Vanity's Brood - Lisa Smedman [27]
Zelia rifled through his memories of everything Karrell had told him about the Circled Serpent, then through more recent memories of sneaking into the temple and getting close-but not quite close enough-to exact his revenge on Sibyl. She saw him meet Pakal, get past the tentacled mouth and undead snake to claim half of the Circled Serpent, confront the Naneth-seed and defeat it, and she saw them found by Sibyl then teleporting to the rooftop…
"The Circled Serpent was here?" Zelia hissed, releasing his mind at last. She glanced around, wary, then kicked Arvin. "Where did the dwarf go?"
Arvin slumped, exhausted in both mind and body. "I don't know," he answered at last. He stared, unseeing, at the fountain. He'd been violated. Used.
Zelia swore under her breath. She sputtered for several moments, hor fangs bared, then got control of herself again. She turned back to Arvin.
"You are certain the Naneth-seed is dead?"
Arvin supposed she would kill him for that, especially since she'd learned all that his memories could tell her. He tried to nod, but his fused body just rocked back and forth on the floor.
"She's dead," he answered.
Zelia gave a false-sounding chuckle. "Just as well. I was growing tired of her. Mind seeds can be so… infuriating… at times. Naneth was constantly complaining about the body I chose for her. And she was getting… defiant. They all do, given enough time-" she stared down at Arvin-"some of them even before their seed has blossomed."
Arvin met her unblinking stare with his one good eye. "What do you expect?" he said. "They're all just as self-centered and vain as you are." Blood pooled in his mouth again, and he spat. "Now shut up and kill me."
Zelia's eyes widened in mock surprise. "Kill you?" She tilted her head. "Oh, no. I never waste anything I can still use."
Swaying into a crouch, she brushed a hand against his cheek. A shiver rushed through Arvin's body and a thin sheen of ectoplasm blossomed on his skin, forcing its way into the folds of fused flesh. His arms and legs sprang apart and his eyelid fluttered open. He rose, shaking, to his feet. Blood still dripped from his lips, his ears, and his left hand. He stared down at the latter, and saw that the little finger and the one next to it were sliced open along their lengths. He picked up one of the scraps of cloth that remained from his shirt and wrapped the fingers together, debating whether or not he should attack Zelia. He glanced at his backpack. It was within reach, but the net had probably rooted itself back into the leather again.
Zelia saw his glance and bared her fangs: a warning not to try anything. She held up Karrell's ring. "You think she's dead, don't you?"
Arvin stared at the floor. "The demon drew her into the Abyss. Nobody can survive there."
"It drew her into Smaragd, you mean."
Arvin glanced up. "What are you talking about?"
"Smaragd is a layer of Abyss, the layer where Sseth dwells. That's where Karrell would have wound up."
"How do you know that?"
"Mariliths range throughout the Abyss, but this one was summoned by a servant of Sseth. It's the most likely place for the demon to have come from, and its banishment would have returned it there."
Arvin pressed his damaged lips together. The sting of cut flesh helped blot out the ache in his heart. "Even if she did get dragged into… there, she's still-"
"Dead?" Zelia gave a hiss of derisive laughter. "You humans know so little. Smaragd is dangerous but not completely inhospitable to mortals, especially if the mortal is yuan-ti. Your precious Karrell may still be alive."
Arvin felt a surge of hope. Karrell-alive? Zelia knew more about the Abyss than he did. Maybe she was right about this Smaragd layer being survivable, except