Vanity's Brood - Lisa Smedman [18]
Arvin frowned. "I linked Karrell's fate with the demon's-but you should have been able to tell that from listening to my thoughts."
The dwarf shook his head. "My god has not granted me that ability."
"But-"
The dwarf nodded at Karrell's ring. "You were willing to remove it. I knew you were telling the truth."
"Then you believe me when I say that I came here with the same goal as you." Arvin shifted the backpack away from his injured hip. It was still bleeding. He took off his shirt, wadded it into a ball, and pressed it against the wound. He only needed to stay alive long enough to throw his net. "Lead the way."
The dwarf nodded at the blood that soaked Arvin's shirt. "First, there is something you need." He held out broad hands, as if in question.
Arvin nodded-then winced as the dwarf pinched the wound in his leg shut with his fingers. For several heartbeats, the pain was intense, but Arvin gritted his teeth against it. When the dwarf finished whispering, Arvin looked down at his hip and saw a threadlike vine, dotted with tiny leaves, holding the two edges of the cut together. The vine had a scent that reminded Arvin of a healing potion he'd once drunk. He flexed his leg. The muscle in his hip felt whole, and the pain was gone.
"Thank you, ah…"
The dwarf bowed, then supplied his name. "Pakal. Of the K'aaxlaat, as you guessed."
"I'm Arvin, of… no particular affiliation. My motive for wanting to kill Sibyl is strictly personal: to avenge Karrell."
"Thard Harr grant that your wish is fulfilled, some day."
"Today will be just fine," Arvin said. "Just lead me to Sibyl."
Pakal pointed back the way they had come. "Sibyl went in the opposite direction. She took the right passage when the tunnel first forked."
Arvin blinked. "You're not here to kill Sibyl? But I thought-" Then he guessed why the dwarf had disguised himself and come to the temple: for the same reason Karrell had come north to Hlondeth. "You're looking for the Circled Serpent."
Pakal nodded, and Arvin wondered if Pakal knew that Sibyl only had half of it.
"You can tell where it is?" Arvin asked.
"Yes." Pakal raised his hand and extended the first two fingers in a V shape. "With these." He pointed in the direction he'd been going. "The Circled Serpent lies in that direction."
"Is that so?' Arvin mused under his breath.
He remembered what Karrell had told him-that her search for the half of the Circled Serpent that Dmetrio had retained had been thwarted by something as simple as a lead-lined box. Surely Sibyl would have used a similar protection. Pakal had extremely powerful magic-he'd demonstrated that by getting past the wards Sibyl used to protect her lair-but even so…
"Doesn't this seem a little too easy?" Arvin asked. "We're deep in Sibyl's lair, yet there's been no sign of her minions."
"Any that might have pursued were squished like worms."
"That doesn't explain the lack of guards in these corridors," Arvin said. "It's almost as if Sibyl wants the Circled Serpent to be found. The easiest way to catch a mouse, they say, is to set out bait."
The dwarf grinned. "I am one mouse the serpent's coils cannot catch."
Arvin started to protest further then realized that if he was right-if Sibyl appeared in person to spring her trap-he'd get a second chance to snare her with his net, and Pakal seemed pretty confident of his own escape. The dwarf might have been deluding himself, but it was his decision. He'd been warned.
"You've got a way out, then," Arvin said. "Good."
Pakal stared up at him. "Don't you?"
Arvin shrugged. "That doesn't matter. Killing Sibyl does. Now that Karrell's…"
Arvin's eyes stung. He blinked.
"You loved her," Pakal said.
"Very much," Arvin agreed. Then he squared his shoulders. "I'm coming with you," he told the dwarf. "I've learned a few tricks from the guild. If there are traps guarding the Circled Serpent, I may be able to disarm them."
Pakal smiled. "Did you think I would come so ill prepared?