Sword of the Gods - Bruce R. Cordell [65]
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
AIRSPUR
THE YEAR OF THE AGELESS ONE (1479 DR)
MURMUR SWIVELED ITS HEAD AROUND THE TINY CELL.
The arms of its host were bound to a wall. A cell wall. A cell that was one of several Murmur had ordered constructed beneath the Motherhouse, using the stolen authority of the body it inhabited when its owner fell asleep.
The demonic entity considered a moment. Its servitor had apparently decided to take Murmur’s last instructions literally, and made certain its wayward host didn’t wander off. But where was the servitor to free Murmur now that it had reasserted control?
No matter; the chains and bars were only an inconvenience.
Three other fleshy mortals were bound in the cell with Murmur. Murmur stretched the lips of its flesh costume to reveal its teeth. The bruised man with a ragged beard hanging closest blanched; Murmur’s attempt at a smile had apparently gone wrong.
Then the demon dreamed its talent into the man’s mind.
The mortal’s consciousness was an amorphous swirl of emotion that sat atop his subconscious like a hat on a boulder. It was the same with all these so-called “self-aware” creatures; far more lurked beneath their minds then they knew. Murmur formed its talent into a silvery hook, plunged it into that inchoate swirl, and wrenched free a wriggling nightmare. The diaphanous protocreature streamed from the man’s eyes, nose, and screaming mouth.
The half-formed thing quickly lost its insubstantiality. Under Murmur’s psychic regard, its limbs filled out one by one, gaining color, heft, and depth. Each one was an engine of rending. The head formed last. The thing didn’t have a mouth; the man’s nightmare gave it a row of blinking scarlet crystal eyes where that orifice would normally be expected.
“Release me from these chains,” Murmur commanded the entity.
The thing bobbed its head in acknowledgment. It reached with a malformed claw and snapped the iron links holding Murmur’s host body.
Murmur next pointed at the door.
The nightmare put its shoulder down and charged. The iron barrier was jerked off its hinges.
Murmur exited the cell with its stiff-legged stride. The nightmare lay on the ground, panting and clearly damaged by its effort. Not one of Murmur’s smartest creations.
The beasts of subconscious fear were drawn to Murmur. They couldn’t help it. Calling them from fields of night terrors and giving them semireal flesh was Murmur’s craft.
“I name you Portalbreaker,” intoned Murmur to the creature.
The thing’s naturally destructive rage was suppressed in Murmur’s presence. “I swear you now to a power greater than both of us. If you do not take this pledge, I shall revert you back to nothingness. But if you swear on the name I reveal, you will serve me without question, lest an even greater punishment than dissolution find you.”
The thing blinked its many eyes. Murmur took it as assent and said, “You are hereby and forever pledged to that entity that transcends my own power as a mountain overshadows a pebble. I swear you to the Elder Elemental Eye who watches, forever, all those pledged to His name. He knows if those sworn to Him remain true.”
More blinks. Murmur touched the creature with its talent, and saw the words were having their expected effect. The thing possessed a naturally rebellious demonic nature that urged it to tear free from all compulsions. But freshly clothed, and in the presence of its midwife, it was uniquely vulnerable to suggestion. Expectation and belief were every bit as powerful as binding magic, when conditions were right.
Murmur hated that it was reduced to calling upon the power of the Elder Elemental Eye. But its prospects were diminished in this new world where it had fetched up. Murmur was hardly a shadow of what it and its siblings had originally intended.
Its very first host body in this continuum had been a true devotee of the Elder Elemental Eye. That one and his fellow cultists had long prepared to meet their lord. In the end, all they’d done was open themselves as hosts for Nualin, Murmur, Scour and all the others released from