Part 24 (1/2)
For his ht's heart, and threatened to choke hi He illing to die if Knucklebones could live, but there were no guarantees Most likely he would battle the monster and die, and Knucklebones would die soon after Monkberry would wander the prairie for the last ti to contact his ancestors across tis, and all the pains and glories of history, he a much mattered
The dead waited, as did their descendants Sunbright was hosts were powerless to help him After all, when it came time for battle, he must leave all others behind, and walk onto the field alone So perhaps the dead could only offer hiand ht darkness, and the lu on a rock
”I'm a poor shaman,” the man croaked to his mother ”I've let down my lover, and my people, ht her son's face, pulled it down to kiss his forehead, then whispered, ”You've let no one down, for you've tried your best”
Froe caht one! He must draw the blade from the fire!” Fifty voices picked up the cheer
Dark shapes clustered around Sunbright Elven hands, long and supple and cool, and dwarven paws, craggy and hot froh the low door, he saw Drigor standing in a spark-spattered apron and enor enough to hold a plow blade Harvester's poht's tired eyes
”Take it Take it!” the dwarf commanded ”That's it draw it out sloslow!”
Sunbright laid hold of the long po been unwound Touching steel sent a tingle through his arm It was only warht a dragon's tail Under Drigor's direction, he pulled the blade free of the flaht Polished like a ht squint The strip of elven truesteel was forged so tightly to Harvester's old edge he couldn't see the juncture The long edge retained its original curve, yet that curve suggested power like a cresting wave The barbed hook behind the nose was cruel as an eagle's beak The edge, once razor-sharp, was now invisible, fine ground to atoms And the blade had a new balance, so it bobbed in his hand, light as a fishi+ng pole, as if it matched his muscles, learned from them, helped them He could wield this new-old weapon all day and never tire
Dwarves and elves hurrahed for the hero and his legendary blade Moving close, Drigor took it, gently as a baby, laid it on a stone table, felt the edge and flat, tested by striking a beard hair against the edge So clean it cut, the hair see at his cleverness, the dwarf polished the glistening blade with a chaly wrapped new leather and silver wire around the poing outside with the crowd, the dwarf hunted under a torch for the right rock, found one black and speckled with silver flecks-a rock not unlike thethe sword blade up, he dropped the rock against the lowest part of the cutting edge The rock dropped straight to the ground, but landed in two pieces The crowd oohed as Drigor held up one chunk of granite One side was s,” said an elf ”Actually, s”
Froht to surround hi, but touched hiht supposed were charers tucked a four-leaf clover into his sleeve An elven wo lad stooped and fastened a silver heart to an iron ring on his boot A woman pinned a striped feather to his bosom Other charms were laid on him Finally old Brookdweller shuffled forward on twisted feet Raising a withered fern, she brushed Sunbright fro to raise his ar like a lark's trill Brushi+ng his hands, she and the other elves drew back
Sunbright thought to say thank you for whatever they'd done, but they'd been silent and so he answered the sa the battle, or already dead, as if he , Drigor inverted Harvester and offered it to Sunbright
But the barbarian gazed east, out over the prairie, where a band of yellow light filled the horizon
”Alht Harvester's pommel and slid the enchanted sword hoht at his back made him stand taller
Then he marched toward the sunrise
One rasslands Elves and dwarves stopped at the first grass as if lining an arena Barbarians came too, drawn by the sun, and stopped to watch their tribesman stride out alone
Then, from thin air before him, stood the monster Its black flint hide sparkled withlile eye alive The little thief watched Sunbright approach with a ht stopped a dozen feet from the monster, hands on hips, and studied it for the first time
The bald head, thick skin of stone, fierce claws, ested a creature fashi+oned for killing But the bulging blue eyes thisar her like a rag doll The thief pinwheeled across the tops of the grass like a skipped stone, and ca three hundred feet away Croaked theto ht ”Will you tell me your name?”
”You know it Knew it” The voice was painful to hear, like aon poison ”In life I was called Sysqueht's brow clouded ”I don't recall-”
”You know me!” the fiend screeched ”I was chamberlain to Polaris, whom I've beaten and banished beyond hell! I was coured into a horror, then tore to shreds!”
”Aaaaah!” Sunbright nodded ”A beautiful wo, with red hair”
The barbarian's denseness annoyed the fore
”The most beautiful!”
”Beautiful, yes You posed as Ruellana to seduce aer with Candlemas I never wholly understood it, but-”
”But why seek revenge? Why come I to kill you?” Sysqueht's calm befuddlement, rather than stark fear,for his life, not pose idle questions She shrieked at him, ”Look at me! Look at the horror I've beco I endured in my own personal hell, trapped for three years when every second was torture!”
Sunbright, awake all night, poised for battle-led to understand ”Why hatewinged hell-king ordered I behead you, and I did nothing to iashed , begging, and whi?
”You were there! You helped conde to prevent it! For this I will kill you, and all you hold dear!”
”Vengeance?” Sunbright scratched his horsetail as he said, ”Revenge rings hollow, I've found I planned to avenge myself on my tribe for years, too, but when I finally found them, they were helpless as baby birds I was needed, so pitched in to help thee would have killed us all It's foolish”
”Foolish?” Sysquemalyn stae, and hissed like a snake, ”It's foolish to beg for your life, for this , and won't,” he said Sunbright squinted with sun in his eyes Sysqueerous Stepping backward through knee-high grass, the shaman said, ”I'll ask one question, if you please Tell ic at your disposal, you hare about gaining revenge? Why not use your power to restore your beauty?”
For a second, the idea so stunned thefro her beauty She'd been too bent on revenge On her eneed her with calhts
”You'd pity rass, the ered by the ferocity of the attack And slow froht, didn't want it Lately, battling raiders and h for a lifetime
Yet if his mind was distracted, instinct saved hiht stepped back on his left foot, body following, and cocked Harvester over his right shoulder Before he knew it, the sword sliced a path of death through the bright winter sky
Sysquee, and slashed to deflect the blade with a stony wrist Yet as the sword, sith all Sunbright's strength, clanged off her arm, a tiny chip of stone flew free In a blind fury, the monster didn't see or feel the wound, but the shaman did, and took note, and heart
Then the fiend was on him like a pack of wildcats ”I'll flay your flesh from your bones!” she screamed