The Rise and Fall of a Dragonking - By Lynn Abbey Page 0,39
Urik as their sanctuary, his templars dealt with such strangers. Urik’s borders were, of course, legally sealed, but Hamanu trusted his yellow-robes to determine when, where, and against whom his laws should apply.
He went back to his minions, until another trip-word scratched his hollow ear: arrows. The Khelo fletchers were squabbling with the Codesh butchers over the price of feathers for the thousands of arrows the army required.
“Tell the butchers they’ll sell their damned feathers at the established rate, or their heirs will donate them in perpet—”
O Mighty Hamanu! Lion-King, Lord, and Master, hear me!
A distant voice echoed in Hamanu’s mind. The totality of his awareness raced backward, along a silver thread of consciousness through the Unseen netherworld, to the source.
Armor! I crave invincible armor and earthquake!
The Gray was charged with acid needles, and Hamanu’s vision, when he opened his sulphur eyes above the desperate templar, was streaked with lurid colors. There was powerful magic—someone else’s powerful magic—in the vicinity.
O Mighty Hamanu! Hammer of the World! Grant me invincible armor and earthquake!
Squinting through the magic, Hamanu made out chaos and bloodshed: a full cohort of his own templars outnumbered by ragtag brigands. Or, not brigands. Another moment’s study discerned a well-armed, well-drilled force disguised for brigandage. In the midst of the Urikites’ impending defeat, a militant, a human man with tears of panic streaming down his face, raised his bronze medallion and entreated the Lion-King for the third time:
O Mighty Lion, grant me invincible armor and earthquake, lest I die!
A wise invocation—in its way. An earthquake, if Hamanu empowered the spell to create one, would swallow everything on the battlefield, friend and foe alike, except for the invincibly armored militant. Though sacrifice was necessary in battle, the Lion-King of Urik was not in the habit of rewarding militants who’d save themselves and doom the lesser ranks and mercenaries they led. He’d have considered granting the earthquake while withholding the invincible armor—and savored the militant’s death—if the netherworld turbulence wouldn’t have negated any spell he granted.
There were only a handful of mind-benders capable of disturbing the netherworld enough to disrupt the bond between a champion and his templars. The champions themselves were foremost in that small group. Hamanu knew the hallmarks of their spellcasting intimately.
Inenek, Hamanu loosed an enemy’s name to the Unseen wind. It was her spoor he scented in the netherworld and her disguised Gulgan templars winnowing his own. Ogre-Naught.
The turbulence ebbed, replaced by a sultry voice, full of seduction and, though Inenek tried to hide it, hate. You tricked me once, Manu, but never again. Rajaat chose you for your strength, not your brilliance. You’re not as clever as you think you are. Surrender to me, and Urik will survive.
A wind-driven fist shrieked through the Gray with the power to smash a mountain into gravel.
Your promises are as empty as your threats, Inenek, Hamanu replied, dispelling her assault with a roar of laughter.
Inenek had always been vulnerable to mockery. The netherworld shone with futile lightning; she’d never learned to control her temper, either. Hamanu dispelled the bolts as he’d dispelled the shrieking fist. Inenek—the Oba of Gulg, she called herself now—was arguably the least among the champions. How she’d annihilated the ogres was a mystery Hamanu had never taken the time to solve. He suspected she’d disguised herself as an ogress and slain every male after taking him into her bed.
The Ogre-Naught couldn’t harm him, but his besieged templars were doomed if he didn’t intervene. With his eyes still glowing, Hamanu turned to Enver, who’d sensed nothing amiss until that moment.
“I go,” he told the dwarf. He caught a fleeting glimpse of Enver’s widening eyes before he slit the rooftop air with a talon and stepped into the Gray.
Hamanu departed Urik as a black-haired man. He emerged on the battlefield as the black-maned Lion of Urik, taller than a half-giant, stronger and far more deadly. A gold sword gleamed in his right hand. It sliced through the warrior weapons raised against him, and through the warriors as well. Hamanu wielded his sorcery-laced sword with the skill gained in a very long lifetime of practice, inflicting precise slaughter among his enemies.
He didn’t bother to guard his back or slow his attacks with parries; the Lion of Urik was only another glamour, hiding his true form. A calm and sharp-eyed observer—had there been any on the field—would have noticed the discontinuity as metal weapons passed through the Lion’s ephemeral form before shattering against otherwise invisible dragon flesh. Wooden and bone-crafted