Downshadow w-3

by Erik Scott De Bie

  "Fly," Kalen dared him.

  With a fierce kick, he wrenched Vindicator free. For one horrible, perfect instant, they were gliding, failing a little as if they had tripped. Vindicator was arcing, end over end, through the air beside them.

  Then Kalen's guts rose up into his throat, and the two combatants were streaking down, wrestling in the air. The dwarf punched him soundly across the face and the world blurred. He held on.

  They ricocheted off the palace roof-crashing hard, bones snapping-tumbling madly like dolls. Kalen tried to jump but the dwarf held on. Kalen rolled and wrestled and prayed and…

  Hit.

  THIRTY-EIGHT

  For a long time, nothing existed but darkness. Darkness, and rain like knives. Then pain-sharp, stabbing agony that came from every broken limb and ounce of flesh. He had survived the fall-somehow, crashing against roofs and shattering almost every bone in his body.

  Rath awoke on the cobbles of Castle Ward, in the shadow of the palace, and coughed up blood before he breathed. This magnified the pain a hundredfold. He couldn't feel his body. He was- Alone.

  That couldn't be. Shadowbane had fallen with him. They must have hit something else-some building. Otherwise, Rath surely would have died.

  But who had landed on the stone first? Who had borne the brunt of the fall?

  Rath saw a silhouette emerge from the mist. No-he saw the sword first. Saw the silver flames rising from it, the fog boiling away. Shadowbane, he thought for a moment, but…

  It was Myrin. She walked toward him, the sword held awkwardly in her frail hands. Blue runes covered her skin, but they were fading as she strode forward. Her magic was unraveling, leaving only mortal hatred in her eyes.

  "Taking vengeance," Rath said. He burbled. "I slew him and you avenge him. Fitting."

  His sword lay on the cobbles, where ir had fallen from the window. The hilt, still sizzling from Myrin's fire spell, sent up steam as rain fell on it. It was only a hand's length from his grasp.

  A black boot fell on the hilt. Rath looked up.

  Shadowbane loomed over him-stooped, bent, but not broken. His damp cloak draped around him. His helm dripped black rain.

  "Kalen," Myrin whispered.

  He reached toward her with his unbroken hand.

  Myrin's face softened. "Kalen, no."

  He curled his fingers, beckoning.

  "Kalen, please. He's a monster, but he doesn't-you don't have to-"

  Kalen said nothing-only held out his hand. Myrin looked at Rath once more, then put the hilt of Vindicator in Kalen's hand.

  "Turn away," Kalen said. Myrin shook her head. Turn.

  "No!" Myrin backed away. "I want to see what you are. What we are!"

  Kalen looked only at Rath. He focused on the dwarf silently, ignoring Myrin's heaving breaths. Then she turned away and darred into the mist, vanishing into the night.

  "For Cellica," Shadowbane said, as though in explanation.

  Rath smiled, tasting blood in his mouth.

  Kalen wrapped both hands around the hilt gingerly, reversed Vindicator, and held it ready to plunge into the dwarf's throat. He paused, his eyes unreadable.

  "What will ir be, knight?" Rath did his best to smile. "Vengeance

  … or mercy?"

  Kalen coughed once and steadied himself.

  "Justice."

  The sword screeched against the stone.

  THIRTY-NINE

  Iunatic swordsmen cause havoc in Downshadow!" the broadcrier was yelling ar the entrance to the Knight 'n Shadow. "Same culprits suspected in damage to Timehands! Watch…"

  He trailed off and gaped at a gray figure standing before himbare headed, bare handed, clad toe to chin in black leathers. Bandages wrapped his right hand and a sword was sheathed at his belt. In the dawn light, his brown-black hair was glossy and his chin dark with stubble. His eyes burned like light off snow.

  "Boy," he said to the broadcrier. He took a hand out of the scrip satchel at his waist-in it gleamed five gold dragons. "Do you want these?"

  The broadcrier had seen so much coin before, of course-this was, after all, the City of Splendors, where coin was king and blood was gold. But never had he owned that much wealth himself.

  The boy nodded. The knight handed the coins over, and they quickly disappeared into the broadcrier s belt pouch. Then, his bandaged hand shaking, the knight unbuckled the black-sheathed sword from his hip and held it out as though presenting a gold scepter.

  "Hold this for me." The knight nodded to the tavern. "When I collect it from you again, I shall give you twenty more dragons." "And-" The boy shivered. "And if you do not?" The knight smiled. "Then wear it well, and do not try to run from it as I did."

  The boy nodded and took the knight's sword in his hands. It pulsed with inner strength-neither good nor evil, only powerful. Waiting for a worthy hand.

  Without another word, the knight strode past the boy.

  Fayne waited for him, legs crossed on the table. She was in a good mood.

  She didn't care about being private or unnoticed; she wore her mosr beautiful red-haired half-elf face and her most revealing black and red harness, which was more leather straps than fabric. A dozen men had come to her with propositions, but she'd casually ignored each of them until they'd gone away. She'd had to fend off one with a charm to make him run away in terror. After her display of magic, no one bothered her.

  She was waiting for one man, and one man alone. She hadn't slept that night, and neither had he, she knew. This would be their last meeting.

  He came, just as she had anticipated, at about dawn, when the street lamps were being doused and the shadowy dealings in unused alleys gave way to legitimate business in the streets. The Knight 'n Shadow was mostly empty at dawn, though a few Waterdhavians had come for morningfeast before going about the business of the day.

  He was dressed in leathers but carried no sword and wore no helm. His brown stubble defined his strong, tense jaw. His right hand was bandaged. His left was bare.

  "Last place you expected this, eh?" Fayne asked.

  "On the contrary," her visitor said. "Drinks and sly glances are your favored weapons. Why should I expect anything less than your element?"

  "Mmm." She nodded to the two goblets of wine on the table, one before her and one before an empty chair. "Drink? 'Ware, though for-"

  Kalen seized her gobler-not his own-drained it in a single gulp, then sat down.

  Fayne blinked at him, then at the goblets. He'd ruined her game, and it offended her.

  "My apologies," Kalen said. "Was one or the other meant to be poisoned?"

  "Very well," she said, keeping the anger he'd roused off her face. "We don't have to play this game, if you don't want."

  Kalen shrugged, then belched in a way rather unbefitting a paladin.

  "So you beat Rath," Fayne said, tracing her finger along the lip of her empty wine goblet. Again, silence.

  "And I suppose you know about Cellica," she said. "I imagine the dwarf told you / stabbed her, did he? I thought he might. That was the plan, after all."

  "He did not," Kalen said. "But I had guessed."

  "Poor puppy." Fayne grinned. "Surely you didn't believe all that romantic nonsense about me loving you."

  Again, Kalen said nothing, but Fayne could see the vengeful wrath behind his eyes.

  "Ah, Kalen." She smiled at him. "I knew-I knew the moment you went after the girl instead of me at the revel-that we would never work together."

  He spoke, his voice grave. "Threatening to turn you in had naught to do with it?"

  Fayne laughed. "No, no, silly boy-in my circles, that's just flirtation. No." Her eyes narrowed. "You just don't understand my very humble needs."

  "Needs?" Kalen's bloodstained teeth glittered at her. The look of it intrigued her.

  "Yes-your heart, body, mind, soul-everything." She flashed her long lashes and feigned a kiss. "Is that really so much to ask?"

  "I might have given it," Kalen said. "Before you k
illed Cellica-I might have given it."

  "And what of Myrin, eh?" Fayne asked.

  She seemed to have struck him to the quick. Kalen looked down at the table silently.

  "Ah, yes, the girl between us," Fayne said. "And how fares yon strumpet?"

  Kalen slammed his fist on the table, drawing wary glances. "Don't insult her," he said low. "A creature like you couldn't possibly understand her." am

  "I'm sure." Fayne didn't bother looking around. "She's not with you now?"

  Kalen shook his head.

  "You let her go," Fayne said, clasping her hands at her breast. "Oh, how romantic! You really are such an insufferably good man-and an arrogant boor, besides." She sneered.

  Kalen did norhing but stare ar her.

  "You just have to make decisions on behalf of those around you, without consulting them," Fayne said. "Rejecting that slut of a valabrar, for instance, so as not to hurt her. Deciding Myrin would be happier without you. Telling yourself it's to prorecr them, and nor yourself!"

  "I do what I must," Kalen said.

  "Gods defend us!" Fayne threw her hands up in the air. "The arrogance! The conceir!"

  "I know Myrin," Kalen said. "And I do not deserve her."

  Fayne couldn't contain her laughter. This was just too much.

  "People never change," she said. "Once a rhief, ever a thief. Once a killer, ever a killer. Too much to expect you might stop hating yourself." She blew him a kiss. "But what if Myrin wanted you anyway?"

  "I wouldn't let her."

  "How perfect!" Fayne said. "Oh, Kalen, the gods endowed you in many ways, but wisdom of the heart was hardly one of them."

  "Whoever she is," Kalen said, "whatever she is, whatever folk have done to her-Myrin deserved none of it." His eyes blazed. "She is better than me-better than all of us."

  "Spoken like a man who knows nothing of women."

  Kalen shrugged.

  "Ah, Shadowbane, the arbiter of justice-but you're working without all the evidence, love," said Fayne. "You don't know what that girl is. If you did, and you had the slightest love for good and justice, you'd march right out of here and take her to the Watch-or the Tower." Fayne grinned. "Why not do that now? Or are you afraid they'd take her away from you?"

  Fayne saw Kalen's hand clench, but the knight resrrained himself.

  "But no-you don't need anyone else." Fayne winked. "You're always alone, aye?"

  She could see Kalen trembling as he looked down at the table.

  "You really do love her, aye?" asked Fayne.

  "You know I can't," Kalen said angrily. "She hurts me too much, just by looking at me."

  "You idiot." Fayne laughed. "What do you think love is?"

  A timid barmaid stood at the edge of the room, and Fayne rolled her eyes and waved to her. Soon, tankards of ale came, and they raised them to each other, even toasted and clinked the tankatds together and smiled. By all appearances they were merely young companions, dressed in the garb of sellswords, sharing drink and conversation.

  Through it all, the goblet of wine before Kalen went untouched. "What arc you thinking about, lover?" Fayne asked. "I am thinking about how this will end." There was no warmth in his eyes.

  "Then you will not object to assuaging my own wonders," Fayne said.

  He shrugged with his tankard.

  "First question," Fayne said. "Why did you drink my wine rather than your own? Had you decided what manner of wench I am-one who would expect to be trusted?"

  Kalen gestured to the full goblet. "I could drink this," he said. "Or shall we talk more?"

  Fayne's smile didn't falter-she wouldn't give him a hint as to her scheme. It was far too delicious. "We should talk, and you should answer my question."

  "I knew," Kalen said. "Because I know you, Fayne."

  "I suppose you do at that-in a certain sense." She winked lewdly then composed herself. "Second question-you knew I was crooked. How?"

  "Lady Dawnbringer," Kalen said.

  "Ah." She nodded. "But that didn't let you save Cellica. So you must not have been certain. You didn't know Rath was mine?" "I suspected," Kalen said. "I saw the way you looked at Lady

  Ilira-the triumph in your eyes. Was anything accidental about that night?"

  "Well struck," Fayne said. "What I told you was true-the whore killed my mother, and nothing pleases me more than hurting her. I didn't pay Rath to kill Lorien, but I don't care that he did. The only part I lied about was whether I would have killed her myself." She smiled. "Yet still you let me share your bed, even after you knew I was bent. I don't suppose you really did love me? Just a touch?" She batted her eyes at him.

  "No more than you did," he replied, his eyes never leaving hers.

  Good, that was good. All his attention fixed upon her.

  "Glad my true face didn't steal your virility," she confessed. "But I'm so terribly curious-make love to many of my kind, do you?"

  "I like my lasses wicked." Kalen shrugged. "But I've never known one quite like you."

  "Mmm. Good." Fayne laughed lightly. "Not wielding your paladin's sword, I see." She gestured to his empty belt. "You murdered Rath in cold blood?"

  "And if I did?"

  "Then I can see why Myrin has left you." She reached across the table for his wrist but he drew away. "Ah, Kalen! You and I know too much darkness for a soft thing like her."

  "Yes," Kalen murmured. "I suppose we do."

  She narrowed her eyes. "Are you-and this is my last question- here to fight me, rather than claim me for your own?"

  Kalen said nothing.

  Fayne sighed. "Of course. Well-it would have been joyous, saer, but I can't say as I disagree. You and I were not meant for one another. Irreconcilable philosophical differences."

  Kalen shrugged. "I suppose this is where I ask how you intend to kill me." He gestured to the wine goblets-hers empry, his full. "I suppose one of those was poisoned."

  "Mayhap." Fayne looked him up and down. "You seem to be alive.",

  "This likely would have been some game of yours," Kalen continued. "You'd suggest we both drink, and let me choose which wine to take for myself. You just had to decide which I would drink-and poison that cup." He gestured to them. "Apologies if I spoiled your plan."

  "And I apologize for insulting you earlier," she said. "Mayhap the gods did endow you with some brain after all-just not enough. You've missed one little detail." When Kalen narrowed his eyes warily, she laughed. "I'll tell you for free-a free lesson in Waterdeep, aye?"

  "What could you teach me, Fayne?"

  "Every thief," she said, "knows that the first rule of thievery is misdirection."

  When Kalen frowned, Fayne gestured to his chair. The paladin reached down tentatively, as though to scratch an itch, and felt one of the tiny, poison-coated needles that were stabbing into his legs, buttocks, and back-needles Fayne had placed there an hour gone.

  The irony, she hoped, was not lost on him. Because of his sickness, he'd not have been able to feel them pierce his flesh when he sat down, and by then it was far too late.

  "Farewell, lover," Fayne said. She gathered her feet off the table and stood. "I would have liked to share a tumble with you again, but

  … we never would have come to pass." Then, dipping low to give him one last eyeful down her bodice, she claimed his wine goblet and drank. When she was done, she licked her lips. "You and I are too much alike, and yet not enough."

  She started to go, but Kalen laid his bandaged right hand on her wrist. The hand was shattered-only partly healed-and had no strength to stay her, but she stopped anyway.

  "You're sweet," she said. "But with that much poison in you, you won't even be wakeful but for a few more heartbeats-and your heart will stop in a ten-count. Hardly time for-"

  He started to rise. He came away from the needles, leaking trickles of blood, and rose before her like a black specter. She saw, in the folds of his stained gray cloak, the edge of a watchsword, which he drew into his bare left hand.

  "
There's-there's no way you could fight off that poison," said Fayne. "Unless-"

  "Unless I managed to restrain myself"-he rose fully to his feet and kicked the table aside-"took Rath to the Watch instead of killing him"-with a flick of his wrist, he laid the watchsword across her throat-"and retained the favor of my three-faced god."

  And thus speaking, Kalen began to glow with silver-white light, as though his skin itself was aflame, as though a deity had chosen that moment to smile upon him-and gaze through him. In the face of that divine radiance, the other patrons stared, transfixed.

  "Well." Fayne trembled a little bit, then smiled. "Well played, Kalen-you really are a cold-hearted bastard." Her eyes flicked down to the steel he held at her throat, then up to him. "And you saved your soul to spend on me? I'm flattered."

  He looked at her impassively.

  She smiled bewitchingly. "I've waited many years for someone as clever as you-a foe who could defeat me. I'm glad he was so handsome, too."

  Kalen's eyes were cold.

  "Come now, lover-don't you want me?" She stepped forward, letting his blade cut a tiny red trail along her throat. She purred. "Don't you want to hurt me? I've hurt you, haven't I-killed your little sister and chased off your blue-haired tart?"

  Her face was almost against his. Only the sword, keen enough to slit her throat with a twitch of Kalen's arm-one false step-stopped her from kissing him.

  "When you think about that," Fayne said, "when you look at me-you don't have even just a little hate in your heart?" She tapped Kalen's chest. "That big, strong, dying heart?"

  Kalen tightened his hand on the sword hilt.

  He shoved her back. She fell to the floor and looked up at him, eyes and hair wild, sneering as he stepped forward. Her heart was pounding and she knew this was the end.

  "No," he said. He sheathed the sword at his hip and turned his gaze aside.

  Fayne trembled. She didn't dare move-he could whirl and open her throat at any instant. But he just stood, silent and still. Death might as well have taken him as he stood-his sickness crept up and slain him. She panted on the floor behind him, blood trickling down her heaving chest from the wound she had inflicted on herself.