Kieron shouted derisively at the star-kings: "Great warriors! Do you see? You have followed the leadership of an android! A homunculus spawned by the warlock Geller!"
A gasping roar went up in the chamber. A sound of superstitious horror and growing anger.
Kieron parried a thrust and brought his blade down on Freka's sword arm. Hard. A sword clattered to the flagstones — still gripped by a slowly relaxing hand. There was no blood. The android still moved in, eyes expressionless, his one hand reaching for his enemy. Kieron struck again. A clean cut opened from' shoulder to belly, slicing the artificia! tendons and leaving the android helpless but still erect. Kieron raised and lowered his blade in glittering arcs. Freka… or the thing that had been Freka… collapsed in a grotesque heap. Still it moved. Kieron passed his point again and again through the quivering mass until at long last it was still. Somewhere a woman fainted.
A thick silence fell over the assemblage. All eyes turned to Ivane. She stood staring at the remnants of the thing that had been. . almost. . a man. Her hand fluttered at her throat.
Alys' voice cut through the heavy stillness. "Arrest that woman for the murder of my brother Toran!"
But the crowd of courtiers was thinking of other things. Jaded and cynical, they had seen with their own eyes that Ivane was a familiar of the dreaded Great Destroyer. Someone cried: "Witch! Burn her!"
The mass of courtiers and warriors swept forward, screaming for the kill. Kieron leaped for the dais, his sword stil! bared.
"I'll kill the first one who sets foot on the Great Throne!" he cried.
But Ivane had heard the crowd sounds. The black mantle slipped from her shoulders, and she stood stripped to the waist, like a marble goddess — her eyes recapturing some of their icy hauteur. Then, before she could be stopped, she had taken a jewelled dagger and driven it deep into her breast.
Kieron caught her as she fell, feeling the warm blood staining his hands. He eased her down on the foot of the Great Throne and laid his ear to her breast.