Borzak checked through the portal again. The rumors were making him nervous, especially the ones about the wizard. Not that Borzak ever truly got nervous. He was apprehensive, nothing more. He'd be damned if the Emperor was assassinated under his nose. He'd be the laughingstock of all Prentwinng. Suddenly, he saw a man dressed in black enter the throne room. How the hell...?
The bodyguard couldn't hear anything through the portal, but he saw the look on the Emperor's face change from contempt to surprise, then fear. All six of the Imperial guards dropped their weapons and collapsed. The Emperor leaped up from his throne and drew his ornamental but still deadly sharp sword. Borzak charged through the portal as the stranger laughed evilly and the Emperor was engulfed in flames.
The man in black turned and threw a fireball at the bodyguard. Borzak twisted away and fired a knife back. The stranger smirked, whipped out a short sword, and deflected the knife. Borzak was thrown off guard. A wizard with a sword?
Borzak drew his broadsword and exchanged a few quick slashes and parries with his opponent. The wizard scornfully matched him stroke for stroke. The astonished bodyguard retreated, sheathing his broadsword. Instead, he attacked with his favorite weapon combination, heavy hand axe in the right hand and short sword in the left.
The wizard slipped out a small steel buckler for his left hand and skillfully blocked all of Borzak's lightning-quick attack patterns. The stranger's short sword lashed out and whipped back so fast that the experienced bodyguard had his hands full staying alive. He struggled to get just one strike through the wizard's perfect defense, but could hardly keep his own defense up. He was also distracted by the fact that wizards weren't supposed to be good fighters.
Borzak had never met a wizard who was equal to any of his guards in pure fighting, but this stranger was better than him. He suddenly realized he wasn't going to be able to stop this one. He quickly backpedaled and sheathed his weapons. The wizard threw two daggers with astonishing speed, but Borzak had already fled through the portal.
He tossed several knives through and slashed the silken thread that maintained the portal. The intruder probably didn't really know the layout of the castle, but that wouldn't stop him for long. And if the Captain of the Royal Guard, who could defeat any ten of his elite warriors without breaking into a sweat, couldn't stop this wizard, it was probably wisest to flee to a less chaotic kingdom for a while. But there was something that had to be done first.
* * *
The former king's chief bodyguard (among other things) raised his sword, pommel-down, and summoned every ounce of determination he had left. It hadn't been easy getting into the most heavily guarded treasure room in less than an hour in the midst of hectic chaos, but fortunately Borzak had earned something of a reputation, and people had stopped questioning his comings and goings. The warrior smashed the glass case and snatched the deadly-looking knife that lay on the velvet pedestal, ignoring the screeching alarms that went off. Damn magic wards. In ten minutes he would be out of this thrice-cursed castle.
There were advantages to being the king's chief assassin.