Chapter XXXVIII: Shadows (Cont. VIII)

“Do I ever joke?” Forte smiled and waved for Grail and Donovan to go outside.

“Fine,” Shaw said, folding his arms. “What do you want me to do?”

“Delilah is still searching for the illustrious nine. We’ll have to deal with her.”

“But she’s one of us!”

“Your point? She’s coming here. Just finish her off and then go home, Shaw.”

Shaw drew himself right next to Forte, “What are you using me for, Forte!? You didn’t want me to do what your orders said, did you?”

Forte did nothing but smile, “Can you handle her, Shaw?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” Forte turned and stepped out into the night, waving for Ermine to follow.

Ermine drew next to Shaw, placing a hand on his shoulder, “We’re all his puppets, Shaw. You won’t live a content life unless you forget about the strings that are tangling you up and focus on the flow.” Ermine stepped out into the night a moment later, leaving Shaw to sit down and think. What was going on here? Something wasn’t right. That scroll had just flashed out of existence and Forte hadn’t been bothered at all that it was being brought to Baen. And what the hell was that red flicker? He glanced around the temple and the faded corpses of the shadows and the dead Jaigons. Everything was going to hell and he was lost. Did Forte say he had gone to Al-Khara?

“Wait,” Shaw said, his eyes rising in realization. “Oh my god….” There was the sudden sound of a taut string. Shaw didn’t move. “I didn’t feel the gateway pulse.”

“Unlucky you.” Shaw swallowed, then rolled, the arrow crashing into the ground as he rolled and fired back at the elven woman who disappeared into a side room. Shaw drew himself up and hid behind the pillar.

“Stupid elf!”

“How did you dodge my shot?”

“You’re too slow, Delilah!”

“Not for Buruka!”

Then Buruka and Ysussdis were dead. Did Forte already know? It was all beginning to make sense now. He moved with a quick flow across the hall, an arrow crashing right into the shadows of the round. “You’re getting slower!” Shaw glanced over at the stairwell and raced up it, the sound of Delilah slowing slipping into the room and finding him ascending the tower heard behind him. Rather than going all the way up, he slipped out a nearby door and slid out onto the roof, trying not to make a sound as he moved along the parapets and roofs. Horns and sculptures and gargoyles provided him plenty of cover as he peered up to see Delilah emerge into the tower. And then he heard the flapping of the wings. “That’s it!”

Shaw slid down to where Delilah couldn’t see him so easily and he glanced up, loading his crossbow and finding the falcon sailing overhead. He peered out, waiting as the falcon seemed to shift its maneuvers and Delilah’s arms began to rose slowly and unsteadily. “She’s in the falcon.” With that, Shaw brought his crossbow up towards Delilah and fired with a quick shot as he heard the arrow fire. Shaw flew backwards, an arrow caught in his leg as he slid down the side of the roof, catching himself on a gargoyle head and screaming in pain. A minute later, he heard the empty thud as Delilah’s body hit the lower parapet where he had been.

Shaw hauled himself back up onto the parapet and slowly plucked the arrow out of his leg, tearing his shirt sleeve and tying a turnicate around his leg. He cursed his luck and slowly drug himself up to see Delilah’s broken body lying several floors below the tower. The falcon seemed to be reeling and then sailed off into the wastes, trying to get away. Shaw let it get away, staring down at Delilah’s body, which still was struggling to reach for its dagger. He glanced down at the body and raised his crossbow. “I’m not without heart and respect. You were a damn good assassin, Delilah, but you let yourself be open. You could only kill those who didn’t know when you were weak. Weakness is always present, it’s just who knows it. I’ll let you abandon your body. Go ahead, live as a falcon….”

He watched as Delilah’s eyes shut and her body began to exhale slowly. Then Shaw fired. The body stopped moving, twitching only for a moment as the bolt cut the air from her throat. Shaw holstered his crossbow, hobbling back down into the temple and thinking to himself. “What do you expect me to do next Forte? Hm. Yes, I suppose that’s what you would expect me to do, so I’ll do the opposite. He smiled nastily and slung his crossbow onto his back and marched out of the temple and into the wastes.

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