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.TheBlood-eaters had him.They would soon have the whole city. Death would be too easy a punishment for killing my kinsman Efrim.Therefore,when you were chosen by my guests, I agreed.You can repent your errors in alifetime of slavery.In the service of the royal twins. It's not for a slave they want me! Brak exclaimed. It's for a victim likeyou! Ibrahim sniffed, retreated a step, shook his head. Unhinged, he said again. Now pay attention.My guests asked that you appear more suitably preparedthan the wench was when she went to them.Therefore my eunuchs" a glove liftedtoward the giggling shadows in the hall "shall dress you.You should make anPage 66 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlamusing sight when they're done, and I look forward to it.The free, boldspirit drowned in perfume and smothered in peacock's pantaloons.I commend youto the slave's life, slayer of my kinsman.You'll hate that, I think.In atwelve-month even perhaps sooner you'll be madder than you are now. Laughing, he turned and tramped out.Stunned, Brak was unable to move for a moment.Then he grew conscious of menaround him.Men? They were more like sexless, puffy-cheeked boys in pastel robes.Someheld torches.One eunuch reached for the lion-hide around Brak's middle.The creature's rubyeye winked as he tittered, Have done with that filthy garment, outlander. Atug. Have done, have done, you scamp! Have done, have done! others squealed, attacking Brak from all sides.The big barbarian caught the nearest one beneath the jaw, pulled the shavedmelon of a head under his armpit and squeezed.The eunuch shrieked.Hisjawbone popped.Brak spun.The others scattered, fell back.A gemmed hilt flashed.Brak leapedfor it, pulled it out.He hoped the eunuch's ornamental sword was more than atoy.It was, but only slightly.The eunuchs scattered to all sides of the cell.Onedropped his torch as he picked up the skirts of his gown.The straw began toburn.Hadrios cried out. Trouble in there, a voice boomed in the corridor. Shall we summon the Lord's bodyguard back? They're only to the footbridge. No, we can handle it.Nivex, Cadmon follow me! The straw shot up fire-tongues from the floor of the cell.The first of threecorridor guards rushed through the door.A eunuch trying to flee stumbled intohim.Cursing, the guard lifted the eunuch's head with his knee, kicked thewailing man aside.The other two guards crowded in.One was the blue-chinnedsoldier to whom Brak had spoken earlier.Curved swords flashed back the light of the burning straw. In a line threeacross, the guard in charge whispered. But be careful.Lord Ibrahim willhave our privates if we kill him. The hell! blue chin spat. We'll say it was an accident. The eunuchs crushed together in one corner, bleating and hugging one another.The eyes of the guards three eyes dark and moist, three red-facets shonebrightly as the men lined shoulder to shoulder.They slid their feet forward,inched toward the barbarian who stood with the tiny ornamental blade lookingdwarfed in his fist.Brak sensed Pol nearby.The clamor of Hadrios made it difficult for him toconcentrate.Sweat ran down his chest.Slide,the boots of the guards rasped closer.Slide.Two more paces and they'd be on him.He watched the bent leg of theblue-chinned guard, saw it tenseScooping the point of the blade under some of the burning straw, Brak flungfire.The guard in the middle yelled and dropped his curved sword.Brak ran barefootthrough the blazing straw.The heat tortured his soles a moment.Then he wasthrough.He leaned down to grab the fallen sword.The blue-chinned guardattacked.Blue chin thrust out his sword arm to full length.Brak ducked, used hisshoulder to pitch blue chin over even as he parried the blade of the thirdguard.Parry clang.Parry clang.There was cursing the sudden sound of men strugglingbehind Brak.The noise made the third guard miss his aim.His blade slid by.Brak buriedhis weapon halfway to its hilt in the man's stomach.Then he yanked it freeand swung around. Pol! The Nestorian was down, mortally hit.Page 67 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlThe priest's gray habit was blood-blackened.The guard Brak had pitched overhad done it.Brak caught blue-chin and threw him down.He stepped on thefloundering guard's neck and held it while he cut it open.Pol's thin fingers lifted something rough and pressed it against Brak's palm. More men coming, the priest gasped. Run.Run and carry out your pledge tothe old man if you can do no more before All at once Pol went rigid.He struggled to clasp his hands together on hischest.He saw some horror far beyond Brak or this place and exclaimed, Forgive me in my unbelief, oh my go He rose up in convulsion.He fell back.His head struck the stone with a thud.His fingers relaxed.Brak shivered in terror.What he held was the stone cross of Nestoriamus.The barbarian thrust the talisman down against his belly under folds of thelion-hide.Torches were bobbing somewhere down the corridor.Hadrios pleadedto know what had happened.Brak felt doomed, as all of Quran was doomed.But he had made a pledge.He would spend his last blood trying to carry itout.If the mad gods would only let him live just a little longer, he coulddie bringing vengeance.Head down, yellow braid flying and curved sword wet and red, he ran from thegory cell.He turned right, away from the torches coming in pursuit.Heplunged into the long, still passage that led to the royal tower.Chapter XIDemon's ChamberAs Brak ran, the accumulated fatigue of the past days took a toll.The placeson his body where swords or blows had struck began to ache in concert.He wasfilled with a sudden nausea.The floor of the dim corridor tilted slowly oneway, then the other.The shouts of the pursuing guards were closer now.Boots stamped; the men wererunning hard.He skidded against the wall, pausing a moment to gasp air andorient himself.Ahead the passage was lighter.It sloped downward slightly.He saw the reasonfor the light, even as he sensed that the air here circulated more freely andsmelled fresher.A face, hardly more than a white blur, turned upward to him from the bottom ofthe sloping passage.A Quran, heavy and wide, stood on guard with a spearbefore a vertical lattice blocking the end of the corridor.Through breaks inthe lattice Brak glimpsed another tower where many tiny lamps shone in smallwindows.The royal tower.The footbridge.He forced himself ahead, driving his huge body by will alone.He cared nothingfor saving the men and womenfolk of this piratical desert kingdom.Indeed,they should have been his mortal enemies.Yet on a scale and weighed againstthe infernal twins, the Quran came off the lesser enemy.It was the twins hewanted destroyed or balked.For Helane's sake, and to slake his hunger forvengeance.Lord Ibrahim was poisoned with the taint.But he still had one hopeleft.The pursuers cried out to the lone guard at the lattice gate. Stop him, Alphonder. Hold him with your spear, we're coming! 'Tis the barbarian from the dungeons! But gross Alphonder knew all too well who was charging him with sword raised.There could not be more than one demoniac-looking warrior with flying braid inall of Quran.Alphonder the fat planted his boots, held his spear firmly withboth hands and sweated.Brak loped to the left of the corridor as he reached the bottom.Alphondershifted that way too.Instantly Brak changed direction, hurled to the right,past the surprised guard.He reached the winch-wheel in the wall
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Tematy
IndexHieber Leanna Renee Percy Parker 02 Walka œwiatła i mroku o Percy Parker
Lensman 02 Smith, E E 'Doc' First Lensman
Swann S. A. Wilczy miot 02 Wilczy Amulet
Benzoni Juliette Fiora 02 Fiora i zuchwały
Kaplan Andrew Skorpion 02 Zima Skorpiona
Anne Stuart Czarny lód 02 Zimny jak lód
Gauze Jan Brazylia 02 Brazylia mierzona krokami
Bidwell George Michał i Pat 02 Synowie Pat
Stuart Anne Czarny lód 02 Zimny jak lód
Długosz Jan Roczniki czyli kroniki Królestwa Polskiego III IV