy figures rasped.He came closer, and Geran recognized the lean, hawkish features and ebon half-plate armor of Anfel Urdinger, captain of House Veruna."I think you've got something I want, Geran Hulmaster.Lay down your sword at your feet, and throw your pack over here.Your small friend too, and you can tell him that he'd better keep his hands where we can see them."Of all the luck! Hamil said silently.They finally find the barrow they're looking for on the day we visit!To Bane with luck, someone must have told them where we were, Geran answered his friend.This barrow was simply too far from the others that had been opened; it was too much ofa coincidence to believe that Urdinger and his men had happened across it.Mostly to give himself a moment to think, he called back to Urdinger, "If we surrender our arms, what guarantees do you give us?""I don't see that I need to give you any at all, but I suppose I'll let you ride away with no more trouble," Urdinger answered."The book's my only concern.Do you have it?"They can't let us live, Geran, Hamil said.If we give up our blades, they'll take what they want and kill us anyway.Best to make a break back for the barrow and hope we don't get shot down before we get there.I know it, Geran replied to his friend.Against three or four men—perhaps five—he might have tried to fight his way clear, even with the disadvantage of being caught by surprise.But there were simply too many mercenaries around them.A retreat to Terlannis's barrow was the best of their poor options; in the cramped passage at the foot of the stairs, their opponents' numbers would mean nothing, and they might achieve a standoff of sorts.Geran edged back a couple of steps, weighing their odds of reaching the barrow entrance, but then he sensed stealthy movement behind him.He turned to look.There, not twenty feet away, the night mists swirled and coalesced into a great black panther who padded out of the fog.Its yellow eyes glittered with malice.and perhaps a glint of intelligence.In any event, it was between the two comrades and the dubious safety of the barrow entrance."I see you've met Umbryl," Urdinger said with a nasty laugh."I'd stand still, if I were you.Now, if you don't do what I say and drop your damned elf-sword to the ground, I'm going to let the panther have you."That explains much, Geran decided.The panther trailed them, and it must have gone to summon the Verunas when they entered the barrow.The swordmage took one more look around and grimaced."You can have the book, then," he said.He let his rucksack slip from his shoulder, knelt, and rummaged through it for the Infiernadex, one eye on thespectral panther.In a moment he stood back up with the ancient tome in his left hand, the sword in his right.He felt Hamil shift uncomfortably, all too aware that the necromancer's book was their only bargaining chip, but the halfling said nothing.He whispered to the halfling, "Watch yourself." Make your move, Hamil answered.Geran lowered his voice and muttered a spell: "Arvan san-noghan," he hissed, and all at once bright blue-white flames sprang into existence all along his sword.He raised it over the heavy tome he held in his other hand and shouted, "Not a single move, or I will destroy the book!"The Veruna swordsmen surged forward in anger, but a single sharp command from Urdinger stopped them in their tracks."Hold!" the Veruna captain shouted at his men.Geran risked a glance behind him and saw the spectral panther crouch and hiss, but it did not spring at them.Urdinger's good humor—such as it was—fell away, and the mercenary glared at Geran."You fool," he spat."If you harm that book, there'll be no reason to let you leave this place!""I can't see a reason why you'd let us go, whether you get your hands on the book or not," Geran retorted."If you intend to kill me no matter what, I might as well burn this musty old collection of hexes just to spite you before I die.""I can have my bowmen shoot you down right now.""Are you that certain of their aim? Miss by just a little, and I'll burn the Infiernadex to ash with my last breath." Geran paused, measuring the effect of his words on the Veruna captain, and added, "I'll trade the book for our lives.But you won't have both, I can promise you that."The mercenary captain scowled."All right, then.Make a suggestion."Hamil glanced up at Geran, then back to the Veruna men surrounding them."Yes, make a suggestion, Geran," he said."Give us two horses," Geran said to Urdinger."Then draw back outside of bowshot.I'll leave the book here, and we'll ride off.""What's to keep you from riding off with the book once we draw back? Or destroying it once we're too far away to interfere, for that matter?""What's to keep you from pursuing us once you've got the book?" Geran answered."The only way this works is for both of us to do what we say we're going to do and believe that the other fellow means it.As for destroying the Infiernadex, well, I have it in my power to do that right now, so what would change?"Urdinger frowned and turned away to mutter something to the mercenaries next to him.But he never said whatever he intended to say next, for abruptly the wind died, the night grew bitterly cold, and white hoarfrost appeared on the heather.Geran's breath steamed before him, and even the flickering blue flames of the fiery aura on his sword dimmed and wavered.The Veruna men shifted nervously and looked around, and the two companions did likewise.The chill voices are back, Hamil said.Something is coming."I feel it too," Geran said."What else can go wrong?" He glanced back at Umbryl, but the spectral panther had disappeared.He swore under his breath and tried to watch in all directions at once.That's what I get for asking, he told himself.Now 1 have to wonder if the damned panther is sneaking up behind me.Suddenly a column of dark, cold flames erupted from the ground not far from where Geran and Hamil stood, and a figure of nightmare stepped forth.It was a skeleton, dressed in the old, tattered remnants of regal robes.A heavy golden band served as its crown, and it carried a tall, twisted staff of dead gray wood in its bony talons.Geran heard metal rasping on metal as the thing emerged from the black flames.The skeleton's bones were riveted together by bands of rune-inscribed copper, green and dull with age.Its eyes were burning points of phosphorescent emerald fire, keen and malevolent.The swordmage's heart froze in his chest at the mere sight of the thing, and he took a step back without even realizingit—an unseen mantle of dread and despair seemed to flow before the apparition, as if its mere presence cast some grievous shadow on the souls of the living [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]