Tais Teng - Palimpsest.pdf - Tais Teng - widez2

PALIMPSEST

They raided the palace of earl Magember at the height of the two hour day: seventeen men clad in

iron chainmail, their crossbows loaded with quarrels of illegally wrought steel. In the searing light

the walls of the stronghold were no more substantial than mist and the raiders smashed the gate

like a man brushes away a spiderweb. It broke with sound of tearing perkament, armlong splinters

drifting away on the afternoon breezes.

Several elves woke from their deep slumber, but they moved in slow motion, their swords turned to

wands of springy willow, their strongest enchantments omly mumbled words.

Winslow found the earl in one of the deepest halls, his naked body reclining on a mound of

freshly turned earth. The faintest hint of magic still lingered and the damp walls seemed hung with

spectral gobelins, the threads of fairy gold gleaming dully.

Winslow stepped closer to study his enemy. The skin was very pale with the silvery hue sometimes

found on the wings of certain moths. The earl's face seemed a clever mask of ivory, but a more

precious ivory than any human would ever handle. Peering closer Winslow noticed that the skin

was ivorysmooth too. No pockmarks disfigured the slender body and it was devoid of pores.

Clearly the elves were made of finer stuff than their subjects. Still, they could be killed like any living

thing.

Winslow touched the pulsing jugular with the tip of his dirk and the elflord opened his eyes. Cloudy

orbs of twilight blue, blind seeming in the light of their torches. His pupils were pinpricks, tiny flaws

in the aquamarine of his eyes. "You come in the rough glare of burning firs. The humblest tree, fit

only for trolls or mortals. You carry iron fashioned from the bones of the First Hag. You come to take

my life." His voice was low and melodious and the words issued from the thin air, the carved lips of

the earl never moving once.

"Such is the case," Winslow replied. "I won't bore you with the enumeration of your crimes. I doubt

if you would even understand why they are crimes. In some ways you're innocent. Like the wolf is

innocent of any wrongdoing when he savages a little child."

"Yet you kill wolves."

"Certainly. But I don't have to hate him. It is just something that should be done."

"I see."

Winslow didn't have to clean his dagger, the ruby blood evaporating the moment it was touched by

Tais Teng - Palimpsest.pdf