" He fought off Silvain," said Claybore, sarcasm tingeing his words. Mechanical legs grated slightly as he twisted about for a better view of the city. Silvain wondered if the blank eye sockets had to point in the direction of vision or if Claybore played with his subordinates, pretending human needs and traits. The sorcerer' s motives were always obscure- and that spurred Silvain ever onward.
In addition to the power offered him by serving such a powerful master, Silvain enjoyed trying to decipher the mage' s motives. What good was raw power without continual personal danger to add spice? Silvain lived on a knife' s edge with Claybore. One slip and he' d find his parts strewn along the Cenotaph Road.
" The company returned to their base after heavy casualties," continued Kiska k' Adesina, unperturbed. In another person, Silvain would have envied her unflappable nature. He had seen strong men quake at the sight of Claybore' s fleshless skull and limbless torso. K' Adesina held no fear, because of her obsession with revenge on Lan Martak. That she did not even fear Claybore counted as a mark against her. Silvain believed in intelligent fear and healthy respect.
" You project the conquest of this city to be accomplished in less than a day?"
" Master, given the way into the city, it will be yours within an hour."
" I do not share your optimism, but I do hope you are accurate in your guessing. This city is a thorn in the side, to be removed quickly and as painlessly as possible. Then I may turn my full talents toward Iron Tongue, since he has what I desire most on this worthless world."
" I have studied Wurnna' s defenses," said Silvain. " While Kiska turned her strategies against Bron, I formulated an attack plan that even the sorcerers will be unable to turn away."
" Show me." The skull did not look at the map Silvain unrolled. The man put that datum away in his mental file. Claybore' s sensory powers bordered on the omniscient. Another thought crossed Silvain' s mind. Did the sorcerer know of Silvain' s and Kiska' s growing physical relationship? Did he approve of it as a way of keeping them both in line? The dangers sharpened Silvain.
" The main defense lies along this canyon. Iron Tongue stands atop a tower and: speaks. Armies turn away."
" He uses my tongue."
" Clogging our troops' ears with wax hardly seems adequate since this is a magical and not a physical manifestation. What I propose is as follows." Before Silvain had a chance to continue, a courier came running from the front.
" Speak," commanded the voiceless Claybore.
The youth trembled and nodded, saying, " Master, all is prepared for the final breaching of the wall. Will you give the command?"
" Who casts the actual spell?" asked Claybore.
" Master," said k' Adesina, " Patriccan is ready."
" Then let Patriccan continue."
A motion dismissed the runner, who fled as if the hounds of Hell slavered after him. Silvain and k' Adesina mounted their steeds, readying for battle. The man rested while his mind worked at full speed. This Patriccan and Kiska held a close relationship, that much was obvious. She used him- but what did the mage get in return? There were few enough sorcerers willing to prostitute themselves for Claybore. They tended to be hermits willing to live and work alone in the wilderness for the sake of their black arts. Did Kiska have some hold over Patriccan? A soldier blackmailing a mage? It seemed unlikely. Better to assume Patriccan had his own dark uses for the fragile- seeming Kiska k' Adesina.
And perhaps Silvain might turn that to his own ends.
" I want Lan Martak," the woman said, interrupting his thoughts. The man didn' t doubt she would kill anyone between her and the object of her obsession- she might even attack Claybore for the pleasure of slaying Lan Martak.
" My dear, he is yours. The woman, also, if you please. And the spider. I shall keep you from harm while you sate your hunger for revenge."
" It is insatiable. But these deaths will go a long way toward honoring my fallen husband."
They rode to the foot of the hill on which Bron perched. The ancient mage Patriccan held a tiny tube of shiny silver. Seeing the two commanders, he lifted the tube and sighted through it. The entire stone wall began to glow a dim, dark red. Not satisfied, Patriccan reached to the front of the tube and twisted, as if focusing a telescope. The redness remained over the wall, but a single beam of lambent energy lashed forth, striking the wall at its base. Stone bubbled and flowed like stew in a pot. Rock vaporized and the whitehot lance of magic seared through the yards- thick barrier of stone.
Patriccan turned and grandly motioned them toward the city, his job finished.
" Kill them all!" cried Kiska k' Adesina, spurring her mount up the hill. Silvain held back for the briefest of moments, making sure that the protective barrier Claybore had erected to imprison Bron had been removed. The sorcerer was not above sacrificing all his lieutenants for some unguessable end. Sure he did not ride to a magical death at his master' s order, Silvain galloped forward until he and Kiska were side by side in the tunnel that had been magically burned through the wall.
Patriccan' s cloud had opened the path. The first wave had softened the resolve of those within. Now came the real assault. Silvain and k' Adesina motioned forward a small band of shock cavalry to precede them. Then they prepared to lead the main charge into the city. Their swords tasted the blood. And their combined cries sounded the death knell for Bron.
Inyx peered down from her tower apartment and gasped at the sight. The " feel" of the curtain imprisoning them changed dramatically. Swirling, churning like a tornado, the wall collapsed upon itself- all unseen.
" Chamberlain!" Inyx shrieked, calling for aid, pushing aside the dumbstruck servant. " Alert the city. Get Jacy. They breach the wall."
" Impossible, milady," said the old man. " The wall is a bowshot thick- solid stone. They cannot enter that way."
" Dammit, they' re doing it. Oh," she grated, unable to make the man understand. She raced off, sword coming into her hand. By the time she reached the base of the tower and spun out into the courtyard, the spell had hardened into a drill of prodigious power. She saw whitehot gobbets of stone spinning away like some gigantic Catherine Wheel. Inyx threw up an arm to protect her face when the gust of superheated air rushed out from the newly gouged hole through the wall.
From all sides came the pounding of boot soles, men and woman rushing to defend the gaping hole in their defenses. The dark- haired woman hesitated for a moment, studied the scene, then realized that Claybore wouldn' t carve such a hole unless the first force through it was truly invincible.
She reached out and grabbed Jacy Noratumi' s arm as the sallowfaced man blundered along. He appeared to be in shock. She shook him until his teeth rattled. Only then did the glazed expression begin to fade.
" Inyx," he muttered.
" Don' t," she said. " Don' t go any further until we see what comes through the hole."
" But we must defend Bron."
" Wait."
Her caution proved their salvation. Those citizens crowding near the still smoking rim of the hole were whisked away like flies on a cow' s back when a billowing, churning, all- consuming cloud billowed forth. The magically incited cloud sucked up shrieks of agony and struggling bodies with equal appetite. Only when it emerged fully inside the city walls did the deadly cloud begin to dissipate. But by then it had done its work.
Inyx hissed, " Listen. Hoofbeats."
" Th- they follow th- that thing." Noratumi' s sword quivered as he pointed to the last traces of the deadly cloud. Inyx neither knew nor cared what had spawned the death- dealing vapor. Lan was better able to combat such things. Gripping her sword, she waited for the humans thundering through their tunnel and into the city.