A Sword from Red Ice

Twelve Kill Twelve Kill. Twelve Kill. A thousand pieces of metal and rock tolled his name.

The being was screeching. The end of its tail was gone, loped off by a sharp blade. Its eyes burned cold with hate.

Raif and Stillborn performed the dance. Each knew the other's mind without having to meet glances. When he was ready Stillborn rushed the creature from behind and stuck his sword deep into its tail stump. An unearthly scream split the night. Raif's eardrums crackled. The being snapped around like a whip. Raif rushed in, his gaze searching, searching, as his body flew through air. He landed like a demon on the being's back, and guided the ugly, borrowed, good-for-nothing-but-bashing sword into the puncture hole created by the Forsworn blade. Hide and muscle had already been penetrated. The borrowed sword was solid. All he had to do was ram it through the heart.

The blade slid into muscle. Raif thrust deeper, driving his fist through the hole in the creature's hide. The creature jerked. Raif twisted the blade with all his might, coring its heart like an apple. The breath was sucked from his lungs as the vacuum produced by the collapsing heart created the opposite of a shock wave. Raif pulled his fist free from the hide. It was coated with oily blackness. Leaving the sword in place, he sprang back and ran.

The being failed, Raif didn't think any other word could quite describe it. One moment it was upright, vital and craving, and the next it sank to the rimrock. Gone.

Bloody snowflakes thrown up by its fall seesawed through the air as Raif made his way to Stillborn. The big Maimed Man rushed forward and caught him in a massive hug. Raif let himself be supported. His ears were ringing. Pain rolled across his shoulder in waves. Stupidly, his teeth were chattering. The creature's, dead body twitched and hissed, diminishing.

At last there was silence. The alarm petered out and then stopped. Maimed Men seemed little relieved. None approached the being's carcass, but people started gathering around something small and ragged lying on the rimrock. A body? Whispers and urgent calls sounded through the crowd. "He saved your life," Stillborn said in Raif's ear.

Raif stepped away from him. He needed space to breathe "Who?"

"The Mole."

Raif steadied himself for a moment and then glanced toward the body. The ragged black shape looked too slight to be a man. Oh gods.

Stillborn wiped the sweat from his temples through his hair. "As soon as you fell backwards the creature was on you. There was nothing anyone could do. I came forward… " He shook his head. "Wasn't fast enough."

"But Traggis Mole was."

"Aye. Came out of nowhere, like lightning. It was a fine sight. Took off the creature's tail with his knife, shifted its attention from you to himself. It was as if he had no mind for his own safety. You couldn't get that close to the creature and not get…" Stillborn shuddered. "Torn."

Raif left him and made his way toward the body. He could smell the blood as he moved through the crowd. It was possible that some of it was his own. People opened a space for him and he moved into it. He was shaking intensely, but he no longer felt any pain.

Traggis Mole lay in a drift of snow close to the cliff wall. He was not yet dead. What was left of his body was wet and twitching; Raif could not look at it. Wisps of dark shagpw fed upon the exposed organs. The Robber Chiefs face was untouched. His eyes were open and watching Raif.

Raif knelt. He understood much that was dread and good. The truth of Traggis Mole was there to see, and Raif wondered why he hadn't recognized it sooner. He and Traggis Mole were alike. The Maimed Men were all the Mole had. They were his clan, and keeping them safe from harm had been his life. Something close to pure love touched Raif then, and he knew the things this man would ask for were owed.

The moon rose over the Rift, spilling silver light upon the dying man and the man who would kill him. Traggis Mole spoke the few words that mattered. Raif Sevrance spoke another oath.|

Quietly and without ceremony, using Traggis Mole's own longknife, Raif Sevrance stopped the Robber Chiefs heart.

TWENTY-NINE Chief in Absentia