Lord of the Isles 02 - Queen of Demons by Drake David

Author:Drake, David [Drake, David]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780812564938
Google: FowWlP5LRlkC
Amazon: 0812564936
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 1999-06-15T04:00:00+00:00

25th of Heron (later)

Garric?” Royhas called, his voice already attenuated. Garric looked over his shoulder. The crowd seemed half a mile distant, though Garric knew he'd only taken two steps into the garden. The air was warm and still, with an odor like that of overripe fruit.

“I'll send the men with you,” the nobleman said. His face was distorted with the effort of shouting. “I'll lead them if you like!”

Tenoctris shook her head minusculely. “I couldn't protect them,” she said. “My powers won't cover more than three people at once. That is, I very much .hope...”

The three of them grinned at one another. They all knew what Tenoctris meant, though it was Liane who actually finished the thought aloud: “We'll all hope that three people aren't more than you can protect. Anyway, we're with friends.”

“I'll keep that in mind when the stone tiger swallows me,” Garric said. He cupped his left hand and his right fist around the sword hilt to his mouth for a crude trumpet. “Wait as we agreed!” he called. “Nobody enters until we've made it safe!”

They walked on, side by side. Their glowing guide, a helix outside the perimeter, was a dot of blue light here. It bumbled through the air with the aimlessness of a crane fly in the twilight, passing between a pair of planters in the shape of dragon heads. Hostas grew out of the stone mouths, looking like green flames.

“That way?” Garric said. He felt his helmet wiggle as he frowned. He'd have given the planters a wide berth if the decision were his.

“Yes,” Tenoctris said crisply. “Ilna could pick a pathway through these illusions better than my wizardry can, but I think my abilities are sufficient.”

Garric strode ahead, resisting his instinct to slash at the hostas as he passed them. He'd been raised not to trouble those who didn't trouble him. That was a good plan for life. Striking out because he was scared—which he surely was, scared even by the plants in this terrible place—was a bad one. He wasn't going to let fear drive him.

Garric couldn't see the queen's mansion. He turned to look for the spectators he knew were watching the scene, but they were gone too. Shrubs whose stems twisted in groups of six or seven from a common base waved tiny leaves at him. He didn't remember having seen them as he entered the garden with his companions.

“We'll bear to the left here,” Tenoctris said in gentle reproof. She gestured. Garric noticed that she still held the stylus in her right hand.

“Sorry,” Garric said contritely. “I won't let my attention wander again.”

The dot of light had curved to avoid a bed of purple daffodils at the foot of a small magnolia and a boulder. The tree was in flower; its perfume had a heady attraction that made Garric think of women wearing brass spangles and little else.

He obediently followed the guide through sedums whose flowered heads humped like giant toadstools in his path. The outcrop lifted itself onto short forelegs.

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