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indestructible evil, might have changed also. I wanted to make sure it hadn't.
I couldn't love you if you'd gone sensible on me."
"Thanks-I think."
"I know from what you've told me that we have to free this
perambulator thing from its captor up there." She indicated the fortress just
above the place where they had paused prior to making the final assault. "I
wouldn't leave now even if you agreed to. I've been used. I feel used. I want
to make that unseen bastard pay. He almost had me killed, which isn't so bad.
But he tried to make you do it. That's dirty. I don't like dirt, Jon-Tom. I
like clean. There's something up there that needs cleaning up." She put both
hands on his shoulders. Her lips were every close. He leaned forward.
"Maybe," she whispered lovingly to him, "if we're lucky, we'll have
the chance to chop and slice and dismember him all by ourselves."
He licked his lips, sat back, and regarded the light in her eyes and
the bloodthirsty grin on her exquisite face. This was his Talea, no mistake
about it.
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"Uh-yeah, maybe. Let's try that leg again, okay?"
"Okay." She let him help her up. When he let go, she took a few
steps. The leg was stiff and it was hard going at first, but the rest had
definitely helped her mobility. "Much better." She put her hands on her hips
and tried jumping a few small rocks. "It'll get better still."
"I'm glad." He put his arms around her and this time had no second
thoughts about kissing her. Finally they separated, and she pointed to her
right.
"The hinny I've met, but I don't recognize your short fat friend."
"His name's Colin, and he's not fat, he's as solid as iron. He's a
rune-caster, a reader of the future. Sometimes, anyway. His skill with the
runes is about like my skill with the duar."
"That bad, hmm?" Seeing the look that came over him, she smiled and
patted his cheek affectionately. "Just kidding, spellsinger. Speaking of
which, you have your duar. Can I borrow your ramwood staff?"
"Lend 'er another staff o' yours, mate!" Mudge howled gleefully.
"I should've split that otter years ago!" she said through clenched
teeth. Picking up one of the vanished clone's swords, she started chasing
Mudge over the rocks. The cackling water rat eluded her with ease, taunting
her each time she took a swing at him.
Colin strode by, intent on making certain their supplies were
strapped tight to Dormas's back. "Glad to see your fiancee's leg's better." He
glanced in the direction of the chase. "Sword arm seems okay too."
"They're old friends," Jon-Tom told him.
"I know. I can see that."
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Eventually a winded Talea gave up and re-joined Jon-Tom. "One of
these days I'll feed that foulmouthed otter his works." She reached up to push
red hair out of her eyes. Then she put the sword aside to wrap both arms
around him.
"Promise me something, Jon-Tom."
"If I can."
"When we find this evil one, let me be the one to slay him. I'll
make him bleed slowly."
"Talea, sometimes I think you enjoy fighting too much."
She stepped back from him, pouting. "If it's a frothy petite woman
you want, then you should never have fallen in love with me, Jon-Tom."
"The woman I love is stronger than that, but she doesn't have to be
a barbarian ax murderess, either."
Silence between them. Then her pout gave way to a scintillating
smile. "They say that opposites attract, don't they? Didn't you tell me that
once?"
"Yeah, and on reflection I think it was a pretty stupid thing to
say. All I know is that I love you with all my heart, and if you want to carry
a sword during the wedding, well, hell, that's all right with me, so long as
it doesn't intimidate the wedding master."
"Wedding master." She looked uncertain. "You said you wouldn't push,
Jon-Tom."
"No one is going to do any pushing except up this hillside."
Clothahump regarded them sternly. "We have rested long enough. It is time now
for us to make an end of this matter, lest it make an end of us. There is no
telling what we may encounter inside these walls. Talea likely saw nothing
because it was intended that she not. All of you must be prepared for an
attack of the most outrageous possibilities.
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"We have journey far but have the longest way yet to go. And there
is no telling when the next severe perturbation will occur. Let us make haste
to find the perambulator and set it free."
"I'm ready, by m'luv's legs," Mudge announced loudly. "Lead on,
short, shelled, and stubborn! I'm with you for 'avin' an end to this business.
There're ladies waitin' to be loved and liquor waitin' to be drunk, an" I'm
sick an' tired o' livin' off the land when the land ain't very accommodatin'."
"You ain't the only one, water rat," said Dormas. "I'd hate to miss
the opening trot of the social season."
With Clothahump and Jon-Torr in the lead they advanced toward the
single doorway above.
Though they were ready for anything, and Colin anc. Mudge were
spoiling for another fight, the actual assault on the falling-down fortress
was more of an anticlimax than any of them could have foreseen. Mudge reached
the doorway first. The double doors were fashioned of hand-hewn wood, and not
very well seasoned wood at that. They were high but otherwise unimposing.
There were no guards to challenge them, no perturbed monstrosities to confront
them. Nothing, in fact, to object to their entrance.
Mudge put a paw on the latch, pushed down, and shoved hard. The door
swung inward a foot, two feet-and there was a loud crack. Everyone tensed, and
the otter jumped a yard straight backward, but it wasn't the sound of
something attacking. The door had fallen from its top hinge. It swayed there,
hanging precariously from the bottom loop of iron.
The otter slowly advanced to peer inside. "Well?" Clothahump
prompted him.
"Scrag me for a Lynchbany tax collector, Your Sorcererness, if the
bleedin' place ain't as deserted as a mausoleum!"
When they entered, they found the outer hall as silent and empty as
a tomb, just as Mudge had indicated. But it hadn't been that way for very
long. Benches lay overturned, chairs were smashed against walls, candle
standards had been twisted like candy. A few decorative banners hung
listlessly from the curved ceiling while others were scattered in shreds
across the stone floor. Several had been piled in a corner to form a crude
bed. A couple of matching couches were missing all their cushions. They found
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those a few yards farther on. All of them had had their stuffing torn out and
thrown around the hallway.
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