Matt Forbeck - Marked for Death
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- Название:Marked for Death
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- Рейтинг книги:3 / 5. Голосов: 1
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Marked for Death: краткое содержание, описание и аннотация
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Kandler spied a mooring line lashed around a cleat on the rear railing. He picked up the loose end of it and threaded it through the rear of his belt. With a series of deft moves, he tied a tight knot and then leaped up to the rear railing. From there, he stepped out on to the rudder’s top spar and crept forward, balancing on the narrow beam of wood as the winds whipped around him.
“Kandler!” Esprл screamed.
A crossbow bolt sailed past Kandler and buried itself in the rudder’s frame. The changeling saw it, hissed, and took a step back. Kandler glanced over his shoulder. Burch was coming at them, reloading as he ran. He turned back just in time to see the changeling drop away into the darkness below. Kandler heard the clack of Burch’s crossbow followed by the whisper of a bolt shooting past.
Kandler looked back over his shoulder as he stood crouched on the spar, Brendis’ burning sword still in his hand. “Did you get her?” he asked Burch.
Before the shifter could answer, the changeling came around behind Kandler and blind-sided him from his perch. As the justicar toppled into the blackness, he swung about, let go of the sword, and grabbed the changeling, hauling her down with him. Brendis’ glittering blade arced out and away from them and tumbled through the dark toward the unseen ground far below.
Chapter 44
Kandler wrapped his arms around the changeling’s waist, and she battered at him with her fists as they plummeted through the inky blackness, the wind whipping around them as they fell. The arc of their dive reached the end of the mooring line on the justicar’s belt with a tug that bent him in half and knocked the breath from both of them, but his hold on the changeling never weakened.
The pair’s momentum swung them back and up toward the bottom of the ship’s hull, only feet away from the lower part of the fiery ring. In the blazing light, Kandler could see the changeling’s face clearly for the first time. She was beautiful in her own formless way, her black hair fluttering behind her.
“Release me,” the changeling demanded, “or I cut this line!”
She pushed the edge of her knife against the rope that kept Kandler from following the sword down to his doom. Kandler rammed his head into the changeling’s nose. Red blood spurted onto her ebony skin. He reached up, grabbed her wrist, and pulled the knife away from his lifeline.
“The chase is over,” the justicar said.
Kandler forced the knife around lower, readying it for a stab into the changeling’s exposed side. As he did, he felt something foreign jab into his mind, probing for a weak spot, a switch that would turn him into a drooling madman or a gibbering fool. He fought with everything he could muster, but he knew it was only a matter of time before the psion battered down his defenses and destroyed his mind. Kandler stopped trying to force the knife lower and swung it back up toward the rope instead. It bit into the line above him, splitting some of its vital fibers. The pressure in his head spiked, and he growled like a cornered beast.
“Stop it! These wings won’t hold our weight!” The changeling hissed the words into his ear. “You’ll kill us both!”
“Fine. With. Me.” Kandler spat through gritted teeth. He had let this creature kidnap his daughter once, and he wasn’t going to let her get away with it again. Try as he might, though, he couldn’t force her from his mind.
As the pair struggled, they swung back out behind the airship again. A bolt sailed through the air as they hit the apex of their swing. It grazed the changeling’s shoulder, and she howled in pain.
The pressure in Kandler’s head disappeared. He grinned down at the bloodied changeling in his arms as they swung back under the airship again. “It’s over,” he said as he reached up to pull the black knife from the rope so he could finish her off.
The changeling lunged forward in Kandler’s arms and sank her teeth into his neck, biting and tearing like a mad dog. He shrieked and shoved the changeling away from him as hard as he could. The changeling kicked off from the justicar and, free at last, arced backward into an elegant dive. She spread her arms, and her wings unfolded around her. They caught the rushing air and buoyed her up again into the sky. The light of the airship’s ring of fire reflected off the wings for a moment, making her seem like some sort of demon, then the mists swallowed her again. Kandler snarled in frustration.
One of his the rope’s strands popped under his weight. His head snapped up, and he saw the changeling’s knife still stabbed through the rope. With every motion, he pulled the rope against the blade, shredding a few more fibers.
Kandler reached up and grabbed the rope above the knife. Grunting with the effort, he began hauling himself hand over hand up the long line. After a moment, he realized the rope was moving upward, too-and fast.
As the justicar reached for the ship’s railing, a mailed hand met his. Brendis pulled Kandler up and helped him onto the bridge.
“That was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen,” the young knight said.
Burch and Deothen dropped the end of the rope they’d been hauling on. The shifter reached over and grabbed Kandler into a bear hug. The justicar pounded his friend on the back and grinned.
“Sorry about your sword,” Kandler said to Brendis as Burch let him go. He stuck out a hand to the young knight.
“It was a sacred blade awarded to me by the Council of Cardinals,” Brendis said. “It can never be replaced. But it was lost in a good cause.”
“Yes,” Deothen said as he picked up his own sword from where he’d dropped it on the deck. “You can use the justicar’s for now. He won’t have any use for it.”
Kandler stared at the senior knight. “You can put that away,” he said. “I won’t fight you, but I’m not going back into that hold.”
“The situation has not changed,” Deothen said. “We are still going to Flamekeep.”
Kandler glanced behind the gray-haired knight and saw Esprл huddled in one corner of the bridge with Sallah’s arms around her. The sight warmed his heart, and he smiled. That disappeared as a thought struck him.
“Who’s flying this thing?” he asked, staring at the abandoned wheel.
Esprл pulled herself from Sallah’s arms. “The elemental!” she said through her tears. “It can’t see where it’s going, but if you set your direction and altitude, it can fly all by itself. I figured it-”
One moment Kandler was reaching out to give Esprл’s shoulder a proud squeeze, then the changeling, gliding in on silent wings, swooped down and snatched her away from his outstretched hand. There was only an instant of hesitation as the wings adjusted to the added weight, then both changeling and Esprл disappeared into the night. The girl’s scream echoed in the justicar’s ears long after she was gone.
“Esprл!” Kandler shouted as he dashed toward the airship’s rail. He stared out into the darkness, looking for any sign of the girl or the changeling. All he saw was the mists of the Mournland, now pulsing a sickly red from the light of the airship’s ring of fire. He heard Esprл scream again, but the sound ended horribly short.
“Burch!” Kandler said.
The shifter was already scanning all around, his crossbow hungry for a target.
“Don’t!” the justicar cried. “They’ll both fall to their deaths.”
Burch growled in frustration at the sky. “Doesn’t matter anyhow,” he said. “There’s nothing. She’s gone.”
Kandler cast about desperately. “The changeling can’t get far on those wings,” he said, thinking out loud. “They weren’t strong enough to carry the two of us.”
“You’re a bit larger than your daughter,” Sallah said.
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