F O U R (45 page)

archer sent one arrow after another wingiHe drew Splitter,  sprang out into the openg his wayn, and strode toward his foe. The ,  and he knocked them  out of the air

.  The defense was considerably  more diff

irregular surface of the roof than it would have been staicult advancing across the R                      nding still on the ground.

yld began to sweat, and his heart beat  faster, but he was managing. There

came another shaft, this one aglitter with  some  form  of enchantment, and he

swatted it down. Rattling, it rolled on down the pitch of the roof.He took another step, slapped aside another missile, then heard som

e

didn't know what, just an indefinable change in the sounds around himthing—he .  He

remembered that some  enchanters created magical weapons capable of more

than flying truer and hitting harder.

circled around behind himHe spun around. The sparkling arrow had launched itself back into the air and .  It was streaking toward its target and was only a few

feet from  his body.

Ryld wrenched Splitter across in a desperate parry. The edge caught the arrow

and split it in two. Spinning through the  airshoulder                 ,  the piece with the point hit his

,  but, thanks to his armor,  did him  no harm.He lurched back around with barely enough  time to deflect the next shaft, th

en

marched on. Four more paces brought him  to the end of the roof.

running start, mThe gap between this house and the next  was five yards across. He took aade himself nearly weightless, and jumped. The twin tried to hitwhen he was in the air

,  but for a blessed change, his arrow flew wild.  Ryld thumped down atop the sam

e  structure his  opponent occupied. It felt as  if it had

taken forever to get this far,  even though he knew it had really been  less  than  a

minute.

including one that gave an eerie screamNot that he was done running the gauntlet. The arrows kept hurtling at him, filling him  with an unnatural fear until ,he quashed the feeling, and another that turned into a

mi

Y                         niature harpy in flight. et another struck two paces in front him

Squinting at the glare, he wrapped
 
his piwafwi
and exploded into a curtain of fire. around him  and dived through,

emerging singed but essentially unscathed.

After that, he was close enough to the tower to cancel most of his weight and

platformleap up to the top. He sprang into the . The twin hastily set down his bow and drew his scimair like a jumping spider and alit on the itar."Do you have any healing m

agic?" Ryld asked. "If so, give it to me, and I'll let

you go."

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The other warrior smiled unpleasantly and said, "My comrades will start arriving any second. Surrender now, tell me  where Pharaun is, and perhapsPrincess Greyanna will let you live."

"No."

Ryld cut at the warrior's  head. The other male jumped back out of rangesidestepped, and slashed at the weapons                  ,master's  arm.  Rscim                        yld parried, beat the

Over the course of the next few sitar aside, and the fight was on. econds, the Mizzrym warrior gave ground consistently. Twice, he nearly stepped off the flat, round tabletop that was theapex of the tower but on both occasions spun himself away from the edge intime. He was a good duelist, and he was fighting defensively while  he  waited forreinforcements  to  arrive.  That  made  him  hard  to  hit.  Hard,  but  not  impossible.greatsword down and around, and cut low on the outside. Splitter sheared into Pressing, Ryld feinted high on the inside to draw the parry, swung his the  Mizzrym's  torso  just  below  the  ribs,  and  he  collapsed  in  a  gush  of  blood.

Magic trilled and flickered through the air.  When Ryld spun around, the othertwin and Relonor popped into being on the rooftop below

.  Obviously, House

Mizzrym's  mage could teleport on his own, without the aid of the broochPharaun had pilfered.

His voluminous sleeves sliding down to his elbows, Relonor lifted his armsand started to cast a spell. The newly arrived twin nocked an arrow and drewback the string of his pale bone bow

.

Ryld threw himself down on his stomach. He was ten feet above his adversaries, and he hoped that they couldn't see him.  Sure enough, no maarrow flew in his direction. He scuttled across the platform      gic or

—enchantments in his armoopponent'r deadening the sound of his footfalls—and grabbed his previous s  bow and quiver,  then scrambled to his knees.latter soaring in an arc that revealed soThe twin and the wizard rose above the platform, the former levitating, theme  magical capacity for actual flight. The archer  loosed  an  arrow,  and  mystical  energy  flashed  from Relonor's

The Mizzrym'                       fingertips.s  magic reached its tarthrough R              get first. A ghastly shriek stabbed yld's  ears and into his brain.  He cried out and flailed in agony. The warrior's  arrow plunged into his thigh,  and the razor-edged point burst  from  the other side.

After a moment, the screaming stopped. Ryld could feel that it had hurt him,perhaps worse  than  the  arrow had, but had no time  or inclination to fret about it. Quickly as few folk save a master of  Melee-Magthere could  matwo shafts of his own.                   nage, he loosed

The first took Relonor in the chest, and the second stabbed into the warrior'sbelly

R . They both dropped down out of sight.yld looked at the twin with the sword cut in his flank. The mabe                            le appeared to unconscious, which would facilitate searching him.  Ryld hobbled  over  to him  to rifle his pockets and the leather satchel he wore on his  belt.

Blessedly,  he found four silver vials,  each marked with the rune for healing.Greyanna had indeed outfitted her agents  properly for a martial expedition. It was the  twin's misfortune  that  he  hadn't had timegoing into shock.                to drink of her bounty before His brother and Relonor no doubt carried  healing draughts as well, and Ryldhad no guarantee that they'd  be unable to  use them. They might come  after himagain any second, and he'd  just as soon avoid a second round. He needed to

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War Of The Spider Queen

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Dissolution

beat a hasty—Enormous wings beat the air

.  A long-necked, legless beast passed overhead

with Greyanna and the other priestess, down at R

yld, Pharaun's sister pulled at the laces securing the m

the skinny one, astride its back. Glaring

of monsters.                        outh of her bag

Ryld dumped the remaining arrows out of the quiver,  the better to examine

them. One was fletched with red feathers while the rest had black.

He'd  already seen his first foe shoot  one fire arrow.

fletched arrow was another              Praying that the red-,  he drew  back his bowstring and sent it hurtlin

into the air                              g.

The arrow plunged into the sack, and  burst into flampriestess reflexively dropped the bag, and it fell, burning as it went. The me. The scarred high

agic

spores combusting inside turned the  fire green, then blue, then violet.Greyanna s

creamed in  fury and sent  the foulwing swooping lower.  Ryld  looked

for another ma

one, and his hands began to shake, no gic arrow and found that nonedoubt an afteref were left. He nocked an ordinary fect of the punishment he'd  taken.

For a moment, it seemed to him  that  he was finished. If he couldn't shoot

accurately, he couldn't hit one of the foulback, for that m            wing's vital spots, or the riders on its

atter.  Nor was he in any shape to fight them  hand to hand.

Then he realized he still had a chance. He surrounded his arrow with a cloud

of murky darkness, then shot it upward.

et.  Even shooting blind with tremblin

hands, he had a fair chance of hitting inThe descending beast was a huge targ                 g somewhere, and the foul-wing  gave adouble shriek that told him  he'd  succeeded.

He watched the mass of darkness he'd  created tumble and zigzag drunkenl

th                                  y rough the  air.  Stung,  suddenly and inexplicably  sightless,  the  winged mount

inside had panicked, and Greyanna was evidently unable to control it. She quite possibly could have dissolved the darkness with som

e  scroll or talisman, but she

couldn't see either or lay hands on her equipment easily with  the foulwi

lurching and swooping about beneath her                 ng .R

yld snapped the head off the arrow in his leg and pulled the offendinobject out. He gathered up the healing  potions, and quickly as he was ableg

activated the m                             , agic in his talisman, floated down off the roof, and limped away.

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