Vanity's Brood - Lisa Smedman [31]
"By using the Circled Serpent. It can open a door to Smaragd."
"You lie," Arvin said in a low voice. "It opens a door to the Fugue Plain, to the lair of Dendar, the Night Serpent. If that door opens and Dendar is released, thousands will die."
"That's true," Zelia said, "but the Circled Serpent opens more than one door. There is a second-the door that Sseth used nearly fourteen centuries ago, when he vanished from this plane and became a god, a door that leads directly to Smaragd… and to Karrell."
Arvin stood rigid, stunned. "You're… making this up," he said. "It's a trick." He thought back to the little he had learned of the serpent god's lore from the dreams he'd had after Zelia seeded him. "Sseth left the realm of mortals by flying into a volcano," he told her, "one of the Peaks of Flame in Chult. Your own memories of the Cathedral of Emerald Scales told me that much."
Zelia hissed with laughter. "You believed them?" she taunted. Then the mocking smile fell away from her lips. "That's the official version," she said, "the one the clergy teach the laity. The clerics themselves know that Sseth left his plane of existence through a door, not an erupting volcano. The trouble is, nobody remembers where that door is, save that it is somewhere on the Chultan Peninsula. Over the centuries, the legends became intertwined. Some-Sibyl, for example-mistakenly conclude that Sseth entered Dendar's lair and somehow slipped from the Fugue Plain into Smaragd, though this is a ridiculous notion." She paused to shake her head, as if disappointed in Sibyl. Then her eyes glittered. "Using the Circled Serpent, you can open a door to Smaragd and rescue Karrell."
"There's just one problem," Arvin said. "I only know where half of the Circled Serpent is-with Pakal-and I don't know where he is."
"You'll find him," Zelia said.
"Maybe," Arvin countered, "but then what?" "Dmetrio Extaminos still has the second half." "I don't know where he is, either."
"I do," Zelia said. "His mind has been dulled lately by too much osssra, but he's still perfectly capable." She pointed at the scar on Arvin's forehead. "When you retrieve the first half from the dwarf, use my stone to contact me. I'll tell you where Dmetrio is-and where the door to Smaragd is. Together, you and Dmetrio can open it."
Arvin hesitated. He knew he couldn't trust Zelia, but what if the Circled Serpent would allow him to rescue Karrell? It was the only shard of hope he'd found. He clung to it, even though it cut deeply.
He met Zelia's eye. "You know I'll try to take Dmetrio's half of the Circled Serpent and open the door myself."
"Yes," Zelia answered, a gleam in her eye.
"Then why trust me?"
"I don't," she hissed, "but if you don't do exactly as I say, I'll tell the marilith that its fate is no longer linked with Karrell's. When the demon catches her-and it will-Karrell will die… and so will your children."
Arvin felt the blood drain from his face. He should have expected as much. Zelia always made sure she had something to threaten him with-and Karrell herself had handed Zelia just the weapon she needed.
"I'll need Karrell's ring back," he said at last.
Zelia tossed it to him-an offhanded gesture, as if the ring meant nothing to her. Arvin caught it and squeezed it tight in his hand. He stared at Zelia.
"What's in it for you?"
"The eternal gratitude of Lady Dediana Extaminos," she answered, "when it is her son-not Sibyl-who enters Smaragd, frees Sseth, and reaps the rewards of service to a god."
Arvin let out a long, slow breath. Dmetrio also wanted to become Sseth's avatar? For a year, Arvin had struggled against one arrogant yuan-ti who wanted to become a god, and Zelia was proposing that he join forces with another-with a man who had callously used then abandoned a woman who had been pregnant with his child, a man who had the backing of Arvin's most feared enemy.
Arvin rubbed his temples. It was a dangerous game he was about to play. In order to rescue Karrell-and not release an evil god in the process-he would