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Tyrus felt that strain in every sinew, a mate for his own near exhaustion.
A beam fell from a wall strut, almost hitting Ilissa. Jathelle and Erejzan
leaped to pull her out of the way, then wheeled to cope with a new wave of
demons and beasts.
"Cannot& " Tyrus gasped. "Door& must get to the door& "
Rof did not break the pattern of his cutting and thrusting, but he called
wearily to Erejzan, "We are done, shape-changer."
"No!" Erejzan looked at Ilissa, fury in his eyes. The women were bitten and
bruised and bleeding, suffering as imps and monsters evaded their weapons and
struck.
With sudden decision, Erejzan thundered, "Not done yet, Rof. I will take them.
Get to the door. Help Tyrus!"
Deliberately, he accepted the curse Vraduir had put upon him.
Heedless of witnesses and his shame, Erejzan changed before their eyes. In an
instant, that powerful, furred body, clad in rags of torn garments, was
springing at the foremost of the demons, rending them with fang and claw.
The Death God's pets and Vraduir's slaves were dangerous but dull of wit, made
to kill, not to think. They had been made to affright humankind and not other
beasts, and particularly not a beast that fought with a man's cunning.
The noise was terrible, a mad tangle of keenings and yowls and screeches, as
Erejzan snapped bone and ripped flesh and scale and leathery wings.
After a heartbeat's shocked staring, Jathelle and Rof waded into the fray
close behind the shape-changer, striving to help the man-ecar. Tyrus crept
along the wall, his fingers half-numb and bleeding as he clung to the frosty
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stones. Without pause, he countered Vraduir. The vision beyond the door no,
through it! pulsated and glowed alarmingly. His magic and
Vraduir's were warping the very existence of the citadel.
The floor ran with stinking ichor, and there was Erejzan's blood mixed with it
as well. Rof seized the beam that had almost struck Ilissa and
dragged it forward, matching pace with Tyrus. Jathelle stayed with
Erejzan and was his ally, finishing brutes he dragged down or crippled.
Ilissa crawled in her wake and she too found courage and dealt many a blow
with the dagger.
Imps and demons tried to escape the shape-changer by scrambling up wall
stones. Erejzan leapt for them with lithe ease, batting them down with
murderous paws and sending them to Jathelle's enchanted blade.
The magic which cursed him and which transformed the sword dealt death again
and again.
"Door& door," Tyrus moaned, an entreaty he could not be certain anyone had
heard.
But they had. Rof waded through severed heads and limbs and butchered
tentacles, avoiding Erejzan's swath of destruction. He could barely lift the
makeshift ram, but he propelled it as hard as he could against Vraduir's
wavering image. The door, now totally transparent at the center, blocked the
way. The impact made Rof lose his grip on the beam for a moment. The boom
reverberated through the corridor, drowning the gibbers and screams briefly.
Rof gulped and heaved the beam up to his shoulder once more, then rammed the
barrier. Sparks flew, scatterings of ensorceled wood and ice.
Tyrus progressed by measures of a finger, a hand, and then the length of his
forearm. Winning! Moving! Forward! He felt bloodless, his belly a pool drained
dry, his lips cracking and no spittle to wet them. Yet he was heartened.
"Again!" he begged Rof. "Again!"
The brigand's beard and proud mustaches were drooping and his clothes were in
ichor-stained tatters. But he obeyed, and Jathelle helped him. The demons were
slain, and she somehow got her slender arms about the bulky beam and lifted
the far end. Together the LaRenya of Couredh and the bandit lord ran through
slime and blood, smashing the ram into the unseen door.
There was a strange, soundless explosion full of materials unknown in the
mortal world. Tyrus had been pressing with all his might against the immovable
barrier immovable, but he was moving it!
And it gave way. Drunkenly, he reeled forward, almost sprawling his
length, clutching the door jamb for support.
The doors were gone, crumbled into air, the magic that had made them [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]