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a traitor. Go your way and do not interfere with ours."
Sgaile turned and disappeared into the sewers.
Chap's growl pulled Leesil's awareness back. The hound stood at the narrow
passage down which Ratboy had fled. Leesil was about to follow but stopped and
faced down the slope.
Sgaile's words rushed together in his mind and spread an anguish that nearly
made him cry out. He ran down the slope, footfalls splashing in the open
tunnel, but the elf was gone.
We do not kill our own& She will never again teach another our ways.
If the elves wouldn't kill their own but still punished a traitor&
Where was this Cuirin'nen'a what had truly happened to his mother?
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Toret ran, arms swinging wildly, barely clutching his short sword.
Elves cursed elves everywhere.
He turned with the flow of water, heading toward the bay.
The quarrel wound in his head still seared, and the elf's wire had cut deeply
into his throat. His damaged eye was not fully healed, and he needed to feed.
All of his lessons with Chane seemed useless. Master of his own family and
house, he'd wanted to take Rashed's place. Such a role begged for skill at
arms. But even with superior strength and speed, he couldn't match in two
moons what tooka swordsman years of practice. What a fool he'd been.
Chane, on the other hand, could fend for himself, yet the coward had left him
with the dhampir and the half-blood. Toret simply wanted to find Sapphire and
leave this place behind.
He ran hard. Sapphire must have escaped into the city near the bay, but he
still couldn't sense her presence no matter where he turned. What if she'd
managed somehow to find her way completely out of the city? That would explain
his lack of connection.
Ahead, the tunnel roof curved downward, creating the illusion of meeting with
the sewer floor. As he approached, he noted the passage dipped steeply
downward. Water at his feet rushed faster. When he crested the slope, he
looked toward the tunnel's end and saw the opening to the bay.
An iron gate was closed over the exit. He heard voices many voices.
Toret crept a little farther along the tunnel wall and crouched to listen.
City guards stood outside the sealed spillway to the bay. By voices, he
counted at least seven or more men. Toret crept back up the slope to the level
tunnel and began backtracking.
The other bay openings would be similarly guarded, so likely Sapphire had
escaped into the city itself. If she'd followed the same path he had,
therewere any number of shafts she could have climbed up to the street. Most
likely, she'd have traveled as far as possible through the tunnels and then
used the last ladder shaft to slip out to hide in the city. She must be
frightened out there all alone.
At the next intersection, he found the iron bars of a ladder leading up. Any
way out would have to do. He reached for an iron rung, and a flicker of yellow
light danced across the wall.
Toret flattened against the stone wall and glanced back down the tunnel.
The light came from a glowing stone on the half-blood's neck as he and the
hound splashed into the intersection.
Leesil tossed his torch onto the closest tunnel walkway and stood before
Toret with both blades out. The hound snarled, his fur wet and matted.
Toret no longer cared if the half-blood died or not. He was tired of all this
and wanted nothing more than to find Sapphire and flee this city. In the
kingdoms of the Suman Empire, he and his love could feed at will, safe in each
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other's company. All he need do was scramble up the rungs, and he would be
into the streets before that half-blood could blink. If Toret was nothing
else, he was quick.
Leesil's face was expressionless. "Wait."
The half-blood shifted both blades to one hand and pulled a dark blue velvet
drawstring bag from behind his back. Puzzlement passed through Toret as Leesil
clumsily pulled an object from the bag and held it up.
Sapphire's head hung from the half-blood's grip, with black fluids smeared
from her gaping mouth across her pale cheeks.
Leesil steeled himself for Ratboy's screaming assault.
The small undead merely lowered his sword arm until the blade point dipped
into the flowing water. He stared blankly with his one good eye and his head
slowly turned from side to side in denial.
"You couldn't," he said weakly. "She was in the sewer ahead of me. It's a
trick."
Leesil flung the head and shifted his second blade back to his free hand.
Sapphire's head struck Ratboy in the stomach, and he closed his arms around
it, still clinging to his sword.
"Take a closer look," Leesil said.
Ratboy looked upon Sapphire's blond curls matted with her own black fluids.
For a moment, he didn't react, still denying what he held in his hands. His
pale face suddenly twisted in a soundless, tearless sob.
"That's for Beth-rae," Leesil spit out. "You cut her throat with your nails
back in Miiska. Remember?And Eliza. You left her dead in her own backyard for
her brother, Brenden, to find."
Rage welled in Leesil again for all the lives Ratboy had destroyed.
"How does it feel," he whispered, "to lose?"
This time, Ratboy did cry out. The head slipped from his hands as he rushed
forward, swinging wildly with his sword.
Leesil controlled his hatred as he sidestepped. All he needed was a clear
shot at the monster's neck. Chap howled and closed in.
"Stay back!" Leesil ordered.
The hound snarled in frustration but retreated, circling behind Leesil.
Ratboy swung again and again. Leesil blocked, the short sword glancing and
sliding away along the curves of his blades.
This butchering whelp wasn't skilled, but he was strong and enraged, and
Leesil feared becoming locked in a stalemate until he was too exhausted to
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