The Thief Who Spat In Luck's Good Eye by Michael McClung

Author:Michael McClung
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: sword and sorcery epic, sword sorcery adventure
Publisher: Michael McClung
Published: 2013-11-18T16:00:00+00:00

If I had hoped to get any immediate answers out of Ruiqi, I was disappointed. Soundlessly and without either of us noticing, she had somehow disappeared while we slept. My cursing at her absence woke Holgren.

“She can't have gotten far,” I said. “Come on, let's go find her.” I started off toward the death lands, figuring she'd crawled that way like a wounded animal, to have those hideous creatures destroy her.

Holgren laid a hand on my arm. “Not that way,” he said. “Over there. I sense her presence in that direction.” And he pointed west, toward the Tabernacle.

“Kerf’s crooked crutch! Hurry, before she manages to crawl inside.” I set out at a dead run, Holgren trailing behind. How big a lead did she have? How fast could she be dragging herself? We might come on her just as Athagos began to consume her. If that happened, we'd be dead as well. Damn Ruiqi for putting us in greater danger.

What remained of Thagoth's streets radiated out from two squares on either end of the Tabernacle, something like a double spiderweb. There were only two main thoroughfares that ran straight from those squares to the edges of the death lands, one north and one south. We were at the extreme eastern edge of what remained of the city.

I didn't bother to keep to the streets. I led Holgren through broken buildings and over mounds of rubble, through smashed courtyards and roofless towers on a direct route to the Tabernacle. I'd learned those old stone bones better than the city of my birth during the half-year I'd spent there.

As we approached the Tabernacle's high wall I slowed and motioned Holgren to do the same. “Where is she?” I whispered, and he pointed dead at the Tabernacle.

“Damn her.” I moved to the edge of the wall and took a peek. The gates stood slightly ajar. There Ruiqi lay, half in the Tabernacle grounds. She was not moving. I pulled back and tried to think of what to do.

She might already be dead, but Athagos hadn't gotten to her if she was. She wasn't a deflated skin sack. I thought long and hard about leaving her there. If she was already dead, I would risk myself needlessly trying to save her. If she was alive, then saving was the last thing she wanted.

But I didn't really care what she wanted. There was a chance she knew something that would help us destroy the Shadow King. Was it important enough to risk my life trying to save her, that chance? I looked over at Holgren, and decided it was.

“Is there any way to make someone temporarily deaf?” I asked him.

His brow furrowed. “I've never tried. I suppose I might be able to, given time...”

“Time we don't have. Listen to me. If something happens, don't come after me. There'll be nothing you can do. I mean it. You'll be the only one left to oppose the Shadow King. Promise me. Promise, Holgren.”

I didn't think he would. He was silent for so long.

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