Tangled webs - Elaine Cunningham [72]
The aboleth-for such it was-turned its three slitlike eyes upon the immobilized merrow. These eyes were stacked one above the other, and they glowed with a strange purple light that intensified as the creature began to cast a charm. The sea ogre's face went vacant at once as it fell under the spell, but several moments passed before it took the first jerky step toward the fishlike creature. Sometimes it took a good while for the aboleth's innate magic to wrest its prey from the grasp of the illithid.
This was a game Vestress and the aboleth played often. It amused them both and gave them what they most coveted. The illithid watched as one of the aboleth's tentacles curled back and snapped, whiplike, toward the merrow. The sea ogre jolted as the incredibly potent venom coursed through its body and shuddered convulsively as the poison took effect-rapidly transforming the merrow's thick and scaly hide into a slimy, transparent membrane. The creature's innards were clearly visible, but just for a moment. Bone softened, and the merrow's form began to sag like a melted candle.
Still under the aboleth's spell, the sea ogre oozed its way over to the edge of the pool and splashed into the water. The aboleth dragged itself back to the water to feed. For all its fearsome appearance, the aboleth did not have any teeth, and its mouth was hidden on its underbelly. It could consume only victims that had been reduced to the consistency of mucus, and it could not eat except in the water. Vestress sat calmly while her playmate sucked the merrow dry. The wait was usually well rewarded. The aboleth might be ungainly, but it was one of the most potent sources of information in all ofVestress's vast network. An aboleth acquired all the knowledge possessed by any creature it ate. No aboleth willingly gave up these secrets, but Vestress was exceptionally skilled-even for an illithid-at pulling information from an unwilling mind. The aboleth enjoyed the challenge of going mind-to-mind with the powerful illithid, and occasionally it agreed to hunt and consume some intelligent seagoing creature that might yield up-posthumously-information of special interest to Vestress. In all, it was an arrangement that suited them both.
Again the aboleth dragged itself out of the pool, moving more slowly now that it had gorged itself on a nine-foot ogre. It locked stares with the illithid, and the battle for mental supremacy began.
Vestress reached out with her psionic powers, touching the impressive shields that guarded the sea creature's mental treasure trove. She pressed, nudged, battered at the wall-all to no avail.
At last the illithid turned away, admitting defeat. Sometimes she won, sometimes not. It was no coincidence, however, that she usually lost when the prize was a creature such as this merrow-and after she had extracted from its mind any information of value.
The aboleth did not seem to care about such distinctions. The victorious fish-thing slithered back into the water, leaving a trail of gray slime on the marble tile, and then disappeared into the depths beyond the pool. Oddly enough, it was this disgusting substance that had prompted Vestress to summon the aboleth in the first place. Although the slime smelled disgustingly like rancid lard, it was useful in making potions of water-breathing, and Vestress had it collected after each of the aboleth's visits. Vestress sent a mental summons into the antechamber for her newest slave. The slave was human, a strong, pale. haired female who'd fought entertainingly against the illithid's mental control. No matter-the female had succumbed as did all. Now docile and efficient, the woman knelt on the tile and began to scrape up the grayish