Darkvision

CHAPTER FIVE

Low hills, bumpy knolls, and rocky ridges broke up the afternoon light. Covered in scrub grass, the hills' color varied between brown and pale gold, while the barren ridges revealed dark purple striatums of vanished centuries. Here and there, stone slabs thrust up from the earthen hilltops, sometimes singly, other times in groups forming ancient rings of debatable purpose.

Since Iahn had ascended to the sunlit lands outside the magically sealed Deep Imaskar, he'd undergone a slow change in attitude. He was beginning to suspect he was made for wide open lands, not closely proscribed walls and corridors.

It amused him to recall that prior to his recent travels, he hadn't had the breadth of experience to think of his home as "proscribed." Before, he'd never thought of the artificially illuminated city behind the Great Seal as confining-but he'd never known anything else.

The vengeance taker's gaze wandered across the wide open, sun-baked landscape. Despite the variation offered by the hills, he traveled through essentially empty terrain, free of obstacles to clutter his view. His eyes could wander without getting snagged on walls, trees, or mountains, as long as he didn't look east.

Without distractions to his vision, his mind had space to roam, too. The vacancy of the earth cried to be filled, and so he filled it with tumbling thoughts, ideas, and even aspirations he'd rarely pondered since his childhood. No thought was too big or too odd to entertain.

The emptiness was restful as much as liberating. The sameness of the plain and sky was a balm, and it calmed the constant anxiety that plagued him-what was the fate of Deep Imaskar in his absence? Would he find the fugitive soon enough? If he found her, what then?

So much for the balm of empty land.

Anyway, he was close to his target. He smelled a change in the air.

Iahn moved closer, altering the angle of the scene by cresting the intervening edge of a rocky bluff.

Not more than three hundred paces from the first swelling hillside stood the coach Iahn had trailed over the last months. It could be no other-its long shape and widely set wheels conformed to the ruts he'd come to know so well. From where he stood, surveying the site, he saw no horses or other beasts of burden capable of pulling the coach. As he had suspected-his quarry summoned steeds at need.

The coach's door crashed open, and several creatures tumbled out.

Iahn blinked, startled.

Before he could focus on the emerging figures, his attention was snatched by a hulking form that stepped out from behind the coach.

Half again as tall as a human, the massive beast had thick, gray skin with features not unlike those of a troll. Its hunched, apelike posture emphasized its substantial bulk and hinted at the power of its huge fists. Its lower torso and legs were wrapped in uncured hides, forming crude clothing. A leather thong around its neck bore a raw chunk of purplish crystal.

Unless more hid in the coach, the vengeance taker counted a total of four creatures, none of them the fugitive.

Of the trio that spilled out of the coach, Iahn identified two people in long white gowns, reminding him of the desert nomads he'd met when he'd skirted the Plains of Purple Dust. Except those folk had been humans, and their garments had been dark brown. These were some variety of elf. One elf dervish was female, the other male.

The last creature was humanoid, but of a race completely unfamiliar to Iahn. It was covered in a luxurious coat of ebony fur that complimented its black, pantherlike head. It had cloven hooves where Iahn expected feet or paws. Where it walked, a sheen lingered in its hoofprints before slowly evaporating. Iahn recognized it as the same glistening spoor he'd encountered a few days earlier.

The vengeance taker noted that each wore amulets similar to the troll's-the only visible clue that bound the entire group other than their proximity. Were these creatures servants of the fugitive, guarding her coach, or did they represent the force whispered to him by the Voice? Probably the latter, but the vengeance taker rarely reached conclusions without absorbing all possible information.

The panther-headed creature saw Iahn and pointed. Iahn stared back, wondering what they would do.

The two elf dervishes produced slender recurve bows from their garb, stringing them expertly in less than a heartbeat. The troll-thing swung its head around to regard Iahn, and screamed an incomprehensible battle cry. Then it charged.

Hostiles. He knew what to do about that. Iahn stepped back behind the edge of the bluff.

The vengeance taker muttered a few words of sorcery and ran one hand down the length of his body. Where his hand passed, his form became hazy and uncertain. Using this extra advantage, he eased back into a crevice.

The gray troll barreled around the edge of the rise, easily and quickly covering ground using both knuckles and feet. The earth trembled with each bounding step. It did not see Iahn, but paused, snuffling. The vengeance taker, whose position was hidden by both skill and magic, studied the creature's anatomy, musculature, and bulging veins. It was certainly of troll blood, but larger than any he had seen in a bestiary.

Iahn had studied on occasion in the Purple Library, an ancient and sadly out-of-date collection of scrolls, text fragments, and books retained in the heart of Deep Imaskar. He was an expert on all the bestiaries there. Apparently, troll varieties had multiplied and diversified in the millennia since the collection was gathered.

The vengeance taker studied the way the troll's muscles moved over its bones, the way its great chest rose and fell with each breath. He gently twisted the hilt of his dragonfly blade, then pulled it apart along the revealed seam. Silently, the thinblade slipped free of its enclosing hilt, giving Iahn the advantage of two weapons-the wafer-thin stiletto, and the long dragonfly blade, shaped like the wing of a dragonfly. Iahn froze, concentrating on his pursuer.

The troll snuffed and snuffled, its eyes vainly searching for its quarry. For his part, the vengeance taker had finished taking the creature's measure. A hollow caught the vengeance taker's eye, high up on the creature's neck, right below its jaw. The monstrosity would be dead before it realized it was threatened. All he had to do was to step forward and plunge his thinblade up and in…

The troll's awful nose flared and the beast charged Iahn. The vengeance taker abandoned his plan, bobbing and weaving wide to the left instead. A great fist smashed into the rock, barely missing Iahn.

The stone cracked like thunder and a spray of shards rained down, leaving a fist-sized crater behind.

The beast had smelled him!

The vengeance taker struck, driving the thinblade deep into the creature-but missed the spot where he could have spilled the creature's life blood instantly.

The troll screamed nonetheless, surprised at the pain in its chest. Its claws fell with lethal fury, and Iahn rolled to evade the fatal embrace. He slashed at the creature's ankles, hoping to pierce a major artery, but its skin resisted his jabs.

Then a gray, questing hand grabbed him.

The troll lifted Iahn clear off the ground. He had sorely underestimated the threat the creature posed. The troll raised him higher, its roar a clarion, nearly bursting Iahn's eardrums. Its breath was a quagmire of rot and past blood feasts.

Scissoring his body in the troll's rough grip, he managed to slip the tip of his thinblade into the corner of its left eye. He simultaneously swung the longer dragonfly blade around to connect with the other side of the creature's head. It roared and dropped Iahn. The vengeance taker knew the wounds he'd inflicted were only superficial; after all, his opponent was a troll. Its flesh would knit soon enough.

"I see him," a voice pronounced. A slender gray shaft plunged into the ground at Iahn's feet as the vengeance taker dodged away from the gray troll's reach.

An answering voice said, "So do I, but he's wearing a charm of some sort. I missed." The last was said with some incredulity. The second voice was speaking in Elvish, one of the many languages Iahn had studied to achieve his rank and damos.

The two elves in desert dress stood not more than thirty paces from him, their bows drawn and nocked. The troll wheeled around, its eyes fastening on Iahn despite the blurring around the vengeance taker.

"Hold, I have not come to fight!" Iahn yelled in Elvish. He had lost the upper hand. He didn't doubt he could slay the troll by calling on his damos, but he didn't want to be skewered by the elves' arrows in the meantime.

The hoofed one rounded the knoll's edge. Iahn had enough experience with sorcery to recognize its infernal taint. It held up a hand, not speaking. Its eyes gleamed as if lit by tiny lavender flames. An answering fire burned in the creature's crystal amulet.

It said, "Then you will die all the sooner." It spoke not in the language of the elves-it used the speech of Imaskar.

This surprised Iahn. Perhaps these were guardians placed by the fugitive after all?

"Who are you?" demanded the vengeance taker.

"I am Deamiel, but you'll have little enough chance to remember it."

"Wait," interrupted Iahn. "Answer me this-do you serve the one called Ususi Manaallin? Has she set you against me?"

Deamiel executed a tittering shriek. It said, "We serve a power greater than mortal flesh. We are its eyes, its hands, and its claws.

Ususi Manaallin will fall to us by its command."

"This 'power' you serve-who is that?"

"The death of all that remains of Imaskar!" So saying, Deamiel pointed a finger at Iahn. "Slay this filth!"

The vengeance taker threw himself backward and tumbled expertly through the gap between the troll's legs. His enemy's slow-witted confusion provided him with temporary cover from the dervish archers.

A quick motion married Iahn's thinblade back into the hilt of his dragonfly blade, freeing one hand to gesticulate just so. His voice was unimpeded and able to verbalize, and residual power sang in his blood from his last sip from the damos. These, too, were his weapons and his defense, just as surely as his thinblade.

Iahn assayed a quickslide, pushing his talent to the brink. The light dimmed. He skipped through space as far as he could. Two hundred paces, perhaps three hundred…

The broad side of the travel coach stood directly in front of him, occluding the sun's glare. The vengeance taker leaned his weight against the side of the coach with his free hand, breathing hard but quietly. He was drained. He knew the creatures would not give him up quickly if Deamiel spoke the truth about slaying all from Deep Imaskar. One thing was clear-the creatures did not serve the fugitive.

They must be a further materialization of the troubles that had erupted in Deep Imaskar, Iahn mused. All the more reason for him to catch the fugitive, and quickly.

Iahn peered into the side window of the coach and saw it was empty. Cabinet doors stood ajar, and cups, food canisters, a shattered tea pot, an overturned lamp, and other items littered the floor and surfaces of the interior.

The creatures had been inside the coach when he'd first come upon them. They didn't know where Ususi was, either. But she had to be close. She wouldn't abandon her travel coach-it contained all her provisions. Of course, she could summon a mount at a moment's notice to bear her-but Iahn suspected she had invested too much in the coach to leave it behind.

The vengeance taker studied the nearest dolmen up the slope and the unfolding hills beyond. He decided that the best place to look for the fugitive would be somewhere in those downs.

On the other hand, he knew the cat-headed thing and its minions would find him quickly enough-he hadn't shifted more than a few hundred yards-unless he put more distance between them and himself.

He was already moving forward in a low, quick dash, ascending the slope, making for the first dolmen. If he could keep the coach between him and his pursuers' eyes just long enough…

"There! There!" Cries of discovery chased Iahn up the hill. The vengeance taker's posture changed-staying low no longer served any purpose. He lengthened his stride and pumped his legs, calling upon all his reserves.

He reached the first dolmen without catching an arrow or magical blast in the back, ducked behind it, and peered back carefully.

The four pursuers had crested the knoll where he'd first attempted to waylay the gray troll, and were running toward the coach. They had already covered half the distance. The vengeance taker had to even the odds and give himself more time to hide among the folds in the hills.

The troll would have to wait, and Deamiel was an unknown quantity, but the two archers…

Iahn leaned his dragonfly blade against the dolmen, then unbuckled the Imaskaran crossbow from its holster on his thigh with practiced ease. He unfolded the two arms and locked them into place, then strung the crossbow's wire. Six slender bolts were ingeniously clipped to the underside of the crossbow barrel. He plucked one, opened his damos, and dipped the bolt's tip into the swirling venom. The bolt's tip steamed.

The vengeance taker fitted the bolt to the crossbow and sighted down the hillside, careful to stay under the dolmen's cover.

The elf archers reached the coach and took up positions with a view of the hillside. The great troll lumbered after them, but hadn't reached the coach. Iahn couldn't see the panther-headed creature-a problem, but one that would have to wait.

Iahn's bolt sailed down the slope and buried itself in the chest of an archer. The elf cried out, then yelled, "I can hear you! I can.

.." The elf crumpled onto the brown grass beneath the coach.

The other archer loosed a shaft in return, but it cracked ineffectually on the dolmen pillar to Iahn's left. The archer, seeing her arrow fall, ducked behind the coach. She yelled out in Common,

"Beware, poison bolts! Mohmafel is dead!"

The troll reached the shelter of the coach and hunkered down before Iahn could fire a second venomous bolt. The vengeance taker scanned for Deamiel. Was the creature already sheltering behind the coach? No matter.

Iahn yelled down the hill in Common. "Stand still, or prepare to hear your doom. If the Voice is the last word to enter your ears before death, your soul is consigned to wander forever." He doubted the creatures understood his implication, but Iahn believed the threat might give them pause.

The vengeance taker watched the coach. He saw no movement, heard no sounds. Like his adversaries, he didn't want to risk leaving the sanctuary of his dolmen. The blurring enchantment the taker had employed had dissipated. Iahn's quickslide to the coach had exhausted his small reservoir of arcane ability. Until he could renew it, the vengeance taker could rely only on his guile and skill.

A hundred breaths passed without any movement. The sun reached its zenith in the empty sky. Heat blistered the bare scrublands. Iahn was like the rock he sheltered behind; how patient were his adversaries?

In the vengeance taker's experience, his tolerance for boredom was rarely bested.

Half-heard mutters from below preceded a sudden river of fog that streamed around, over, and past the coach, completely obscuring it.

With the mist came cries and dreamy exhortations. Slender tendrils of mist extended from the mass, as if patting and feeling for sustenance.

The diameter of the fog bank swelled.

The vengeance taker envenomed another bolt from his damos.

Deamiel, presumably, had manufactured a cloak of concealing vapor, a perfect blind from which to launch an attack. Iahn's eyes narrowed-from which portion of the mist would it come? Did the…

The troll emerged from the mist, running up the slope with the speed of a bounding boulder.

Iahn took a bead on the fast-approaching troll, but an arrow scorched his left arm, ruining his aim. The elf archer had gotten off a shot from just inside the fog's boundary!

Iahn snatched a third bolt, taking the time to envenom it. The damos, too, was nearly spent this day. But the troll had to be dealt with, first and foremost.

The charging troll reached the crown of Iahn's hill. A great gray hand grasped the dolmen pillar Iahn sheltered behind. The hand was followed by an enormous head that blotted out the sun.

Iahn shot the bolt straight into the creature's left eye. It gasped out a word in a language the taker didn't know, then collapsed back down the slope. Iahn knew that the venom was more potent than the troll's ability to renew itself. He dropped the crossbow and snatched up his dragonfly blade. Not a moment too soon-black-furred Deamiel had run up the slope in the troll's wake. The creature, roaring, sprang on the vengeance taker from the other side of the dolmen. The crystal amulet on its breast suddenly blazed with a wavering, violet light.

Moving with a speed Iahn could scarcely fathom, Deamiel struck him.

The violent blow hurled the vengeance taker back ten paces. The world spun around Iahn as he tried to regain his feet. He kept his grip on the hilt of his dragonfly blade and used it to lever himself upright.

Blood streamed from his cheek, and his left arm and shoulder were partly numb. The vengeance taker had assumed the troll was the greatest threat, but… Deamiel was on him, hiccupping horrid laughter. It picked him up in both hands, so swiftly that Iahn failed to resist, and as easily as if the vengeance taker were but a child.

Deamiel screamed. "Pandorym's blessing sings in my blood! Its will is mine, but… It… I… Pandorym! I am not…" Deamiel's arms shook with some sort of inner struggle. Despite the creature's difficulty speaking, its grip was slowly tightening on Iahn's suspended body.

More importantly, Iahn saw the crystal on Deamiel's breast pulse in tempo with its speech, word for word. One arm still free, Iahn brought the steel hilt of his dragonfly blade down on Deamiel's amulet. The crystal exploded. The midnight blaze that blossomed from the amulet transfixed Deamiel, but Iahn was blown clear. The vengeance taker fell painfully for the second time in about as many heartbeats.

Iahn did not stir when his senses returned. Instead, he studied the scene with slitted eyes. Deamiel lay near, still burning, its chest cavity an exploded, gory ruin. Not a pleasant sight, but he'd seen worse. Farther down the slope lay the crumpled form of the gray troll. Farther still, the mist-shrouded coach. Apparently, only an instant had elapsed since the amulet's destruction. As Iahn watched, the fog bank swirled, thinned, and blew away in ragged, evaporating streamers. The remaining elf archer was revealed, showing little concern. She moved cautiously, studied her elf comrade, then hiked up the slope to the troll. The crystal on her breast did not glow or flare. When she was close enough to Iahn, he sprang to his feet, catching one of her arms and twisting it painfully behind her back.

Not all his skills brought death to his foes-some just delivered debilitating agony. Sometimes, final justice was not for a taker to dispense. Sometimes. "Submit," Iahn demanded. The elf said nothing, but stopped struggling in his grip. The vengeance taker jerked the elf closer. With his teeth, he grabbed the leather strand holding her amulet. He jerked his head back and stripped the amulet from the archer's neck. He didn't want to see a repeat of Deamiel's performance. As the amulet dropped to the earth, the elf convulsed violently in the vengeance taker's grip. Then, as if she'd been slipped an overpoweringly lethal dose from the damos, she slumped, her life departed. Iahn was too familiar with death's onset to wonder if it could be anything else. The vengeance taker lay the limp body on the ground and studied the scene. "Strange." The noonday light imparted brutal clarity, but no understanding.