Downshadow

THIRTY-SEVEN

Bain tore the night to shreds, and lightning bathed the high clock tower in light bright enough to match the day. Kalen hung from the tower, his righr hand on the hilt of Vindicator-which he'd wedged between two stones. A struggling Myrin hung from his left.

"You idiot!" Tears fell from Myrin's eyes as she beat at him with her free hand, trying to break his grip on her wrist. "Just let go of me!"

"Stop that," Kalen said. He swung her a little one way, then back the other way, like a pendulum-like the amulet on Fayne's breast…

Rath's head appeared in the window.

Kalen kept swinging Myrin, wider and wider. Her feet kicked at the rain-slicked tower stones, but Kalen knew she wouldn't find a hold. There was no ledge between them and the palace roof below. Only Vindicator kepr them aloft.

Kalen gritted his teeth and pulled. Myrin swung over open air-and back the other way.

"What are you doing?" she cried. "Are you insane?"

Kalen kept swinging her. Wider-wider. "Listen to me," he said.

"Just drop me!" she sobbed. "I don't want to kill all those people-"

"Listen," Kalen snapped. Myrin gaped. "The ring… laced in my sleeve. Put it on."

Myrin moaned. "Just let me go!"

"Put it on!" Kalen roared over the rain and thunder.

Then Vindicator shook. Myrin bounced and shrieked, and Kalen gasped at the strain. He looked up, and standing on the broad hilt of his sword-and his gauntlet-was Rath. The dwarf had scrambled down the wall nimbly as a spider and perched on Kalen's sword. Rain streaked around him.

"Interesting plan," the dwarf said.

Kalen couldn't spare a glance ar Myrin, but he felt her taking the ring from his sleeve. He prayed the dwarf wouldn't notice.

"I don't imagine my standing here hurts you-you can't feel it, can you?" Rath raised one foot, keeping balance. "But even nerveless fingers can'r hold you up when they're crushed."

Kalen gritted his teeth against the storm and the pain in his straining arm. "Make an empriness of myself… in which there is no pain…" He kept swinging.

Rath stomped.

Kalen felt it-less than he should have, but no amount of spellplague could mask the jolt of a broken forefinger. Just one finger-the dwarf was cruelly accurare. Kalen swung and almost fell, but kept a hold. Myrin gave a cry halfway between a scream and a sob.

"Put… it..-. on," Kalen hissed at Myrin.

Rath grinned. And crushed his middle finger. One ar a time.

Against the slipping agony, Kalen shut his eyes. "No pain- only me."

He kept swaying, swinging back and forth as though he might hurl Myrin to safety-as though any building was near enough or high enough. He could not reach the palace wall from this angle, and his hand was slipping.

"Kalen!" Myrin cried. "Just drop me! You can-"

"Put it on!" he shouted.

"Put what on?" Rath saw the ring and sneered. "Humans. So romantic, even to the end."

He crushed the third finger, almost sending Kalen down. Only by the Eye's grace…

Kalen coughed harshly. "Have you got it?" he managed.

Fear clouded Myrin's face. She was swinging away from the tower. "Yes, but-"

"Good."

And he let go of her.

Myrin swung to the side before she started to fall, her eyes wide and her face startled. Her expression changed to shock, and then heartbreak. She drifted into the rain and vanished without a sound.

The dwarf frowned. "I don't under-" Rath started to say, but Kalen, continuing his swing, hauled himself up and grasped the dwarf s ankle in his free hand. He planted both feet on the slippery tower wall.

"Fly," Kalen dared him.

With a fierce kick, he wrenched Vindicator free. For one horrible, perfect instant, they were gliding, failing a little as if they had tripped. Vindicator was arcing, end over end, through the air beside them.

Then Kalen's guts rose up into his throat, and the two combatants were streaking down, wrestling in the air. The dwarf punched him soundly across the face and the world blurred. He held on.

They ricocheted off the palace roof-crashing hard, bones snapping-tumbling madly like dolls. Kalen tried to jump but the dwarf held on. Kalen rolled and wrestled and prayed and…

Hit.