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this. Too much killing is hard on me. He met Relyn s eyes.  I promised. But
don t lay a hand on anyone, or I ll chase you to the demon s depths.
Relyn shivered.  I would not, not after all this. Not after what I owe
you. He shrugged, then smiled bitterly.  First, we must triumph.
 Don t prophets always win? Nylan gave a wry grin and walked back toward
the laser emplacement.
Relyn followed more slowly, fingering his chin with his left hand.
Huldran glanced from Nylan to Relyn, then just shook her head.
Shortly, a small group of riders appeared just over the crest of the hill,
but turned their mounts to face the other way, presumably down on the
advancing Lornians. Nylan thought he saw Ryba s latest roan, but he couldn t
be quite sure.
Nylan was blotting his forehead, and even Relyn had opened his jacket by
the time a single rider cantered down the road from the ridge. Nylan didn t
know her name, though he had seen her in training, and she rode well.
 Ser! The enemy is about a third of the way up the ridge. The marshal said
that she won t be able to send any more reports.
 Fine. Tell her to make sure the field is clear when the enemy comes down.
Do you understand that?
The guard s face crinkled.  The field must be clear when the enemy comes
down?
 The field must be clear of guards when the enemy comes down. Nylan
corrected himself.  Do you have it?
She repeated the words, and Nylan nodded. Then she turned her mount and
started back up toward the ridge.
Relyn looked at Nylan s face.  You plan some terrible magic.
 It s not magic. Not mostly, Nylan added as his head throbbed as if to
remind him not to lie,  but, if it works, it will be terrible. He muttered
under his breath afterward,  And if it doesn t work, it s going to be terrible
in a different way.
 What do you want us to do? asked one of the new guards.
 When the engineer works his magic, answered Huldran,  his body will be
here, but his thoughts will not. Our job is to protect him from anyone who
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would attack.
Nylan hoped no one got that near, but somehow nothing worked quite the way
it was planned in any battle. Or in anything, he added mentally.
As the faint and distant sounds of the tumult mounted and purple-clad
riders finally crested the ridge, Nylan powered up the firm cell
assembly-seventy-seven point five percent. Could he smooth the flows for the
fiery weapons head, the way he had for the industrial laser heads?
Another wave of purple riders reached the ridge top, and the Westwind
guards began falling back, drawing back across the ridge top, sliding westward
toward the road to the tower.
The Lornian forces slowed where the pikes should have triggered, but Nylan
could not see what exactly had occurred, except for the unseen whiteness that
signified death and more death.
Nylan sent out his perceptions, his eyes still on the hillside above. He
could almost sense the Lornian commander, the arrows falling around him as the
man gestured with the big blade. Idly, Nylan thought that he could have shot
the man. Then he nodded, and his stomach chilled into ice. Ryba had ordered
her guards not to kill him. She was not aiming for the defeat of the Lornians.
She wanted to keep the Lornian army whole and moving into the laser s range,
and she was gambling on the laser and Nylan to destroy them totally.
 Damn you! Damn you&  he muttered.
Suddenly, as the Lornian forces began to move again, to flow around the
east end of the pike defenses, the remaining visible guards seemed to peel off
the hillside behind the pike lines and ride westward toward the tower. The
flow of arrows dropped to a few intermittent shafts.
Ryba reined up on the lower hillside, just above Nylan s bridge, and the
remainder of the guards did also-not much more than half a score. Even if some
guards remained in the rocks and in the ridge trees, casualties had been
high-as usual.
Nylan hadn t seen Ayrlyn, not since breakfast. Why did he keep thinking
about her-because she was one of the few that seemed to care about more than
force? Because he had come to care for her? He shook his head. The only thing
he could do now was use the laser. His thoughts traced the power lines, and
slowly smoothed out the fluxes and the swirls within the cells.
Slowly, slowly, the black and purple mass on the hillside continued to
move, mostly westward, holding to the high part of the ridge slope, although a
lobe offerees seemed to swing downhill. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]