Vanity's Brood - Lisa Smedman [86]
He took a deep breath and pushed the melancholy thought firmly aside. He reminded himself that it could have been worse. It could have been Sibyl who had claimed the Circled Serpent. At least Arvin knew how the Dmetrio-seed's mind worked. There was a chance that the seed would dutifully carry the Circled Serpent back to Zelia in Hlondeth-but only a slim chance. More than likely, the seed had decided to betray Zelia-all Arvin needed to do was find the door. If Arvin could find a way to locate the Dmetrio-seed before the seed learned where the door was, then perhaps…
The whuff-whuff-whuffof wings startled him out of his reverie. A shadow-large and serpent-shapedpassed across the mouth of the cave. A flying serpent, landing at the base of the bluff. Was it Ts'ikil returning? Or Sibyl?
Arvin scrambled across the cavern toward his pack. Plunging a hand inside, he seized the musk creeper net. He used his dagger to slash the rootlets that had grown into the pack, at the same time manifesting the power that would render him invisible. Then, cautious, he crept to the mouth of the cave.
CHAPTER 10
The marilith lowered its face to Karrell's and glared into her eyes.
"Naughty mortal," it scolded. "Don't you dare run away again."
Karrell, her legs held by a twist of the demon's tail, met the marilith's eye with a defiant look.
"Or what?" she countered. "You'll kill me? Go ahead."
The demon hissed. Its tail tightened. As it did, Karrell whispered Ubtao's name under her breath and brushed a hand against the marilith's mottled green scales. The wound-ing spell took effect, sending a jolt of pain through through the marilith's body. The demon gasped and its coils loosened again.
Karrell felt the ground beneath her feet grow soggy. The foul smell of rot drifted up from the ground-the jungle reacting to her spell. She distracted the demon by speaking again.
"By killing me, you'll only kill yourself," she reminded it.
The demon's eyes narrowed.
"Let go of me," Karrell demanded. She nodded down at her belly. "You know I can't run."
The demon tilted its head, considering. One of its six hands toyed with a strand of sulfur-yellow hair. A half- dozen dretches surrounded it. One of them scratched at its belly, setting the blubber there to jiggling.
"Mistress," it croaked. "Should we kill it?" Drool dribbled from its mouth as it gave a fang-toothed smile.
"Silence, idiot!"
A sword appeared in the marilith's hand. Without even looking at the dretch, it slashed backward, neatly slicing through its neck. The head landed in a tangle of ferns, surprised eyes staring blankly up at the sky as the body crumpled, its neck fountaining red. The other dretches sniffed the splatters, then dropped to all fours and began lapping up the flowing blood with their tongues.
The marilith ignored them. It gestured with the point of its sword at Karrel l's distended belly. "Soon your young will emerge," it observed.
Karrell eyed the sword point and readied another prayer. If the sword pricked her, she'd need to inflict yet another jab of pain to convince the demon that the fate link still held.
"I'll need a healer to tend me," she told the marilith, "someone who can take away the pain and staunch my blood if too much of it flows, someone who can keep me alive if the birth doesn't go well." She gestured at the circle of slashed and trampled vegetation where the marilith's swords had whirled. "Open another gate; send me home. The odds of survival-for both of us-will be much greater then."
"No."
"If I die-"
"Then your soul will wind up on the Fuguo Plain, even without a gate," the demon said, "where, instead of being claimed by Ubtao and taken to the Outlands, it will be consumed by Dendar." The marilith smiled, revealing yellowed teeth. "As I'm sure you noticed, the Night Serpent has developed a taste for the faithful."
Karrell blanched at that but managed to keep her voice steady. "All the more reason to keep me alive," she argued, "since your soul will also