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.I'd inflicteda wound in our fight that took four years to kill him, which was in keeping with a prophecy that he woulddie at the hand of someone twenty years old.He did."Hardelwick stared hard at me, and I met his dark-eyed gaze without flinching.His eyes half-closed, henodded."I accept that explanation as the truth."Gena looked at him."Does it match the story you had about Tashayul's death?"I smiled."He had no story about Tashayul's death.The only people who knew about it were Reithrese,Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmland they as not about to start singing of how their leader drowned.The people of the Roclaws did notcelebrate it after, because it was hardly the sort of heroic deed they expected out of me.The Reithresejust pulled back to their imperial borders and waited until a successor to Tashayul had been selected."The emperor nodded his head to me."It is true, I was testing you.Had someone, say Berengar Fisherhere, been impersonating a hero of old, the story told would have been grandly heroic and the sort ofthing that would have lived forever in song as has your duel with the Reithrese emperor in this veryroom."I smiled at him."And if I had told a heroic tale, you would have denied me the sword?"He shrugged."And I may still, but you do not yet have it in your possession.If you can defeat the ward,and if the blade is there, then I will have a decision to make."I nodded and drew Wasp.On my knees I reached out with the blade and touched it to the marble disk.The image shimmered for a moment, then I heard a chorus of voices speaking.One spoke Elven, anotherReithrese, and the third Mantongue.That one I understood."Glory does not lie within.Merely a swordthat did win an empire washed in blood.In the name of the common good.Let he who puts hand to hilt,from sacred duty never wilt.An empire won will yet fall if not governed for the good of all."I hadn't a chance to determine what that meant when I found myself on my feet on burning sands.Across from me I saw a Haladin warrior with his left hand entangled in a sylvanesti's long hair.His righthand raised a hooked dagger, but before he could even think of stabbing it down into her exposed throat,I threw Wasp at him.Five hundred years had done nothing for my ability to throw a knife, or Wasp'sability to be thrown, but it hit the Haladina in the face.I leaped at him, shielding her with my own body asthe knife flashed down.I felt it rake across my back, but I forced the pain from my mind.Grabbing him by the throat and groin, Iraised him up, then smashed him down over my right knee, snapping his spine.His body ran like hot wax through my fingers, and as it puddled out below me, it transformed the desertinto a woodland.I heard a strangled cry behind me and whirled.The sylvanesti metamorphosed into aManchild, exhausted and bleeding, who ran along on a dusty game path.Behind him, chasing him, camean Elven warrior with a broad-bladed spear.Spikes and barbs on his armor glinting in the dappledsunlight, the screaming hunter came on and set himself for the thrust that would kill the child.I found Wasp in my hand as I stepped in to stop the Elf from killing the child.The Elf shifted his spear totarget me.I dodged to my right and felt the burning sting of the spear as it sliced into the flesh on my leftflank.My left hand closed around the haft of the spear, and I pulled the Elf forward as my right handbrought Wasp up.The dagger pierced the Elfs jaw and jabbed up into and through his mouth.His lastcurse sprayed me with his blood; then he, too, melted away, and his blood washed the land in red,bringing me to the plains outside Alatun.I turned to look at the Manchild, but he had again changed.Dark-haired and slender, with her pale,naked flesh spattered with red mud, I saw a Reithressa stumble along.Her ruby teeth gritted in pain, shescrambled to her feet again, then half slipped in the mud and lay there vulnerable and exhausted."To Alatun and victory!" I heard shouted from behind me.As I turned to face this new threat, surpriseand shock ent a shudder through me.Racing in at the Reithressa, I saw myself, Cleaveheart in hand, Iknew that was not how I had looked at Alatun at least I hoped it was not because the man bearingCleaveheart clearly intended to slaughter the defenseless creature toward which he ran.Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlReithrese or not, I had to intervene.I dove and tackled my twin.He went down hard, but keptCleaveheart in his grasp.I rolled away from him, narrowly avoiding a slash that split open the earth.Blood geysered into the air and poured down over me, all hot and sticky.It revolted me, and I recoiledfrom the shower; then I saw my analog crawling his way along toward the Reithressa.Snarling incoherently, I leaped through the gushing wall of blood and landed on his legs.He tried to turnand slash me with the sword, but I blocked his strike, then pounced to his back as he recovered himself.The bloody fountain lined viscous fluid over us, and I took advantage of it.Using my knees to pin hisarms, I grabbed his head with both hands and forced his face into a puddle of blood.I held on as he triedto buck me off and twist away, and I continued to hang on until bubbles stopped coming up and his bodysurrendered.Then his body melted away, and I knelt there in a [bloody] lake.The stink of death clung to me, anddrying blood threatened to stick my eyes shut.I looked over at where the Reithressa had been, but shehad again become a sylvanesti.Clothed in robes of the brightest white, she turned toward me and Irecognized her."Larissa?" A smile slowly spread across her face."I knew it would be you, Neal.It had to be you.Iwish I had been brave enough for it to be the two of us together [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]