David Farland - Worldbinder

Vulgnash hesitated, studied her, and Rhianna dug the blade into Fallion’s flesh.

The Knight Eternal spoke, his thoughts whispering into her mind. “You love him more than your own life, yet you would kill him?”

“It’s what he would want.”

“It would please me to see you take his life,” Vulgnash said.

She studied his eyes, and knew that he meant it. Yes, he wanted Fallion, but he also wanted to see Rhianna commit this one foul deed.

He’s testing me, Rhianna realized. My pain amuses him.

Vulgnash did not move forward, and for a long moment he stood waiting. There were shouts from the tunnel behind Rhianna, accompanied by the frenzied yap of a dog.

She dared not turn away from the Knight Eternal.

“Rhianna,” Warlord Madoc cried. “Hold it. Stop.”

Warlord Madoc raced up at her back, keeping his distance from Vulgnash. For a moment he studied the scene, the Knight Eternal held at bay by a woman willing to sacrifice the man that she loved, King Urstone slumped over a railing, the back of his head smeared with blood.

“Get back from him, girl,” Warlord Madoc said. “Let me handle this.” He spoke to Rhianna in her own language.

Then he spoke to Vulgnash in the wyrmling tongue. “You need us,” he told the Knight Eternal. “Your harvesters need humans to prey upon. Leave us in peace, and we will be your vassals.”

“The land is filled with humans now,” Vulgnash said. “Great will be our joy as we hunt them and harvest them. We need you no more.”

“Still,” Madoc said. “I propose a truce: a thousand years. Give me a thousand years, and I will prepare these people to be your servants. We will join you, and Lady Despair whom you serve. If not, we’ll take the life of the Wizard Fallion, and you can go back to her empty-handed.”

Vulgnash knew the will of his master. For decades she had been plotting this, and right now the future balanced upon a precipice. Sometimes he could hear his master’s thoughts, like whispers in his mind.

He glanced off to the north, straining to hear the will of Lady Despair in this matter. At last, he felt her touch.

Tell him what he most wants to hear, she said. Vulgnash smiled.

“Lady Despair agrees to the trade.”

Warlord Madoc took the news hard, felt the breath knocked out of him. It was almost more than he could have hoped. Yet, now that the wyrmlings had agreed, he wasn’t sure that he liked the truce. He wasn’t sure that he could trust the wyrmlings. They might take Fallion and simply raze the city.

And even if the wyrmlings kept to the bargain, what then? Mankind would survive, but they would fall under the shadow of Rugassa, and his children’s children would serve his enemies.

Still, he hoped, in a thousand years, our children might multiply and become strong. The wyrmlings were notoriously hard on their spawn, and the mortality rate for wyrmling children was high. Madoc could only hope that his own descendants might win back their freedom.

Rhianna had her back to him, and she was peering up at the Knight Eternal resolutely, ready to slit Fallion’s throat at a moment’s notice. Warlord Madoc gave her a light kick to the back of the skull, and she went tumbling forward.

Madoc could hear the sounds of running feet and that damned dog barking in the tunnel behind him. His companions were drawing near, but came forward only slowly, unsure what to do.

“Take him,” Madoc told Vulgnash.

“No!” Talon cried at his back, and came lunging out of the tunnel.

The Knight Eternal moved with blinding speed, dropped, and seized Fallion’s sleeping form, like a cat pouncing upon a bird. In an instant he rose up, reeled and dove over the parapet.

Wings flapping madly, Vulgnash carried his prey into the sky.

Warlord Madoc whirled to meet Talon. The girl charged him with her small sword. She did not strike fear into him. She was, after all, only a child, one of the small folk at that, and Madoc had decades of practice to his credit.

She lunged with a well-aimed blow, but he slapped it aside with the flat of his ax, then punched her in the face. He outweighed the girl by nearly a hundred pounds, and Talon flew back and crumpled from the blow.

Siyaddah and Alun were right behind her. Siyaddah dropped the wings that she’d been dragging, and pulled a weapon as she stalked toward him. “Wait!” Madoc cried. “I can explain. I’m buying our lives here, saving the city.”

And it was true. The wyrmling armies had halted outside the city gates. The thunder drums had hushed, and the wyrmlings waited as if in anticipation.

“We heard,” Siyaddah said. “We heard the bargain that you made. But I’d rather die than honor it.”

They leave me no choice, Madoc realized. He could not leave witnesses to his unholy trade.

Madoc glared at her. “Stupid girl. If you’d rather die, then you shall.”

Behind him, he heard a groan and some small movement.

Siyaddah stepped forward to duel, her gleaming shield held clumsily at her side. She wasn’t a tenth the warrior that Talon had been.

Alun only held still at her back, the gawking lad who had been willing to sell his people out for nothing more than a title. Madoc wasn’t worried about him.

But suddenly the boy hissed a command, “Kill,” and unleashed his war dog. The beast leapt at Madoc in a snarling ball of fury, going for Madoc’s throat.

Madoc brought his ax up, hoping to fend the dog off, and stepped backward, just as something sharp rammed into his back.

He peered down and saw a dagger there just below his kidney. Rhianna’s small, pale hand gripped it. With a grunt she twisted the blade and brought it up in an expert maneuver, slicing his kidney in half. White-hot pain blinded Madoc.

He did not have time to cry out before Siyaddah slammed into his chest and sent him tumbling over the parapet.

Rhianna dropped and knelt in shock.

She crawled to the end of the balcony, her arms shaking, her legs and knees feeling frail. She climbed the balcony wall and peered over the parapet, into the starlight, and far in the distance, she saw leathery wings flapping madly. The morning air was beginning to brighten, dulling the stars. The Knight Eternal was carrying Fallion away in a frenzied blur, like some great bat.

He has endowments of strength and speed, Rhianna realized. He’s flying faster than I ever can. Her arms trembled as they tried to bear her weight. Her stomach was turning, and she felt ill, on the verge of collapse.

How fast is he going? she wondered. A hundred miles per hour, two? How far will he get before dawn? Will he reach Rugassa?

She’d barely been able to manage the flight to the parapet a few minutes ago. And in her current condition, she couldn’t manage even that. Even if she had been able catch up with Fallion’s captor, she was no match for him.

He’s gone, she realized. Fallion’s gone. Maybe forever.

Rhianna looked down, her heart breaking. She saw Madoc’s form sprawled on the pavement hundreds of feet below, broken, ringed by wyrmlings who hacked and stabbed at the corpse, making sure of it.

She turned back to her friends. The parapet was a grisly mess. Talon was out cold. Rhianna could see that she was breathing steadily, but though Rhianna crawled to her side and called her name, Talon would not wake.

Siyaddah went to High King Urstone and stood over him for a long moment, seeking signs of life. She studied his face, then leaned over his back, trying to hear his heartbeat through his armor. At last she put her silver buckler to his face to see if he was breathing.

After a moment, she let out a sad cry and tears rolled down her cheek.

“He’s dead,” she moaned in dismay. “He’s dead.”

Rhianna could not speak to Siyaddah or Alun, for she did not know their language.