[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Nikko Softpaws months ago. After riding for two hours, he began watching for
flashes of orange moving through the trees above him. By now, he should have
seen imps scampering about on every side of him, through the trees on every
side of him, through the brush and briars, and up in the trees leaping like
wizened orange-skinned monkeys. He had been promised the service of dozens,
under the leadership of the imp-warlord Gahni. Malthus and Gahni had worked
together many times over the years. Yet it had taken substantial promises of
food, gold, and booty to persuade
Kynyr's War [Lycan Blood Vol. IV]
by Janrae Frank
248
Gahni to bring his people from the West Bank of the Hillora to
Waejontor. Malthus had also provided Gahni's queen with a large supply of one
of his mother's most potent arrow poisons in return for the queen releasing
Gahni and his myn to
Malthus' service.
Malthus wondered why they were not around, greeting him and looking for food.
Legend had it that imps were genetically altered monkeys, created by a hellgod
named Jasmeden during the last godwar.
"Where's Gahni gotten off to?" he muttered.
The trees gave way steadily, thinning into a rocky fell. As
Malthus' horse topped the first treeless rise, he saw the northern border of
Claw's lands, the Place of Boulders. Huge rocks, which had fallen from the
mountains rising above it, broke up the landscape like the remains of a
giant's scattered toys. It looked like a good place for an ambush and Malthus
rode cautiously through them.
When he reached the far side, he saw a stone bleeding table with a tool table
sitting next to it almost beneath the cliff, saw the mossy overhang that
concealed his brother's caves, and saw a lycan body on the bleeding table on
its belly. If it was female, then he would be very irritated with
Egidius and Laetus.
He had told them to spare as many of the bitches of childbearing age as
possible and send them to his manor in
Carrion Crevasse. He knew that none of them would arrive there virgins, but
that did not bother him. Any that arrived there pregnant would be a bonus to
his plans to create a new
Kynyr's War [Lycan Blood Vol. IV]
Page 117
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
by Janrae Frank
249
race of genetically altered slaves. He would succeed where
Waejonan had failed.
He dismounted and tied his horse to a tree near the cave before investigating
the body. To his relief, it was a young male perhaps fifteen years old. The
runes painted on the nude corpse drew Malthus' eyes. This one had been an
offering for the soul of the dead. He wondered who warranted that attempt to
send a soul to Bellocar, their liege-god, instead risking its capture by
Hadjys the dark judge.
"Egidius!" He called out, turning around. "Egidius!"
Malthus walked into the cave. There were two interlocked caves, and they were
roomy, around the size of a bedchamber. The first one had a cabinet, a table,
and two chairs in it. He thought of it as his brother's cave because it was
here that he found the first proof that his half-brother
Troyes had been killed. He would never forget finding two of
Troyes' blades in one of the drawers along with the empty hilt of a third. The
blades only shattered when they were used to kill their makers. Beside the
blades had lain the crest of their family carved into an ivory round, painted,
and attached to a golden chain. They had bottled his brother's blood after
killing him on that bleeding table. Malthus had found it, and then he,
Egidius, and Laetus had drunk it in remembrance of what a fine sa'necari
Troyes had been.
He had still not gotten his full vengeance against Isranon and Claw, but
marrying Merissa had given him a start on achieving it. Once Claw and Darmyk
were dead, and the valley had fallen to his armies, then his vengeance would
be complete and Malthus would reveal himself.
Kynyr's War [Lycan Blood Vol. IV]
by Janrae Frank
250
A mon slumped across the table, making small sobbing noises, with his hand on
a bottle of blood wine.
"Egidius? What happened?"
Egidius lifted his head and his sa'necari eyes, amaranthine without pupils,
iris, or whites, looked at him glistening with tears. Malthus could tell that
he was half-drunk.
Malthus gripped Egidius' shoulder and shook him.
"Whatever it is, you can't let it unman you."
Egidius put the bottle to his mouth and drank more, the wine dribbling into
his thin beard. "Laetus is dead. I promised my family I'd take care of him,
and he's dead."
"How did it happen?" asked Malthus, his voice low and dangerous. He knew that
Egidius and his much younger cousin, Laetus, had been very close, but this
display of grieving sottery irritated Malthus.
"Three Stones ... near Iudris Meadows...."
"Where you exterminated that battle-clan?" Malthus' head tilted back, rising
to an alert angle. He had given permission for Laetus to take a sizeable force
against the hamlet, more than enough to have taken on whatever the lycans
might have been able to field. There wasn't a surviving battle-clan in the
area, just farmers. Around three weeks ago, Lokynen and Phelan had come from
Three Stones insisting on a private talk with Claw.
Did they tell him about this? And he said nothing to me? Why hide a victory?
"Yes. Oh, hell, it seemed so easy. Just a little hamlet.
Laetus wanted to lead it himself. To show me what he could do, you know? I let
him. Gods of Hell, I should have been with him."
Kynyr's War [Lycan Blood Vol. IV]
Page 118
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
by Janrae Frank
251
"What happened, damn it. Get to the point! What went wrong?"
"They were wiped out. No one escaped, not even the three brukulacos I sent. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]