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The wizard, his lean face taut with impotent rage, loomed over her. "I would take you to Thay and make
you suffer a hundred deaths for what you have done, but I must find Kanlara and bring her back."
"Why?" Teza managed to croak. "She doesn't love you. Let her go." It was a terrible effort to talk, yet
anything was better than thinking of the water.
The wizard yanked her upright, his hands like iron on
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her shoulders. "You of all should understand. You keep an aughisky, a creature incapable of love. Yet
you love it. You leapt in the way of my spell to protect it."
"A bad decision," Teza conceded.
"Almost as bad as freeing my betrothed." He wrenched the young woman to her feet where she stood,
sick and dizzy, her eyes screwed shut.
"Lord," a voice called urgently from the bow.
The wizard ignored it while he studied Teza intently.
"Lord! Come see," the voice cried again. "We're being followed by a witch-ship."
A flash of hope opened Teza's eyes. The witch-ships that roamed the vast Lake of Tears were pilotless
boats created by the powerful sisterhood of witches to protect Rashemen from predation from Thay. The
witch-ships could unleash monstrous beasts, poisonous gases, or any number of defensive spells, and
were extremely difficult to evade. The Red Wizard visibly blanched when he heard the warning.
For just a second, Teza thought he might forget her, and she could crawl out of sight while he dealt with
their pursuer. Then her feeble hopes imploded into panic.
The wizard, his expression a mask of fury, picked her up bodily and threw her overboard.
Teza had time for one frenzied scream before she crashed into the dark water. Icy blackness closed
over her. She scrabbled frantically to bring her head up, but her body was still partially paralyzed from
the magic. She could only feebly thrash as her water-soaked clothes dragged her deeper.
She opened her eyes. Above, she could barely make out the lighter surface of the lake, where air and
life lay only a few strokes away. Below lay death in the eternal dark at the fathomless bottom of the lake.
Teza tried to struggle upward again, only to feel herself sinking farther toward that abyssal pit. Her lungs
burned now; the air in her body was almost gone. Water pressed against her as if seeking a way into her
nose, mouth, and lungs, seeking to drag her down faster. The blood roared in her head. She felt so weak.
"No!" she cried silently with every shred of her resistance. "Help me!"
Then, from somewhere out of the lightless depths, something moved toward her. She felt a large shape
glide past her, and before she could understand what it was, a heavy, tight grip settled on her right
shoulder.
Teza felt too far beyond her strength to struggle against this new terror. If some creature of Ashane was
going to devour her, let it do so quickly and end her fear. But the thing did not rend her immediately. It
hauled her upward, and just before Teza passed out, her head broke the surface. She drew in a great
gasping breath of air, then struggled, thrashing wildly at the painful grip on her shoulder.
The thing let go of her. Teza started to sink again, and in her panic she grabbed at the large dark thing
beside her. Wet hair met her fingers, the long, streaming mane of a horse, and she held on to it with all
her might.
The head turned toward her. A green fire flickered in the eye that regarded her.
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"You glorious creature," Teza sobbed into his neck.
The aughisky waited patiently in the cold water while the woman worked her way onto his back. Then
he swam slowly toward the distant shore, his ears cocked back to listen to Teza's sobs.
At last, he clattered up the rocky bank to a patch of thick grass. Teza pried her fingers out of his mane
and rolled off onto the blessed ground. For a while, she simply lay on her back and stared up at the
aughisky. He was watching her, too, but the animosity she had always seen before was gone. Perhaps,
she marveled, a creature who could not love could at least learn not to hate.
She finally worked herself upright and very slowly pulled on the aughisky's leg until she could stand.
Although the wizard's magic had at last worn off, she had never felt so weak, dizzy, and deathly cold.
"There you are!" a woman's voice suddenly called.
Teza looked around. To her surprise, the night was fading to a pale watery dawn, and out of the
lightening mist came a tall, beautiful, red-haired woman.
"Knowing Ashroth, I thought he might dump you once
the witch-ship caught up with him."
Teza's mouth fell open. "You knew about the ship?"
"Of course." Kanlara smiled with the pleasure of a satisfied cat. "I may not be powerful enough to defeat
a Red Wizard, but the Witches of Rashemen are. I warned one I still knew in Immilmar." She came
forward with a dry cloak, peeled off Teza's wet one, and helped her into the thick warm folds. "I'm
sorry," she said at last. "I didn't get a chance to say thank you for releasing me. That took a lot of
courage."
Teza leaned against the water horse, too tired to reply.
The wizard woman crossed her arms and looked at her thoughtfully. "I hoped to reach you before
Ashroth did anything rash, but the aughisky was faster, thank the gods."
Teza's hand ran lovingly down the horse's elegant neck. "He saved my life," she whispered. "He didn't
have to. If I died, the bond of the hippomane would be broken." She grinned suddenly and said to the
horse, "I wonder where Rafbit is. Stuffed under some sunken rock more than likely. You came so fast
you, didn't have time to eat him, did you?"
He tossed his mane and snorted a reply.
Abruptly Teza reached up and unbuckled the throat latch of the bridle on his head. The aughisky stilled, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]