Vanity's brood hos-3 Page 7

  Zelia's eyes widened in mock surprise. "Kill you?" She tilted her head. "Oh, no. I never waste anything I can still use."

  Swaying into a crouch, she brushed a hand against his cheek. A shiver rushed through Arvin's body and a thin sheen of ectoplasm blossomed on his skin, forcing its way into the folds of fused flesh. His arms and legs sprang apart and his eyelid fluttered open. He rose, shaking, to his feet. Blood still dripped from his lips, his ears, and his left hand. He stared down at the latter, and saw that the little finger and the

  one next to it were sliced open along their lengths. He picked up one of the scraps of cloth that remained from his shirt and wrapped the fingers together, debating whether or not he should attack Zelia. He glanced at his backpack. It was within reach, but the net had probably rooted itself back into the leather again.

  Zelia saw his glance and bared her fangs: a warning not to try anything. She held up Karrell's ring. "You think she's dead, don't you?"

  Arvin stared at the floor. "The demon drew her into the Abyss. Nobody can survive there."

  "It drew her into Smaragd, you mean."

  Arvin glanced up. "What are you talking about?"

  "Smaragd is a layer of Abyss, the layer where Sseth dwells. That's where Karrell would have wound up."

  "How do you know that?"

  "Mariliths range throughout the Abyss, but this one was summoned by a servant of Sseth. It's the most likely place for the demon to have come from, and its banishment would have returned it there."

  Arvin pressed his damaged lips together. The sting of cut flesh helped blot out the ache in his heart. "Even if she did get dragged into… there, she's still-"

  "Dead?" Zelia gave a hiss of derisive laughter. "You humans know so little. Smaragd is dangerous but not completely inhospitable to mortals, especially if the mortal is yuan-ti. Your precious Karrell may still be alive."

  Arvin felt a surge of hope. Karrell-alive? Zelia knew more about the Abyss than he did. Maybe she was right about this Smaragd layer being survivable, except that Karrell's god, Ubtao, was an enemy of Sseth. The serpent god would have immediately killed any cleric of Ubtao's that showed up in his

  realm. Zelia was toying with him, tempting him

  with the one possibility that she knew-now that

  she'd raped his memories-would most torment him.

  He walked over to the fountain and splashed water- onto his face, washing away the blood. "Quit lying to me," he told her, "and let's get this over with. Tell me what you want." He turned to her, his face dripping. "Why am I so 'useful?' Because I have something that can kill Sibyl?"

  Zelia laughed. "That too," she said, her eyes glinting, "but also because you have eyes in Smaragd."

  "Eyes?" Arvin echoed. He'd expected Zelia to send him on his way, to either order him back into the temple to make another attempt on Sibyl or to chase after Pakal and retrieve the Circled Serpent-perhaps after seeding him first, though he was starting to suspect she might have used her last power stone when she seeded Naneth.

  "Eyes," Zelia repeated. "Karrell's eyes."

  "She's dead." Arvin touched the lapis lazuli embedded in his forehead under a layer of scar tissue. "I tried sending to her, every day for more than a month."

  "You kept my stone? How touching," she mocked. Her voice grew serious again. "A sending doesn't always penetrate to another plane. Smaragd lies deep in the Abyss-more than seventy layers shield it from this plane. There is another power, however, which can be used to view a mortal on another plane, even one as remote as Smaragd. And by viewing that mortal, to get a glimpse of what is happening on that layer of the Abyss."

  Arvin's head came up. His breath caught as hope blossomed a second time in his chest. "You really do think Karrell's alive, don't you?"

  Zelia gave a slow serpent nod.

  Arvin hesitated, wondering if she'd just tricked

  him somehow. "What… is it, exactly, that you hope to see? Sseth?"

  Zelia smiled. "Aren't you the smart little monkey?" She passed Arvin back his dagger then sank down, cross-legged, and patted the floor next to her. "Sit."

  Arvin sheathed the dagger, hesitated, then did as she'd ordered. Aside from tatters of his clothing he was naked, and the stone floor felt cool against his skin. The only sound was that of water tinkling into the fountain. He glanced across the city's rooftops, glowing green against the night sky. He couldn't believe that he was sitting in that rooftop garden, talking to the woman he most feared. It was as if he'd stepped back in time to the night when Zelia taught him to master his psionic powers. But if there was a chance that Karrell was alive-even a small chance-he wanted to hear what Zelia had to say.

  "For some time now-more than a decade-Sseth has been… strangely muted." she began. "His clerics are still granted spells, and the god still answers their prayers, but the voice of Sseth has changed in subtle ways. They say it has deepened, become somehow drier, more whispery

  "Drier?" Arvin asked.

  Zelia shrugged. "I am not a cleric." She toyed with the ring in her hands. "But I do serve House Extaminos, and that noble House controls the Cathedral of Emerald Scales. Anything that is of concern to its clerics disturbs Lady Dediana, and that, in turn, disturbs me."

  "The clerics think something's happened to Sseth?" Arvin asked.

  Zelia nodded. "A little over two years ago, I had a troubling dream, a dream of a larger serpent swallowing a smaller serpent, tail first. As the smaller serpent started to disappear into the larger one's jaws,

  it twisted and took the larger serpent's tail in its own mouth, and started consuming it in turn. Each serpent choked the other down, until both disappeared."

  She paused to flick away the venom that had beaded on her fangs with a blue forked tongue. "I wasn't the only one to have this dream," she continued. "Dozens of other yuan-ti shared it-or one similar to it." She nodded at the ring. "Karrell was one of them. She told me of her dream when we spoke in Ormpetarr. She was one of the few to recognize the snakes in the dream for what they were: the two halves of the Circled Serpent."

  Zelia obviously expected a startled reaction. Arvin didn't grant her one.

  "Go on," he said.

  "That same winter, a restlessness gripped the yuan-ti. Dmetrio Extaminos began his restoration of the ancient city, and Sibyl arrived in Hlondeth. Lady Dediana, deep in winter torpor, didn't recognize the danger Sibyl posed at first, not until Sibyl had killed her cousin Urshas and lured half of the cathedral's clergy away by claiming to be Sseth's avatar. By then it was almost too late."

  "What's this got to do with… Smaragd?" Arvin asked, stumbling over the unfamiliar word. "And with Karrell?"

  "That's what I hope to find out," Zelia said. "Why has Sseth not struck down an imposter? Does he condone what Sibyl is doing? Or is he merely… keeping silent?"

  Arvin frowned. "You hope to find that out just by looking at Karrell? Why not look in on Sseth himself, or ask him?"

  "Because I can't," Zelia hissed. "No one can-not even his clerics. Something is preventing it, but that same something may not prevent us from viewing a mortal in Sseth's realm. Your Karrell

  may be the crack in the wall that will allow us a glimpse into Smaragd."

  "Why do you need me?" Arvin asked.

  "If I tried to contact her, Karrell would resist, but she won't resist you. She trusts you."

  "Why should I trust you? Given the way your mind seeds scheme behind your back, it looks as though you can't even trust yourself."

  Zelia's lip twitched, revealing the tips of her fangs. Arvin's taunt had struck home. He knew, thanks to the dreams he'd had while seeded, that at least one of Zelia's seeds-a dwarf-had turned on her. He wondered how many others had betrayed her over the years.

  With a visible effort, Zelia composed herself. "Don't you want to find out if Karrell is alive?"

  Arvin stared back at her for a long moment. At last he nodded and said, "There's just one problem. I don't know the power that will let me view someone a
t a distance."

  "That's easily remedied."

  Silver flashed in Zelia's eyes. She sat silent, staring out over the wrought iron railing that enclosed the rooftop garden. After several moments, a finger- sized crystal rose into view and floated toward her. She caught it then passed it to Arvin.

  He glanced at the crystal. It was deep blue and blade-shaped: thin, with a chisel-like point at one end. Azurite.

  "A power stone," he said.

  Zelia nodded.

  Arvin closed his hand around it. "You trust me to tell you what I see?" he asked.

  Zelia laughed. "No. That's why I'm going to look through your eyes."

  Arvin shuddered. He'd had Zelia inside his head- or rather, a fragment of her-a year ago when she planted her mind seed. Having her coiled around his

  thoughts wasn't an experience he wanted to repeat, even briefly, but it was something he had to do. If Karrell was alive…

  "Let's do it," he said through gritted teeth.

  Zelia stared into his eyes. Silver flashed across her pupils, then was gone. An instant later Arvin felt a soft fluttering under the scar on his forehead, the lapis lazuli silently alerting him to the fact that someone was watching him-from inside his own skull. As Zelia settled in behind his eyes, he saw her as she viewed herself: confident, poised, powerful-desirable. Then it was gone.

  "How do I hail the crystal?" he asked.

  "By its name," Zelia said. "Gergorissa."

  Arvin whispered the name. He sent his awareness deep into the crystal and felt it awaken.

  Yes?a female voice hissed as a mote of pale green light bloomed in the darkness. The voice was unsettlingly close to Zelia's own, and for a moment, Arvin thought Zelia had spoken to him. She must have created the power stone.

  Arvin grasped the mote of light with his mind. He felt its energy rush into the base of his skull, filling the power point there. Suddenly he knew how to view Karrell anywhore on any plane of existence.

  Assuming she was still alive.

  Holding his breath, he manifested that power- and gasped as Karrell appeared in his mind's eye.

  She sat slumped on the floor of a dripping jungle, arms clasped around her round, protruding belly. She was still pregnant, but otherwise she looked terrible. Her cheeks were hollow, her eyes dark, her hair tangled. The dress she wore was in rags and her arms and legs were covered in angry red scratches. The scar on her cheek from the sword wound the marilith had inflicted was barely visible under the dried mud that smudged her face. A tear trickled down her cheek, eroding a

  furrow through the grime. Despite her condition and the desperate, exhausted look in her eye, she was beautiful. Arvin's breath caught in his throat. He ached to reach out and touch her, to hold her.

  To save her.

  Karrell glanced up, startled.

  "Karrell," Arvin whispered in a choked voice. "It's me."

  Her eyes widened. "Arvin?" she gasped. "You're alive?"

  Arvin almost laughed. Six months in the Abyss, and she was worried about him. "It's me, kiichpan chu'al. I'm alive."

  Karrell's image blurred as tears formed in his eyes. Suddenly, they blinked rapidly: Zelia, trying to clear them. Arvin tried to push her from his mind.

  Don't, she cautioned, shoving back hard enough to make his eyes bulge. Talk to her, before the manifestation ends. Ask her what's happened to Sseth.

  Karrell continued to stare at Arvin. "Where are you?"

  "In Hlondeth." He shook his head, still not quite willing to believe his eyes. "How did you survive?" he asked. "It's been so long."

  Karrell gave him a weary smile. "By Ubtao's will," she said, "and through my own resourcefulness." She laid a hand gently on her stomach. "Because I had to."

  Zelia gave him a mental jab that made his mind ache.

  "Where are you?" Arvin continued. "In Smaragd? With Sseth?"

  Karrell didn't seem to find his question odd. "Yes. The serpent god is stuck fast. His jungle has bound him. I escaped from the marilith, and now it's searching for me. It still thinks our fates are linked. It's been protecting me, but when I start to give birth,

  and it doesn't feel my pain…" she shuddered. "I can't let it find me."

  Ask her more about Sseth, Zelia interrupted. Is the god asleep? Awake?

  Arvin ignored her. He stared at Karrell's stomach. "The children. Are they still…?"

  Karrell smiled. "Alive? Yes. And kicking-at least one of them has feet, and not a tail." She bit her lip. A haunted look crept into her eyes. "It won't be long now. When my time comes, I won't be able to run any more. The marilith-"

  "I'll get you out of there," Arvin promised. "I don't know how, but I will. I'll find a way."

  "Find Ts'ikil," Karrell said. "She'll know what to do."

  Sseth, Zelia insisted. Tell her to go to where Sseth is. Karrell looked warily around. "Arvin! Did you hear a hissing noise?"

  "It's nothing," Arvin lied, mentally shoving Zelia back as he spoke. "Who is Ts'ikil? Where is she?" "She's-"

  Their connection broke. Arvin found himself staring at Zelia across the rooftop garden. He leaped to his feet, furious. "What did you do that for?" he shouted.

  Zelia gave him a long, unblinking stare. "You were supposed to make her go to where Sseth is."

  Arvin almost laughed. "Karrell? I can't make her do anything." He sighed. "You got what you wanted-you heard Karrell. If she says Sseth is bound, he is."

  Zelia thought about this for several moments, her eyes narrowed. Then she lounged back against the fountain, a lazy smile on her lips. She looked like a serpent that had just swallowed a juicy, squirming morsel.

  "Karrell's pregnant?" she hissed. She gave him a

  withering look. "By you-a human?"

  "You can hardly talk, given what you like to sleep with," Arvin shot back at her, "and Karrell's pregnancy is none of your business."

  "Oh but it is," Zelia said, rising smoothly to her feet. "It makes you so much mere… motivated."

  "To do what?" Arvin asked, his voice tense.

  "To rescue her." She let the silence stretch out between them for several heartbeats, then added, "Wouldn't you like to know how? Or would you rather let your children be born in the Abyss? I don't think they'd last long. Karrell couldn't possibly protect them. They'd be no more than a soft, squishy mouthful for any passing-"

  "Get on with it," Arvin snapped. "How do I rescue her?" His hands balled into tight fists.

  "By using the Circled Serpent. It can open a door to Smaragd."

  "You lie," Arvin said in a low voice. "It opens a door to the Fugue Plain, to the lair of Dendar, the Night Serpent. If that door opens and Dendar is released, thousands will die."

  "That's true," Zelia said, "but the Circled Serpent opens more than one door. There is a second-the door that Sseth used nearly fourteen centuries ago, when he vanished from this plane and became a god, a door that leads directly to Smaragd… and to Karrell."

  Arvin stood rigid, stunned. "You're… making this up," he said. "It's a trick." He thought back to the little he had learned of the serpent god's lore from the dreams he'd had after Zelia seeded him. "Sseth left the realm of mortals by flying into a volcano," he told her, "one of the Peaks of Flame in Chult. Your own memories of the Cathedral of Emerald Scales told me that much."

  Zelia hissed with laughter. "You believed them?"

  she taunted. Then the mocking smile fell away from her lips. "That's the official version," she said, "the one the clergy teach the laity. The clerics themselves know that Sseth left his plane of existence through a door, not an erupting volcano. The trouble is, nobody remembers where that door is, save that it is somewhere on the Chultan Peninsula. Over the centuries, the legends became intertwined. Some-Sibyl, for example-mistakenly conclude that Sseth entered Dendar's lair and somehow slipped from the Fugue Plain into Smaragd, though this is a ridiculous notion." She paused to shake her head, as if disappointed in Sibyl. Then her eyes glittered. "Using the Circled Serpent, you can open a door
to Smaragd and rescue Karrell."

  "There's just one problem," Arvin said. "I only know where half of the Circled Serpent is-with Pakal-and I don't know where he is."

  "You'll find him," Zelia said.

  "Maybe," Arvin countered, "but then what?" "Dmetrio Extaminos still has the second half." "I don't know where he is, either."

  "I do," Zelia said. "His mind has been dulled lately by too much osssra, but he's still perfectly capable." She pointed at the scar on Arvin's forehead. "When you retrieve the first half from the dwarf, use my stone to contact me. I'll tell you where Dmetrio is-and where the door to Smaragd is. Together, you and Dmetrio can open it."

  Arvin hesitated. He knew he couldn't trust Zelia, but what if the Circled Serpent would allow him to rescue Karrell? It was the only shard of hope he'd found. He clung to it, even though it cut deeply.

  He met Zelia's eye. "You know I'll try to take Dmetrio's half of the Circled Serpent and open the door myself."

  "Yes," Zelia answered, a gleam in her eye.

  "Then why trust me?"

  "I don't," she hissed, "but if you don't do exactly as I say, I'll tell the marilith that its fate is no longer linked with Karrell's. When the demon catches her-and it will-Karrell will die… and so will your children."

  Arvin felt the blood drain from his face. He should have expected as much. Zelia always made sure she had something to threaten him with-and Karrell herself had handed Zelia just the weapon she needed.

  "I'll need Karrell's ring back," he said at last.

  Zelia tossed it to him-an offhanded gesture, as if the ring meant nothing to her. Arvin caught it and squeezed it tight in his hand. He stared at Zelia.

  "What's in it for you?"

  "The eternal gratitude of Lady Dediana Extaminos," she answered, "when it is her son-not Sibyl-who enters Smaragd, frees Sseth, and reaps the rewards of service to a god."

  Arvin let out a long, slow breath. Dmetrio also wanted to become Sseth's avatar? For a year, Arvin had struggled against one arrogant yuan-ti who wanted to become a god, and Zelia was proposing that he join forces with another-with a man who had callously used then abandoned a woman who had been pregnant with his child, a man who had the backing of Arvin's most feared enemy.