Coryn blinked in surprise at the news, but that didn’t stop her from stepping on the man’s ankle and pressing down with her weight. “Did you hurt her? Or her baby?”
“She’s pregnant?” Hale gasped, clearly horrified. “But-but, she drank the Red Lotus!”
“If you gave her something that will hurt that baby…” Melissa warned.
“No, it’s not that. By the gods, this is horrible! I never thought-ah, no! We all have to beware!” Hale wriggled pathetically, looking around in abject terror. “The Red Lotus-”
Nobody saw the man in black, sitting in a shadowy alcove near the rear of the room. He raised his hand and made a simple gesture. Hale grasped his throat, choking and retching horribly.
“Speak! What is it?” demanded Melissa, kneeling beside him, trying to pry his hands away from his throat. By the time they did come free, Hale was dead.
“Ankhar escaped-with most of his ogres,” reported Sergeant Ian.
“Where in the Abyss did they go?” demanded Jaymes, holding a poultice over his chest where the wizard’s magic missiles had scorched him.
Ian shrugged apologetically. “I can’t say, Excellency. But the prisoners swear there was a blue circle on the side of the building and that Ankhar and many of his ogres passed through it. Wherever they went, it wasn’t inside of the shed. The wall is as solid as ever.”
“Are you all right?” Dram asked gruffly, coming up to Jaymes as the man rose, head down, to stand amid the corpses of the ogres who had defended the route of retreat.
“I think so,” Jaymes said, nodding feebly. He swayed weakly until Dram’s strong hands took his arm, supporting him. The emperor cracked a small smile and nodded up the slope toward the three mine tunnels that loomed blackly overhead. “Nice timing on your attack, old friend.”
“I could same the same for you. I think Ankhar would have waited us out forever-at least, until long after our food was gone. We were locked in a deathtrap of our own making.”
“Who’d have thought the old bastard would come down the mountains at you?” Jaymes said, shaking his head.
“I guess we should of thought about it,” Dram said, shuddering at the memory of how close to disaster they had come. “After all, he was in these hills before we were.”
“Yes, those were the days,” Jaymes said, again allowing that small smile. “Riding after goblins, collecting bounties, watching each other’s backs-”
“And looking out for the knights at every turn,” Dram interrupted. “Ducking and hiding like the outlaws we were. I never imagined you’d end up commanding the whole bunch of them Salamis!”
“Life has taken some funny turns I guess you could say.” Jaymes turned through a slow circle, scrutinizing the devastation that was everywhere in New Compound. He stared at the smoldering remnants of the great bonfire in which Ankhar had burned the dozen uncompleted bombards. The timbers hadn’t burned away completely, and the massive rings of spring steel stood out like great hoops, but it was clear nothing would be salvaged from those ashes.
“I… I started to make them bombards,” Dram said awkwardly. “But only after I heard Ankhar was on the march. I guess you got my letter?”
“Yes. You didn’t like what I had done to Vingaard Keep, and you assumed I’d use the bombards against more cities, didn’t you?”
“Would you?” the dwarf asked bluntly.
“I shouldn’t have used them at Vingaard,” Jaymes admitted, surprising even himself. “And no, I don’t think I’d have used them anymore against my own cities, no matter what. I lost my temper when the young lord made a surprise attack and burned two of my guns.”
Jaymes rubbed a hand across his eyes, wiping away sweat and grime. “He was a courageous fellow, gnat though he was. And he had good reason to hate me, I have to admit; his father died in my custody.”
“Well, any way you look at it, it’ll be a year or two before I can get operations up and running again,” Dram said. “That is, if you decide you want another battery of guns.”
Sally came up and Dram put his arm around her; they both looked expectantly at the emperor.
“You don’t have to do that. Not now, at least. Go ahead with your mining-looks like you’ve got a good place for it. We’ll see what the future holds, but if I use any more bombards, it will be against enemies from beyond Solamnia. Now I just want to get back to Palanthas and to my wife.”
He winced as he said the last word, and Sally reached out and touched his hand. “Is… is everything all right there?” she asked.
“It’s worse than you know,” said a woman’s voice. They turned in unison, stunned to see Coryn the White standing behind them. She had obviously teleported, and her face was grim, even dour. Her black hair was tousled in disarray, and there were scuffs on her face and hands. Her white robe with its silver embroidery was, as always, immaculate.
“What’s happened?” Jaymes asked. He thought of Selinda, feeling a stab of fear in his belly.
“Selinda has been kidnapped. By all accounts, it looks like her father was to blame.”
“Is she all right?” demanded the emperor, his face ashen.
“As far as I know. But there’s more bad news: the Dark Knights have struck,” she reported grimly. “They’ve captured the High Clerist’s Tower, and they’re trying to take over Palanthas and prop the lord regent back onto his throne,” she concluded. “You won’t be able to bring your army back to the city with them holding the pass.”
Jaymes groaned, but his thoughts were already churning. “Can you take me back to Palanthas right away?” he asked Coryn.
“Yes. I was hoping you’d want to do that.”
He nodded absently, turning to Dram. “Can you accompany the legion up the pass to the High Clerist’s Tower? And bring all the casks of powder that you have?”
Dram nodded. “I’ll be there-with enough to fill three or four wagons.”
The emperor nodded gratefully, touching Sally on the shoulder. “I’m sorry to take him away from you, again,” he said. “But I’ll do my best to see that he’s back here before you even know he’s gone.”
“Go,” she said, sniffling. “Be quick about it! But… may Reorx watch over you.”
“Thank you,” he said before turning back to Coryn. She spoke another word, the magic swirled, and they were gone.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
You might have killed her!”
Selinda heard those words, spoken by an angry voice… a familiar voice… She tried to shake off the cobwebs fogging her mind and felt her unsettled stomach churning.
Father!
She was lying on a couch in the anteroom of his study. The loud, stern words were coming from behind the closed door. Her father was speaking to the one who had brought her there, she realized at once, the black-masked priest of an evil god.
Selinda tried to call out to her father, but again her body failed to cooperate. Instead, she tried to listen carefully, to hear the outside sounds over the frantic pounding of her heart and the labored effort of her breathing.
“She was in very little danger.” That was the priest’s voice, insistent but hardly apologetic. “And I brought her here at once, just as you ordered. Perhaps she is weakened by the pregnancy-I did nothing to harm her! Or else your other agent, the one who lured her into his place of business, might have given her something to make her ill. How far do you trust him?”
“Hale has always been a faithful agent,” the lord regent said coldly. “He knows better than to displease me.”
No! Selinda was repulsed by her father’s words, almost gagging in horror. But the truth was plain: du Chagne had contracted Lame Hale to accost his own daughter! Hale had drugged her, tied her up, threatened her-and all at the command of her own father!
She pushed herself up into a sitting position, looking around, wanting only to escape. There was another door besides the one leading to her father’s office. Standing unsteadily, she stumbled to that exit, tried the handle, and found it locked. Despairing, she returned to the couch and sat down, trying to collect her thoughts. Gradually she noticed there was only silence coming from the office. She wondered if the priest had left by some other route.