Azure bonds - Kate Novak [130]
She still wore her armor and her leather breeches, but her cloak had begun to disintegrate so badly that it could no longer be tied on. She had lost her sword somewhere in Yulash, and her shield and daggers were missing, probably stripped from her person by the tendrils while she slept- knocked unconscious by Meander's sponge mosses.
Trapped like an alchemist's mouse, she thought. Then she decided, no, more like a broken machine crated in a cushioned box for the journey back home. She remembered all that Moander had threatened would be done to her in Westgate. Her memories would be wiped out again, her spirit smothered somehow. She shuddered.
Then she snarled in defiance. But what could one do to a god? Spit in its eye before it crushed you?
The wall across from her rippled. Chunks of moss dropped away, and a huge hand, palm upward, thrust into the chamber. It was woven, like wicker, of tree limbs. In the center of the palm a ball of light glowed with a swirl of gray and white. Alias thought it was some sort of eye, and she wanted to back away and hide from it.
Then the ball spoke. Two voices blended, one the highest alto, the other the lowest bass, with no middle range between the two. The essence of Meander's voice.
Alias remembered the swirling gray and white that had covered Akabar's eyes when the god had possessed him. She wondered if this ball was the true face of Moander.
"Hungry?" asked the voice. "Eat."
The wall moss peeled in another spot, and a pair of tendrils thrust in her shield covered with half a dozen high-summer apples and a dead, uncooked yearling boar.
Taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, Alias walked over to the shield. The hole it had been pushed through was already rewoven shut. Her stomach rumbled, but she waited until the tendrils retracted through the wall before she reached for the apples. She backed away from the boar. It looked like it had been throttled to death.
She strolled back over to the palm and crunched into an apple. Without really expecting an answer, she asked the glowing ball, "How long have I been asleep?"
"A day," the ball replied, pulsing in rhythm with its words. "Going slow. Woods thicker than once were."
"That's a problem? Some god you are!" she mocked it.
"Only so much life energy. Must husband carefully Could fly or teleport, but would hurt. Find more power Myth Drannor. Move slow till then."
"You're not as fluent," Alias noted aloud, "without Akabar. Where is he?"
"Dead. See?"
A hole opened by her shield, and a pile of bones was thrust into the chamber. Alias dropped her apple. The bones sank into the floor again.
"And the others?" the swordswoman whispered.
"All dead."
"Oh, gods." Alias dropped to her knees.
"Just one. Me," Meander's light reminded her. "Have offer."
Alias hugged her arms about her shoulders.
"If you slay other masters," the voice said, "their sigils will erode and you will work for me alone."
"Then I'll have to kill you all," Alias growled defiantly.
"Without me, no purpose, no life. Besides, cannot slay me. Have tried and failed. Think, I will help."
"Go to hell."
"Abode not hell-Abyss. Prefer it here."
Alias laughed at the creature's transparent bid for power. "Why should I help you get a monopoly on my… services?"
"You are now puppet of many. Can be servant of one. Serve me, greater rewards-wealth, freedom."
Alias held her hands over her ears to block out the Abomination's voice. The tips of her fingers touched the eagle-shaped barrette in her hair. Though muck-encrusted, the silver pin unsnapped without crumbling.
"Think. More freedom yours than others enjoy. Be my high priestess. Be my-" The voice stopped, and the chamber swayed, and the walls vibrated. "Will return," the voice promised. Again the chamber swayed. "Think about offer."
The woven wood palm began to retract into the wall.
Something's attacking it, Alias realized. For a brief moment, she considered Meander's claim that without her