The Book of Kane by Wagner Karl Edward

Author:Wagner, Karl Edward [Wagner, Karl Edward]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Fiction.Fantasy, Short Stories & Novellas, Collection.Single Author, Fiction.Dark Fantasy/Supernatural
ISBN: 9780937986738
Google: Z_JrHAAACAAJ
Amazon: 0937986739
Barnesnoble: 0937986739
Publisher: Donald M. Grant
Published: 1985-06-18T00:00:00+00:00

IV. Payment in Full

Tamaslei awoke from dreams of Josin to discover Kane seated beside her bed. It was not a pleasant prospect, and she clutched the fur robes protectively about her silkclad shoulders. Remembering the thin-bladed dagger sheathed just behind the headboard, she regained composure.

“What do you want, Kane?” Her voice was surprisingly level.

“Payment. I have completed my part of our bargain.”

Tamaslei turned up the wick of her bedside lamp, increasing its companionable glow to brightness that split the chamber into shadows. Her figure was supple beneath the translucent silk. “No doubt there is proof?” Tamaslei’s eyes were upon the large bag that Kane carried. Its leather folds seemed too flaccid to contain the evidences she expected.

Kane’s tone was formal, but held neither rancour nor scorn. “Tamaslei, I give these to you in accordance with our agreement.”

He took her hand and dropped several bright objects onto her palm.

Tamaslei’s first thought was that they were jewels, then she saw they were something more. They were four oblong sigils carved of some crystal resembling jet, approximatelythe size of the first joint of her thumb, unusually heavy for their size and curiously warm to the touch. Each bore a carving upon its flattened side, and each carved figure was different: a dragon, a spider, a serpent, and a scorpion.

“I’m not certain I understand the jest, Kane. I hired you to kill the Vareishei clan, and unless you have brought me their heads as proof that you have fulfilled our bargain, I insist upon awaiting news of their deaths before I give you payment.”

She had expected protest, but Kane’s voice was patient. “You did not ask me to kill the Vareishei clan; you said you wished to purchase their lives. You were most explicit.”

“Come to the point of your jest, Kane.”

“There is no jest. You made a contract to purchase four lives. I took four lives. You hold them in your hand: Wevnor, Ostervor, Sitilvon, Puriali.”

“Do you think me a fool!” Tamaslei slid closer to the hidden dagger.

Kane took the serpent-carven sigil from her hand and pressed it to her forehead. Tamaslei stiffened for or a moment, then flung herself away with a violent shudder.

“The secret is all but lost,” Kane said, “but I assumed you understood when you agreed to our contract, and I took from them their lives as I promised to do.”

“And what of their physical bodies?” Tamaslei no longer doubted.

Kane shrugged. “Lifeless carrion. Perhaps their followers were of a mind to burn their bodies upon a pyre of their stolen riches, perhaps they left them for the ravens. Their life-force remains imprisoned within these sigils.”

“And what shall I do with them?”

“Whatever you wish.”

“If I smash the sigils?”

“Their life-force would be released to reanimate their former flesh, such as may remain of it. However transient that experience might be, it cannot be a pleasant one.”

Tamaslei rose from her bed and seated herself at her dressing table. One by one she dropped each sigil into her onyx mortar, smashing brutally downward with its pestle.

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