Stormed Fortress by Janny Wurts Read Free Book Online

still distressed, ' Relax. I wasn ' t expecting the Alliance Commander at Arms as my afternoon ' s idle company. ' A deeply drawn breath, and his composure steadied. ' Despite what you ' ve heard about my reputation, I ' m truly not planning to murder you. '
    But of course, Sulfin Evend held no grounds for trust. A confirmed enemy must understand that. Trussed as he was, he could do little but heave and try not to choke on the gag left by the barbaric dartmen.
    There came, moments later, the soft hiss of flame: Arithon had rekindled the coal-pot. ' Drugged and held speechless? No wonder you fear. The flashback similarity to your mishandling of Earl Jieret must sweat you with dreadful anxiety. ' To the whisper of silk, he came close. His agile fingers loosened the knot and unwound the uncouth strip of rag.
    Despite nausea, Sulfin Evend twisted his head and glared up at his looming nemesis. ' I don ' t fear death. You won ' t hear me beg. '
    Slight of bone, neat of movement, the Master of Shadow tossed the fouled cloth aside in distaste. Unfazed, he moved on, then released the rope that restrained the Lord Commander ' s numbed ankles. ' Shall we drop the predictable, boring exchange? The pain my caithdein suffered is past. The same for your uncle, dead at my hand. He might have been saved had he not been so quick to dismiss the goodwill of an adversary. '
    As his wrists were freed also, Sulfin Evend discovered he needed an enemy ' s help to sit up. Stiff from confinement, embarrassed by shame that thwarted all rational courtesy, he rubbed his gouged skin to restore circulation.
    Scrambled wits forestalled even tact. He could not contain reckless bitterness. ' Where was goodwill, when Lysaer s'Ilessid was tricked into burning his own troops in Daon Ramon? '
    The mistake was immediate: mention of that name with hostile intent could not do other than trigger the curse of Desh-thiere.
    Arithon froze. Eyes darkened, he transformed on a breath to a mindless predator coiled to spring. Too late for even foolhardy regret, Sulfin Evend stared at death, poised to rend him apart without conscience.
    There, the savage moment suspended. The inflicted pattern that sparked deranged madness hammered into an initiate sorcerer ' s singular will. The Master of Shadow shuddered. Griped as though body and spirit knew agony, he twisted and rammed his outflung hands against the jagged stonewall. Braced there, hard-breathing, he turned into himself with a focus no less ferociously frightening. His form appeared fleetingly wrapped in white starlight; or perhaps the unearthly effect was another offshoot of drug-birthed imagination.
    Watching, transfixed, Sulfin Evend felt his hazed senses flung wide. Gooseflesh raked over him. As though he heard strains of intangible music, or pursued the cry of a thought hurled beyond reach of the mind, he gasped to a burst of wild ecstasy.
    Ephemeral, sourceless, the emotion fled.
    Arithon ' s tension snapped all at once. He sustained a series of disciplined breaths. Then he blotted his face on his sleeve, shoved erect, and crossed to the far side of the fire-pot. There, he sat down with his quivering fingers laced on his drawn-up knees. As though no break had happened; no razor-edged conflict had danced at the abyss to drive him to geas-bent violence, he resumed the brutal interrogation.
    ' Should I answer, for Daon Ramon? ' His cool regard assessed his adversary, alert, but without sign of rancour. ' If you want to pick fights upon treacherous ground, I ' ll walk away. The bully can ' t punch with no victim to hand. For the dead on both sides, I have no stomach for mud-slinging, self-righteous argument. '
    ' I have earned my demand, ' Sulfin Evend declared, shaken. "The curse-driven killer did not arrange the acts of piracy that happened at Riverton. Nor its cold-blooded aftermath. Of forty good men, I alone survived your run through the Korias grimward. '
    ' The fox called to blame for the huntsman ' s demise? '