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Back to Empire on the HPe3000
... and ...
"You will get out of my way!" Derue yelled at the others.
"Derue, you are possessed." Gytha called to him. "Throw away
that sword, fight it!"
"I will fight you, if you do not move." Derue told her. He began
to advance with his sword at the ready, the fire bright along its
length.
"Elf! " he said to Ghibelline. "You have sworn an oath to me, strike her
down."
"My debt to you is paid." Ghibelline yelled back. "Your brother
is healed, I will not raise a hand against this good cleric."
"Trust an elf and elf's word." Derue spat out. "I am leaving
here, I should cut you down in any case, but stay out of my way and you will
live!"
Telenstil did not reply to Derue but spoke quietly to the elf.
"Take your friend into cell, out of the way, we will deal with our
companion."
Ghibelline carried Jalal into the cell, the old man was thin as
a figure made of sticks held together with string. The elf could not say
if he still breathed or if the madman had slain Jalal in his escape.
* * *
"Don't forget the chain." Talberth said.
Harald grumbled, but wrapped it about his shoulders with care,
more to balance it evenly than any worry he had about damaging the
weighty links.
As they left Ivo kept glancing back at the chute. He could not
decide whether he was happy to be rid of the priest or sorry to abandon
even so regrettable a companion in such a place as the giants hall.
* * *
The hallway was huge, more like a road or some covered bridge of
stone. Edouard ran fast, faster than the orcs who pursued him. After
a hundred paces they let him go, he had maimed and injured many of them
and the others had no great desire to fight the madman again.
Ahead, the passage ended in a door and two ways, smaller than
the hallway he'd just run down, they ran to his left and to his right. The
door was heavy and old, wood bound with iron and set with metal arms to
hold a timber, to keep it closed. The timber lay against the wall, and
the door was open wide. Inside, it was a reeking pit of black.
Edouard stood, he looked back the way he'd come, then ahead
peering into the lightless room. He turned to his left to look up the
smaller passage then around again, facing the righthand way. Something
tickled his mind, a lazy finger of heat, a tongue of flame he could not
see. It pulled him to the right, he stumbled forward, and felt the flame
increase, then he began to run. His sword, it called to him from
somewhere ahead, down the righthand way.
* * *
"Pod-At, Taz-Pan, Zamp-La" Telenstil called out and threw a dry
pellet toward Derue. The scout brought up his sword, but the pellet
became a white viscous blob. It hissed as it passed through the burning sword
and thinned to a mist as it struck Derue.
A wave of nausea nearly made him wretch. Derue felt as if he
stood upon a ship that was caught rolling in a storm upon the deep. He swayed an
d the world went upside down, his sword fell from his grasp and he
rolled after it. His fingers touched the hilt and sent the blade
skittering further away. He could not stand, he tried and fell. Before
he could rise again Gytha's metal staff struck him aside the head. Stars
sparked behind his eyes and a dark wave came up and swallowed him.
* * *
(To Be Continued)