The Diamond Read Online Free PDF

dream, but in the end, you get to be heroes.”
    Twenty-some guards stared back at him in silent confusion.
     
    Khelben saw their expressions, shrugged, and made another gesture. “You needn’t be upset by
    any of this. In fact, you’ll forget all about our little conversation—and that I was even here. I’m
    completely invisible to you until highsun tomorrow. You can’t even remember my name until then.
    If you see me before that time, you see nothing at all. Understand?”
     
    Helmed heads nodded in unison, and Khelben smiled grimly. “Back to work!” he barked. “You’ve a
    pair of condemned men to guard!”
     

     
    Midnight was fast approaching, yet still no Lord Mage. Noph sat alone on a bench well down the
    passage from the cells. Only five hours remained before sunrise and a double execution. Where
    was the Blackstaff?
     
    For that matter, what good would his warding magics be now? If Entreri and Trandon hadn’t tried
    to escape yet, they wouldn’t.
     
    “‘Ware!” a Watchman shouted. Noph blinked. A gangly, redheaded armsman stood outside
    Entreri’s cell, struggling to free his sword from its scabbard. “The assassin’s loose! He’s picked the
    lock with his fingerbones!”
     
    Boots pounded on flagstones. Noph joined the general rush. Armored shoulders and helmed heads
    jostled in the passage ahead. Blades slid and rang from their sheaths, glinting in the lantern light.
    Noph shouldered forward through the press of guards, peering to see what was happening by the
    cells.
     
    The redheaded guard’s sword grated out at last, aided by a muttered curse. Its owner promptly
    lunged at the cell door, thrusting the blade between its bars to the hilt. If Entreri were there, he’d
     
    be skewered. The guard’s hand, arm, and shoulder—suddenly thinner than they should
    be—followed his sword through the window. Steel clanged on stone. The guard hissed in pain and
    snatched his arm back into view. The sword was no longer in it.
     
    “He bit me,” the armsman growled, clutching his wrist.
     
    “Now he’s got a blade, dolt!” someone shouted. The hurrying guards reached the cell door, and
    stopped suddenly, those in front shrinking back from something Noph couldn’t see. He charged on
    into his packed fellows. There were stumbles, grunts, and the skirl of metal-clad elbows and
    knuckles on unyielding stone. Struggling to keep his footing, Noph peered ahead.
     
    A strange fight was in progress. The gangly guard ducked as if a sword swept the air above his
    head, but Noph saw no blade nor attacker. Springing desperately aside, the red-haired armsman
    barreled into two other guards, and all three sprawled along the passage wall.
     
    A lithe guard leapt over this pile of armsmen to the cell door, his sword dancing in intricate thrusts
    and parries before him. “Clever with a blade, Entreri?” the guard taunted. “Aren’t you more
    familiar with dagger thrusts into kidneys from behind?” He lunged twice more before dodging
    away from an unseen blow.
     
    Something massive and invisible slammed into the guard’s head with a sickeningly damp crack. He
    toppled like a piece of lumber, stiff and uncaring.
     
    “Watch that door!” someone shouted. “He’s killed a man with a door!”
     
    “Watch that sword!” another guard snarled.
     
    “Watch that bony hand!”
     
    “Back! Back! Give me room to fight!” bellowed a hulking guard at the head of the crowd. He
    swung a spiky mace once, twice, and then with a roar he charged, seeming to think he was
    backing someone up against the wall. Noph could see no one. The giant swung his mace, growling,
    and then yelped and stumbled back, trampling two men behind him.
     
    “Fire! Fire! He’ll burn us all!”
     
    “Water! Bring water!”
     
    “Not water, for an oil fire! Bring sand!”
     
    “Damned lanterns! What was wrong with good old torches, I’d like to know?”
     
    Ahead of Noph, the guards were jammed solidly, metal shoulders