Elsbeth raised her hands to shield her face from another blow. “No! I swear, the treasure isthis…”
“Hold your tongue, bitch.” Malcolm hauled her to feet and gripped her arm hard enough to numb her fingers. “Jamie, you lead. Galen will take up the rear.” His yellow teeth gleamed in the half light as he smiled a malevolent smile. “If she escapes me, shoother.”
They no longer relied on her for direction. Instead they followed the myriad screeches and chirps resounding throughout the tunnels and growing louder as they moved deeper into thecliffs.
Elsbeth swallowed a defeated sob when they emerged from one of the tunnels opposite the cavern from where she and Alaric had come on their earlier visits. The sudden quiet made the hairs at her nape rise. The birds nesting on the stairstep ledges had flown once again, and only the spring’s lively bubbling broke the silence. They were being watched, and it wasn’t a friendlyperusal.
Jamie must have sensed that predatory scrutiny. He raised his crossbow and did a slow turn, gaze passing over the many caves and concealing clefts cut into the cliffwalls.
Galen, oblivious to any danger, whistled. “Would you look at this. No one would guess such a place sits in the heart ofMaldoza.”
Malcolm growled at him. “Just keep your eyes open. Something that big can’t hide forlong.”
Jamie never took his eyes off the three caves diagonal to him. “Whatever it is, it knows we’re here and is watchingus.”
“Smart lad. Certainly more so than the lackwit next toyou.”
Everyone, save Elsbeth, jumped at the new voice amongst them. Her knees almost buckled in relief at the sight of Alaric, as a man, standing across from them, looking no more concerned than if he’d encountered them at a handfasting or in a tavern. Three crossbows, loaded with poison-tipped bolts, sighted on hisheart
Malcolm jerked Elsbeth in front him. “Well now,” he said in a casual voice, as if he were about to ask Alaric to join them at the pub for a pint or two. “Who areyou?”
Elsbeth didn’t call out, but pleaded silently for Alaric’s forgiveness for leading his enemies here. He gave her only a brief nod ofacknowledgement.
His voice, polite and even, belied the black fury in his eyes. “I might ask you thesame.”
Malcolm raised his bow. “That’s no business of yours,friend.”
Alaric never looked away from Malcolm, though he tensed when Galen and Jamie walked the course of the walls on either side of him, intent on getting behind him. “And who I am is none of yours. I’ll say it once and only once. Release the woman and leave while youcan.”
Malcolm laughed. “Is that so? And who made you king of the cliffs? Seems to me, we have the advantage here, unless you’ve a fancy for taking an arrow in the gut.” He squeezed Elsbeth. “And you,” he sneered, fetid breath almost making her faint. “So noble, so long-suffering. Saving Byderside by doing a lizard’s bidding.” Shards of agony lanced her bruised jaw at his bruising grip. “Getting tupped by a drifter is more likeit.”
“Let hergo.”
Malcolm smirked. “Come and get her,lad.”
Alaric shrugged andvanished.
Elsbeth’s surprised gasp was lost amid the shouts of hercaptors.
Galen swung his bow in a wild arc, heedless of whom or what he aimed at. “Did you see that? He justdisappeared!”
“You just don’t look in the rightplaces.”
Galen’s features paled at the realization that Alaric had reappeared directly behind him. “What…?” was the last thing he uttered before Alaric snapped his neck in a quick, efficientmotion.
His lifeless body struck the rock floor with a soft thud. Jamie, round-eyed with terror at witnessing his companion’s death at the hands of a sorcerer, took aim atAlaric.
Half strangled by Malcolm’s clutching hold, Elsbeth cried out. “Alaric! Their bolts arepoisoned!”
Malcolm hissed and clapped a hand over her mouth. It did neither him nor Jamie any good. Alaric’s smile was chilling. He strode toward Jamie, undeterred by thethreat.
Jamie cursed and fired. Elsbeth screamed behind Malcolm’s hand. At the moment the bolt would have struck Alaric full in the chest, he disappeared a second time. The arrow shot through empty air and hit the opposite wall before falling harmlessly in a puddle ofwater.
“No!” Jamie bellowed, hands shaking as he scrambled to reload before Alaric reappeared. Like Galen, he had only a second to stare as Alaric meted out a similarfate.
Alaric disappeared a third time. Malcolm, alone now with Elsbeth as his hostage, backed against the cavern wall. He dropped his bow in favor of his skinning knife and held it tight against herthroat.
“Show yourself, you sneaking bastard! Face me if you have thebollocks!”
