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.Finally, when he found his thoughts settling too much on her, he opened his eyes and turned his head.She quickly looked away, but he knew she'd been staring at him.He sighed.Feeling the lightness in his ready joints, he rose and crossed to her."I will not harm you, girl," he said."I have not been paid to slay you.If you are hurt, it will be accidental and as a consequence of your own actions." He frowned."Understand?"She nodded.From the way she flinched when he turned his head toward her, he could tell the mangled half of his face frightened her.That brought a twinge of anger, but he suppressed it."I will remove this," Rath said, touching the gag in her mouth."But you must promise you will not scream or attempt any magic.There will be consequences.Yes?"She nodded, and her eyes looked wet.The dwarf sighed, then pulled the gag out of her mouth.She gasped and coughed but made no loud sounds.This was good.She looked at him, lip trembling."What—what are you going to do with me?"Rath frowned."Just hold you here for a time.Nothing more.""Are you—are you going to.?" Myrin trembled and edged a little away."Humans." Rath rolled his eyes."I would swear by any god you could name that you are the most despicable, insecure, bastard blood in the world, but I know the ways of my own kind and find them worse." He shrugged."You have no dishonor to fear from me.""Why not—" Myrin swallowed hard."Why not unbind me? Am I a threat to you?""No," he said, perhaps faster than he should have.She pursed her lips."You fear me?""I fear nothing," Rath said."I have nothing to fear from you.""Prove it." Myrin puffed herself up as big as she could in her frail body."Unbind my hands.If you have nothing to fear from me.""Hmm." Rath couldn't argue with her logic."Why do you want them unbound? You cannot escape.""Uh." Her eyes widened."My wrists hurt."Rath said nothing, only reached around to do as she asked.Shehadn't lied: the ropes had left red welts on her wrisrs.He pulled away and let her rub her skin."There," said Rath."Satisfied?""Yes." Myrin brought a wand of pale wood from behind her back and rhrust it under his chint.Rath felt sparks hissing out of it."Hmm," the dwarf said.Myrin stared ar him, her eyes very wide.She breathed heavily."You should do it," Rath said."I have slain many—men and women both.And children."Myrin breathed harder and harder.Rath could feel her heart racing, see the blood thudding through her veins on her forehead."Do ir," Rath teased.The girl inhaled sharply.Then he slapped the wand away and swatted her head at the temple with his open hand, as one might stun a rabbit.She collapsed to the floor limply.Lightning crackled and died."Wizards," he murmured, rolling his eyes.THIRTY-FIVEOn nights when Selune hid behind a veil of angry clouds, the streets of Waterdeep became much like those of Downshadow below.Moon shadows deepened and buildings loomed.Even the drunk and foolish had the sense to lock their doors against unseen frights.Few but the dead walked such nights.Even Castle Ward, protected by the Watch and the Blackstaff, was risky after dark—particularly on a night like this.But Waterdeep's darkest nights knew something Downshadow never could: rain.Watet cut against Kalen's cloak like a thousand tiny arrows.Every drop was a command to reverse his course—every one a despairing word.His body told him to lie down and die.The spellplague was taking him, he knew.Kalen took the crumpled note out of his pocket and read it again.This was surely a trap, he thought, but he had no choice.In particular, he thought of Myrin.Fayne could care for herself, certainly, but Kalen could not abandon Myrin.Powerful as she might be, she was still a lost, confused girl.And if her powers overcame her control, no one could predict what destruction might follow.He'd barely stopped her that night after the ball.And Rath had to answer for Cellica's murder—he would see to that.Kalen knew that even if he failed, Talanna and Araezra would hunt down the dwarf, but that gave him little comfort.The Guard could do little more than avenge him, and vengeance would mean little to his corpse and less still to Myrin and Fayne, if Rath killed them.No, he would go, no matter the obstacles—no matter the rot inside him.He would not fail.One last duel—that was all he needed.Just this one last fight.He opened his helmet and vomited into the gutter.Passersby hurried along.He staggered down rhe alley near the Blushing Nymph festhall, which led to a tunnel into Downshadow near the Grim Statue and whispered under his breath."I will make an emptiness of myself," Kalen murmured against the rising bile in his throat."A blackness where rhere is no pain— where there is only me."He shuffled past rain-slicked leaves and unrecognizable refuse.His head beat and his lungs felt waterlogged.The fronts of his thighs were numb—he felt as though he wore heavy pads beneath his leathers.If he hadn't worn such heavy boots against the rain, he'd have thought his toes frosrbitten.His hands were steady, but that was scant comfort.Dead flesh was steady.His stomach roiled."A blackness where there is only me," he said again.He repeated the phrase until the aches subsided.They did not leave him—not fully—but they faded.He would not recover, he knew.Not if he did this."Every man dies in his time," he murmured."If tonight is my time, so be it."His hands felt dead as he wedged his fingers under the lip of a metal plate, uncovered beneath the alley's debris.The reek did not offend him, for he could hardly smell it.The trap door had been used that night, he knew—it was loose.It awaited Downshadowers who prowled the rainy streets, and would for hours hence.Crearures of shadow risen from below.What was he, but a shadow come from above?A shudder, worse than ever before, ripped through him, and he curled over, hacking and coughing.He wedged his helm open and spat blood and bile onto the metal door.It dripped onto the cobblestones and swirled with the rain.When the fit passed—he had half expected it would not—Kalen righted himself and gazed at the rusty ladder that led into the shadows beneath the city.'t"Eye of Justice," he prayed.He didn't beg."Be patient.I am coming soon."He wiped his mouth and began to climb down.¦Downshadow felt surprisingly empty that night.Its inhabitants saw night in the world above as their due, when they could dance or duel at whim, love or murder at their leisure.Those with eyes sensitive to light could walk freely in the streets, and a heavy rain or a mist off the western sea would hide their deeds, be they black or gray.No space was emptier on such nights than the plaza around the Grim Statue: a great stone monolith of a man on a high pedestal, his head missing and his hands little more than stubs of stone.Tingling menace surrounded the figure, filling the chamber with quiet dread
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