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"Is this loaded?" Allic asked.
Saito nodded, looking to Ikawa for guidance.
Allic took the pistol, cocked it, and put the weapon to Macha's forehead.
"My lord, not like this."
Allic swung around. It was Ikawa.
"And who are you to challenge me?" Allic shouted, his face contorted. "You are
my vassal!"
"Precisely why I speak, my lord," Ikawa replied. "A samurai serves and
protects his lord, not only on the field of battle, but also in counsel. If
you wish to kill me for speaking, then do so. But I must speak, my lord. Do
not kill an honorable foe in such a manner."
A hush fell over the assembly. Ikawa dared a glance to Mark, but he could see
the rage in Mark, as well.
It must be over Storm, he realized. He braced himself.
"You are brave but foolish," Macha shouted. "Your lord is an oath breaker. He
betrayed his treaty to me--why should he listen to you?"
"That's a lie," Allic cried, his gaze still riveted on Ikawa, who drew closer
so that only Allic could hear his words.
"I respect you too much to see you thus dishonor yourself in a moment of
rage," Ikawa whispered. "If I
had known that this would be the result, I would not have helped bring this
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prisoner to you. I've spared prisoners who were my hated foe. Do the same now.
Please, my lord."
Allic was silent, his gaze cutting into the vassal. Ikawa closed his eyes,
bracing for the impact of the bullet, either into his skull or into the man
who kneeled on the ground before them. As he waited he was amazed at the
sudden clarity of it all: only minutes before he had risen into the air,
driven by a terror beyond his imagining, praying for death to snatch him.
The fear of death still had clung to his heart when he dove to his
confrontation with Macha, hoping only to take a foe with him into the void.
But now..
Now he wanted to live. He felt death even closer here, but at last there was
no fear.
The gentle wind felt unnaturally hot. As though from a great distance, Ikawa
could hear cries of alarm.
The breeze grew, hot and strong, buffeting him.
He opened his eyes. A pillar of fire was hovering before him, pulsing with
flame.
Allic was looking to the light, and Ikawa followed his gaze.
The light pulsed, coalesced, and took the shape of a being Ikawa could
recognize. Judging by the hawklike eyes, sharp brow, and narrow face, this
must be Minar, the father of Madia.
Ikawa looked again to Allic. His commander, still torn with rage, stood before
Minar's pulsing image.
"Come to save your son?" Allic taunted. He spun away from Ikawa and pointed
the revolver at Macha's head.
"Both of you are fools," Minar said quietly. "If I even start to feel your
intervention," Allic said coldly, "this offworld weapon will smash your son."
"I'll not stop you," Minar replied, "for if I did my son would live in shame.
Better that he die than live as half a man, believing that he needs my power
as a shield."
Macha looked straight ahead, and as the assembly looked to him they could
sense the truth in Minar's words.
"Kill me or let me live, Allic," Macha said, "but do it of your own will. I
don't want him here or need him."
A silence came over the group. Allic stared at his enemy. With a shout he
swung the gun skyward and squeezed the trigger. The explosion echoed in the
walls of the pass, then all was still.
Allic turned to Minar. "In the past I never had cause to doubt your words. If
you have not come to save your son, then why are you here?"
"In the past," Minar said, "did you ever have cause to doubt the words and
honor of my son?"
Allic looked back at his foe who was now standing, though Allic's sorcerers
still kept their containment ring about him.
"Though we had our differences," Allic's voice grew cautious, "no, I never had
cause."
"And you, Macha? Did you ever know Allic to deceive you?"
"No, damn him, though I thought him too driven by his passions, still I
believed him to be honorable."
"Then why this war?" Minar asked, his voice now showing a flicker of anger.
Neither demigod spoke.
"You are both fools." Minar's rage showed as his form grew larger.
"But my border watches, my family, my friends--slaughtered," Macha protested.
"And Allic's too!" Minar barked. "Both of you lost much in the weeks before
this conflict boiled over. But
I ask you both to swear in my presence: did either of you ever attack the
other, or know of attack launched by your underlings?"
The two stood silent, exchanging a look. The truth was becoming clear.
"There was a third, who brought down this shame upon your houses."
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"The Accursed," Macha whispered.
"Do not run off for blood yet," Minar roared. "Both of you are guilty of that:
you, Macha, for attacking.
And you too, Allic, for not realizing that Macha would only attack with a
justifiable reason, and that there
would still have been room to parley."
"Is it the Accursed?" Allic asked.
"That is why I am here," Minar replied, his rage passing as quickly as it had
come.
"Your father, my brother, reached out to me and told me how an offworlder had
discovered that even now Sarnak is attacking Landra."
"
What?
" Shouts of rage exploded around Allic.
"Jartan knew that Macha would never knowingly serve the Accursed. But he [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]