“The thing is hunting down everybody up there.”įor a moment I thought even Silent would protest. “The Paper Tower must be an abattoir,” I muttered. “You decided what you’d do if you had to. “You’ve been thinking about this since you found out that thing was loose,” the Captain said. Tom-Tom and One-Eye protested vehemently. Rage and frustration at an impossible situation had fixed on the forvalaka. “Now we act.” He was difficult to know, our commander, but was transparent now. “We’ve talked enough,” the Captain growled. Sorcery is better, but even that isn’t much use.” Never before had I heard him admit limitations. He seemed a whisker less scared than Tom-Tom. “Can they be killed?” The Captain put a hard edge on his voice. Both were over a hundred, if the Annals could be believed. He was a year older than Tom-Tom, but at their age no one was counting. He was a wrinkled little black man no bigger than his brother, usually possessed by a bizarre sense of humor. It seemed to droop at his hip.Īnother scream from the Syndic’s quarters. Tom-Tom said, “The man-leopard is in the Bastion, Captain.” He forgot to punctuate with his drum. One-Eye, Tom-Tom, Goblin, Silent, and a dozen others pushed inside. “What?” the Captain snapped.Ī voice muted by thick wood responded. The Captain finished scribbling a letter. Chances are it was imagination, but I thought I heard something growl as it padded past. I stood with my back against it, eyes closed, panting. “Want to get yourself killed?” There were more cries from the Syndic’s quarters. “Get in here, Croaker,” the Captain ordered. I stood over him, numbly wondering why he was back so soon. I drew my sword, charged through the door-smack into Candy. The scream was loud and long and hopeless, and ended abruptly. I saw it come over the wall.” My voice squeaked like Goblin’s. His room was illuminated by a single feeble candle. I found him on his cot, hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling. I fled toward the nearest door, took a protected route to the Captain’s quarters, lei myself in without knocking. The monkey in my backbrain wanted to scamper up a tail tree, screeching, to hurl excrement and rotted fruit. It padded down the stair into the courtyard, vanished. It moved as fluidly as water running downhill. I became as motionless as the gargoyles perched over the gate. Maybe tomorrow, if the heat and humidity became too oppressive. The movement of torches eventually diminished. If it developed a brain we would find ourselves caught in a revolution. The mob was evolving, developing a nervous system. I stayed on the wall, watching distant torches roam the city. They fled, pelting us with curses and insults. A few missiles and a few pots of hot water. “We’ve go! to.”Ī tribune of the garrison shoved through the door. They’re on the edge of another explosion.” “I encountered a lot of antagonism in the Groan. The regular garrison have stopped deserting.” “It hasn’t penetrated the Bastion,” the Captain observed. It’ll get worse if people don’t start burning bodies.” I chimed in, “The carrier doesn’t matter. And all of us who went into the tomb are still healthy.” The Captain growled, “Tom-Tom? You know this beast.” The plague comes in pockets around its kills.” What’s it like out there?” I had been sent to scout the city. Tom-Tom muttered, “You don’t know what you’re doing. Candy was running the Captain’s reply to the envoy. The Captain had made the legate a counter-proposal, been offered his patronage should the Syndic perish. “Anybody else want to argue? You bastards had your chance to get rid of me. “Just deliver the case!” the Captain snarled at Candy, “Then get your butt back here.” Your enemies are ready to move.” He made a gesture that dismissed us. An interesting puzzle, no? Go back to your captain. I kept my suspicions off my face, I’m sure. I thought of the lightning bolt that had obliterated a spell of confinement on a plaque that had resisted tampering for a millenium. “The thing out of the crypt?” The envoy’s voice was that of the woman of your dreams, purring “come on.” “What about the forvalaka?” Zig when they expect you to zag. Something told me that was not the moment to ask. There is a need for good soldiers in the north.”ĭing-ding. I would be willing to assume the commission. An alarm bell banged away four inches behind my eyes. “A simple matter to slip boats in and take you off.” Ding-ding. Those bugger-masters would just besiege us and giggle till we ate each other.” The name comes from the moaning the wind makes passing through the caverns. It thrusts out to sea a day’s march east of Beryl. The Pillar of Anguish is an arrowhead of a chalk headland wormholed with countless little caverns.
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