Azure bonds - Kate Novak [123]
Akabar tilted his head, an action Alias suspected was Meander's way of sifting through the mage's mind. The gray swirls in his eyes thickened and circled more quickly.
"Of course. That's what the saurial was doing there. Omniscient gods, indeed. Your magical friend has figured it out for me. He really is so amazingly useful. The last step in your manufacture was never completed. It required the blood sacrifice of a pure soul to secure the shackles on your spirit. Those bumblers down in Westgate chose the saurial, got careless and let it escape, and it took you with it. You've been wandering around ever since, a great spell primed to explode, requiring only the last enabling component-the death of the saurial. Those incompetent idiots! I can tell mankind needs me desperately."
"Saurial?" Alias asked. She was not certain who Moander meant, but she had an uncomfortable suspicion.
"The lizard your mage friend thinks of as Dragonbait. The creature was marked, just like you were. That explains what it was doing trying to pass through the elven wall that imprisoned my body. The saurial was following your patterns. And you've been able to draw on its independence, because the two of you are linked until its death. But don't worry, we'll take care of that shortly."
Another wave of anger swept over Alias, anger now mixed with anguish. Then I'll be damned for sure. Something created by the evil sacrifice of my friend. Of my friends, she amended, realizing that not only Dragonbait's life was forfeit. Akabar was almost as good as dead. I'm not even human, she thought. I had no right to their aid and friendship, and now I've doomed them.
"Oh, Akabar," she whispered to his body, hoping some part of his mind was aware of what she said. "I'm so sorry. I should never have let you get into this mess."
But if the mage could hear her, he gave no indication. Moander's control over him was complete, and at the moment Moander wasn't even paying attention to her. The god was using Akabar's form to stare at the line of trees that they were fast approaching. Already the mound of refuse, now quite dusty and grass covered from its passage through the plains, was pitching and weaving from running over small trees and bushes near the edge of the prairie. As it engulfed and absorbed this green matter, the Abomination grew into a small hill, already as high as the trees on the fringes of the Elven Wood.
Apparently satisfied that the Abomination could control the forest, Moander used Akabar to return his attention to his prisoner. "The most amazing thing is that, despite your premature debut into society, most of your patterns still held. You attacked a man who sounded like the king of Cormyr, no doubt a goal of the Fire Knives. And then you came all the way north, just to free me." Akabar's finger stroked her cheek. "When you are returned and fully tamed, you will be my perfect servant."
Alias kicked and struggled futilely in her bindings. She knew she could not escape, but like a bird beating against the bars of a cage, instinct made her frantic. What Moander suggested was worse than slavery. The god and its followers and allies would turn her into an unthinking mechanism, with only the illusion of life and the sketchy memories of some woman. Where had they gotten the history she thought had been hers? Fairy tales? Or was there an original Alias who lived her life before, then died to become her?
Alias stared at the vine-draped form of Akabar, and oddly enough, the crudeness of the god's method of control soothed her anguish and helped her regain her composure. Moander could never have created me, she thought. Neither could the blundering Fire Knives, not even with the help of the mages who created the kalmari and the crystal elemental. They're all quite powerful, but despite all their claims, none of them could have made my mind or my spirit or my personality. She shoved back the horrible