Elven Star – The Death Gate Cycle 2. Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman

CHAPTER 28

TREETOPS, EQUILAN

“SO,” SAID CALANDRA, LOOKING FROM PAITHAN TO REGA, STANDING BEFORE

her on the porch, “I might have known.”

The elf woman started to slam the front door. Paithan interposed his body, preventing the door from shutting, and forced his way inside the house. Calandra backed up a pace, holding herself tall and straight, her hands clasped, level with her cinched-in waist. She regarded her brother with cold disdain.

“I see you have adopted their ways already. Barbarian! Forcing your way into my home!” [27]

“Excuse me,” began Zifnab, thrusting in his head, “but it’s very important that I-”

“Calandra!” Paithan reached out to his sister, grasped hold of her chill hands. “Don’t you understand? It doesn’t matter anymore? Doom is coming, like the old man said! I’ve seen it, Callie!” The woman attempted to pull away. Paithan held onto her, his grip tightening with the intensity of his fear. “The dwarven realm is destroyed! The human realm dying, perhaps dead, right now! These three”-he cast a wild-eyed glance at the dwarf and the two humans standing, ill-at-ease and uncomfortable, in the doorway-“are perhaps the only ones left of their races! Thousands have been slaughtered! And it’s coming down on us next, Callie! It’s coming on us!”

“If I could add to that-” Zifnab raised a forefinger.

Calandra snatched her hands away and smoothed the front of her skirt. “You’re certainly dirty enough,” she remarked, sniffing. “You’ve gone and tracked filth all over the carpet. Go to the kitchen and wash up. Leave your clothes down there. I’ll have them burned. I’ll have clean ones sent to your room. Then sit down and have your dinner. Your friends”-sneering, she cast a scathing glance at the group in the doorway-“can sleep in the slave quarters. That goes for the old man. I moved his things out last night.”

Zifnab beamed at her, bowed his head modestly. “Thank you for going to the trouble, my dear, but that really wasn’t neces-”

“Humpf!” Turning on her heel, the elf woman headed for the stairway.

“Calandra, damn it!” Paithan grabbed his sister’s elbow and spun her around. “Didn’t you hear me?”

“How dare you speak to me in that tone!” Calandra’s eyes were colder and darker than the depths of the dwarven underground. “You will behave in a civilized manner in this house, Paithan Quindiniar, or you can join your barbaric companions and bed with the slaves.” Her lip curled, her gaze went to Rega. “Something you must be used to! As for your threats, the queen received news of the invasion some time ago. If it is true-which I doubt, since the news came from humans-then we are prepared. The royal guard is on alert, the shadowguard is standing by if they are needed. We’ve supplied them with the latest in weaponry. I must say,” she addled grudgingly, “that all this nonsense has, at least, been good for business.”

“The market opened bullish,” offered Zifnab to no one in particular. “Since then, the Dow’s been steadily dropping-”

Paithan opened his mouth, but couldn’t think of anything to say. Homecoming was like a dream to him, like falling asleep after grappling with terrible reality. Not longer than the turning of a few petals, he had been facing a gruesome death at the rending hands of the tytans. He had experienced unnamable horrors, had seen dreadful sights that would haunt him for the rest of his life. He had changed, sloughed off the carefree, indolent skin that had covered him. What had emerged was not as pretty, but it was tougher, resilient, and-he hoped-more wise. It was a reverse metamorphosis, a butterfly transformed into a grub.

But nothing here had changed. The royal guard on alert! The shadowguard standing by, if they are needed! He couldn’t believe it, couldn’t comprehend it. He had expected to find his people in turmoil, sounding alarms, rushing hither and thither. Instead, all was peaceful, calm, serene. Unchanged. Status quo.

The peace, the serenity, the silence was awful. A scream welled up inside him. He wanted to shriek and ring the wooden bells, he wanted to grab people and shake them and shout, “Don’t you know! Don’t you know what’s coming! Death! Death is coming!” But the wall of calm was too thick to penetrate, too high to climb. He could only stare, stammering in tongue-tied confusion that his sister mistook for shame.

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