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Master of a sheathed and belted Sword, its power for the moment safely muffled.
One glance at the black hilt showed Vilkata that the weapon tHE LAST ROOK OF SWORDS being put into
his hands was no less than Shieldbreaker itself.
The Dark King cried out with joy, with near-disbelief at his own good fortune.
The loyal one, the great demon Arridu, stood back in silence. Quickly recovering from the
Mindsword's influence, he might already be starting to have second thoughts about the wisdom of
turning over this Sword-but those thoughts came at least a minute too late.
Vilkata waved the Sword of Force, and roared with triumphant laughter.
TEN
THE news of the attack on Sarykam reached Princess Kristin and Prince Mark in the sleeping village
of Voronina just before sunrise. These first disjointed signals of the horror arrived in confused
and fragmentary form, borne in the small brains and uncertain speech of two half-intelligent bird-
messengers, the only creatures of their kind who had succeeded in escaping the demons' onslaught
on the palace. Actually it was Ben of Purkinje, sleeping in his blanket-roll under the stars, who
was first awakened by the beastmaster; and it was Ben, huge and ugly Ben, who then, grumbling and
blaspheming all the gods that he could think of, came bringing the unwelcome tidings on to Mark
and Kristin, in the yeoman's cottage where the royal couple were being housed during their visit.
Prince Mark was jarred out of some dream that was very strange, skirting a strange borderland
between beauty and ugliness, by a knocking on the yeoman's door. Mark was in general a lighter
sleeper than his wife, or any member of the farmer's family.
Working himself out from under the light cover, and then from under the outflung right arm of his
sleeping wife, Mark, a tall, strong man now forty years of age, stood beside the bed and reached
for some clothing. He had made his way downstairs and was listening to the news before anyone else
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in the house was properly awake.
He had had time to hear Ben's message before blond Kristin, four years younger than her husband
but looking younger still, followed Mark downstairs with a blanket wrapped around her, to join her
husband where he was standing with Ben and the beastmaster in the morning twilight at the front
door of the little house.
Kristin stood beside the three men listening carefully, grasping swiftly many of the implications
of what was being said, herself having little to say at first. Shortly after she arrived, the
farmer himself, next to be awakened, came to stand with his extraordinary visitors, listening too,
holding a flaring brand from the hearth that gave at least uncertain light.
None of those who listened had much to say at first. The news of the attack came as a ghastly
shock to all who heard it. Could there be any possibility of a mistake?
"Where are the birds now?" the Princess presently asked. "I want to hear directly from them
whatever they can tell me."
"Yes, let's see them," Mark agreed.
Ben bowed lightly, a graceful gesture in so huge a man, and turned and led the way across the
darkness of the farmyard. Mark and Kristin followed him to where a lantern was burning in the
barn. Here the beastmaster had established himself with his little squadron of messengers. Bird-
eyes glowed down in pairs from the high loft.
The two feathered creatures who had just arrived with the black news from Sarykam were of the
species of giant night-flying owls. One of these messengers had arrived wounded and with its
feathers scorched-ominous confirmation of the ghastly news. The uninjured owl had been flying half
a kilometer from the city when the attack came; the other had somehow managed against all odds to
make its escape from the ravaged aeries and blunder its way through the cloudy night to Voronina.
This bird, the smaller of the pair, speaking in its halting, half-intelligent small voice, could
give few actual details of the attack. But it reported the presence in Sarykam of many demons,
which strongly tended to confirm Mark's and Kristin's immediate suspicion that the Dark King was
involved.
The Princess, listening, sighed and said: "Well, let us rouse our squad of soldiers."
But there was no need, most of the men had been sleeping outdoors near the barn and were already
stirring. A small military guard, some fifteen or twenty mounted troops under the command of a
captain, had accompanied the Prince and Princess on what had been expected to be a relatively
uneventful trip.
In fact, at least half of the small village now seemed to be awake. Perhaps, the Princess
suggested to her farmer-host, everyone should be awakened, since all had a right to know the
situation.
The commanding officer of the small military squad, Captain Miyagi, came up to find Prince and
Princess scanning the lightening skies, concerned about a possible attack on the village by demons
or flying reptiles.
The Master of Beasts was also part of the military detachment who had come out from the capital.
Fortunately, as a routine measure, he had brought along a complement of messenger-birds, intended [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]