Azure bonds - Kate Novak [178]
"Oh, I'm sure. I've determined why you are flawed, and I know how to prevent it in other models. You see, when we made you, we hadn't taken into account the strength of the saurial's will. We needed a soul and a spirit for you. The soul was easy to divide, but a spirit is supposed to have limits. We assumed you would not come to life until we slayed the saurial so his spirit could transfer into you, enthralled by our will, of course. Somehow, the saurial found a way to create a spirit for you, broke off a shard, so to speak, from his own spirit. You were able to draw on his stronger spirit whenever you needed to. When I kill the two of you, I will take care that only enough spirit flows into Two through Thirteen to animate them, without making them unruly."
"I still think you're bluffing;" Alias said. "I won't obey your commands willingly."
"Oh, but you can't refuse, One. It's not just the wand that controls you. You want to jump into the portal. You were made to jump into the portal. Don't you sense how right it would feel?"
Alias gasped. The portal was what had called her into the room. Its siren call was as subtle as Yulash had been, yet much stronger, like the compunction to kill Winefiddle and Giogi. The patterns compelled her to find what lay beyond.
"You see," Phalse explained, "through this portal lies a second portal which leads to the Abyss. As you may know, my former partner, Moander, resides there in its true form. Once vou step into a plane where it exists, its sigil will return to your arm. Because you bear its mark and are known to its minions as its servant, you will pass through to its domain unharmed. Once there you will kill it. You will not be able to stop yourself. You will rid the world of a great evil. a noble purpose. Just right for you."
"How would you know what's right for me, you monster?' A raging fire ignited in her, hot enough to burn away the power that held her. "I will not be controlled! I am my own master."
The wand exploded in Phalse's hand, and the cloud of shattered blue crystals mixed with the blood spurting from his wrist. The last master screamed, opening his mouth wide like tlie kalmari. Alias felt the invisible web dissolve: she was free. She crossed the last few feet separating her from her foe, swung with Dragonbait's sword, and severed Phalse's head neatly from his body.
The head flew two feet away, toppling in a bloodless arch while the body collapsed like an empty skin. Alias circled warily. She wondered if it was only a coincidence that Phalse's smile resembled the kalmari's, but no smoking monster rose from the two halves.
Olive shivered, suddenly exhausted.
"Finally," Akabar said. "It's over."
Dragonbait shook his head.
"No," Alias said in a quiet, angry voice. "It's not. Look." She held up her arm. It still bore Phaise's sigil.
Laughter rose from the floor, Phalse's laughter, loud and strong, issued from the severed head.
"Foolish, foolish, One. You shouldn't make me angry." Phalse's face leered at her from the disembodied head, and as it spoke it began to change. The head expanded, puffing up like a balloon and rising several feet off the ground, the laughter growing deeper and more malicious. Phalse's two blue eyes merged into a single orb above his over-large mouth. Thick worms snaked from his hair, and each worm ended with a fanged mouth shaped like a lamprey's. Phalse had become a huge beholder, only with jaws instead of eyes.
This was the creature that had attacked Nameless, Alias realized, recalling the multiple bites in the bard's body. It was Phalse all along.
The body's empty skin also began to inflate, turning into the naked form of a large, sexless humanoid. The skin darkened to a shiny, reflective black. The creature had only a sharp stump where the right hand had been blown off by the exploding wand, but the left appendage sported a set of pincers.
Olive lunged at the beastly head with her daggers. A worm-appendage snaked around her slender waist, lifted her from the ground,