Vanity's Brood - Lisa Smedman [71]
"Don't try that on me," he warned. "My psionics-"
"Are a match for my sorcery, I'm sure," Juz'la said. A flicker of forked tongue appeared between her teeth as she laughed. Then her smile was gone. "Here's what I propose. Go and get your half from wherever you've hidden it. Contact me with a sending, and I'll tell you where the door to Smaragd is. I'll steal Zelia's half and meet you there." She paused, measuring him with her eyes. "Agreed?"
Arvin stared back at her, pretending to consider the offer. According to the Dmetrio-seed's memories, it had been five nights since Juzla had learned where "Dmetrio's" half of the Circled Serpent was- two full days before Arvin and Pakal had snuck into Sibyl's lair and stolen her half of the Circled Serpent. If Sibyl had known where the door was, she would have opened it during the time that both halves were in her possession, but she hadn't known where it was. That was what her dreaming minions had been searching for: the location of the door. They hoped their god would tell them.
It also explained why the Dmetrio-seed hadn't been killed already. Sibyl had probably hoped that Zelia would learn the door's location and relay it to her seed, allowing Juz'la to intercept the information.
There was the slim possibility, however, that Sibyl had learned the door's location in the two days since Arvin and Pakal had stolen hor half of the Circled Serpent, and-an even slimmer possibility-that she had told Juz'la where it was. Before he killed Juz'la, Arvin needed to rulo that out.
"Agreed," Arvin lied. "I'll go and get my half at once."
Juz'la gave a satisfied hiss and stroked the head of her viper "Excellent. I'll summon Hrishniss. She She can fly you back to wherever-"
Arvin didn't give her a chance to finish. Silver flashed from his forehead as he hurled a stream of ectoplasm at her. It struck exactly where he'd intended: the hand that was stroking the viper. Strands of shimmering ectoplasm wound themselves around both her hand and face, immobilizing and gagging her and preventing her from casting any spells. As he cinched them tight, Arvin manifested a mental shield between them. If Juz'la used her magical fear on him, the shield would deflect at least part of it.
He drew his dagger and spoke over the droning of his secondary display. "If you want to live," he threatened, "you're going to answer some quest-"
Juz'la was no longer standing in front of him. She'd transformed into an orange-and-yellow snake and fallen to the floor. The entangling ectoplasm, loosened, lay in a heap, together with her dress. Juz'la stared out from its folds and hissed something at him in Draconic. Then she flicked her tail.
The ice-white ray that shot from it streaked through Arvin's shield, striking his dagger hand. Frost blossomed on the blade and his hand went numb. He tried to release the dagger but his fingers wouldn't unbend. At least she'd used a spell that wasn't fatal. She needed him alive as much as he did her.
Arvin drew more ectoplasm from the Astral Plane and shaped it into a construct. Still half-formed, it lunged forward, seizing Juz'la by the neck and tail. Her eyes bulged as it squeezed. Her serpent body writhed furiously, but she couldn't slither free.
"Release me," Juz'la hissed.
Deep inside his mind, Arvin heard a groan as his mental shield intercepted whatever spell she had cast at him; it nearly buckled under the strain. With a thought, he directed the construct to clamp its hand over Juz'la's mouth, gagging her.
"Where is the door?" Arvin asked.
He let the shield dissipate and transferred his energy to a different power point. Silver sparkled from his forehead as he slipped inside Juz'la's thoughts. She put up a good fight-getting inside felt like battering down a stone wall with his forehead-but the instant he was in, he had his answer. She didn't know where the door was, and she was, indeed, Sibyl's minion.
Arvin heard a hiss. The construot, neglected by Arvin for those few moments, must have allowed its grip to loosen. Juz'la spat out the words of a