The Conqueror's Shadow by Ari Marmell

Author:Ari Marmell [Marmell, Ari]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-345-51905-4
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2010-02-06T16:00:00+00:00

/IF THIS TURNS OUT to be some blatant trap you’re about to saunter into, and you get yourself killed, I’m going to be greatly disappointed./

“Why, Khanda,” Corvis said, voice reverberating hollowly through his helm, “I had no idea you cared.”

/What are you, stupid? I’d shed more tears over a diseased rat than I would you. I just don’t want to be left on a putrefying corpse out in the middle of some field for the next few centuries./

“Ah. My mistake.”

/It usually is./

The dirt and gravel of the winding road crunched beneath the warlord’s tread. Shimmering moonlight bathed everything in a dancing glimmer of faerie fire, creating a landscape of flitting ghosts and flickering dreams. Most travelers would have found it disorienting, but to Corvis, his night vision enhanced by a simple spell, it was merely distracting.

Sporadic trees lined the roadside, and these he spared a passing glance, alert for any hint of ambush. He didn’t need Khanda to tell him this was almost certainly a trap. But Corvis, over the strenuous objections of his companions, chose to accept the invitation nonetheless. He might have made arguments about assessing the strength and nature of the enemy forces, but in truth Corvis was intensely curious to learn exactly what sort of man he was dealing with.

And so he neared the “neutral area” Audriss’s messenger conveyed to Khanda, his right fist stuck to Sunder’s hilt as though welded there. His eyes were wide and watchful, the searing power of Khanda’s magic tensed and gathered at his fingertips.

/You realize,/ Khanda remarked, /that Audriss probably expected you to meet with him tomorrow. His messenger seemed a bit taken aback when I told him we were on the way./

“That’s the point. I wanted to throw them off a little.”

/To what end?/

“It makes me feel better.”

/Ah. How petty./

“Is there any particular reason,” Corvis asked irritably, “that you’re unwilling to go more than two minutes without making some useless, sarcastic, and, above all, annoying remark?”

/Does it bother you?/

“Excessively.”

/That’s the reason./

The grating of the gravel beneath his boots ceased abruptly as Corvis froze, scanning the road before him with senses both human and infernal. “Did you hear something?”

/I did, and it sounded close./

One of the shadows before them extruded itself into the light of the moon. A small, misshapen form emerged from that shadow. Corvis could hear the shallow, abrasive breathing and the clicker-clack of the creature’s claws as it dragged itself into the light.

“He thinks this is the one he waits for, yes.” The sound—for it could not be termed a voice in any human sense of the word—didn’t emanate from the creature in any normal fashion. It crawled forth, skittering across the intervening space and washing over Corvis, tickling horribly, a tide of twitching spider legs. “He thinks that this one he cannot have, no.”

“Oh, gods!” Corvis hissed. “Gnomes!”

“He thinks you are wrong,” came a second voice, crawling from the shadows. “He thinks this is not the one. He thinks this is just another human. He wants it, yes, to have.

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