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By Root 731 0

face. “Look!” The duke peered into the mirror for barely an instant, then whipped his head around so that he would not have to see himself. Adon sprang forward, swinging his mace again and again. Lord Gorgias gasped in pain and a bloody welt rose each time the weapon struck, though any one blow would have killed most normal men. The duke tried to strike back, flailing his arms and legs about blindly. He landed only glancing blows that bounced harmlessly off Adon's armor. Several times, Lord Gorgias tried to look at the patriarch, but he always glanced away when he saw his own image. Twice, he lashed out at the mirror itself, but the cleric was ready for this tactic and knocked the hand aside with a sharp blow of his mace. Finally, Lord Gorgias dropped to his knees. “It's me!” he cried, covering his head. “I admit it. That's me.” Adon stood over the cowering duke. “It doesn't have to be,” he said. His

voice sounded thin and reedy, winded as he was from the fight. “You can change what you see here.” The duke raised his head and stared into the mirror. “Don't you think I've tried?” he demanded, grimacing at the image. “It's impossible!” “No, it isn't.” Adon kept the shield in front of Lord Gorgias. “You have to face this, like you're doing now. Then we can get help.” “Help?” Lord Gorgias asked. He used a filthy-clawed finger to scratch at the image in the glass. “Who can help me escape that?” “Our Lady of Mysteries.” “No!” The duke lashed out and plucked the mirror away, then swung his legs around and swept the cleric's feet from beneath him. 'The gods are the ones who did this to me!“ Lord Gorgias yelled, throwing himself on Adon. ”Not Mystra,“ the cleric gasped. ”She wasn't even a goddess then.“ Lord Gorgias smashed his bony forehead into the cleric's nose. Adon heard cartilage snapping and his cheeks exploded into pain. ”Have a look at yourself!“ snickered the duke, holding the mirror over Aden's blood-smeared face. The patriarch had no choice but to do as Lord Gorgias commanded. His nose had been broken and lay spread across his face, and both eyes were already turning black. But it was what he did not see that astonished him. The ugly scar on the left side of his face was gone. Yet, when he reached up to touch it, he felt the same cord of rough skin that had been there since the Time of Troubles. It simply was not visible in the mirror. ”Mystra?" the cleric gasped. Lord Gorgias brought the mirror down. Adon barely managed to throw his arm across his eyes, then his entire face exploded into agony as the glass shattered against him. A fiery streak shot from across the street, where Corene had been watching the battle with Myron and Sarafina. A magical arrow of flame buried itself into Lord Gorgias's ribs. The shaft continued to sputter for an instant after it struck, filling the air with the acrid stench of burning flesh. The duke cried out, but didn't even glance in the direction from which the attack had come. Instead, he closed his fingers around Adon's throat and began to squeeze. A dark curtain began to descend inside Adon's mind. He thrust a hand up, sticking his fingers into the smoking hole that Corene's fire arrow had opened. Lord Gorgias tried to pull away, but Adon hung on tight, at the same time uttering an incantation. A wave of unimaginable cold ran down his arm and directly into the wound. With a sizzle, a cloud of red steam shot from the puncture, making the duke scream in agony. He threw himself off the cleric and rolled away, clutching his stomach. Adon stood and, after wiping the blood from his eyes, retrieved the largest mirror fragment he could find. It was about the size of his hand and shaped like a squat triangle. He walked toward Lord Gorgias cautiously, at the same time enchanting the shard with one of his most powerful spells. The duke struggled to

his knees and glared at the cleric. “Your hatred has consumed you,” Adon said, holding the blood-smeared shard toward the duke. “That's what made the monster you see here, not the gods.” “But they abandoned me-and my village! They did this to me! They