Part 5 (1/2)

Now where did those stupid fools leave the pitcher of iced juice? I don't believe I'm going to have to pour a cup of it for myself.”

The girl looked around vaguely for a tick, then seemed to remember that the pitcher she was searching for was in another room. She swept out with evident purpose, about to attempt something startlingly new, and her sister cast one last venomous look at the door the man had used before following her out. Possibly the second one was gathering her courage, and would make her own attempt if and when her sister was successful.

”By all the perfection of the twenty-sixth level,” I breathed, wondering if I'd found the wrong apartment. Considering those two sisters I was certainly hoping it was the wrong apartment, but considering the way the rest of the day had gone it probably wasn't. Two pretty little girls, not above thirty seasons in age, both with golden curls and lovely green eyes and yellow gowns and too many jewels. And the same face. Twin girl children so spoiled they would sweat rather than open a hanging and a window themselves, and these were the ones the G.o.d had sent me to protect?

I made a very soft sound of ridicule and disgust, then decided I had enough time to look around and be sure. I was remembering what the Administrator had said about their fate being entwined with the city's, but I really did have to be certain. If there were other women in the Pavilion I might be able to forget about the girls, but somehow I had the feeling...

A feeling which, unfortunately, turned out to be right. The Guest Pavilion was a fairly large building, but all of the apartments for guests were on the second floor. There wasn't another area being used by anyone at all, male or female, and the stairway meant to lead to the third floor servants' quarters was closed off with a heavy door that was barred and locked. I stood in the dimness of the hall and stared at that door, then heaved a sigh. The only thing I'd gotten from the sounds coming from the first floor was complete emptiness...

”A pox and taxes,” I muttered in disgust, the harshest curse those of the city spat at one another. Those girls were the ones I had to protect all right, but I couldn't for the life of me understand why. Of what use could they possibly be? I kept asking myself the question as I padded silently back to their apartment, but Diin-tha, if he was watching me, showed no inclination to visit me with enlightenment. I'd get my answer at the next gathering - if I kept the girls alive.

I didn't quite sigh again as I slipped back into their rooms, but my skill at being silent was wasted with those two. I probably could have hummed a tune as I checked each of the rooms tobe certain they were empty except for the girls, and the sisters never would have noticed. They were busy matching slippers to the gowns they would wear on their trip home the next day, and couldn't be bothered with paying attention to what went on around them.

Once I'd gone through the entire apartment, I locked the balcony doors I'd used to get in, then went to the small, almost bare anteroom that fronted the apartment. Callers were meant to wait in that small room rather than hang around the marble hallway, and anyone intending to enter the way people usually did had to come through the anteroom. With all the lamps darkened it was the best possible position for me to take, and not only because there was no other way in.

It also put a door between me and the sisters, which would save having to explain to them why I was there.

I knelt in the heavy darkness right in front of the door I'd been set to guard, slid free the dagger from the sheathe I'd strapped to my right thigh, then settled back on my heels as I lay the dagger on the floor beside me. I could feel ... something in the air as I curled my toes under my feet, but after a moment I was forced to admit it wasn't the tingle of magic. It was less than magic and also more, a feeling I hated and yet also antic.i.p.ated with racing heart. I would need everything I had to hold that door against those who came, and that meant - The Learning. My eyes closed as I knelt there in the dark, feeling it all around me and slowly becoming a part of it. Most people feared the dark, feared what might be in it, a lesson they had learned from countless ghastly deaths and mutilations committed during the lightless time.

One part of the Learning was born of the dark, drew strength and nourishment from it, formed itself from the formlessness it sprang from. It was difficult for a human to come to terms with, painful in the extreme to learn, but once learned...

Once learned it could never be forgotten, never denied. The muscles in my shoulders and thighs relaxed, all tension soothed out of them, the peace of complete readiness settling down and taking over. It wasn't possible to perform properly while tense and nervous, so the Learning disallowed those feelings. It readied one for what was soon to come, made one eager for the time when the rest of the Learning would be used - and made one forget what it had been like afterward, when the Learning had been used before. The loathing and horror, the silent demands to know what I'd been made into, what I'd become - In the grip of the Learning I no longer doubted my right to do what I'd done to living, breathing people.

I simply became someone who could do that, and also would. The feeling of enormous strength and uncounterable skill, of undeniable power over those about me... The feeling flowed through my body like a drug of superiority and victory, a drug I both wanted and needed. Nothing would get past me, nothing and no one, and regrets for what would be done had simply ceased to exist...

Time has no meaning for one in that state, for all thought ceased as though the changeling were a beast who knelt waiting ... waiting ... antic.i.p.ating nothing, prepared against all. The taste of the darkness was salty with heat, the smell of it empty, the sound of it ringing with distant heartbeats. The flesh beneath the unmoving hands of the beast was cool, as cool as the marble it knelt on. And then it was - Eyes opened quickly, eyes that glowed red without the need for outer light to cause the glow.

The edges of the darkness had been shattered some small distance away, and those came who would give their blood in sacrifice to Bellid. The G.o.d would laugh and drink deeply of their terror before their lives fled, and afterward - The beast felt the deep disturbance rocking the darkness elsewhere than in that place. Many of those who had stood about that dwelling were taking themselves elsewhere at great speed, fear in their hearts over what occurred in the distance, but those who came - Four followed with grim purpose, one led with an agony of fear gripping his bowels. ”I pray the G.o.ds it won't be too late,” his voice whispered again and again. ”I pray the G.o.ds it won't be too late. We should have slit their throats as soon as they arrived here, not tempted the prophecy out of politically motivated respect for their father. I pray - ”The heavy thud of boots rang on the marble of the hall just outside, and then the outer door was thrown open. Lamps were carried by two of those who came, but lamplight had not the ability to pierce the darkness where the beast knelt. Only her eyes of glowing red were they able to see, and the sight halted them with gasps and twitchings.

”What - what in the name of blessed Arakon is that?” one of them hissed, peering forward and yet fearing what would be seen. ”Did you set a guard-animal at their door, sir?”

”No, you fool, where would I get a guard-animal?” the one addressed answered in a matching hiss, fluttering his hands. ”Get it away from there, and then go in and do your duty.”

”None may pa.s.s,” the beast breathed as the first of the five grasped his weapon and prepared to step forward. The words, soft as darkness, reached for the men and wrapped them in their sound and meaning, and all five shuddered from the touch of a corner of frigid chaos.

”No - no, we must get past it!” the leader spoke again, for the most part attempting to deny his terror. ”If those girls live our city is lost! All together, everyone at the same time!”

Brave men, they were, those other four, but the Learning was not to be denied. Even as the beast flowed to her feet, the dagger held easily in her right hand, the lamps the men held flickered and died. Shouts came, filled with fear and desperation, and then the beast was among them, unseen and nearly unfelt. Two went down quickly with their throats slit, a third screamed when his flailing sword failed to protect him from beneath, and the fourth had not repaired the weak place in his leather where it covered his side. He screamed like the one before him, but also carried the dagger down, well-lodged in his ribs.

So quickly had so much death been committed, that the fifth, the one who led the others, had only just begun a whimpering run for his life. He had stumbled back and was attempting to turn and find the door when the beast reached him. No longer had the beast the use of her dagger, but with this one, soft and unencased in leather, she had no need of it. One kick took the feet out from under him and then she was down and upon him, tearing at his soft, helpless flesh with the only weapon remaining to her. His were the last of the screams to be heard, and when they had ceased the beast rose to her feet, visited the other bodies for a time before going to free her blade from the unmoving form which held it, then she returned to her place at the door.

Uncounted time pa.s.sed once again, and then the beast felt others entering the dwelling. The disturbances of the distance had come closer and closer, much of it flowing nearly to the dwelling, but as the disturbance had not entered it had not concerned the beast. Now there were those who had entered, and should they attempt to pa.s.s they would join those who littered the floor.

Lamplight bounced as those who carried it hurried up the marble hall, breath hissing in the throats of the hurrying ones as they pressed on in haste. One of their number muttered as he went, but the words seemed more curse than prayer.

”It wasn't our fault!” one of the others whispered as they neared the room of the beast, apparently speaking in answer to he who muttered. ”We couldn't avoid that fight with those city guardsmen, so it isn't our fault that we were delayed getting here. Once most of our troops were in the city - ”

”Save it to tell to Garam and Fearin if anything happened to those females they want.” The words from the one who had muttered were now clear, but no happier than they had been. ”We were supposed to be here to help that girl slave, but we didn't make it. If anyone got to the females - ”

His words broke off as his hurrying pace faltered, all of them slowing to a stop as the lamplight fell on what lay inside the doorway they had just entered. They took another step or two, looking down rather than up, and then one of their number drew in his breath sharply. He had seen the red eyes of the beast, and then all of them saw the same.

”Is - that - ” the first one to speak began, but the following words refused to come. He swallowed instead, the spittle going down hard, and the second shook his head.

”I don't know,” the second whispered, his voice trembling unnoticed. ”But we really shouldlook inside - ”

”None may pa.s.s,” the beast breathed, smiling into the darkness at the thought of more blood to be spilled, and these men, like the first, shuddered at the sound.

”Two of you find Fearin,” the second man ordered, decision hard in his voice as he backed one of the steps he had taken. ”I don't care what it takes to do it, just find him and bring him back.

As fast as the G.o.ds allow.”

”Or faster,” one of the others muttered as two from the back left running, they having seized the opportunity before any others could. ”Do you think Garam - ”

”No,” the second said flatly, ending the suggestion, and then there was no other thing save waiting.

Time ... time ... and then the beast felt newcomers approach, two hesitant, one anxious, all hurrying. Those who remained were not aware of the newcomers' presence until the three had nearly reached the room, and then relief flowed out of them as the cold fear had done.

”High Master, thank the G.o.ds you're here,” the second man began, nearly sobbing in his joy.

”We can't even see what's over there, but just look what it did - ”

”That's enough,” the anxious one's voice lashed out, a raggedness there for those who could hear it. ”Take your men and wait in the hall.”

”With the greatest of pleasure,” the man said at once, and very quickly the anxious one was left with the beast and the dead. The outer door was closed behind the last to depart, and then the newcomer stirred where he stood.

”Aelana, it's Fearin,” he said to the beast, the trembling of his voice clearer now. ”The city is ours so you don't need to guard that door any longer. You can come away - ”

”None may pa.s.s,” the beast breathed for the third time, a heartbeat away from rising, and the man immediately halted the slow advance he had not been truly aware of. The light of the single lamp left for him showed a haggardness in his bearded face, and then he shook his head.

”By the Power and the Will, I wouldn't have believed it beyond me,” he muttered, and then he raised his arms and called softly, ”Diin-tha, hear your servant. I cannot reach through to the girl and I must. I beseech your aid, Lord, in severing the tie binding her in that - that - ”

The words failed him then, but they were unnecessary. The red eyes gazing at him flickered and then faded, and then I was out of the peace imposed on me by the Learning, blinking at the lamplight and taking the first deep breath I had in hours. I raised my hands to my face to rub at my eyes, and as I did I heard Fearin moving forward.

”Aelana, can you understand me now?” he asked, bending to put a hand to my shoulder. ”Are you all right? Is any of that blood yours?”

”Of course I can understand you,” I began to answer in annoyance, wondering why he sounded so strange, and then I took my hands from my eyes and was able to look down at myself in the lamplight that now reached me.

Blood. Covering me almost everywhere, from the bodies of those I'd killed. Those I'd enjoyed killing. Especially the last ... his throat torn out ... with my teeth - I looked up at Fearin's shadowy face, remembering it all, then pulled away from his hand, ran to a corner of the room, and threw up everything inside me.

Chapter 7.

It wasn't far from noon the next day, but you couldn't tell it by looking at the skies. Rain poured down in a solid sheet, cooling the air and everything it touched, but also soaking the world. I sat on the wide ledge of the open porch-room of the Chief Administrator's palace, my arms around my knees, my back against a pillar, my eyes on the rain, remembering the rest of the night before even though I didn't want to. I'd had a number of hours of sleep, but that wasn't helping me with any of the memories.”This has certainly been a night of surprises,” Fearin had said once my heaving had stopped, crouching down next to me where I sat with my back against a wall. ”Here, rinse your mouth out with this water, and then we'll use the rest of it to clean you up a little.”

He'd pressed a cup into my shaking hands, and I hadn't even been able to ask him where he'd gotten the cup and water. The water was cold enough to wash the horrible taste out of my mouth and soothe my burning throat, and all I'd been able to consider was being grateful that the cup and water were here to be used.

”I think I'm beginning to understand more of what being Shadowborn means,” Fearin had commented after taking the cup back, his eyes narrowed as he looked down at me. ”And I'm learning that you're not quite the strutting, boasting, dangerous Kenoss you want people to think you are. You're dangerous, all right, but there's a good deal more to you than that.”