Authors: Kelly McCullough
Broken Blade (41 page)
I still had to try. But before I’d gone two steps, Zass let out a horrible hissing screech and Devin went down hard, falling flat on his back. The stone dog landed with a noise like a building coming down, plunging deep into the ground and vanishing under the surface. Fei and Deem both moved in on Devin.
They were going to kill him, and then me. Sumey would kill Maylien. It would all be over, and there was nothing I could do about it because I was too damn far away at the critical moment. But then a mad idea occurred to me.
With a rolling snap of elbows and shoulders I disarmed myself, throwing both of my swords at Deem’s back as I continued to run forward. Magic never would have worked; the colonel was too wrapped around with spells of protection for me to unravel them all in the time I had, and I simply didn’t have anything else to try. Master Kelos was probably rolling in his grave at the very idea—he’d given us enough lectures about the uncertainty involved in throwing even a knife in anything but a distraction tactic. A sword thrown to kill was the ultimate fool’s bet. Doubly so in this case since I hadn’t ever practiced the trick with these blades.
But sometimes even fools win. My left-hand sword hit Deem high in the side, but it had underrotated, coming in more like a slice than a stab and it bounced off without seriously hurting him. The right-hand blade, on the other hand, sank a foot and a half into the colonel’s back, right at kidney height, and he fell forward, fouling Fei’s thrust at Devin.
A moment later, Fei was leaping backward, with blood sheeting down over her sword hand from a nasty slash on her forearm. Deem was lying flat on his belly, unmoving. And Devin had rolled over and up onto his feet, though his left leg was also covered in blood, and he had to move by hopping. The stone dog hadn’t yet resurfaced, and now Devin made sure it never would by beheading its fallen master. I crossed the last of the distance to Deem’s corpse in a mad dash and retrieved my swords. I was exhausted, but I still had Devin, Fei, and Sumey to manage and no idea what to do about any of them.
I pointed one sword each at Devin and Fei. “All right, we need to stop—”
I was interrupted by a piercing scream from the direction I’d last seen Maylien heading. But then she let out a wild string of profanity, and I knew she was still in the fight. In fact, it sounded like she was coming back our way.
“I think your girlfriend’s about to die, Aral,” said Devin. “Don’t you think you should go do something about that?”
“What
is
Sumey?” I demanded. “Tell me right now, or I’ll kill you, right now.”
is
Sumey?” I demanded. “Tell me right now, or I’ll kill you, right now.”
The shadow of a dragon fell on the ground between us. “I’ll help.”
“Killing me won’t save her. You know that, right?” Devin smiled, though I could see it cost him. “You can probably beat me right now, but it’ll take time you don’t have.” In addition to the deep gash in his left thigh, he had numerous minor cuts and a truly ugly band of blisters running across his brow and up into the charred remnants of his hair. “But I might be willing to cut a deal. I want to walk away from this.”
I glanced from Devin to Fei, wondering what she thought of all this. I really didn’t want to kill her, but I wasn’t sure I was going to have any other options. When my eyes met hers, her nostrils flared, and she gave a faint shake of her head, opening her wounded hand—she’d shifted her sword to her uninjured side.
“I’ve got nothing, Aral.” Then, as if she couldn’t help herself Fei asked, “You’re the Kingslayer, aren’t you?”
“He is that, honey,” Devin said with a sneer. “Pride of fucking Namara.”
I moved without thinking, lunging at Devin, one sword going for an eye, the other for his groin. His double parry was slow and wouldn’t have saved him, if he hadn’t leaped backward at the same time. But he’d forgotten his wounded leg, and he went down on his back when it folded under him.
“Here’s the only fucking deal you’re going to get, Devin. You tell me what Sumey is in the next ten seconds, and I don’t kill you for the next ten seconds.”
“Fuck you.” He raised his swords, and I wanted to cry because he was right.
I
didn’t
have time for this. I could kill Devin, but not easily and certainly not quickly. Even wounded and on his back, he could cost me minutes I didn’t dare waste.
didn’t
have time for this. I could kill Devin, but not easily and certainly not quickly. Even wounded and on his back, he could cost me minutes I didn’t dare waste.
“I’ll help,” said Fei, raising her sword to point at Devin. “We can work out our own deal later.”
Maylien suddenly came into view, emerging from behind a bit of hedge maybe a score of yards beyond Devin. She was limping badly, and covered in blood and mud from the ring and garden. She’d lost her sword somewhere along the line and she had an unconscious Bontrang clutched against her side. She saw us and started in our direction.
Sumey followed her out from behind the hedge. She was walking slow and steady, her sword held casually in front of her. If it weren’t for the gleaming steel stub sticking out from between her ribs, I’d never have known she’d been stabbed. Where the hell was the blood? She should be covered in the stuff. And then I had it.
“She’s one of the risen, isn’t she?”
I didn’t realize I’d spoken aloud until Devin answered me. “She is that. Give the man his prize. Not that knowing it is going to do you a damn bit of good. You can’t kill her—”
But I was already ahead of him, and I interrupted. “Not with these swords maybe, but with one of Namara’s . . .” I pointed one of mine at one of his. “Looks like you get to live, Devin. I’ll trade you one of my swords and your life for one of yours if you hand it over right now. I’ll even give it back to you once I’m done. Oath to Namara.”
“Deal.” He flipped his left-hand sword around to offer me the hilt.
I dropped one of mine at his side and took it. Sumey and Maylien were barely twenty feet away, and I started toward them. Devin laughed.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
“It won’t work. I was about to tell you that when you cut me off. I’ve already stabbed her through the heart with that very same blade. I did it right after the bitch burned the Old Mews down to hide her plans to eventually betray me. She just smiled and asked if we still had a deal. What could I say? Namara’s dead, Aral, and her magic with her.”
“She may be as dead as your soul, Devin. But I’m not.” I dashed forward, putting myself between Maylien and her sister. “Sumey!”
The risen looked up at me, a cold dead smile curling her lips. “Yes?”
“This ends here and now.”
“Yes,” she said. “It does. Take your best shot.” She dropped her sword to her side and laughed. “Then I’ll take mine.”
I lunged forward and drove Devin’s goddess-made sword straight between Sumey’s breasts. It was a futile gesture, and I knew it was a futile gesture. But Sumey, with her torture chambers and her cruelty and her contempt, was everything the goddess had ever stood against, everything I had ever stood against. I couldn’t not try.
The sword went home to the hilt and Sumey smiled at me. She opened her mouth to speak, but all that came out was a sort of sigh that might have contained the word “Namara.” For an instant, I thought I felt something like fingers touching my forehead in the ghost of a benediction. Sumey’s expression twisted from contempt to hatred as her body went limp, and she slumped slowly to the ground. For a few long seconds she glared hate at me. Then the animating will left her body, and she died.
“I don’t understand,” Devin said, as I withdrew the sword from Sumey’s chest. “That’s the same damn thrust I made.”
I turned and walked over to where he lay. “Here’s your sword.”
Only it wasn’t his. It hadn’t been his in years. It was ever and always Namara’s. And maybe, just for a few seconds, it had been mine.
“How did you do that?” Devin demanded, without taking the offered hilt.
“
I
didn’t.”
I
didn’t.”
“Namara’s dead, Aral. Dead. Dead. Dead.”
And suddenly I pitied him. “Somewhere along the line you lost sight of the one thing that really mattered, didn’t you, Devin? The Emperor of Heaven may have killed Namara, but no one can ever kill Justice.”
I dropped the sword at his feet. I didn’t need it, and maybe, just maybe, it would help him find his way. It was all I could do for him, or to him, for that matter. Then I turned my attention to Maylien and Fei. The latter was binding a strip of clean red fabric around a deep burn in the former’s arm. Triss put himself between me and Devin in dragon shape, guarding my back.
“What happened?” I asked Maylien.
“Sumey clawed my arm, and I burned the wound clean because I’d realized what she was by then. The backlash of the pain is what knocked Bontrang out.”
I put an arm around Maylien’s waist and gave her a squeeze. “You all right?” She squeezed me back and nodded.
“I will be once Bontrang comes around. It hit him pretty hard, but I can feel him starting to wake up now. What are we going to do about . . .” She indicated Captain Fei with her chin.
“The simplest answer would be for me to kill you, Captain. You know that, right?”
Fei shook her head and put away her sword. “I don’t think so, Aral. If you really wanted me dead, we wouldn’t be talking. No, the way I see it, you need at least one live official witness prepared to swear that Maylien here delivered the duel’s killing blow in a completely legal and magic-free manner.”
“That would certainly make things easier,” I said. “Maybe we need to make an arrangement.”
“Arrangement is practically my middle name,” said Fei. “Tell me what you want, and we’ll talk.”
“Two things. Maylien takes Marchon.”
“Of course.”
“Aral Kingslayer was never here.”
Fei smiled. “As far as I know, Aral Kingslayer hasn’t been seen or heard from since the fall of Namara’s temple.”
“And in exchange?” I asked.
“Oh, all kinds of things. For starters, Marchon’s a rich barony, and I’m a poor civil servant.”
Maylien nodded. “I’m sure we can manage a big donation to Captain Fei’s fund for the betterment of Captain Fei. What else?”
“Well,” Fei said to me, “you know the kinds of things I get up to. I’m sure you’ll be very helpful with all sorts of jobs in the future. Take for example the matter of . . . no.” She glanced meaningfully at Devin, who’d just gotten to his feet and shook her head. “Let’s talk about this later, in private. Suffice it to say that you owe me nine-and-ninety kinds of favors, and we’ve got a deal.” She sniffed, then turned her head toward the burning wing of the house. “Smoky. Shouldn’t you two be doing something about that fire?”
“Yes,” said Maylien, “probably, though I have no idea what. I suspect we’ll lose the whole wing though I can hope the fire wards will protect the main building.”
That’s when Heyin and his people came running up the carriageway. Maylien hurried to meet them while Devin began to limp away. I started after Maylien.
Out of the corner of my eye I caught the shadow of a tayra touching noses with the shadow of a dragon. Then the tayra sadly bowed its shoulders, and the dragon fell in behind me.
Epilogue
I
paused at the edge of the orange grove and drew aside the curtain of shadow that covered my face. I wanted a better look at the third-floor balcony and my goal. The moon was high and near to full, providing a clear view. The climb was easy enough, but the dense thicket of imperial roses I had to pass through to get to the wall made for a painful obstacle. Sadly, in the first clutches of fall, they were long past their blooming season, which would have provided some small recompense for the blood I’d lose slipping through them.
paused at the edge of the orange grove and drew aside the curtain of shadow that covered my face. I wanted a better look at the third-floor balcony and my goal. The moon was high and near to full, providing a clear view. The climb was easy enough, but the dense thicket of imperial roses I had to pass through to get to the wall made for a painful obstacle. Sadly, in the first clutches of fall, they were long past their blooming season, which would have provided some small recompense for the blood I’d lose slipping through them.
I crossed the open ground to the roses fast and low, staying hidden within Triss’s enshrouding presence. Then I worked my way quietly through the wall of thorns to the corner of the building. From there it was easy enough to climb to the level of the second-floor windows and use them to make my way across to the balcony. A short jump got me from there to the railing. Over and down into the shadow of a planter, and I was in position. Now it was just a matter of waiting.
And not long either. I couldn’t have been there more than a quarter of an hour when the door from the house opened. Two footmen came out carrying a tray and some cushions, quickly moving to the small marble table that sat within the shadow of the arbor. They put two glasses and two plates on the table along with a lamp and a variety of decanters and small covered dishes. They arranged cushions on three of the four chairs. They wore red shirts and pants, as was the current fashion for servants, as well as slightly baffled expressions, which were always in fashion for anyone who had to deal with the whims of the nobility.
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