Part 2 (1/2)
”Slayers! Inside the gate!” the words rang out. Wedding ceremony forgotten, soldiers turned and rushed for the courtyard.
”Arm yourselves!” Turold roared to the gathering.
”But the ceremony!” Lyssa pleaded.
”No time for that now.” Colwyn turned away from her, impatient to join the fight.
The moment had cracked. Time later to mend it. Lyssa's hand became a fist.
When she opened her hand again, the flame that had burned there so intensely had vanished. She hurried after Colwyn, cursing the formal gown that hampered her movements.
”We'll fight them together,” she shouted.
”No, not here.”
”But the ceremony-”
”Can be completed later. For the moment my concern is for your safety, not our future.”
”Colwyn, think a moment. Our safety lies in our future.”
”Soon,” he told her soothingly. ”The mood is important.” He turned, caught the attention of a captain of the King's Guard. ”Get her to a place of safety.”
”My place is with my men, fighting,” the captain replied.
”Your place is where I order you to be.” The captain hesitated a moment. But he'd heard the two kings join their kingdoms. He nodded tersely. ”Get her away from this. We'll clear them out and there'll be plenty left for you.”
”My place is with you,” Lyssa insisted. ”I'll not be s.h.i.+pped about at anyone's whim, not even vours.”
Colwyn tried to divide his attention between his betrothed and the increasingly violent sounds beyond the hall.
”Do you love me?”
”I am to be your wife. The alliance-”
”Darkness and the Long Night take the alliance!” he snarled. ”Do you love me?”
”The declaration of unity, I... yes. Yes, I love you, Colwyn.”
He nodded once, then smiled gently. ”Then do this for me. Go with the captain. Lead him if you cannot follow, but go.”
She shook her head resignedly. ”No time for wisdom, too much time for panic.
I will do as you ask, but it is unfair of you to use so strong a lever.”
”I don't care if you think it unfair of me. I care only that you are safe.”
He looked over at the captain. ”Is there a safe way out of this castle?”
”An underground tunnel.” Colwyn whirled, to find that it was Eirig, standing close by, who had spoken. ”Little used recently. It would be the best way.” Eirig spoke to the captain: ”Lord Colwyn's orders are to be followed as though they were my own. Conduct the princess to Timrick City. We will send word when the castle has been secured. Take a suitable escort.”
”Yes, sire.” The captain turned away and began pulling soldiers from the ranks trying to push their way outside.
Eirig embraced his daughter. ”We've had our disagreements, you and I. I cannot count the occasions when you made me angry enough to burst. Yet I think you have chosen your man well.”
Colwyn tried to hide from the compliment. Compliments made him nervous.
”Take care, daughter.” ”I will, Father.”
”Enough,” Colwyn yelled. The sounds of fighting were coming closer. ”Get her out of here!”
Eirig nodded sharply to the captain, who saluted smartly and extended a hand to the princess. Lyssa accepted it, looking back over her shoulder as she departed.
”Come back to me, Colwyh!”
”It's not possible to conceive of anything else,” he a.s.sured her. A hand came down on his shoulder. He found himself staring into the face of his father-in-law.10 ”Now then, my boy, there's killing to be done. The Slayers are many more than I thought. Never fear for your lady. She will get out safely.” He cleared his throat self-consciously. ”I won't try to hide the fact that I expressed more than one reservation about this match. There were many who agreed with me and argued about it. They sought to discredit you in my eyes. I see now that they were wrong.
As always, Lyssa's judgment is proven sound. Come and fight alongside me.”
”I'll be honored,” said Colwyn. Together they moved toward the courtyard and the battle raging outside.
One of the guards cursed as he banged his head against a low beam. It was hard to see very far ahead, and the men were nervous.
”Captain,” one man complained, ”is there much more of this?”
”It leads beneath the walls and emerges far out in the hills. Hold your patience that long.” He looked to his charge. ”Is my lady all right?”
”I'm fine, Captain,” Lyssa a.s.sured him, ”but I don't like this place. I share your men's unease. Maybe it would be better to retrace our path and find a less confining egress. I know of a back window above the great hall. We could throw down a rope and escape by that route. Surely the Slayers will not be watching so precipitous an exit.”
”Risky. Though I think the idea has merit, the king himself instructed me to go this way, and I have to follow his orders.”
”I understand, Captain.” Her eyes searched the corridor ahead, as if she could see farther than her escort. ”Still, I am uncomfortable here.”
”Rest a.s.sured we will soon be out in the-”
The Slayers who dropped from above cut the captain off in mid-sentence.
Others dropped from rafters and beams behind, cutting off any retreat. In the narrow tunnel the sudden blasts of energy from the Slayers' strange spears mixed with the screams of dying men to overpower the senses. Those Slayers who fell perished with a single piercing, inhuman wail.
Lyssa picked up a knife and pressed her back against the corridor wall. Her retreat was cut off, as was the way out.
As she watched, one of the Slayers disengaged himself from the battle and moved toward her. She sliced at him with the knife, feinting as best she could before stabbing upward. She wasn't quite quick enough.
The knife barely p.r.i.c.ked the Slayer as he twisted to the side. A powerful hand reached out to grasp her wrist. She tried to break free, trying not to stare into the empty holes in the creature's head where a face should be.
Several more of the ma.s.sive figures moved to help the first. The knife was wrenched from her fingers. She felt herself rising in bloodless arms as she probed for her captor's eyes.
He did not have any.
Odd how they died, Colwyn thought as he swung the heavy sword in wide, sweeping arcs. It didn't matter how you slew them; a throat-thrust, a stab to the chest, a blow to the skull; all perished with the same unearthly scream before collapsing and disintegrating, save for the strange length of flesh that emerged to vanish by itself into the ground. Even when they dodged and stabbed, they seemed more dead than alive. They used no shouts, offered up no cries of mutual support as men did. Yet they fought together, communicating in some voiceless, cryptic fas.h.i.+on only another Slayer could comprehend.