Venom's Taste - Lisa Smedman [0]
House of Serpents 01 -
Venom's Taste
Mind-slave Of The Serpent Queen
Enter the House of Serpents
Zelia lay on her side, coiled in a position no human could have emulated, her torso bent sharply backward so that her head was pillowed on one calf. She had a lean, muscled body that was soft and round in just the right places. Arvin noted that her scales gave way to a soft fuzz of red hair at her groin and that her breasts were smooth and pink, quite human in appearance. He found himself imagining what it would feel like to have Zelia’s body coiled around his-to feel the contrasting textures of rough, scaly skin and smooth breasts-then realized that Zelia had lifted her head to glance sleepily at him. Arvin, still on his knees, his head level with the ledge on which Zelia lay, dropped his gaze. He concentrated on the floor and waited for her to bid him to speak. The air seemed even hotter and drier than it had been a moment ago; Arvin found himself wetting his lips, just as the yuan-ti around him were doing.
Zelia chuckled, as if at some private joke. “You’ve been hunting sewer rats?” she asked, eyes still half-hooded with sleep. Her tongue tasted the air. “Yet you smell sweet.”
House of Serpents
Lisa Smedman
Book I
Venom’s Taste
Book II
Viper’s Kiss
March 2005
Book III
Vanity’s Brood
March 2006
Also by Lisa Smedman
R.A. Salvatore’s War of the Spider Queen, Book IV
Extinction
Sembia
Heirs of Prophecy
HOUSE OF SERPENTS
BOOK 1
LISA SMEDMAN
VENOM’S TASTE
House of Serpents, Book I
©2004 Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
All characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
Distributed in the United States by Holtzbrinck Publishing. Distributed in Canada by Fenn Ltd.
Distributed to the hobby, toy, and comic trade in the United States and Canada by regional distributors.
Distributed worldwide by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. and regional distributors.
Forgotten Realms, Wizards Of The Coast, and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc., in the U.S.A. and other countries.
All Wizards of the Coast characters, character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
Printed in the U.S.A.
The sale of this book without its cover has not been authorized by the publisher. If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that neither the author nor the publisher has received payment for this “stripped book.”
Cover art by Terese Nielsen
Map by Dennis Kauth
First Printing: March 2004
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2003111907
987654321
US ISBN: 0-7869-3166-3 UK ISBN: 0-7869-3167-1 620- 96529-001-EN
U.S., CANADA, EUROPEAN
HEADQUARTERS
ASIA, PACIFIC, & LATIN AMERICA Wizards of the Coast, Belgium
Wizards of the Coast, Inc. T Hofveld 6d
P.O. Box 707 1702 Groot-Bijgaarden
Renton, WA 98057-0707 Belgium
+1-800-324-6496 +322 467 3360
Visit our web site at www.wizards.com
PROLOGUE
23 Kythorn, Darkmorning
So this is to be my coffin, Arvin thought.
Had he been capable of it, he would have groaned in despair.
He was sprawled on his back inside a leaky rowboat, too weak to lift himself out of the cold, filthy water in which he lay. Even blinking was beyond him. With eyes too dry for tears, he stared at the bricks that drifted past a short distance above him-the arched ceiling of the sewage tunnel. Water sloshed against him as the boat nudged against a wall with a dull thud. Then the lazy current scuffed the boat away from the wall again and dragged it relentlessly onward.
It was not so much the knowledge that he was dying that filled Arvin with impotent grief-even though twenty-six was far too young for any life to end-it was the thought that his soul would begin its journey to