And dropped to the floor as, out of nowhere, the orange sphere rammed full into her opponent.
"Damn," she breathed, scrambling to her feet. The sphere came tightly around and abruptly the orange glow vanished. She took a long step, leaped upward to grab Ravagin's outstretched hand, and a second later was wedged beside him in the crystalline throne.
"Goldlight on" he snapped. The orange sphere reappeared, and suddenly his arms were around her, holding her tightly to him.
She hugged back with equal strength, feeling her arms beginning to tremble with reaction. "You okay?" he asked anxiously into her ear.
"I'm fine," she gasped back. "I was afraid you'd been captured. Where did you get this—my God, is this a bubble?"
"Sure is." Ravagin twisted partly away from her, freeing one hand while leaving the other still around her. "Throne: follow my mark; mark."
Danae turned her head to find they were moving toward the doorway Ravagin had just shattered.
Beyond the golden glow, she could see some of Habri's men were already on the stairs and heading up. "Ravagin! Habri's past the trolls—"
"I know," he said grimly. "Throne: more speed; continual mark. Goldlight off."
And before she realized just what he was doing, the chair abruptly darted forward to follow his pointing hand through the doorway and up the stairs.
She inhaled sharply, stomach twisting with the sudden upward movement even as a spasm of claustrophobia tried to tie knots into it. "Ravagin!—the bubble—"
"Not enough room in here to use it," he barked. He was right on that count; between walls, ceiling, and running people, there wasn't a hell of a lot of room in the stairway. "I don't want to run anybody down."
"You don't want to run down traitors?"
"Nope—I want to save them for Simrahi."
They shot past the last of the climbers—Habri himself—reached the top of the stairs—
"Goldlight, on; throne, stop," Ravagin snapped; and with a hard deceleration that nearly threw Danae off the chair the orange glow reappeared and the throne came to a dead halt.
Neatly blocking the stairs.
Ravagin took a shuddering breath. "I'll be damned," he said, something midway between awe and disbelief in his voice. "It actually worked. Well... Throne: rotate one-half turn." Smoothly, the chair turned to face back down the stairs.
"You carhrat!" Habri spat at them, waving his sword impotently at the golden haze. "You spineless, lying bastard of a carhrat! I offered you your freedom and you repay me with treachery—"
Danae glanced at Ravagin, half expecting him to respond with invective of his own. But he just sat there, listening coolly as Habri continued to rave. A motion from the bottom of the stairs caught Danae's eye...
She barely had time to clamp her teeth before the troll fired its crossbow, and Habri's tirade was cut off in mid-word.
Closing her eyes, she let a shiver run up through her body. "Is it over now?" she asked, a sudden weariness washing over her. "Can we please get out of here now?"
"Not quite yet," a calm voice from behind them answered before Ravagin could speak. "Goldlight: off."
The golden glow vanished... and Danae turned to see Castle-lord Simrahi standing by the archway.
Flanked by six armed trolls.
Chapter 41
"If you have an explanation," Simrahi said calmly, "I will listen to it now."
Beside Danae, Ravagin slid forward and dropped off the chair onto the floor in front of the castlelord.
"I'd be happy to give you one," he said wearily, turning to offer Danae a hand. She came down beside him, keeping hold of his hand. "But I'm not sure what it would prove," he added, turning back to Simrahi. "As of yesterday you had already made up your mind about us. I doubt the events downstairs have changed that opinion any."
Simrahi simply cocked an eyebrow. "You may be surprised," he said, eyes flicking to the scorpion glove on Ravagin's hand. "Tell me, Ravagin, why did you join my treasonous guard master in his attempt to usurp my rule?"
Ravagin held his hands out, palms upward. "You had virtually condemned us to death, my lord, with no hope offered of reprieve. When one is offered freedom under such circumstances, one has no choice but to take it."
"Indeed. Then why did you turn against him at the end?"
It seemed to Danae that Ravagin stiffened slightly. "That question should need no answer."
"Why not? Neither of you are citizens of Numant Protectorate—you owe me neither loyalty nor love. For that matter, from what little I can learn about you it is unclear that you owe loyalty to anyone on Shamsheer."
"Perhaps one from whom no loyalty is demanded is more able to give it of his own free will,"
Ravagin said quietly.
"Perhaps." Simrahi's eyes flicked to Danae. "And you, Danae? Where does your loyalty lie?"
"With Ravagin, my lord," she said automatically. The words suddenly registered in her fatigued brain
— "That is, in the way Ravagin has already said," she corrected, feeling blood rushing to her cheeks.
A touch of a smile flickered across the castle-lord's face. "I think perhaps you were correct the first time." His gaze returned to Ravagin and he sobered. "You entered my, private tower through sorcerous means, yet did me no harm. You took my bubble unlawfully, yet used it in my defense.
You allied yourself with treason, yet in the end used that alliance to expose and destroy it. Is this a fair summary of events?"
A shiver went up Danae's back as she realized what Simrahi's words and phrasing meant. They were on trial again; an informal trial, but no less real for that.
And it was clear that Ravagin recognized that, as well. "Only that our intentions remain as I stated them at my hearing yesterday, my lord," he said, matching the castle-lord's formal tone. "We wish merely to pass peacefully through Numant Protectorate and continue our journey."
"To where?"
"I am not permitted to say, my lord."
For a long moment Simrahi gazed at them in silence. Then, raising one hand, he tapped the nearest troll on its side. "You will escort Ravagin and Danae to the sky-plane landing area," he ordered it.
"They are to be allowed to leave Castle Numanteal. They are not permitted to return. Ever."
"Acknowledged," the troll said, taking a step forward.
Ravagin bowed his head briefly. "Thank you, my lord. We will not betray your trust."
"No thanks needed," the other said. "And less trust than you may imagine. I need not rely totally on your statements; though you were apparently unaware of it, I have been following the events of this night ever since you entered my sky room and learned to command my bubble."
Ravagin's hand, gripping Danae's, suddenly tightened. "You—? But no trolls came to attack."
"I sent none. Like the trolls, the bubble is mine to take command of at any time." Simrahi's eyes bored into Ravagin's. "I confess that I felt a certain amount of curiosity as to your purposes, as well as your means of entry. And I was not disappointed. There is a great deal more to you than one would first imagine, Ravagin. To both of you," he amended, nodding courteously to Danae.
"Someday I hope to discover just where it is people like you come from."
Danae held her breath... but Ravagin merely shrugged slightly. "It is not in my power to satisfy your curiosity, my lord."
"I thought not." The castle-lord took a deep breath. "At any rate... day will soon be here. If you wish your departure to be at all secretive, you had best take it quickly."
Ravagin again bowed his head. "Again we thank you, my lord." He hesitated a fraction of a second.