[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.Rufo pressed forward, and Cadderly struggled helplessly.Ivan groaned on the ground behind him-Cadderly was surprised that the dwarf was even close to consciousness.Ivan would be of no help, though, not this time.“I have her,” Rufo said again, confident of his victory, and despite the rage that welled within Cadderly, he was caught in such a disadvantageous position that he could do nothing against the vampire’s terrifying strength.Rufo was bending him backward; he thought his backbone would snap.The vampire jerked suddenly, then again, and Rufo straightened, easing the pressure on Cadderly’s spine.Rufo jerked again and groaned, his features twisted in pain.As the fourth sting hit him, Rufo hurled Cadderly backward to the ground and wheeled about, and Cadderly saw four long arrows sticking from his shoulder blades.A fifth bolt whistled in, slamming Rufo’s chest, staggering him, his red-glowing eyes wide with surprise.Shayleigh continued a steady walking advance, calmly putting another arrow to her bowstring and sending it unerringly into the vampire.From the side, Pikel, tired of the fruitless chase, came bobbing out of the trees, club held high as he bore down on Rufo.The dwarf skidded between Cadderly and the vampire, and readied the club.Rufo spun about suddenly, his hand thrusting in the air, sending forth a wave of energy that froze Pikel momentarily.“Come find your lover, Cadderly,” the vampire spat, taking no heed of yet another arrow that dove into his side.“I will be waiting.”Rufo’s form blurred, a green mist coming up about him, engulfing him.Pikel came from his trance, shaking his head vigorously, his generous lips flapping noisily, and wound up to swing, but stopped abruptly as Shayleigh’s next arrow passed right through the insubstantial vampire and thudded hard into the club.“Oo,” muttered the dwarf, considering the bolt.“Is he going to keep doing that?” roared Ivan, and both Cadderly and Pikel swung about, surprised by the outburst.Cadderly, back to his knees, stared hard at the tough dwarf-tough indeed, for Ivan’s wounds, injuries the young priest had thought nearly fatal, did not seem so bad now!Ivan noticed the stare and returned it with a wink, holding up his left hand to display a ring, a ring that Vander had given him at their parting.Cadderly knew the item, an instrument of healing that could even bring its wearer back from the grave, and everything then made sense to him.Everything concerning Ivan, at least.The young priest rose to his feet and looked back the other way, to Shayleigh.What was she doing here, and how much might she know of Danica’s fate?“I have just returned,” Shayleigh greeted as she neared the three, as though Cadderly’s impending stream of questions were obvious to her.“I left Danica and Dorigen yesterday, in a pass high from this place, and would be halfway to Shilmista.”“Except?” Cadderly prompted.“I saw the smoke,” Shayleigh explained.“And your friend, Percival, came to me.I knew then that there was trouble at the library, but…”Cadderly’s face gave her pause, the young priest leaning forward, eyes wide, mouth open in anticipation.“But I know not of Danica’s fate,” Shayleigh finished, and Cadderly slumped back on his heels.Rufo had told him Danica’s fate, and he found that now, with Shay-leigh’s confirmation that Danica and Dorigen had reached the library, he could not deny the vampire’s claim.Also, knowing the fate of the library, and the apparent probability that Danica and Dorigen had walked into its midst, Cadderly believed he now understood the source of the fire in the small chapel.Starting a conventional fire that would so consume a room in the stone library would not be easy, for there was little fuel to feed the flames.A wizard’s fireball, though (and Dorigen was quite adept at those), would have sufficed.“More than fire has attacked the library,” Cadderly replied grimly to the elf.“Rufo has become something sinister.”“A vampire,” Shayleigh said.Cadderly nodded.“And there are others.”“One less,” Shayleigh replied, to which the three friends looked at her curiously.“I found Dean Thobicus behind the library,” the elf explained, “in the burial vault.He, too, was undead, but he was wounded by sunlight, I believe, and not so strong.”“And ye beat him?” Ivan asked, the dwarf neither sounding nor looking very hurt at all anymore.Shayleigh nodded.She stepped near Pikel and pulled hard on the arrow embedded in the dwarfs tree-trunk club.It came out with a pop, and Shayleigh held its tip up for the others to see.Its sharp point glistened a bright gray in the moonlight.“Silver-tipped,” Shayleigh explained.“The purest of metals, and one that the undead cannot ignore.I have few left, I fear,” she explained, indicating her nearly empty quiver.“We encountered some trolls…”“So we saw,” said Ivan.“I recovered some of those, and all the ones I used against Dean Thobicus,” Shayleigh said.“But Kierkan Rufo just took a few with him, and I fear that my supply of arrowheads grows small.” To emphasize her point, she reached down to a belt pouch and jiggled it.“Me axe wouldn’t hurt the things,” Ivan huffed.“Adamantine?” Shayleigh asked, nodding her head expectantly.“That and iron,” Ivan explained.“Neither would my spindle-disks hurt Rufo,” Cadderly added.“But my walking stick”-he held the fabulous ram’s-headed baton up before him-“is enchanted, in addition to being silver.It struck Rufo a terrible blow.”Ivan’s head bobbed in agreement, then both he and Cadderly looked curiously at each other.Together they slowly turned their heads to regard Pikel, who sheepishly slipped his club behind his back.“Just a club,” Ivan remarked, sliding over to his brother and pulling the huge weapon out from behind Pikel.“I seen him take it from the trunk of a dead tree meself!”“Just a club,” Cadderly agreed.“Yet it hurt Rufo.”Pikel leaned over and whispered something into Ivan’s ear, and the yellow-bearded Bouldershoulder brightened with understanding.“He says it’s not a club,” Ivan explained to Cadderly.“Me brother calls it a…” Ivan turned a questioning glance back at Pikel, who hopped back to his toes and whispered again into Ivan’s ear.“Calls it a Sha-lah-lah,” Ivan explained happily
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]