Lady of Poison_ The Priests - Bruce R. Cordell [119]
Araluen smote at the snaking neck but missed. The Rotting Man was upon her, biting and raking with his claws. Araluen dropped her sword, and her hands found the Talontyr's neck. The crystal horn on her forehead began to blaze with light, a light similar to that which accompanied her transformation from Daughter to Aspect. The dark wells of the Rotting Man's eyes drank all the light, but there was yet more to give. The light flared; the darkness expanded. The ground shook.
The shining horn pierced the Rotting Man's side, and all was tumult.
When the ground finally ceased its shuddering, the celestial lights faded, the hellish dark cleared, and the thundering detonations echoed their last, the Aspect proved the mightier that day.
Marrec had watched the entire battle, when it wasn't obscured by releases of energy too extreme even for one accustomed to powers of divine magnitude.
With Marrec stood his friends Ususi and Gunggari.
Elowen, barely living, yet drew breath and would only grow the stronger with the cleric's healing attention.
Of the Rotting Man, only the memory of his final words remained, as he fled the field of battle, "I yield only for this moment."
***
Araluen was much diminished from her struggle. She stood apart from the others, gazing about the Close, which was visible following the dispersing mist.
The Aspect said, "The Rotting Man is gone from this place, but he is not beaten. Talona's Chosen was chastised, but his power was not broken."
"Ash… I mean, Araluen," said Marrec, "I don't understand. You defeated the Talontyr, we saw you."
The Aspect, having taken the form of a tall, lithe woman smiled sadly. "The effort it cost me to free my greater self from the cystborn curse was not insignificant. Retrieving myself from the Rotting Man's influence was an awful trial, though one which I could not have begun without your timely assistance, kind Marrec:"
The cleric's face reddened.
Araluen continued, "But I succeeded, finally. What power remained to me was called immediately to the fore when I faced the Rotting Man. As you saw, he carries much of Talona's power within him. I had to exhaust my stores just to chase him away. Had he known how much power I expended, he might have stayed to finish me, risking his own final annihilation."
"His strength is unchanged?" Marrec glanced around, studying the edges of the Close, making sure some new incursion was not even then creeping up unobserved.
"The Rotting Man, too, used much of his personal power just to control the form in which he put me. When I burst that control, that which he expended was wasted. While his act was pure evil, this project absorbed much of his time and energy these last years that otherwise might have been put to more direct use, to the dismay of the Green Powers. Even though I was trapped and separated from myself, my entry into the world did, in truth, slow the Rotting Man and weaken him. Now all his best plans are in ruin. His most powerful minions, the blightlords, are slain; he'll have to recruit anew. His massed forces are scattered or killed; his strength is only a tenth of what he promised his mistress Talona, and she punishes failure."
All remained quiet for a moment to absorb the impact of the Aspect's words, as well as wonder what form Talona's punishment might take.
Elowen said, her voice still weak from her ordeal, "Thank you, Araluen. If the Nentyarch were here, he would thank you, but you must accept my thanks in his place."
Araluen bowed her head graciously.
Gunggari was silent, his face betraying no reaction.