Part 46 (1/2)

”But I don't have anything to avenge. I owe you my life,” Kylar said.

Durzo's face grew somber. ”Yes, this life of blood. I served that G.o.ddam ka'kari for almost seven hundred years, Kylar. I served a dead king and a people who weren't worthy of him. I lived in the shadows and I became like the shadow-dwellers. I gave all I was for some dream of hope that I never understood in the first place. What happens when you strip away all the masks a man wears and you find not a face beneath them but nothing at all? I failed the ka'kari once. Once Once I failed in seven hundred years of service, and it abandoned me. I failed in seven hundred years of service, and it abandoned me.

”I didn't age a day, Kylar, not a day, for seven hundred years. Then came Gwinvere, and Vonda. I loved her, Kylar.”

”I know,” Kylar said gently. ”I'm sorry about Vonda.”

Durzo shook his head. ”No. I didn't love Vonda. I just wanted-I wanted Gwinvere to know how it felt to have someone you love sharing other people's beds. I f.u.c.ked them both and I paid Gwinvere, but it was Vonda I made a wh.o.r.e. That was why I wanted the silver ka'kari at first-to give it to Gwinvere, so she wouldn't die as everyone I've loved has died. But King Davin's rock was a fake, so I left it for Garoth Ursuul's men to find. The only way to save Vonda would have been to give them my ka'kari. I balanced her life against my power and my eternal life. I didn't love her, so the price was too high. I let her die. her life against my power and my eternal life. I didn't love her, so the price was too high. I let her die.

”That was the day the ka'kari stopped serving me. I began to age. The ka'kari became nothing more than black paint on a sword that mocked me with the word JUSTICE. Justice was that I get old, lose my edge, die. You were my only hope, Kylar. I knew you were a ka'karifer. You would call the ka'kari to you. There were rumors that there was another in the kingdom. The black ka'kari had rejected me, but maybe the silver would not. A slim hope, but a hope for another chance, for redemption, for life. But you only called my ka'kari. You began to bond it that day I beat you, the day you risked your life to save that girl. I was insane. You were taking from me the only thing I had left. Reputation gone, honor gone, excellence fading, friends dead, the woman I loved hating me, and then you took my hope.” He looked away. ”I wanted to end you. But I couldn't.” He threw a garlic clove in his mouth. ”I knew that first kill wasn't in you. Not even that twist Rat. I knew you couldn't kill someone for what he might might do.” do.”

”What?” Kylar's skin p.r.i.c.kled.

”The streets would have devoured you. I had to save you. Even if I knew it would come to this.”

”What are you saying?” Kylar asked. No. G.o.d, please no. Don't let it fit. No. G.o.d, please no. Don't let it fit.

”Rat didn't mutilate Doll Girl,” Durzo said. ”I did.”

The smoke half-filled the tunnel now. The huge fan turned slowly and the smaller fan was spinning as fast as Kylar's heart was beating. The moonlight was chopped into pieces and scattered wantonly through the roiling smoke.

Kylar couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't even protest. It was a lie. It had to be a lie. He knew Rat. He'd seen his eyes. He'd seen the evil there.

But he'd never seen Durzo's evil, had he? Kylar had seen his master kill innocents, yet he'd never let himself see the evil there.

The big fan spun quickly now. Its whup-whup-whup chopped time into pieces, marked its pa.s.sage as if time had significance.

”No.” Kylar could barely force the word through the stranglehold of truth tightening his throat. Blint would do it. Life is empty. Life is empty. A street girl is worth exactly what she can get for whoring. Life is empty. Life is empty. A street girl is worth exactly what she can get for whoring.

”No!” Kylar shouted.

”It ends now, Kylar.” Durzo s.h.i.+mmered and disappeared, the darkness embracing him. Kylar felt rage, stark, hot rage rush through him.

Under the sounds of the protesting fans and the hot wind, Kylar barely heard the footsteps. He wheeled and dived.

The smoke swirled as the shadowy wetboy ran past him.

He heard a sword clearing a scabbard and he drew Retribution. A shadow appeared, too close, too fast. They clashed and Kylar's sword went flying. He dove backward.

Kylar came to his feet slowly, silently, straining his senses, crouching low in the smoke. The rage overcame his fatigue, and he channeled it, forced it to bring clarity.

He looked for any advantage, but there was little to be found. He could stand close to the huge southern fan and it would protect his back, but Blint could easily knock him into the spinning blades. They weren't so sharp or turning so fast that they'd sever a limb, but they'd certainly stun him. In a fight against Durzo, that would mean death.

Handholds were set into the walls and ceiling of the tunnel at intervals so the workers could replace sections. But where Kylar stood, the handholds were at least ten feet over his head.

A brief jolt of his Talent coursed through him as he leapt. He found a rung in his grip. As his right hand flexed, he almost fell. He'd forgotten that the window had slashed his hand open.

Kylar swung and looped his feet behind another rung to stabilize himself. His right hand was too weak to hold his weight, so he drew the tanto with that hand. The gong sounded again as Kylar looked at the tanto. It was straight, eight inches long, and had an angled point for punching through armor. With his hand as weak as it was, he couldn't slash with this knife.

He sheathed the tanto, popped the catch on a special sheath, and drew out a short curving knife only half the size of the tanto. Four tiny holes up the spine of the blade were stuffed with cotton. The sheath was wet. Kylar didn't know if the white asp poison had been washed off by the river or not. But he had no choice.

The wind slowed and then stopped abruptly. The great fans still spun, rattling on their greased axles.

Kylar held still and waited. The smoke was gradually drifting lower again, no longer filling the entire tunnel. The next time Durzo moved through the smoke, Kylar would be able to see the disturbance even if he couldn't see the wetboy himself.

The fans rattled down to a bare whisper and soon Kylar could hear no other sound but the pounding of his pulse in his own ears. He was straining now, not just to see or hear the wetboy, but merely to hold himself in place-and hold himself there silently.

If Durzo heard him, Kylar was totally exposed. With his feet locked behind the rung, he wouldn't be able to move quickly. And he made a huge target.

His only advantage would be surprise. But Durzo had taught him that that was the most important advantage of all.

A minute pa.s.sed.

The fans went completely silent. Even the low mutter of voices from outside was gone. The smoke, cooling once more, settled back into its cradle along the bottom of the tunnel.

Agonizingly slowly, Kylar turned his head, careful that not even his collar rustled. Surely with the smoke this low, drifting slowly as it did to the north, he should be able to see something, some eddy, some curl out of place.

He breathed the way he moved: slowly, carefully. His nose, bloodied earlier against the tower wall, allowed air to pa.s.s only through one nostril. His left arm was burning; his legs ached, but still he made no move, no sound.

Dread grew in his heart as he hung there. How could he fight Durzo? How many men had his master killed? How many times had Durzo beaten him in every test, every challenge? How could Kylar fight now, injured and weak as he was? Durzo could wait on the bottom of the tunnel forever. He'd probably placed himself by the smaller north fan. With the light at his back, he'd see as soon as Kylar dropped and be on him in a second.

Who was Kylar to kill a legend?

He tried to still the racing of his heart. His throat was tight. The hot emotions that had fueled him throughout the night cooled. He was cold. Empty. Durzo was right, justice had no place in this world. Logan was dead. Elene had been beaten, and the men who had done all the evil Kylar could imagine were winning. They always had. They always would.

He couldn't hold on much longer. Durzo would hear the sound of his heart, thudding as it was against his chest. He forced himself to breathe slowly.

Patience! Patience.

He drew a slow breath again and paused. There was the slightest tang on the air.

Garlic! Both master and apprentice had had the same thought. Durzo was hanging exactly as Kylar was, mirror-image, inches away, poised watching the smoke for the slightest eddy. Both master and apprentice had had the same thought. Durzo was hanging exactly as Kylar was, mirror-image, inches away, poised watching the smoke for the slightest eddy.

Kylar jerked his head up and lashed out with the little knife. He must have made a sound, because the smear of darkness that had been just one rung above him was moving too.

His knife cut cloth and he blocked an attack with his other hand as they both dropped off the ceiling.

Kylar hit the floor heavily, splas.h.i.+ng in the puddle gathered in the tunnel's bottom and hitting the metal so hard that he felt a sting in his neck. He rolled and jumped to his feet. He heard the ring of a sword clearing its scabbard. rolled and jumped to his feet. He heard the ring of a sword clearing its scabbard.

Durzo winked back into visibility. Kylar let himself become visible too. He was too tired to maintain invisibility for another second. He felt like a wrung-out rag. He stared at three feet of steel in Blint's hand and the four inches in his own.

”So it comes to this,” Durzo said. ”I don't suppose you have any more tricks like that one up in the tower?”

”I don't even know how that happened,” Kylar said. ”I've got nothing left.”

”Good thing I didn't let you go after Roth then, isn't it?” Durzo said, that infuriating little smirk on his lips.