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.All the while she spoke she was cranking a crossbow.When she finished loading it, she popped her head up and fired at a target Ilvani couldn’t see.She dropped back undercover.“What’s your name?” she asked.Ilvani said nothing.She was still trying to reconcile whether any of this was real.She knew she wasn’t dreaming, but that didn’t necessarily mean she wasn’t imagining the scene before her.“Don’t bother,” Les said sourly.“She doesn’t speak.I think she must be a dumb creature.”Mareyn scowled at the boy, but Ilvani didn’t care.People had tried to give her so many names.She remembered only some of them: deaf, dumb, insane, prophet, witch, sister.Her heart stumbled over the last one.She wanted out of this wagon.Her joints were stiff and sore, and she knew Ashok and the others would be in the fighting.She would help them if she could.Her mind felt unusually clear after her long sleep.With clarity, the magic slumbering within her awoke.A brigand appeared at the back of the wagon, his sword up and seeking flesh.Mareyn came forward and blocked the blow with her crossbow.Les leaned forward, pulled her sword out of its scabbard, and hastily shoved it into her hands.Mareyn dropped the crossbow and smiled her thanks.Ilvani scooted back out of her way and risked a glance over the tall side of the wagon.The camp was a mess of blood, bodies, and scattered gear.Not many of the caravan people were dead, but there were plenty of wounded, and only a handful of the brigands had broken off in retreat.Ilvani didn’t see Ashok among the melee, but she thought she heard Skagi’s voice among the battle sounds.He came around the side of a wagon, Cree trailing behind him, and saw her.“Put your head down, witch,” Skagi cried in exasperation.“Do you want it made into a trophy?”The wagon shook with the ferocity of Mareyn’s sword swings.Ilvani gripped the side of the wagon with one hand and raised the other above her head.Necrotic energy blackened her fingers.Mareyn ducked the brigand’s sword slash, leaving Ilvani an open path.The witch released the blackfire.The dark energy hit the brigand in the face and blasted him off the back of the wagon.Two other brigands fighting nearby saw the blackfire and ran.“Tymora’s kiss!” Mareyn saluted Ilvani with her sword.“This has been a fine day so far!” The Martuck boy whimpered and put his head behind a barrel.“Oh, that’s not fair!” Skagi cried.He pushed through the group of human guards who pursued the brigands.“She does one spell, and everyone’s in awe and fleeing in fear.You always steal the glory, witch.”Cree laughed.“Come on, Brother.Run with me, and maybe we’ll catch a few alive.Tuva and Vlahna will be pleased if we get a pair to interrogate.”The sound of hoofbeats made them all turn.Bright-eyed and bloodied, Ashok rode over to them on his horse.Ilvani saw the way the nightmare stiffened when he got near her, the way his eyes darkened with malice.He smells it on me, Ilvani thought.The dead woman’s scent, the storm.The spirits reach through me and stroke everything with a corrupt touch.Why couldn’t they have come sooner, when she’d needed their foul influence?“The riders that kept on their horses are fleeing,” Ashok said.“Is everyone all right here?” His gaze found each of them but rested last and longest on Ilvani.“I saw your spell,” he said.“We all did,” Skagi grumbled.“It’s been a good day.” Ilvani found herself tentatively echoing Mareyn’s words.“That’s not all—oh, come on, you heard what they said.The brigands are fleeing.” Mareyn dragged Les out of the wagon and got him on his feet.She smiled warmly at Ilvani.“This one shared the kiss with me.”Skagi raised an eyebrow, but Ilvani just looked at her.The nightmare blew a short breath that to Ilvani smelled like smoke.She wondered if any of the humans could sense the wrongness of the stallion.Mareyn laughed.“Not an actual kiss—I meant Tymora’s favor.It’s no coincidence that we toppled into your wagon.Tymora meant for us to bring good fortune to each other, and it started just now when we fought the brigands.I believe the Lady is always looking for such pairings, opportunities to throw folk into one another’s path and see what happens.What folk choose to do with these ‘chance’ meetings is up to them, but I believe they come out the better for it.” She held out a hand to Ilvani.“What do you say? Are we bound together in luck, for as long as we walk the same road?”Ilvani looked at the woman’s outstretched hand.If she touched it, the spirits might crawl out of her skin and infect Mareyn, or the woman’s hand might become a snake.She could never trust what might happen when flesh touched flesh.“Don’t tie your fortune to mine,” Ilvani said quietly.“You’ll regret it, if you do.”She turned and got down out of the wagon while Mareyn’s hand still hung in the air between them.She didn’t wait to see the disappointment, the confusion seep into the woman’s eyes.There was nothing Ilvani could do about that.Too many eyes watched her, too many hands tried to touch her.Even Ashok.Especially Ashok.She could feel his gaze follow her all the way down to the river.Ashok watched Ilvani walk away from the group.She kneeled by the water’s edge and drank.When she’d finished, she stayed where she was, her back to them.The brigands were gone—Skagi and Cree had gone with Vlahna to try to round up stragglers, but Ashok had a feeling they wouldn’t catch any alive.This group had been well organized and prepared to accept heavy losses in order to get the caravan’s cargo.Still, they’d managed to fend them off with minimal loss of life.Mareyn introduced the boy, Les, to him before the young one went running off to find his parents.Now the pair of them stood alone together.Ashok tried to wipe some of the dry encrusted blood off his body, but he knew he’d have to bathe in the river to remove most of it.Mareyn went to one of the fallen caravan guards and checked for signs of life.She shook her head and murmured a prayer to Tymora.“Was he a companion of yours?” Ashok asked [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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