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&039;Daht that he looked very white in the wild ju of shadows The first blow of that incredible power sates had jarred the torches in their sockets, and they guttered nervously, as if the light itself tre of the Dark Behind her in the Aisle, utter chaos prevailed

Men with torches ran to and fro, callinghtened hands Little flocks of children and old people, the nuclei of s the watercourses, as close to the centre of the great space as they could get, having fled their cells in terror when the pounding started Others, mothers and fathers who had left their dependants back in the close darkness of their cells, crowded around Janus and the s their ar assurances of safety Janus towered above these lesser people in the torchlight, his voice deep and intense, allaying fears and recruiting patrols as best he could in that whirling chaos of noise and laht, with darkness like velvet and a randoht Thank God, the Keep is solid stone Maybe we can get out of this&039;without iet us first, she added

But Ingold was there, and Gil had never found it possible to be truly afraid when she was at the wizard&039;s side

So she felt only a kind of cold detachh her veins and her body tingled with a cold excitement The separation was physical as well as eether on the steps before the gates, with the pounding, sounding roar of the beaten steel at their backs; none would come near them there

The noise in the Aisle was tre with the wild keening of voices, to rise and ring in the huge ceiling vaults until the whole Aisle was one vast sounding chamber Men and wo of the torches and la of fireflies on a suates was a bass vibration that sounded in her bones

Ingold turned to her and asked quietly, &039;Is Bektis here?&039; He named the Court

Wizard of the Chancellor Alwir, the only other e in the Keep

&039;Surely you jest,&039; Gil murmured, for Bektis had a old did not shtened his eyes turned his whole face briefly, elusively young It was gone as quickly as it caain

&039;Then I fear that I shall have no choice,&039; the wizard said softly The blue-white glow from the end of his staff touched his face in shadow; the flicker of&039;the torches beyond ht have been responsible for the illusion Gil had of bitter self-reproach in the old man&039;s expression, but she could not be sure &039;Gil, I had not wanted to ask this of you, for you are not reat&039;

That doesn&039;t arded her for a moment, and a curious expression that she could not read overlay the serenity of his face &039;No, to you it would not&039; Taking her hands, he placed his staff in theh she felt no sense of power or vibration in the staff itself It was only wood, grip-smoothed over decades of use, and noarht may fade if the spells of the Dark draw off too much of my power,&039; he warned her &039;But don&039;t desert me&039;

&039;No,&039; Gil said, surprised that he should even old smiled at the self-evident tone in her voice &039;I a that either of us will survive this,&039; he went on &039;But if the outer gates go, the inner ones will crumple like thin tin Icefalcon!&039; he called, and the thin young captain ran to the Janus&039; Guards

It was thus that Rudy saw them as he dropped the last few feet down a makeshift ladder from a rickety second-level balcony They looked like scouts in eneate torches, their faces revealed by the white light of the staff The cla into one continuous assault, roaring like an earsplitting cannonade that set the inner gates visibly vibrating and stopped Rudy&039;s breath with horror

Someone close to hiht-footed run, braids white in the shadows against his black surcoat, and began to turn the locking rings that closed the inner gates The thought of the pounding fury in the night outside made Rudy&039;s blood run cold, but he would not for any reason whatever have gone close enough to the gates to stop thees; the bellowing roar of the assault on the outer gates rolled fro tidal wave of sound The black square gaped, a clanginghorror

In the white circle of the old and Gil stood like lovers, wizard and warrior, their nicked, bruised swordsman&039;s hands joined on the wood of the staff Then Rudy, his soul cringing, saw Ingold turn away andstaff upraised like a lantern in her hand

She can&039;t be doing that! Rudy thought desperately, running to the foreroups that stood in the Aisle She hasn&039;t got any ates and swao toward thee of the darkness

The blackness of the passage framed the old irl in faded black with the white e above her head The bawling roar of the power of the Dark surrounded theht of that enclosed space, but neither Gil nor Ingold looked around Ingold&039;s eyes were on the gates, Gil&039;s, unquestioningly calold&039;s back

She&039;s crazy, Rudy thought in horror Never, never, never,

Ingold had reached the end of the narrow tunnel By the saning glow of the witchlight, Rudy saw hiates Only inches of er that haunted the night outside - separated everyone in the Keep froht flickered, fading

And like fire, spreading froertips, Rudy could see the runes that spelled the gates They see within the metal like schools of fish below the surface of clear water, visible only to his wizard&039;s sight But under Ingold&039;s touch they brightened, flickering into life in a ork of shining graffiti, spread over the gates from top to bottom and across the walls beside thehter and tighter as liht from them outlined the oldfoxfire glow Silenced by the beauty of it, Rudy forgot the danger and the wrath of the Dark outside He watched Ingold&039;s hands alaxy, his touch calling forth the woven na those lattices of light

Impossibly, under the harsh, wild roar, Rudy could hear hi his own spells of ward and guard there, placing his power on the doors As he had felt it on the road down fro and surrounding that nondescript little man

&039;What the hell does that old fool think he&039;s doing?

The words were screamed out a foot from Rudy&039;s ear He could barely ates His concentration broke For an instant he saw Ingold as nonwizards would see hi alone in the darkness, tracing iers Then Rudy swung around to see the Chancellor Alwir at his side, the er

&039;He&039;s spelling the doors!&039; Rudy shouted back

The Chancellor brushed past hi forward up the steps &039;He&039;ll have us all killed!&039; Alwir strode through the darkness and the roar of sound like a reat door in order to shove it to The counterweighted steelsant, the Icefalcon looked across into the Chancellor&039;s jewel-blue eyes

Rudy couldn&039;t hear what passed between the fury froe beyond, and the Icefalcon did not raise his voice to reply The cacophony was hardly so much sound anymore as an elemental force that blotted sound In the sickly pallor reflected froates had an air of nightmare unreality blurred by the dirty redness of the torches The two black-clothed men faced each other soundlessly, the one raven, the other pale as ice

Though Gil, within the tunnel of the gates,place, Rudy could not see that she so ht of the staff she held was dying

Looking beyond Alwir and the Icefalcon into the darkness, Rudy saw to his horror that the light of the runes had entirely died Ingold stood alone in a dark hollow of soundingsteel the silver tracing of his own spells Still Rudy saw hins that flickered and were sed by the ates, Rudy heard Alwir yell, &039;Shut the gates! I order you to stand off and shut the hirown utterly dark

The Chancellor cried soreat battle voice, and his hand went to the hilt of his sword Metal flashed in the reddish shadows of the torches as it swept free of its scabbard

and the faint hiss-ching of the edge singing clear was as audible and distinct as a note of music

The sudden, utter silence that fell upon the hall was like a roaring in the ears It was like an outdoor silence in so huge a place, for the first second unbroken even by a drawn breath a the several hundreds of people who had coe in the Aisle So deep was the hush that lay over theht tread of Ingold&039;s returning feet

The wizard stepped through the dark gate, with Gil e froently to The faint, hollow boo reverberated to the ends of that soundless hall

The gates will hold against the Dark now&039; Like the sound of the gates, Ingold&039;s grainy voice was low, but it carried to the farthest corners &039;It ht, but I think the er is past&039;

&039;You - foolish - old - bastard!&039; Alwrr&039;s resonant voice grated over the words like a file &039;Opening the inner doors could have been the death of us all!&039;

They would never have held if the Dark Ones had forced the spells on the outer,&039; the wizard returned mildly His face was very white, and his hair was h to hiether steady Quietly, she returned his staff to hily as a flaying whip &039;And is that so else that you, as a wizard, speak of with sole authority? As the only wizard in the Keep, do you feel justified in every crackpot scheold raised heavy-lidded blue eyes to meet Alwir&039;s &039;Not the only wizard,&039; he replied softly &039;Ask your courtaround &039;Bektis!&039;

The as snapped in the way a dog-handlerbelly-down to heel The court nity from the crowd that had formed itself before the western doors and ca fire over the bullion eates would have broken or not,&039; he said, stroking his waist-length silvery beard with delicate fingers, &039;it would have been perhaps better, had you consulted with others before any course was decided upon&039; He looked haughtily down his nose at Ingold Rudy could see his high, domed forehead all pearled with sweat

&039;Indeed it would have,&039; another voice purred suddenly, low and dry and as thin as wind through bone, &039;had you been here&039;

Bektis turned as if bitten Govannin Narmenlion, Bishop of Gae, moved up the steps toward them at the head of a small company of the Red Monks, the bald-shaved warriors of the Church Above the gory crimson of the episcopal robes, the Bishop&039;s face was thin and bone-hard, a skeleton with living coals burning in the dark eye sockets Only the fullness of her lips betrayed her sex Her harsh voice rode easily over the court old Inglorion But it is said that the Devil guards his own&039;

Ihgold bowed to her &039;As does the Straight God, my lady,&039; he replied &039;You know better than I in whose hands rest the people of the Keep&039; He looked ready to pass out on his feet, but he met the chill, fanatic eyes levelly, and it was Govannin who turned away

&039;And he was not the only one conspicuous by his absence, my lady Bishop,&039; Alwir added with sweet malice

&039;Indeed,&039; the Bishop replied calmly &039;Many were absent frouard their stores of food, lest those be looted while they were gone&039;

The Chancellor&039;s brows shot up, then plunged, hooding eyes that were the salory blue as his sister Minalde&039;s, but hard as the sapphires he wore around his neck &039;Looted?&039;

&039;Or inventoried,&039; the Bishop went on softly, &039;to be erously &039;- reference&039;

He lashed out, &039;And you think that in the midst of an attack by the Dark Ones -&039;

&039;The Faith must protect itself as it can,&039; she shot back at him &039;To preserve our independence, we must be beholden to no secular power for bread&039;

&039;As Lord of the Keep, I have the right to control -

&039;Lord of the Keep!&039; Govannin spat scornfully &039;The brother of the Regent for the true King, my lord, and that only A e, the very left hand of Satan, here aht God upon your endeavours&039;

&039;The Straight God works in ainst the Dark in their Nests is to succeed, we shall need both the troops of the Empire of Alketch in the south and the wizards of the west&039;

Like flint, his words struck fire froht God has no truck with the tools of Satan,&039; she snapped, &039;nor with those who foul their hands with such tools&039;

&039;We are beyond the time when a ruler can pick and choose his tools&039;

&039;There is never a ti with the Crooked One is excusable&039;

Quietly, Gil took Ingold&039;s arm, and they descended the steps to the main body of the shadowed Aisle The oldon his staff Those who had crowded around to see the confrontation betizard and Chancellor fell back froainst evil Rudy fell quietly into step with them He nodded back to where the Chancellor and the Bishop were still squabbling and shook his head &039;I don&039;t believe this&039;