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."What of the ghazneths?""The first is almost here, Highness," said Owden."The lookout thinks it is Lady Merendil.It has a narrow waist and waspish wings.""It is," Tanalasta confirmed.She glanced over at the nervous looking knights."I have faced Lady Merendil before.She's the Scourge of War, and you will find yourselves consumed by a mad bloodlust.You mustn't yield to it.Pray to your gods and keep your head about you.Remember who the enemy is, and we will do well."The voice of experience seemed to comfort the knights.The doubt vanished from their faces, and they began to finger their holy symbols and utter prayers for strength.Tanalasta allowed Owden to help her toward her hiding box, at the same time summoning a pale-looking dragoneer who had been assigned to stand in the doorway as a messenger."Is the second ghazneth still trailing a hazy tail?""He is.""Good.That will be Xanthon Cormaeril." She gestured through the door toward a hallway on the far side of the sweeping staircase."Tell your war wizards to hide in there.On my command, one after the other, they are to blast him with their quickest, most powerful magic.""Magic, Highness?" gasped the dragoneer."On a ghazneth?""He is the youngest," Tanalasta explained."I've seen him stunned by powerful spells.""True," said Owden, "but if you don't get to him-""I think it is time for us to go to our place," Tanalasta said, cutting off the protest."It cannot be long before Lady Merendil arrives."The princess's words were truer than she would have liked.They had barely reached her hiding box before Lady Merendil's waspish form streaked through the window Melineth Turcasson had smashed open earlier.A tempest of clacking echoed off the walls as the knights fired their crossbows.Merendil shrieked in pain and fell from the air, bouncing off the banquet table and still somehow managing to angle toward Tanalasta.Realizing that the thing was coming for her, Tanalasta was seized by a terrible blind fury.She found herself pushing the door of her hiding box open and pulling her iron dagger.Owden caught her by the hair and jerked her back inside."Have you gone mad?" He slammed the locking bar down, sealing them inside the dark box, then grasped Rowen's holy symbol and thrust it into her hands."Calm down.Take your own advice and pray to the goddess."The ghazneth hit the door with a deafening clang, then tried to rip it open and toppled the box over instead.Tanalasta landed on her stomach with a painful whumpf.The dark interior erupted into a cacophony of thunderous booms as Lady Merendil tried to tear the iron box open, then the crate suddenly rose on end and toppled over backward.Tanalasta's head sank through the leather padding and struck the iron beneath.She thought for a moment that the muffled ringing in her ears was from a cracked skull, then she heard the dull thud of iron biting bone and the sharp crack of snapping limbs and the anguished howls of dying men, and she knew the knights were carrying the battle to the ghazneth.Tanalasta reached across Owden and felt for the locking bar.The harvestmaster caught her by the wrist."What are you doing?""I've got to get out there!" she said."They need my leadership.""They need you alive, or all is for naught." Owden shoved her arm back."Say your prayers-now!"Though she was fuming inwardly, Tanalasta clasped Rowen's amulet and did as the priest instructed.A sense of calm came over her almost at once, and she realized Owden was right.She had fallen victim to the very bloodlust she had warned Korvarr's knights against.Continuing to hold the silver holy symbol in her hands, she listened to the muted battle sounds and waited for the proper moment to show herself again.If her own experience was anything to go by, the men outside hardly needed inspiration, and getting herself killed for no reason would do nothing to destroy the ghazneths.The box began to vibrate with a muffled drone, and tiny insect wings began to brush past Tanalasta's face."By the plow! Xanthon's here already."Owden laid a hand on Tanalasta's wrist-whether to comfort her or restrain her, she did not know."Patience.We have heard no sign that he is downstairs."Something stung Tanalasta behind the ear, then something else bit her below the eye.She cursed and tried to swat the insects away, but in the dark tight quarters, it was difficult work.The princess managed to keep the things more or less off her face, but they crawled up beneath her hairline and down her collar and into her sleeves, stinging and biting and driving her mad.She killed the ones she could and tried to tolerate the rest, and finally the battle outside seemed to drift away.Tanalasta was in no hurry to release the locking bar, for she knew the insect cloud would only grow thicker when they opened the box.A sharp rap sounded on the door."Princess, we're ready." It was Korvarr."Open up!""Now?" Tanalasta asked."It would seem so." Owden released the locking bar.The lid flew open, and a gauze-like fog of buzzing wasps descended into the box.Owden began a prayer to disperse the insects.Squinting and gritting her teeth against the stinging cloud, Tanalasta raised an arm toward Korvarr."Help me up.""With pleasure, Princess."A hard hand grasped her by the wrist and jerked her to her feet, and she found herself looking into the bloodied, deranged face of Korvarr Rallyhorn."Korvarr?""Killer!" Korvarr released Tanalasta's arm and backhanded her across the mouth, then reached awkwardly across his body for his dagger."This is for Orvendel!"For a moment, Tanalasta thought Korvarr had actually betrayed her.She stepped forward, pinning his arm against his chest and brought her knee up between his legs.He let out a horrid groan and doubled over, and it was then the princess noticed the finger bruises on his forearm and the impossible bend of the bone and realized what had happened.She lashed out with one hand and caught him by the ear, then brought her opposite elbow around and smashed it into the opposite side of the head, throwing her entire pregnant weight into the attack.Her self-defense instructors had taught her well.Had she struck four inches higher, the blow would have shattered Korvarr's temple and killed him instantly.As it was, the strike merely dislocated his jaw and left him unconscious at her feet.Owden finished his spell, filling the room with pale, cedar-sharp smoke that sent the insects droning for the exits.Astonished, Tanalasta turned and cocked her brow."I am being attacked, and you are worried about wasps?""It was only Korvarr," Owden replied."If you can't handle one man, what business have you trafficking in ghazneths?"A ringing clamor echoed through the door behind them, and they turned to see a dozen dragoneers tumbling into the foyer beyond."That would be Xanthon now.Stall him."Tanalasta pushed Owden toward the steel tangle, then turned back to the dining room.A whirling knot of darkness and iron was slowly drifting away from her, moving toward an ancient throne at the far end of the room [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]