Already the two rebels in the corridor were hotly engaged with Citadel guards. The too narrow hall didn't allow the Rathi troops to exploit their superior numbers, giving the rebels a small chance.
The impostor Eladamri, still holding Teynel by the arm, stooped to retrieve the rebel's sword. He examined the hilt briefly, nodded, then with his left hand thrust the blade through Teynel's chest. The Dal rebel gasped.
"Bastard!" Sivi yelled. She flung the toten-vec at the impostor. He tried to dodge, but he was hampered by the dying Teynel. The iron blade caught him on the side of the neck. He snarled with rage and hurled Teynel's lifeless body at the Vec warrior woman. Tearing the blade from his neck, the impostor seemed to swell even larger, distorting his false elven features grotesquely.
Sivi recovered the toten-vec and lunged for the door.
Medd and Garnan were holding off the guards, who seemed strangely reluctant to press their attack. Sivi stood back to back with Medd, watching the door of the interrogation cell. She expected the misshapen Eladamri to emerge, but instead, Greven il-Vec stepped into the hall. She knew it was the same man by the neck wound she'd given him.
"Dread Lord," called the captain of the guards. "Are you all right?"
"Quite all right. Watch out for the pretty one. Her little toy can sting."
"What's happening back there?" Garnan said, desperately parrying concerted sword thrusts.
"Never mind! Keep your eyes front and fight!" Sivi cried.
The Greven impostor did not attack either. He backed away, always keeping his eyes on Sivi. At the first door beyond the open cell, he stopped and put a key in the flowbot lock. Greven stepped farther back, opening the door as he went.
"I'd love to remain and watch the fight, but I have an appointment with Lord Crovax," he said. "In my place I leave you a gellerac."
From the black cell door a single red tentacle writhed out, seeking something to grab. It found its liberator's leg and tried to coil around it, but Greven brought his heel down sharply on the leathery appendage. It retracted a foot or two and changed direction. Two more tentacles appeared, followed by a fat, wallowing torso covered in the same dark red leathery hide.
"Friends," said Sivi. "We're in trouble."
The rebels and the guards stopped fighting to gaze at the monster. More and more of the gellerac oozed out the door. A bulbous upper appendage reached the light. The top was covered with a mass of white miniature tentacles that wriggled and flexed in faster imitation of the lower tentacles. Midway between the thing's neck and animate "hair" was what might be a mouth-an obscene star-shaped orifice rimmed with oily gray skin and drooling pink saliva. The palace guards muttered among themselves and fell back.
"You have only to keep the rebels from escaping," Greven told his troops. "Otherwise you can leave them to the gellerac."
The beast filled the width of the passage, and there was no sign it had fully emerged from its cell. The tentacles gripped the door of the interrogation room, pushing it shut. Liin Sivi wondered if the monster would simply crush them with its disgusting, ponderous bulk. As if in answer, the vile mouth erupted outward, inverting the wet skin to reveal row upon row of conical teeth.
She lashed at the creature four times in quick succession. The blade of her weapon scored deep gashes in the monster's blubbery flesh, but it hardly seemed to notice. A blood-red limb as thick as her arm wrapped around her ankle and jerked her to the floor. The gellerac, moving with astonishing speed, hurled its toothy lips at her.
Medd stepped in and drove his sword through the creature's mouth. Blackish blood poured from the wound, and the gellerac vibrated with pain. It heaved Medd off his feet and threw him against the wall. The respite gave Sivi time to slash the tentacle gripping her leg. It loosened, and she scrambled out of reach with help from Garnan.
The Rathi troops had withdrawn more than six yards.
Sivi got to her feet. "I don't think this monster knows friend from foe-let's see if it likes fighting them as well as us!"
They retreated to the point where the guards had stopped.
Sivi called out, "O Captain! Hear me!"
"What do you want, Rebel?"
"That beast has no eyes-I wonder if your men taste as good to it as mine do?"
"What's your point?"
"I'm just wondering what happens after we're dead? How're you going to stop it?"
More mutterings from the Rathi soldiers, made all the more urgent as the gellerac rolled rapidly down the passage after them. Sivi and comrades ran right at the guards, who lowered their sword points. The gellerac hit the line of guards and caught two in its tentacles. They yelled and hacked at the creature with their swords. Some of their comrades joined in. A few at the rear turned and fled.
"This is no warrior's fight," Sivi said. "Your master cares nothing about your lives!"
The Rathi captain watched, a loathsome look on his face. One of his men vanished underneath the gellerac, his screams muffled by flabby flesh.
"Fall back!" shouted the captain. "Fall back to the bridge!"
The Stronghold troops broke and ran. The captain tried to corral the rebels, but Sivi warned him off with lightning cracks of the toten-vec. The gellerac had slowed its advance while digesting its first catch.
Sivi, Medd, and Garnan backed down the left hand passage.
"You can't escape," the Rathi captain said. "Surrender to me, and I'll protect you from the monster!"
"You'd better worry about your own hide, O Captain," Sivi said. "We'll take our chances elsewhere!" She slapped Medd on the back and they ran down the open passage.
Halfway around the tower, they waited and listened. The heavy sliding noise of the gellerac wasn't evident.
"Liin, what happened to Teynel?" Garnan asked. In few words, she described the bizarre trap they'd fallen into, and Teynel's death. Garnan covered his face and wept quietly.
Medd looked to Sivi. "When did Greven il-Vec become a shapeshifter?"
"Why ask me? Anything seems possible in this mad fortress!" Soft scraping sounds filtered down the dim corridor. "Time to move on."
They arrived at the opposite side of the tower and noticed another gate. It was standing open, so they reconnoitered carefully before going through. There was no sign of Greven or anyone else.
Medd examined the gate. "This lock's been forced."
"Why would the Rathi force their own lock?" said Garnan.
Sivi narrowed her eyes. "They wouldn't. Come."
They burst onto the bridge. Two Rathi soldiers stood guard halfway along to the next tower. When Sivi, Garnan, and Medd appeared, the sentries drew swords and blocked the path.
"Wait," muttered Sivi under her breath. "We're still friendly soldiers until somebody tells them otherwise."
They approached slowly. The sentries had the visors down on their helmets.
At a distance of six paces, one of them shouted, "Halt!"
Sivi saluted sloppily. "Greetings."
"What's the watchword?" said the sentry.
"Eh?"
The sentry flung out his arm, pointing his sword at Sivi. "What is the watchword?"
Sivi glanced helplessly at Medd and Garnan. They dropped their hands to their sword hilts.
"Tell this stupid soldier the watchword!" the sentry barked.
The second sentry replied, "Tant Jova!"
Tant Jova? "Who are you?" Sivi demanded. Up went the visors. "Kireno! Shamus!"
There was much back slapping as the rebels were reunited at last. Sivi cut short the celebration,
"Teynel and the rest are dead, and our presence is known."
"We heard the alarm," Shamus said.
"We came to find Eladamri, but we didn't."
"He's with us," Kireno said. "He got himself out, and rescued another prisoner from the cells. They're hiding in the map room, yonder."
"Take me there," Sivi said. "I have much to tell him."