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gestures of a spell. ,Take us to Lord Ssu-ma."
Bragi walked through the city in a state approaching shock. Lioantung, Mist
called it. Dead Lioantung, he thought. Never had he seen such destruction.
Fire had gutted everything. In some places brick and stone had burned, or
melted like candle wax. The remains were strewn as if by an earthquake. Bones
and fragments of corrupt flesh were thoroughly mixed with the rubble. The
stench was overwhelming. Twice their guide used a minor spell to destroy
particularly noxious clouds of flies.
,About time somebody used the Power for something practical," Bragi joked.
Mist looked at him askance. He muttered, ,Gods, this place is depressing. What
the hell happened?"
,Ethrian happened, that's what. Varthlokkur. Do you believe me now?"
The wizard ignored Mist.
,What's that?" Bragi asked, indicating a pillar of smoke to the south.
,The legions burning their dead so Ethrian can't use them against us. Come on.
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We have to hurry."
The meeting with Eastern Army's staff was exactly what Ragnarson expected. The
Tervola nearly exploded when they learned who he was. Only the calming
presence of the army commander, a Lord Ssu-ma Shih-ka'i, kept their fury
leashed.
Bragi responded positively to Shih-ka'i. The man didn't belong with the usual
run of Tervola. Short and wide where they were lean and tall, he had a
mischievous sense of humor. His mask represented an enraged boar. Mist said he
sprang from peasant pig farmer stock. ,Tell him he looks like an honest
soldier," Bragi told Mist.
She translated. Shih-ka'i responded. Mist said, ,He says you'd find him more
stubborn than Lord Ko Feng." The woman and army commander engaged in a long
exchange which betrayed occasional flashes of heat. Bragi guessed Shih-ka'i
was dubious about her plan to bring Ethrian face to face with his mother. Mist
apparently convinced him. Shih-ka'i led them back into the tortured streets.
Bragi watched Nepanthe closely. She drifted through the ruins with gaze firmly
fixed, her face pallid. But near Lioantung's north gate she got the shakes.
She paused to retch into the gutter. When Varthlokkur tried to comfort her,
she waved him off. ,I can stand it. I always could. I'm a real grown up
person."
Rebuked, the wizard resumed his air of aloofness. His inner turmoil was
reflected only in the agitation of the Unborn, which bobbed and flitted like a
moth with indiges- tion.
Lioantung was enough to gag a maggot, Bragi reflected. ,Mist, this should be
frozen in time. Made a memorial. Bring every would-be warlord in here and make
him live with it for a week."
Mist answered with a weak smile. ,It wouldn't do any good."
,Probably not. Human nature."
Shih-ka'i took a white flag from a soldier and headed out the gate. He set a
brisk pace. Bragi hurried to stay close, so as not to seem less determined.
These dread creatures in black had to be shown he was fearless. He laughed at
himself. Human nature.
Ahead, an emaciated creature in rags rose atop a hum- mock, ran his hand
through his hair. A woman in white, who seemed fuzzy around the edges, helped
him stand. He gestured. A panther, a bear, and a forest buffalo quickly joined
him, assuming guardian stances. Mist and Shih-ka'i exchanged a few words. Mist
told Nepanthe, ,There he is."
That derelict is my godson? Bragi thought. That's the monster who wasted
Shinsan's eastern provinces?
The boy looked ghastly, looked almost as dead as the corpses which supposedly
fought for him.
Shih-ka'i halted. Bragi stopped beside him. Mist and the wizard stopped too.
Nepanthe never slowed.
,Ethrian?" she said. ,Look. See? This is your sister. Her name is Smyrena."
Bragi almost exploded from tension laughter. The incon- gruity of it! And yet,
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how better to shock Ethrian back to reality?
Torment filled the boy's eyes. He started blubbering. ,Mama. I thought they
killed you. I thought they killed you."
Nepanthe held the baby in one arm, put the other around her son. ,It's all
right. It's over now, Ethrian. It's all right. You can come home."
The air was still, but... something was wrong, Bragi thought. The woman in
white... her clothing fluttered as if stirred by a rising wind.
Suddenly, the beasts rose and loped away. Ragnarson sighed. He hadn't relished
facing them.
Mother and son started toward the city.
Ethrian hurled his mother aside. A dark nimbus formed around him. The air
crackled. Shih-ka'i bellowed. Varthlokkur caught Nepanthe before she fell.
Ragnarson drew his sword, crouched, growled like a cornered beast.
Nepanthe shrieked at Ethrian. The Tervola tackled the boy, clamped fingers
round his throat. From the corner of his eye Bragi saw movement on Lioantung's
wall. He whirled, saw a long shaft arcing across the sky. Timing! he thought.
His sword hammered the air above Shih-ka'i.
The Tervola bounced to his feet as Bragi pulled the broken spear from the
earth. He said something which must have been a thank you, turned to the boy.
It all became confused, Bragi couldn't tell what was real and what was
illusion: The woman in white apparently didn't exist in the flesh. Something
equally fleshless appar- ently possessed the boy. Mist and Shih-ka'i did a lot
of yelling at one another. Ethrian kept trying to shout and Shih-ka'i kept
stopping him. The woman in white kept helping her partner's enemies. At one
point Varthlokkur spoke at length in the language of Shinsan. Then a great
black cloud exploded from Ethrian, rushed upward in an oily pillar. At its
base a glistening dome formed. And Mist said, ,The devil in him has been
forced out."
Baffled, Bragi stared up the pillar of black smoke-stuff. ,I don't understand
what's going on."
,We've won. We've conquered the Deliverer."
,I still don't understand. You said that before."
,I didn't...."
The earth trembled beneath them. Maybe he couldn't understand everything, but
he could sense that great forces were contending. He would have to be content
to take Mist's word for the importance of the confrontation.
,It's over," she said. ,Let's leave Nepanthe alone for a while. It was a slim
hope, but she lost. Hell." She started toward the city. The Tervola was
hurrying thither already, probably to find out about the shaft that had come
within a whisker of killing him. Bragi walked beside Mist. She tried to
explain.
Varthlokkur hovered uncertainly between his wife and Mist, finally halted two
hundred yards from the site of Ethrian's fall. Bragi glanced back once, saw
the woman in white fade away, saw Nepanthe standing tall and brave beside the
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gleaming dome. ,I hope it comes out for them," he said.
,Who knows? He's too damned stiff-necked for his own good. And she has to
learn...."
Nepanthe shrieked. Bragi whirled. The dome had van- ished. Nepanthe was down
on the earth, clutching a body, shouting for Varthlokkur. The wizard raced
toward her.
,Good gods," Mist murmured. ,He's alive. He survived. I don't believe it. He
survived the exorcism."
,What exorcism?"
,The ghost woman did it while...."
,She never made a sound." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]