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come. "He wants to save the giant."
Kester sighed in frustration, then peered down the hole. "We'll be lucky
enough to save ourselves, let alone your giant," she said, addressing Agis's
shadowy form.
"We can't leave him like that." The noble gestured toward the bottom of the
pit. Although Kester could not see the giant from her position, the image of
the bloody crystal protruding through his shoulder remained vivid in her mind.
"Now pass me the end of the rope. I'll go down and see if I can get that spike
out of his shoulder, then tie him off."
"What then?" she asked. "We'll never get him out through this little hole."
"At least he might not die while we're looking for a way to remove the cover,"
Agis replied.
"It's already past dawn!" objected Kester. "How long do ye think Mag'r'll wait
for the gates to open Before he sinks the
Shadow Viper?"
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"He'll wait," Agis replied. "If he sinks your ship, we have no reason to open
the gates-and he's smart enough to know that."
"Ye can't know for sure!"
"I agree with you," Tithian whispered. He knelt at Kester's side, holding one
end of the rope out to her.
"Perhaps we should open the gate for Mag'r-now."
Kester bit her lip, neither meeting the king's gaze nor taking the rope from
his hand. "What about Agis?" she asked.
"He can look after Fylo," the king suggested, being careful not to look into
the pit. "We can come back for him later."
Kester fell silent and motionless. Like Tithian, she avoided the noble's eyes,
though it seemed to her that she could feel them watching her from the
shadows, like the black gaze of an owl.
"I can imagine what Tithian's whispering to you," said Agis, his voice rising
through the crevice clear and steady. "Don't listen to him. We have many
things to do this morning: make sure that we all escape the pit, find the
Dark Lens, save your ship. But if we panic and start jumping from one
unfinished step to another, we're doomed."
Kester remained silent, wondering how the noble could think that everything on
his list was still possible at this late hour.
"Weren't you the one who said we had to work together to escape?" Agis
pressed. "Did you mean it-or were you voicing the lies of a pirate?" "Damn ye,
and damn yer giant," Kester growled. "A wise decision," Tithian said, starting
to rise. Kester grabbed his arm and pulled him back to her side. "Ye stay
here," she said, taking the rope from his hands and pushing one end down to
the noble.
"Thanks for staying," Agis said. "You won't regret it."
"No-but you might," Kester growled. "If Mag'r sinks my ship, ye'll buy me
another-and a good crew to man it!"
"I'll give you two ships," the noble replied, smiling. "But you'll have to man
them yourself-with hired crews."
Kester stood and looked at Tithian. "Ye stay here to keep the hole open-and
don't think about leaving. If I see ye step one foot off this circle, I'll
kill ye," she said, fingering the two throwing knives left in her chest
harness. "I'll go tie off our end of the rope." i With that, she leaped over
to solid ground and walked toward the bridge footings, uncoiling the rope as
she went.
Tithian watched the tarek leave, silently cursing her for a fool.
Nevertheless, he did as she asked, summoning the spiritual energy to take over
Agis's dudes. "Go ahead," he said, glaring down through the crack. "But
remember, you're wasting precious minutes."
"Minutes that are not as precious as my life," the noble's muffled voice
replied. "I'll wait until Kester returns."
"As you wish," Tithian said.
As the king spoke, the last of the Castoffs, Sona, drifted into view. She
stopped at the noble's side, casting a faint glow over his weary face, and
began to thank him for freeing her and the others. Tithian, even less
interested in her gratitude than in saving Fylo, stepped away to prepare his
escape.
The king found Sacha and Wyan waiting for him, hovering at the edge of the
black circle. He snatched them by their topknots and slammed their faces into
the crystal lid.
"Why'd you do that?" demanded Sacha.
"Because I want to!" Tithian replied. He plucked the throwing dagger from
Wyan's cheek, then shook it at the two heads. "Just be thankful I'm not using
this to pluck your eyes out!"
This is not the way to treat your saviors," objected Wyan, spitting out the
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broken nub of a gray tooth.
"Saviors!" Tithian roared. "By attacking Fylo you almost got me stuck down
there."
"A small risk to take," said Sacha, speaking in a voice quiet enough that no
one beyond Tithian's earshot could hear it. "You can't have Agis or anyone
else around when you recover the Dark Lens."
Tithian held the heads up and frowned suspiciously. "Why not?" he asked.
"After the way the Dragon lied to me, I'd just as soon let Agis kill Borys."
"That would be acceptable," replied Sacha. "Except that I'm sure Agis would
want to keep the lens afterward-
and you don't want that."
"Why not?"
"The lens is a tool," explained Wyan, also speaking in a soft voice. "Like any
tool, it's only as powerful as the person using it. In Borys's hands, it could
never make you a sorcerer-king. But in the hands of someone else, someone even
more powerful, it could."
"No one's more powerful than the Dragon," Tithian scoffed.
"Wrong," said Sacha. "There is one who could give you what you want: Rajaat."
"Stop wasting my time with your stories," the king hissed. "Rajaat's dead."
"Gone, but not dead," Wyan replied. "What do you think Borys does with his
slave levy?"
"He uses their life energy to keep the Shadow People imprisoned in the
Black-at least that's what Agis and
Sadira think, according to my spies in the Asticles household," replied the
king. He cast a nervous glance down at the crack where Agis waited, but saw no
sign that the noble could hear or see any of what was happening on top of the
lid.
"What makes you think a fool noble and his slaves know what they're talking
about?" asked Sacha.
In a fawning voice, Wyan added, "Rajaat is not dead, he's locked away-and
Borys uses his levy to maintain the spells that keep him imprisoned."
Tithian accepted the news with little emotion, for he had not yet confirmed
its significance to him. "If I take the
Dark Lens to him, Rajaat will make me a sorcerer-king?"
"It's not our place to promise that," Wyan said. "We're only his spies in the
city of Tyr."
"But, through the Shadow People, we've told Rajaat of your ambitions," said
Sacha. "And we've received word back that if you aid him, you'll be pleased
with your reward."
Tithian smiled and released his grip on the pair's topknots. "What do I have
to do?"
Before the heads could answer, Kester came rushing back from the bridge. She
stopped at the edge of the pit, about two yards from the blade that had
pierced Sacha's temple. In her hands, the tarek held the last pair of throwing
knives from her harness. Her eyes were fixed on the dagger in Tithian's hand. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]