[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

this. You will not desecrate "
"Stop it!" Leesil snapped, and he was on her from behind, grabbing for the
skull. "Whatever happened here, you don't want to see it... not like that!"
Magiere cradled the skull with one arm and snapped her shoulder back into
Leesil's chest. She followed with her arm and sent him sprawling. Before he
got up, she looked into the skull's sockets, the grit of bone against her bare
palms and fingers.
"No!" Leesil called.
Magiere closed her eyes.
Darkness. The sounds of voices around her and quickened breaths behind
curses. The stench of the cold chamber filling her head.
Nothing more, as Magiere opened her eyes again.
"I'll have no more of this sacrilege, defiling the dead, " Cadell growled,
and he stepped threateningly toward Magiere. "Get out of here. "
Magiere tightened her grip on the skull as she raised her eyes to Cadell. She
wasn't going anywhere, not without answers. She rocked back on her heels and
stood up. Leesil stepped in front of her, snatching the skull from her hands.
"Leave, " he told her. "Now. Go back to your aunt's, and wait for me. "
"Yes, all of you go and leave this to us, " Cadell said.
Jan looked upset but didn't speak, and Wynn remained quiet at the back of the
chamber.
"We're not done here, " Leesil replied, and returned his attention to
Magiere. "Wynn and I will join you shortly, once we've finished examining the
bodies. "
Magiere looked about the room. As she received no vision by touching the
dwarf's skull, she didn't believe he died by a vampire's attack. Some part of
her felt relief at the thought of escaping this place. She didn't even
acknowledge Leesil when she turned and walked out.
Outside the keep, the two village men paid her little attention as she strode
through the courtyard and back down the road. More corpses had been found in
her life's wake, yet they'd revealed nothing. One more of the dead still
waited.
Chaphad long since ceased battering the shed's door and walls. He spent even
longer trying to claw up the rough planks on the floor. Neither approach
gained him an escape. Mounted to the hut's side, the shed proved sturdier than
it appeared, and he couldn't get his thick claws into the floor cracks.
He peered through a crack in the wall and saw that night had come. With time,
he could break free, but Magiere and the others had already been gone too
long. He had to try another way, and he began to howl in long mournful tones.
He kept at it as loud as possible, hoping to disturb someone. In a short
while, footsteps approached outside, and a woman's stern voice came from
beyond the shed's door.
Page 67
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"Fe leneshte, tu emportun corcheturu!"
He could not understand her words but reached out to touch her thoughts.
Surfacing memories flashed through his mind.
Magiere arriving in the village.
The inside of the hut... and an image of himself curled alone in the corner
that morning.
Magiere's relative, Bieja, stood outside the shed's door.
Chap could not delve into a being's thoughts further than the memories that
came to the surface of its mind. All living things remembered their pasts in
scant pieces. He could also use these memories to poke and prod an unaware
being's choices or actions... nothing more than a mental suggestion.
The only other way was to dominate the being's spirit, suppress its will, and
take control of its body directly. And this he would never do.
Gently, he recalled for Bieja her memory of him curled silently in the corner
as he mixed his howls with piercing whimpers and feeble scratches at the door.
Outside, Bieja heaved a deep sigh, her voice filled with resignation.
"Tot dreptate, tu fe sose... dar you optem comporta tu. "
Chap heard a scraping sound, and the shed door began to open. When it was
wide enough for his head, he bolted.
The door flew open, a startled Bieja jumped out of his way, and Chap raced
off into the night. Her angry shouts followed briefly behind him, but he ran
out the side of the village and turned toward the keep.
Chap kept the road in sight for a guide as he raced through the forest with
his senses reaching out into the night. No one passed along the road, and the
forest ahead on the slope showed signs of thinning near the crest.
A door slammed shut, and Chap froze with ears poised as he looked through the
trees and toward the keep.
Magiere came down the road at a steady gait, her cloak loose in disregard of
the night's chill. Her pale face was expressionless, all emotion suppressed or
turned inward. Chap caught an old memory of a grave in the forest that
surfaced in her thoughts once, twice, again and again. Each time, he sensed
Magiere recoil from this image, smothering it with other more recent memories.
In a hidden chamber beneath the keep were secrets and death.
Chap's panic sharpened.
Magiere was one step closer to the truth, yet she did not realize it. And he
was one step closer to failing to losing her and in the end, Leesil, as well.
Chap went wide through the forest to get ahead of Magiere, as he raced back
toward the village.
IChane did not enjoy standing in the woods, in the dark, to keep watch over a
decayed keep in the middle of nowhere, but he did not complain. To make [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]