Until Urb stumbled into her. ‘Something just went up across the street!’ he gasped, spitting blood. ‘We got to get out of here-’
‘Where’s my corporal?’
‘Already down the stairs-let’s go!’But, no, it was time for a drink-
‘Hellian! Not now!’
‘Gare away! If not now, when?’
‘Spinner of Death, Knight of Shadow, Master of the Deck.’ Fiddler’s voice was a cold, almost inhuman growl. ‘Table holds them, but not the rest.’ And he started flinging cards, and each one he threw shot like a plate of iron to a lodestone, striking one person after another-hard against their chests, staggering them back a step, and with each impact-as Brys stared in horror-the victim was lifted off the floor, chair tumbling away, and slammed against the wall behind them no matter the distance.
The collisions cracked bones. Backs of heads crunched bloodily on the walls.
It was all happening too fast, with Fiddler standing as if in the heart of a maelstrom, solid as a deep-rooted tree.
The first struck was the girl, Sinn. ‘Virgin of Death.’ As the card smacked into her chest it heaved her, limbs flailing, up to a section of wall just beneath the ceiling. The sound she made when she hit was sickening, and she went limp, hanging like a spiked rag doll.
‘Sceptre.’
Grub shrieked, seeking to fling himself to one side, and the card deftly slid beneath him, fixing on to his chest and shoving him bodily across the floor, up against the wall just left of the door.
Quick Ben’s expression was one of stunned disbelief as Fiddler’s third card slapped against his sternum. ‘Magus of Dark.’ He was thrown into the wall behind him with enough force to send cracks through the plaster and he hung there, motionless as a corpse on a spike.
‘Mason of Death.’ Hedge bleated and made the mistake of turning round. The card struck his back and hammered him face first into the wall, whereupon the card began pushing him upward, leaving a red streak below the unconscious man.
The others followed, quick as a handful of flung stones. In each, the effect was the same. Violent impact, walls that shook. Sandalath Drukorlat, Queen of Dark . Lostara Yil, Champion of Life .
‘Obelisk.’ Bottle.
Gesler, Orb.
Stormy, Throne.
And then Fiddler faced Brys. ‘King of Life.’