F. Wilson - The Tery

Above the tery's constricting fingers, Kitru's face was turning a mottled blue.

"Let him go for now but watch him — we'll use him for safe passage through the gate."

"Who are you?" Kitru rasped as he slumped to the floor and clutched his bruised throat.

"Remember the man you called ‘Crazy Rab' and threw into the dungeon?" Rab said with an edge on his voice as he untied Adriel. "I was a much more presentable member of humanity then, but beneath this beard and filth I am that same naive scholar."

"How did you get up here?"

"The same way we'll get down," Rab said, untying the last knot. "The stairs." He rose to his feet. " Now, where are my books?"

Kitru jerked his head toward a dark corner of the room. "But only four remain."

"I know," Rab said, striding to the indicated spot. "Dennel tells me you've sent one off to Mekk with news that you have a Finder. Your messenger will be wrong on both counts — when Mekk arrives there will be no books and no Finder. And he won't like that at all."

"Ah! Dennel, is it?" Kitru said, his eyes coming to rest on the young man cowering in the doorway. "You have a knack for betraying everyone , it seems."

"No sire! I swear — they forced me into this…"

His voice trailed off. If he was seeking understanding, he found no hint of it in Kitru's face.

The tery glanced at Adriel slumped in her chair. She looked…dead. He took a step toward her, just to check — and that was when Kitru made his move. With a quick roll he grabbed his fallen sword and gained his feet. The tery pivoted to find a gleaming length of sharpened steel hovering a finger's breadth from his throat.

"Rab," Kitru said with a tight smile on is face, "you're not only crazy, you're a fool as well. You should have fled when you had the chance. I'll see you nailed up outside the gate at first light, while your traitorous Talent friend and this beast are roasted alive in the tery pit."

"No!" Dennel cried.

The lord of the keep seemed to have lost all trace of fear now. The tery wondered why. Was it because he considered himself a good swordsman, and all that threatened him here were an unarmed scholar, a coward, and an animal? Perhaps his confidence had been further bolstered by the wine he had consumed.

The tery prepared to attack at the first opportunity.

"We are leaving with the girl," Rab stated coolly.

"Oh?"

"Yes. This fellow" — he indicated the tery — "is a friend of hers. He's going to take her back to her people."

Kitru laughed aloud. "Friend? Oh, I'm afraid you're crazier than anyone ever imagined, Rab. This is her pet!"

"I am a man," the tery said.

The tery was not quite sure why he had said it; he could not truly say he thought of himself as a man. The declaration had escaped of its own volition.

Kitru stepped back, shock blanching his face. Then he sneered.

"You're not a man! You're nothing but a filthy animal who can mimic a few words."

"How strange," Rab said in a goading tone. "I was just thinking the same thing about you."

In a sudden rage, Kitru roared and aimed a cut at the tery's throat, no doubt hoping to catch the beast off guard and then dispose of the others at his leisure. He lunged wildly, however, and the tery leaped aside and aimed a balled fist at the back of the keep lord's neck. Kitru went down without a sound and lay still, his head at an unnatural angle.

Rab came over and nudged the body with his toe.

"I wish you hadn't done that. I was going to trade his life for safe passage out of here."

"There'll be no safe passage for us anywhere now!" Dennel wailed.

"We can still get back to the forest," Rab told him.

"The forest. What good is that to me? It's a living hell out there. I can't go back."

"If the other Talents can manage, so can you."

"I–I'm not like others. I can't live like an animal, scrabbling about for food and shelter. The forest has always scared me. I'm frightened every day out there, every minute. I can't eat, I can't sleep."

"But out there you live as a man," Rab said. "Here, you live as a tool, and you're allowed to do that only so long as you prove yourself useful."

"No — you don't understand." A thin line of perspiration was beading along Dennel's upper lip. "I can reason with them…make them accept me."

Rab turned away. "Suit yourself." He indicated Kitru's inert form. "Think you can make them accept that?"

The tery had already forgotten Kitru and was kneeling beside Adriel. The girl stared vacantly ahead but did not appear to be physically injured. The tery lifted her, one arm across her back, one under her knees, and held her tightly against him. She was breathing slowly, regularly, as if sleeping. How strange and wonderful to hold her like this.

After a long moment, he turned to Rab.

"She will be all right?"

"She'll be fine."

Rab was busy wrapping the four remaining books in a wall drapery. Even from across the room the tery could sense something strange, alien about those volumes. Rab tied a knot, then carried them to the center of the room.

" If we get out alive," he said. "And I've got an idea of how we might do that. If we can get downstairs unseen — "

"There is one debt yet due in this keep," the tery said.

He had tasted vengeance tonight and craved more. One more life needed to be brought to an end before the balance would be restored: The parent-slayer dwelt below in the barracks.

"What are you talking about?"

"A captain named Ghentren must die before I leave tonight."

"Ghentren left a little while ago," Dennel said from the doorway. "He was sent to Mekk's fortress with a sample of the books and news of the captured Finder. He's gone."

"Forget him," Rab said, swinging the sack of books over his shoulder.

The tery said nothing, but knew he could not forget him. Balance would not be restored until Ghentren's blood had seeped into the dirt like his mother's and father's.

Rab headed for the steps, pulling Dennel after him. "Come. We'll get you out of here alive."

The tery brought up the rear, carrying Adriel's limp form as gently and smoothly as possible. He kept his eyes on Dennel, directly ahead of him, watching him closely.

Why are we bringing this traitor with us? he thought. He could not forgive Dennel for betraying Adriel. If he wanted to return here so badly, why not let him stay?"

As they rounded a curve in the stairway, he noted a subtle change in Dennel's demeanor. The young man's slumped, dejected posture gradually straightened. He stole a quick glance over his shoulder at the now-burdened beast behind him. The tery sensed trouble brewing.

Then without warning, Dennel leaped for one of the window openings in the wall.

"Guard! Guar —!"

The tery's fury erupted. With one quick movement, his right arm snaked out and lifted Dennel into the air by his throat. He swung him in an arc and smashed the young man's head against the stone wall, cracking it like an egg. A grisly stain remained on the stones as he loosed his grip and let him drop.

Rab's face blanched. "Did you have to do that?"

The tery looked at the limp, twisted form and felt that the balance was a little closer to being restored.

"If his yelling brought the troopers, we'd all be dead. Now only he is dead; we still live, and there are no troopers." He clutched Adriel closer. "If he wishes to be killed, he should not include us."

Rab sighed. "He didn't think he'd be killed. I caught a flash from his mind in the instant he called out — he thought he could use sounding the alarm as a show of loyalty. Poor Dennel. He feared the forest, and they wouldn't let him stay here."

"Poor Dennel?"

The tery didn't understand. You were loyal to friends and family, you protected them against those who would harm them. Dennel had done none of those things. Why Poor Dennel?