Page 13 (1/2)

LATER RHION SUPPOSED HE could have thrown so - at Esrex&039; guards to slow them down But at the moment, he didn&039;t think of it, and it probably would have done hith of the rooht him when he was three-quarters of the way up the ladder to the roos and striking him with their spear butts when he kicked at their faces A blow caught hi his breath; as he cru, to the stone floor he heard them in the room above "What the" "Look under the beds" "Try the chest" The sound of crashing furniture, the scrape of a bedstead on the floor Someone kicked him in the side The roo shadows The clay earth smell of the floor choked his nostrils, and the sweat-and-leather stink of the guards

"Where is he?"

Rhion one, I don&039;t know"

The guard kicked hiainst the wall The next second he was grabbed by the front of his robe and hauled to his feet, pain stabbing hiht one of theer into hied him to the hearth, where the remains of the small supper fire still smoldered One held him by an arm twisted behind his back while the other pokered aside the layer of ash, exposing the glowing core of eht his hand, forced it toward the si heat "Where is he ?"

"Don&039;t waste tiile profile stained amber by the sudden renewal of the flames "Get out and search the area The old one far And in any case," he addedRhion&039;s hand so close to the coals that the heat of theers, "we don&039;t want to burn his right hand He&039;ll need that to sign his confession"

Even in that extreh Rhion&039;s mind to mention to Esrex that he was left-handed, but that, he kneould be asking for a shovelful of coals in his palainst the ith another knife thrust of pain, but through a gray tide of sweating nausea heout of the house, into the square, the alleyways around it, and across the roofs He&039;s blind, Rhion thought desperately Without uardswo speed after she&039;d gone down "Nobody down there - nothing but witchery, soic"

The Well would be quiescent, Rhion thought blankly - a pity One of theht have fallen into it

Andat its destruction All Jaldis&039; work

Esrex paused directly in front of hilass "The confession that&039;s going to greet his Grace when he and the Earl of the Purple Forest return to Bragenht," he said softly "The confession that the child my dear little cousin carries in her belly is yours"

He was already cold with shock, but still he felt as if the floor had sunk away beneath his feet "That&039;s impossible"

"Oh, coue, realizing that his blurted protest would have been a confession I&039;ve been using spells of barrenness on her to prevent that, dammit!

"Her chaon, you see," Esrex went on, apparently absorbed in slove ever ered, childlike hands, but watching Rhion from beneath colorless lashes as he spoke "The inforets under one&039;s nails There is no question that she has put horns on the Earl That&039;s all I really need to prevent that traitor Prinagos fro one could describe the Muriks as decent But it will give me considerable pleasure," he went on, and looked up with a thin little s of his fieshless lips, "to see you, ant little warlock, pay the fullest possible penalty for rape"

Half the population of Shuttlefly Court was gathered around the door to watch Esrex&039; bravos ht showed him their faces - the tired, dirty, or unshaven faces of the weavers to whom he&039;d sold herbal siht luck-charle-haired brown faces of the laundrywomen who&039;d come to him to have their fortunes read The faces were blank and nonco on the side of the road Soiggle: "Wi-zard, wi-zard, Turn you into a li-zard" and shrieks of nervous laughter from the other children in the square

Another clear little treble crowed, "Witch, witch, Give you the itch" and a rotting peach squished soggily against his sleeve The two guards eren&039;t searching the neighborhood for Jaldis roped his wrists together and mounted their horses Nobody even called out, What&039;d he do? They all knehat he&039;d probably done, having heard it traded back and forth in taverns all their lives: poisoned an old et his money, seduced an honest woman by means of spells, blackmailed a woman who came to him for help, and ruined so an Eye on their shop or stove or cattle

Jaldis, daet the hell out of town if you can The men kicked their horses to a trot and he stu if he could The pain in his side was unbelievable, turning hietting up As they disappeared around the corner into Thimble Lane he saw from the tail of his eye two of the local loiterers, pine-knot torches in hand, go curiously, cautiously into the house he and Jaldis had shared, looking to see what pickings they could find

The horsemen avoided theto themazes of sht of the torches they bore Rhion h the dirt lanes of the Old Town, though the dust thrown up by the hooves nearly choked hi He fell on the steep cobbled rise that led to the golden laet on his feet again, he concentrated what strength he had on keeping his head clear of the granite chunks that paved the street and not passing out It wasn&039;t far - at most a hundred feet - but he was nearly unconscious when they caranite-paved court

"Where&039;s the other one?" a voice de to see where he was It was useless His spectacles had been knocked off so the journey, and all he had was a blurred i dark walls But the sh to tell him Not a tree, not a fountain, not a statue broke the dark ht of water, flowers, grass, or any of the dungs people paid for when they bought houses in the Upper Town Only stone And far-off, the led scents of incense and blood

And terrible silence, the silence of the brooding god

The Teht, steely voice said A sliht, he stood surrounded by three or four - it was difficult to tell without spectacles - pillars of shrouded black The pearls braided into his hair gleaet far; anyway, this is the one we need"

Rhion barely heard the sound of footfalls as one black figure detached itself fro through the tatters of his torn robe Looking up he saw nothing, only the pale hands protruding fro But he felt the eyes The voice was high and epicene - it could have been hteous spite

"I suspect the Duke will have a different opinion of wizardry when faced with a hter"

Rhion turned over, his body hurting as if he had been beaten with clubs, to look across at where Esrex still stood "And what about a woman who used those powers to seduce her own husband?" he asked, fighting for breath, surprised at how changed his voice sounded in his own ears - slurred like a drunkard&039;s He tasted blood as he spoke "Or did you think that fit of lust you had for Da was the result of soon looked at one another for a moment, and for that moment, Esrex did not move Then, without hurry, he walked to the nearest doorhere a painted clay la it, he blew it out and ca near-by stepped aside, and Esrex removed the lamp&039;s top and poured the oil deliberately down over Rhion&039;s face, hair, and the front of his robe Then he took a torch froain," he said quietly, "and you&039;ll discover that there are worse things than the penalty for forcing a virgin to open her legs to you by means of your spells For myself I don&039;t care - a true man cannot be affected by such tricks - but you have slandered a good and loyal woman for whom my love has never wavered since first I saw her face As she will attest" And he slashed doith the torch

Rhion twisted aside as well as he could, covering his face with his oil-soaked ar, Nice Got any other clever ideas? He felt the heat of the fla inches from his cheek, tried desperately not to think about ould happen next Opening his eyes after a hideously long h to his face to be more or less clear to hi-toed shoes of embroidered ivory satin he&039;d had on the day of their confrontation in the grotto

"Remember," Esrex&039; voice said above him, "that we don&039;t really need you alive" He handed the torch back to the guard "Now take hi roo in the wall Three or four y trousers of laborers or slaves Masks covered their faces, but Rhion guessed, looking near-sightedly at the hard-hs, that two of theuards - of noble or wealthy fa service at the beck of the priests whose followers they were Others ers, or chair bearers - the cult of Agon welcomed men and women, children, too, of all classes, anyone who could be of use All of these, to judge by their conversation, were ignorant, foulhted to have soht The roo torches set all around the walls not only adding to the accu smoke as well Thethemselves, but never took their eyes froh that Rhion was unable to lie down Though his wrists had stopped bleeding, the pain and crarew steadily worse until he had to set his teeth to reuards, of stale wine, and of the oil that still soaked his hair and beard and clothes turned him faint and sick, and he wondered if the priests of Darova were right and there was a hell, and he&039;d soed

The guards sprang to their feet, bowing in obeisance Silent as the shadow of a crow, a black-veiled priest glided in They ht distractedly The priest said no word, but, at a sign frouards pulled Rhion to his feet and held his arms and his head while the priest drew from his robes a steel needle and a tiny vial of some liquid hich he coated the needle&039;s tip before stabbing it, hard and accurately, into the big veins of Rhion&039;s neck

Then he left again, without speaking a word

More pheelas, Rhion thought groggily, as he sank back to the floor Did thatsome of his power to use his spectacles - if he had his spectacles with hiht hiainst so a rat? And anyhere could he go? Criht sanctuary in the temples, but no cult offered sanctuary to wizards Wizardry was an offense to the power of all gods There was not one, not even Mhorvianne the Merciful, ould let the ht about Jaldis, hauling hiens of drunkards who prowled the streets on su up anyone they saw, and about the pickpockets and thieves who haunted the alleyways, ould kill a man for his boots

And Tally? What the hell had happened to Tally?

Could she really be with child?

It had to be a trap, he thought frantically Even if she had another lover besides himself - which he knen to the marrow of his bones she had not - the spells by which he prevented her fro would have worked, no matter who she lay with Dae, but I can at least get that spell right It&039;s not as if she were using a counterspell against it

And then the warm sweetness of the reen, musky smell of the reeds and the silkenover Tally&039;s crea me with every kind of herb and tea and potion she knows

Da, &039;Oh, when you bear your husband&039;s child you&039;ll knohat true happiness is&039;

He reo, Tally had come to him to buy a philter to make Dae It would not have takenconancy the tincture Jaldis had mixed for her in the candlelit dimness of that painted rooh hand seized his hair and cracked his head back against the stonewall behind hiainst the torchlight, cheap wine stinking in his sweat

"You quit that, you hear?"