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Topiara - Chapter 32
Finding Vinzen didn't take long at all. Farranby stalked down the hallway and threw the first door open. In the diningroom a richly robed man sagged back in his chair at the head of the table set for one, his mouth open and snoring peacefully. Portions of the evening meal were scattered on the table when the drug had taken firm hold on its hapless victim. On the thick carpet near his chair lay the goblet that had held the mulled wine that now stained the rich floor covering. Farranby seemed to freeze in the doorway, his anger gathering force.
Lyara and Jilan stood back, suddenly aware that their participating in the finale of their adventure was no longer important to them. They had what they had come for. Sharin pushed her way through until she stood next to Farranby, staring at her long-hated nemesis.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Jilan asked gently, knowing his companions could flash back at him in anger at such a question.
Farranby turned from looking at his brother's sleeping figure to gaze at Lyara, his expression cold and revengeful yet held in check. "He doesn't deserve an easy end, you know. Not after all he's done to us all."
"He should be awake," Sharin added firmly, her own anger still evident. "He deserves to suffer, just like the rest of his victims did."
Jilan looked over at Lyara. "What about you?" he asked gently. "What do you say?"
Lyara looked back up at him, her expression unreadable. "He tried to kill Iliria, and he did have Karlo killed." She looked back at the sleeping master bandit. "They're right, Jilan, and you know it. He doesn't deserve the easy way."
"You want him awake?" Jilan asked the other pair in the doorway.
Sharin gaped at the question. "He won't wake up for at least a day, considering how much darathom I put in the wine."
Farranby didn't gape, just looked at Lyara, saw the willingness and remembered. He nodded silently and moved aside so that the Guide and her aristocratic friend could get into the room without obstruction. Both suddenly seemed to be moving dazedly, their gazes only barely focused on the bandit in front of them as if they were seeing and hearing something far more compelling.
Lyara reached out for Jilan's hand, driven by Topiara's compulsion as much as the need to find strength in his touch. As their hands moved towards each other a spark of energy seemed to flash between the outstretched fingers, an energy that seemed to swell within the both of them until the touch allowed the energy to merge into a unifying force. Eyes wide in surprise, Lyara and Jilan focused their attention once more on the insensate bandit at the table, each reaching out to touch him with the free hand in unison.
To Farranby it seemed as if only an instant passed between their touching Vinzen and when the drugged man gave his first sighing groan. Lyara and Jilan sighed together, and then let go of each other's hands and slumped as if a support had been yanked from them both. Farranby would have watched them curiously but that Vinzen's groans and grunts became more strident.
"Wake up, brother," he hissed, grabbing a fistful of hair at the back of the bandit's head and yanking the head upright as the eyes fluttered open.
"Wha. . ." Vinzen struggled to focus his vision, still under the influence of the drug. He seemed to shudder, and his eyes cleared. "Farranby?"
Farranby loosed his grip on Vinzen's head in a gesture of disgust. "Its good to see you again after all these years, brother. Especially now."
"Wha . . . what are you doing here?" Vinzen's arms and legs still seemed unable to function, and that was frighten ing the bandit leader. "What did you do to me?"
"Oh, that." Farranby's voice reflected a perverse satisfaction. "That was Sharin's doing, not mine. You remember Sharin, don't you? You sent Imbido to massacre her family looking for a certain Kauwlut Guide."
Vinzen's gaze shifted to the bloodied clothes and angry face of the young woman standing next to his brother in confusion. "I don't know what you're talking about," he complained, trying to make himself sound more self-assured despite his growing fear.
"You may not know me personally," Sharin spat, waving her bloodied skirts at him, "but Imbido remembered me, just before I sliced him to pieces." She smiled, and a dagger of ice pierced Vinzen; he realized she had full intentions of doing the same to him, and there seemed to be no way in which he could defend himself.
"What do you want?" His eyes shifted nervously from Sharin's angry face to Farranby's determined one. Then, as if in afterthought, he seemed to notice the two standing in the back of the room passively, watching the scene at the table. "Who are they?" he demanded peevishly.
Farranby smirked once more. "The blond fellow is Jilan Torbishahn, son to the King's Chancellor. The other is known as Lyara Chivan. She is the one you were looking for when you killed Sharin's family, and when you had that pair of Guides attacked in Tandri."
Vinzen's eyes narrowed, and he stared hard at Lyara. "You! You stole something that belonged to me!"
Lyara shook her head placidly. "No. You were only part of the means by which I acquired it, just as you were but the means by which Jilan now has what he needs." She smiled at the bandit.
Vinzen growled and visibly began fighting his unrespon sive limbs. "Give them back to me!" he shouted, only barely able to sit up straight. "I found them. They are mine!"
"Perhaps once, but no longer." Jilan's tone of voice was firm yet even.
"It is of no matter." Farranby's sharp tone brought his brother's attention back. "After this day, you will have nothing left. Have you forgotten my promise to you on the day I left?" He bent close to his brother and carefully and deliberately searched the man's clothing and removed every weapon he had hidden on his person.
"I have harmed nobody you care for," Vinzen protested, his voice suddenly uncertain again.
"Not true. Herista is one whom I care very much for, and one whom you have done much harm." Farranby's brows began to knit together in a growing anger. "And how could you have known that Lyara is a very good friend?" His lips pulled back in a snarl. "And I warned you what would happen if you harmed anyone I care for."
"I didn't know!" Vinzen pleaded weakly as he knew there would be no more mercy from his brother than he had given out himself so long ago. "I'll tell you where Herista is, I swear. Just. . ."
"What Farranby leaves, I'll finish," Sharin hissed. "I too have much to settle with you."
"I already know where you sent my daughter," Farranby stated flatly. "There should be enough treasure in this house that I can buy back her life from the garbage heap you sold her to. There is nothing you can offer me."
"Nor me." Sharin nodded grimly.
"My men will hunt you down," Vinzen growled suddenly in vicious impotency. "You'll never get away with..."
"You forget the mulled wine, my friend," Lyara added quietly from behind Farranby. "Your men sleep quietly behind barred doors of their barracks, where the authorities will find them when we're finished with you."
"How does it feel to be on the receiving end, brother," Farranby inquired, his voice oily and cold. "Have you any idea how many years I have dreamed of this moment?"
Vinzen seemed to shrink back as he faced the cold, revengeful gaze in his brother's eyes. "Mercy, Farranby," he plead quietly. "I'm your brother!"
"Aye," Farranby nodded coldly, "you're my brother. And my wife, Gemma, nursed you through river fever as if you were her own brother. Did you show her mercy?" He paused, steadying both his voice and his thoughts. "And little Herista, you bounced her on your knee and called her 'your own jewel'. What kind of mercy did you show her?"
"My family never did you any harm," Sharin moved in closer. "They got no mercy from your hired assassins."
"My friends in Tandri, who had no part in any of this, you allowed them no mercy either." Lyara added firmly. "There is a saying that those who seek the treasures of life by dark means will follow that path to its very end. I suggest that if you hold any deity in favor that you settle your peace with it quickly. I doubt Farranby or Sharin will allow you much more time in which to do so." She glanced at Jilan, and then spoke to Farranby. "My business here is done. I'll wait for you in the hall."
Jilan watched Lyara take one last, satisfied look at the terrified bandit and then turn her back to them all and walk calmly out the door. He looked at Farranby and then Sharin, and only finally at Vinzen. "My part in this is done too, I think." He looked up at Farranby and nodded. "I'll wait out there with Lyara." Then he too left the room.
"There's rope wrapped around my waist," Farranby or dered quickly to Sharin as he reached down and dragged his brother erect. "We can tied him up to that pillar." Sharin smiled wickedly and found the knot at Farranby's back that released the length of rope. "I'll bring his napkin too," she added, reaching down to retrieve it from the floor. "We don't want his screams to awaken the cottages."
Vinzen's struggles were limp arms and legs flopping uselessly against his brother's wiry strength. A terrified moan escaped his lips as his arms bent painfully behind him around the pillar of the room and tied excruciatingly tightly. As he opened his mouth to issue a scream, the napkin was thrust between his teeth. His legs refused to hold him upright, and he sagged into a kneeling position and watched from below as Sharin took up one of his own sharp daggers and tested the edge.
Neither Lyara nor Jilan flinched when they heard that one short scream suddenly cut short. They looked at each other knowingly without saying a word, and then went back to watching the closed door. Eventually Farranby and Sharin came back out, both looking tired but relaxed. There was a vivid streak of fresh blood that crossed the front of Farranby's tunic, but it was impossible to tell if there was any fresh blood on Sharin.
"He's dead?" Lyara seemed to stretch.
"No," Sharin's word made Lyara look at her sharply and listen more carefully, "but he soon will be."
"It won't be a pretty sight when he's found," Farranby admitted with a grim smile. "And it won't be an easy death for Vinzen either."
"I think Jilan and I found the treasure room earlier," Lyara said, deciding not to mention Vinzen's fate any longer. "Lots of little boxes full of jewels and treasure."
"To buy back your little girl, Farranby," Jilan added. Farranby took a deep breath, and let it out again in a long sigh. He seemed to think quietly to himself for a long moment, and then looked up into the faces of his friends. "It's over now, after so many years. No more revenge."
Sharin leaned against him tiredly. "I know. I don't even know how to think anymore without all that... that hatred to..."
"Now you'll have to decide what you're going to do with the rest of your life," Lyara stated, "both you and Farran by. You can leave the ugliness behind."
Farranby sighed again. "Let's go take some of that treasure that Vinzen has been hoarding all this time and get away from this place." He shuddered. "I don't think I'm ever going to want to come back here after tonight."
"It's this way," Lyara pointed, beginning to lead the way. Farranby and Sharin didn't look back, but followed the Guide down the hallway.
Jilan paused and looked back, somehow unwilling to leave without knowing for certain that it was over. He came to his decision and stepped back to the door and opened it enough so he could peek inside. Directly in front of the door, Vinzen knelt in a widening pool of his own blood, still alive but only barely. A thin arch of blood pulsed from a neat hole in the side of his neck and dripped down the front of his elegant tunic into his lap and then to the floor. The movement roused the bandit, and he looked up into the face of the young aristocrat weakly.
Jilan closed his eyes and swallowed hard against the bile that rose in the back of his throat. If what his companions had told him were true, then the man deserved his fate. But in good conscience, Jilan couldn't just walk away. He drew his sword and stepped into the room.
"I can kill you now, quickly," he said softly to the dying man, "or I can walk out and leave you here. It's your choice. Nod yes, and I'll give you a quick release."
Vinzen's eyes seemed to darken, and then he slowly dropped his head and nodded. Jilan nodded in return and stepped farther into the room.
"Jilan!" Lyara had let Farranby and Sharin into the little room ahead of her and had noticed that the young Talandri had not followed them. She glanced down the hall way with a small frown. Just as she was about to retrace her steps toward the dining room, Jilan rounded the corner and walked slowly toward her. His face was grim, and he too had the tired look that both Farranby and Sharin had once had.
"Are you alright?" she asked as he came up to her. "Where did you go?"
Jilan opened his mouth as if to answer her, and then shook his head. "I'm fine," he reassured her quickly, his face relaxing into a thin smile. "Let's see what Vinzen had."
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