The Windsingers by Megan Lindholm

Author:Megan Lindholm [Lindholm, Megan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fantasy, Fantasy - General, General, Fiction, Fiction - General, Fantastic fiction
ISBN: 9780441892488
Publisher: Ace
Published: 2010-09-14T23:00:00+00:00

FIFTEEN

'Ki!' Dresh hissed.'What is it?' she mumbled. How long had it been since she last slept? She hovered on the edge of sleep, seeing only because Dresh kept his eyes open and fed her the images; her own eyes had sagged shut long ago.

'Wake up, fool!'

'What is it?' she repeated. She picked up the head and put it on her lap again. Tension emanated from him, Ki felt a trembling in her fingertips that was not her own nervousness.

'My hands. I feel a coolness on them, a touch of power. Someone has opened my box.'

She shifted Dresh's head against her arm. The weight of it pulled at her weary shoulder muscles. Their eyes were fixed on the wall, but Dresh saw more than Ki did.

'It's the end of the game, isn't it?' Ki whispered.

'Not quite. We're too close to give up now. Only one of them watches over me; of that I am sure. We must act now.'

'What are we going to do?' Ki got to her feet, Dresh riding heavily on her arm.

'I don't know. We shall have to act as our impulses dictate. Out the door and into the hall, Ki.'

She eased open the door of the Windsinger's cell and poked her head cautiously out. Then she drew it in with a sigh, and projected Dresh's head into the hall instead. She took in an empty vista. Awkwardly she rotated the head on its block to scan the other direction. Safe as well. She clutched the head to her body again and hurried out and down the hall.

They had gone no more than a handful of paces when Ki heard the rustle of robes and the patter and slap of bare feet.

'Someone approaches!' Dresh hissed.

Her shoulder jarred against a door that shockingly offered no resistance, and she found herself clutching the wizard's head as she skidded and fought for balance. The closing door clipped her hip as it swung shut silently behind her. Her thrust had carried her into the center of a room. The sole occupant, her dark eyes wide in shock, shot to her feet, a small ovoid of blue stone clutched between her pale hands.

As Ki regained her footing, the Windsinger crouched to set the ovoid carefully on the floor behind her. Then she rose to full height, her cowled and knobby skull towering over Ki. Ki did not wait for Dresh to react. She dropped his head and flung herself at the white-robed figure.

Ki's tanned hands closed on the scaled wrists, but to Ki's eyes, deprived now of Dresh's sight, she wrestled with a pale tower. From the tower's peak shot a fall of blazing fire. The shimmering walls of the room spun around her, but she did not loosen her grip. A Windsinger seized was as a snake pinned: more deadly to free than to hold. They struggled in silence. Red sparks darted from two dark holes in the tower, stinging against Ki's face.

Hands that can hold a plunging team in check; shoulders

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