After that, neither of the assassins lasted very long.
Keron collapsed against a wall. He could sense the blood spurting from the wound in his back. He tried to control his breathing, staving off the shock that would doom him. A few seconds. If he could just last long enough…
He felt the sorcery kiss him, soothing and strong. It worked quickly. The river in his back was stemmed. His tissues begin to knit.
As suddenly as it had come, it left. The magic, as he had feared, had its limit. His distant doctor had done what he could. He had a reprieve, but only the most severe damage had been dealt with. He might still die. The pain was still intense. For a time, he could only shake. He would have made a passive victim for a fourth assassin.
He looked at the lithe, dark-cloaked figures of the men he had killed. He recognized the insignia on their vests. The Claw. Worm's men.
They were good. The Dragon's best. They had almost been good enough.
Stumbling outside, he searched through the underbrush. Soon he saw the crumpled bodies.
Both had been stabbed from behind. Faces of men that he had shared the decks with on long sea voyages stared up empty, slack-jawed and puffy in death. But he had expected no better from the moment he had been attacked.
"Good wind and clear sky," he murmured, and closed their eyes.
The brawling of oeikani disrupted his mourning. The noise came from the stables next to the tavern. Spurred with a final reserve of energy, he limped around the perimeter of the building, arriving at the stable doors just as they swung open.
Luo whipped his animal when he saw Keron, but the Elandri stepped aside, grasped an antler in his good hand, and yanked downward. The oeikani squealed and plunged into the dirt, flipping its rider to a landing so heavy as to dent the roadway. Luo emitted the sick wheeze of someone who has lost all the air his lungs have ever possessed.
"Going somewhere?" Keron asked.
"How?" the silk trader squeaked, when he could breathe.
"I'm strong," Keron replied.
"It wasn't my doing! They forced me!" Luo whined.
"Who forced you? Give me names!"
"I don't know." Luo managed to roll on his side, lifting one hand in supplication.
Keron walked unsteadily forward and picked up the sword that had broken free of Luo's belt on impact. Clothing soaked with blood, skin an unhealthy pallor, he advanced toward the merchant.
"Listen, Elandri! We can bargain!"
Keron chopped through Luo's neck like an executioner. He wiped the steel off on the fine quarn suit of the deceased.
"The best bargain we've ever struck," Keron muttered. He paused only long enough to search the body. He found the pearls he had given Luo earlier, along with another small sack. It contained only five objects. Four were gems of the highest quality. The fifth was another amath pearl. Had the latter not contained a flaw, it would have been fit for a king. As it was, it was still extremely valuable. Keron had rarely seen a specimen this large.
Shouts came from the inn above. Keron glanced up and saw Ampet silhouetted in a window frame. He heard running feet. His ravaged body threatened to buckle, but he had to find safety, a place to heal. The neck of the beast he had downed was broken, so he seized another from the stables, not stopping to look for a saddle. He knocked an oil lamp into straw fodder on his way out and left Eruth blazing with two kinds of fire.