Spellbound: Book 2 of the Spellwright Trilogy. Blake Charlton

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СКАЧАТЬ darkening the air with giant columns of rain, but overhead the late afternoon sky shone a fresh blue.

      Deirdre walked along the balcony and found Typhon in a white alabaster body, his usual seven feet of bulging muscle. His mane of silky red hair hung down his shoulders. From his back grew wings of checkered red and black feathers. He was facing away from Deirdre.

      Near him stood a large cube of blindness. It was not a cube of blackness. Black was a shade. Deirdre’s eye could have perceived and her mind could have experienced blackness. When she looked at the cube, she did not see blackness; she simply did not see.

      The cube was how she perceived the Savanna Walker. She could resist most effects the beast had on a mind. This close, most anyone else would have been aphasic and delirious.

      “Demon,” Deirdre announced, “I’ve returned.”

      Typhon turned. His eyes were now black onyx, but his features were the same as ever: snub nose, thin lips, high cheekbones. His expression of supercilious amusement filled Deirdre with a hatred so hot it nearly made her jump. It took every ounce of her control to keep her face blank.

      “My troublemaking daughter,” Typhon said in his rumbling tone. “Was it worth it? I thought you were done with childish suicide. It’s been years.”

      She bowed. “This was not the same. This was for the Disjunction.”

      It was hard to tell, his features being so white, but Deirdre thought the demon had raised his eyebrows. “Convince me, daughter. Why did you need to escape my possession to advance the Disjunction?”

      “I had to protect our work from that reckless beast you’ve taken into your confidence.” She glared at the Savanna Walker. It was difficult; her impulse was to look away from blindness.

      “Daughter, you are under my compulsion not to oppose—” Deirdre went momentarily deaf as the demon spoke the Savanna Walker’s true name.

      To better control the monster, Typhon had altered the Savanna Walker’s mind so that the beast had less influence over someone speaking or even thinking his true name. As a result, the Walker deafened anyone hearing his name’s sounds, blinded anyone seeing its letters.

      Deirdre’s hearing returned. “If you persist in defying me,” Typhon said, “I will reinvest more of my soul in you. Haven’t I proven that you are no longer capable of resisting the Disjunction? You cannot help but advance our cause.”

      “I am convinced, my lord. I will do anything to advance our cause and to convert my beloved Boann to the Disjunction. You must believe—” Her voice stopped and she tottered to her left.

      This had happened before. When the Savanna Walker moved, he caused the balcony tiles to vibrate as if in an earthquake. To prevent her from feeling this, the Walker had briefly paralyzed the nerves in her legs that sensed vibration. Those same nerves, she’d learned, also sensed the angle of her joints. Therefore, when they were disabled, it became hard for her to keep her balance when she wasn’t looking at her feet.

      When Deirdre steadied herself, she found she was deaf again. The Savanna Walker was speaking.

      “Typhon,” Deirdre said, though she could not hear her own voice. “I must … I have to tell you …” She stumbled to her left again. Suddenly her hearing and balance returned.

      Typhon was frowning at her. “What did you do when you were free?”

      She smiled. “The beast isn’t being open with you, is he?”

      Typhon’s frown deepened. “What did you do?”

      She bowed. “When I explain, you will want to reward my dedication. And you will want to protect me from any reprisal from the Savanna Walker.”

      The demon only stared.

      Deirdre pressed on. “You know I have long desired to learn how the Silent Blight figures into your plans for the Disjunction. How can I serve our cause without knowing of what you have called our most powerful tool? Perhaps now that I’ve protected the Disjunction from that beast, you will reward me by telling me of the Silent Blight.”

      This time Deirdre was ready for the Walker’s reply; she spread her feet and waited until she could hear again. Then she looked up at Typhon as he spoke to her: “You’ve made”—again the Walker deafened her as Typhon spoke his true name—“defensive.” The demon stepped toward her. “Tell me now. What exactly did you do?”

      She smiled. “I put Francesca into play.”

      “I gave no such orders,” Typhon said coldly. “I’ve no intention of wounding Nicodemus yet.”

      Deirdre’s smile grew. “And I beg your forgiveness, but it was necessary to … to …” The Walker had made her deaf to her own voice. She kept talking. “I had to put her into play to protect her and everything we’ve worked for. As your Regent of Spies, I’ve learned that the Savanna Walker has been manipulating you. He’s determined to remove her for himself.”

      When she stopped, she was still deaf. Typhon pointed at the Savanna Walker and said something. Deirdre’s hearing returned.

      The demon studied her. “You put Francesca into play to protect her from the Savanna Walker?”

      She nodded. “Francesca will soon find Nicodemus. She can still keep him alive after you wound him. I couldn’t tell you what I was planning because the beast would have stolen or killed Francesca before my petition reached your ears.”

      He studied her. “And so you planned to do this during Nicodemus’s little raid?”

      “Raid?”

      “Nicodemus snuck his students into the sanctuary when the lycanthropes attacked North Gate. The boy and his kobolds fought their way up into my private library.”

      “I’m sorry, my lord, but I don’t understand. What happened?”

      The demon snorted. “The shock on your face had better be genuine, or I’ll never trust your expression again.”

      “It is not only genuine but also profound. What are you talking about, my lord?”

      Typhon explained how Nicodemus had broken into his private library, nearly reaching him when his mind was partially deconstructed. “I should thank you, daughter. By bringing”—deafness as he said the Walker’s true name—“to the sanctuary, you forced Nicodemus to abandon his attack. Though the boy would have discovered a surprise if he had reached me.”

      As comprehension sank into Deirdre’s mind, so did cold dread. Had she inadvertently stopped Nicodemus from freeing her? “My lord, I did not know—”

      “Of course not, daughter. But that’s not the issue; Francesca is. Tell me everything she said.”

      Deirdre took a deep breath. Whether or not she had foiled Nicodemus’s plan, she had to push on with her own. “My lord, I will humbly withhold my obedience unless you tell me the Walker’s true name so I can protect myself from his manipulation. I also humbly request an explanation of the Silent Blight so I might better know the Disjunction’s plans.”

      “Humbly?” The demon laughed and crossed his arms. “I СКАЧАТЬ