Stoneweaver

Stoneweaver - Chapter 39

Descending slowly, Danath let his footfalls echo, so Elgren could hear his approach. The pair of them came into view as he turned onto the next flight of stairs, and his teacher met his eyes with a steely gaze.

Rising, Elgren let a stone drop into his hand as he glanced at the one in Danath's. But he said nothing.

Stopping halfway down, Danath groped for the question he needed answered. "Why?"

"None of your business," Elgren spat in a heated tone. "You probably heard more than you..."

"Not this," he waved vaguely at Thortus' body, which he found meant little to him. Even the thought he'd failed to protect him didn't seem to matter. It wasn't as though that had been his job, anyway. "Why kill Syssarra?"

Elgren hesitated, eyeing Danath with an unreadable gaze. But he answered. "She'd been talking to some of Trunt's men. When they started acting up I'd had someone keeping an eye on them. They saw her talking to a few of the gang, and I couldn't risk that she'd learned anything."

"So you killed her?" The memory of her lying there flashed into his mind, his anger threatening to take over, but he pushed them down. She knew the dangers of what she was doing, and it had been her choice. He'd never tried to control her, and a part of him had always known she'd probably end that way. Yes, he missed her, but he had to find a way to deal with his future.

"Yes, I killed her." The words had no heat, a mere statement of fact.

"And tried to frame me as a traitor?"

"I needed someone ready in case something like Trunt's gang happened."

"And then you had me go out searching for Trunt's gang when you'd ordered them to stay out of sight. Were they waiting for you then, when you killed them?"

"Yes. They'd become too much of a nuisance."

"Okay. Okay, I get that you needed someone to take the blame, so why me?"

With a sigh, Elgren looked askance at him. "I've just never liked you."

Okay, that had hardly come as a shock. But what did it mean for his future. "So what now?"

"That's up to you. Are you going to try and get revenge for the girl?"

"Why? What'd it change?" Relaxing his stance, Danath pocketed the gemstone. His air avatar still surrounded him if needed. "So, have I still got a job?"

Elgren remained suspicious, but seemed to relax slightly, although he kept the gemstone in hand. "You want to be my champion?" The words held every inch the suspicion of his eyes.

"It's what I do," Danath shrugged.

"Fine. What's the situation with the battle?" He relaxed slightly, but his eyes never turned away from Danath as he recommenced descending the stairs.

"They're getting desperate." He really didn't have much choice. While he now hated him, Elgren would be in charge of Melmyrn now, so what option did he have. He was a mercenary, because that was the only way to get anywhere in this world. Syssarra, for all her wild dreams, had ultimately understood that. "They'll probably have to use their Stoneweavers soon." Growing up he'd learned quickly that you had to take care of yourself, and that he couldn't trust anybody. Except Syssarra and Andira. "But they've so far been keeping them in reserve..."

Reaching the corridor where Elgren waited, he knew what he'd do, no matter how much his pragmatic side screamed at him to think about it, and he didn't miss a step as his hands shot up to Elgren's throat, the faint protection of the air avatar slipping through their fingers.

Shock appeared on Elgren's face for a moment, as his hands shot up to try pulling Danath's away, but he recovered quickly, and his air avatar started battering at Danath's, to little avail.

Elgren reached for his blade, but Danath barged him into the wall, trapping his hand just short of it. Pulling his hand free, it grabbed for Danaths's face, but the air avatar kept knocking it away, although the hand did touch him a few times, but doing little more than scratching, which he barely felt behind the images of Syssarra.

The air continued to knock him around, but with increasingly desperation, and the hatred in those eyes soon turned to panic. Then sharply into shock, as his body jerked under Danath's.

His hatred abating enough, Danath realised another figure stood next to them, and turned to see Andira yanking her knife out of Elgren. There eyes met for a long moment, and when he turned back to the object of their rage, he realised Elgren was dead. He let the body fall.

Stumbling back against the opposite wall, he felt the anger drain from him, and the image of Syssarra lying there dead mixed with all his other memories of her. He finally managed to meet Andira's haunted eyes, so cold, but not with their usual anger.

"You heard?" he said.

"Enough." Her voice was a tight calm thing, fully controlled. Her eyes held something else as they met his.

"You still hold me responsible for her death, though?"

"Enough," she said, her tone maybe a bit softer.

"And when are you going to act on that?"

She held his gaze a long moment. "If we both survive today, we'll settle accounts then."

He held her gaze, finding little energy to speak, and little enough to say. Reaching into his pouch, he located the stone by touch, and tossed it to her.

She caught it, eying it suspiciously. "The jederine?"

"No idea who owns it now, so you may as well have it."

She nodded.

They both turned at a sound from the far end of the corridor, to see Kulth emerging around the corner, bearing down.

"Go," Danath said without turning.

Andira moved up the stairs next to him, turning after a couple of steps. "You can't animate any of the stone within the building." With that she loped up the steps.

Good to know, although it might make this harder, and as tired as he felt, he could do without this.