“Wait! There’s something you need. .”
“Good-bye, Soen. I’ll convey your regrets to Keeper Ch’drei.”
“But you don’t know. .”
Jukung dropped his hand.
Instantly, the Matei staves of all ten of the surrounding Iblisi flashed rods of incredible blue, pulsing as they converged directly on the Inquisitor. Soen raised his own staff but too late; he was engulfed by the power of the magic. His flesh turned to ash on his bones, his black eyes ran momentarily as a black liquid down his crumbling cheeks. What once had been Soen, Inquisitor of the Keeper and Envoy to the Imperial Courts, collapsus into an unrecognizable pile of ash and bone smoldering in the center of Nothree’s village square.
Jukung grinned as he swaggered back to the center of the square. “How sad that you had to come to such an end, Soen. But take comfort that I have taken your place. . and that it was I who taught you the last lesson of all.”
He reached down to pick up the skull of his vanquished rival. .
. . and his hand passed through it.
“What. .”
Jukung’s own skull was suddenly pulled backward, pain overwhelming him as a blade slid across his exposed neck, cutting deeply across his windpipe and vocal cords. He gasped reflexively for breath, but his lungs were filling quickly with his own blood.
A voice spoke into his ear.
“This is your final lesson,” Soen said as he kicked away the Inquisitor’s Matei stick while still holding him from behind. “Sometimes the old ways are the best ways. Just be grateful that I am in a hurry, Jukung. You’ll die quickly. I had wanted to let you bleed to death slowly, but I just haven’t got the time for such amusements.”
Gasping, Jukung glanced at the surrounding Iblisi.
All of them were pushing back their hoods.
Each of them was the image of Soen.
“They’re all away!” Urulani shouted. “Now it’s our turn! Are we ready, Master Ganja?”
“Aye, Captain!” the tall Sondau warrior called back from the prow. “Anchors are all in!”
“Six men over the bow,” Urulani called. “Everyone else aft! All ready, Master Ganja-NOW!”
“Aye! Put your shoulders into it, men of Sondau!” Ganja shouted.
Three men on each side of the bow pushed back and up, raising the prow from the sand.
“Push for your lives, men of Sondau!” Ganja shouted.
The bow shifted and the ship rolled slightly.