Upland Outlaws Read Online Free Page B

ambience his age was obvious. His hair and beard were still a normal iron-gray, but the turf on his chest was silver. The years had softened his rocky muscles like cooled lava, and his skin hung limp on him. He was still a powerful man, though, as his treatment of the window bars had shown. Now his agate eyes slitted in astonishment as he appraised Rap’s image in the shadow world.
    “So I see!” He grinned, showing quartz-pebble teeth.
    He turned and thrust an arm out through the blank of the window embrasure. With a shiver of power, he hauled another man inside bodily, and then there were two dwarves down there in the kitchen.
    Two sorcerers-no bets on that.
    The second dwarf was an adolescent, but age had nothing to do with prowess in sorcery. He inspected Rap warily. Apparently reassured, he closed the shutters without raising a hand, while Raspnex started for the kitchen door.
    “What the Evil happened to your powers?” he demanded angrily. “Or is this some sort of trickery?”
    “No trickery, ” Rap said. “They’re long gone. I can’t pull a rabbit out of a hutch now.”
    “That’s impossible! “
    “No, but it’s a long story. Who’s the enemy?”
    “My nephew. “
    “Zinixo! ” Just what Rap had feared-but it was a great relief to know that Raspnex himself was not on Zinixo’s side. If he were, Rap would be a devoted slave already.
    “Thank the Gods I have only one!” the dwarf said sarcastically.
    In the ambience, the two of them were face to face. In the slower mundane world, Rap’s companions had barely registered his sudden silence, and Raspnex was trudging across the kitchen, closely followed by his young companion. They wore the drab, shabby work clothes that dwarves preferred, and they were both wet with melted snow.
    So even a warlock dared not use sorcery in the open now? God of Horrors!
    “I thought I had nailed that blackguard into a box he d never get out of!”
    Rap said bitterly. He had used every scrap of his enormous demigod’s power when he sealed his enemy in an occult shielding. How had the former warlock escaped?
    “Thank Bright Water, ” Raspnex growled. He paused to scan the house. “Name of Evil, this place is a labyrinth, isn’t it? ” Approving images of mine tunnels … “She gave him Kraza. “
    Kraza? The name was familiar. Raspnex threw up a brief image of a female dwarf, quite pretty by dwarvish standards, and then Rap remembered. The wardens had sent her as their emissary, the third time they had begged him to take Zinixo’s place on the Red Throne.
    Raspnex had located the correct staircase. He scowled at its ramshackle condition and chose to levitate up it, perhaps not trusting its treads to withstand his great boots.
    His young companion grinned and followed suit. He jangled the ambience less than Raspnex did, which meant he was intrinsically more powerful. His occult image was more solid, too, which was usually a good indication of occult potency.
    And that was the key to the whole mystery! That was how Zinixo had escaped from his cocoon to threaten the world … Rap’s mundane companions were all regarding him with apprehension. As far as they were concerned, he had been leaning against the fireplace and staring glassily at the floor for the last couple of minutes.
    “Stand back from the doorway, Centurion,” he said. “Don’t go for your sword. It will do no good. “
    Hardgraa reached for the hilt automatically, then reluctantly released it. He stepped a pace sideways.
    “Cousin!” Shandie said, jumping to his feet. “Rap? What’s wrong?”
    Even as Rap named the visitor, the warlock hurled the door open and stamped into the room. “You’re a fool, imp!” he growled,. glaring across at the imperor.
    Fury flickered over Shandie, but he bowed respectfully. “You honor us with your presence, your Omnipotence. “
    “You can forget that rot! No more omnipotences. It’s over!”
    Dwarves were not known for tact, or delicacy of phrase.