Venom's Taste - Lisa Smedman [77]
I’m on the road to Mount Ugruth, Tanju answered. Camped at the top of the first pass. I’ll wait until Evening for you, but no longer.
The vibrations faded as the sending ended.
Arvin smiled. Perfect. Even allowing for a brief nap-which he badly needed-he could reach the pass by Sunset. That would still give him four full days until the mind seed took over. He started to speak the command word that would cause the lapis lazuli to drop from his forehead when he realized something. Zelia had told him that the stone could be used to manifest a sending just once a day, but this was only partially true. The stone could be used several times per day-if a different person was contacted each time. If Naulg was still alive…
Arvin summoned the familiar prickle of psionic energy back to the base of his scalp. Then he concentrated on Naulg’s face: his easy grin, his dark hair, his distinctive eyebrows…
Just as the image of Tanju had done, the mental picture of Naulg suddenly solidified in Arvin’s mind. It was as if Arvin were staring at the rogue from a point somewhere behind Naulg. He was sitting, arms wrapped around his drawn-up legs, his head hanging down dejectedly, chin on chest.
Alive! Naulg was still alive!
Elated, Arvin tried to see more, hoping for some clue as to Naulg’s whereabouts. But it was no use. All he could see was Naulg himself.
Naulg, he thought urgently. It’s Arvin. Answer me. Tell me where you are so I can rescue you.
Abruptly, Naulg’s head lifted. He whirled around, still in a seated position, searching for the source of the voice he’d just heard. Arvin, still linked by the sending, gasped as he saw the rogue’s face. Naulg’s cheeks were as sunken as those of a corpse, and his eyes were hollow pits under a scalp that was dotted with bald patches. Horrified by the change in his friend’s appearance, Arvin nearly lost the connection. Then Naulg’s reply came whispering back at him.
I am… unclean, he answered, his eyes gleaming with madness. A shiver passed through his body, and he wrapped his arms around his legs once more. My body must… burn.
“Unclean?” Arvin echoed. He wet his lips nervously.
Naulg, as if mimicking Arvin, wet his own lips. Arvin felt his face pale as he saw Naulg’s tongue. The tip of it was forked, just like a yuan-ti’s.
The rogue was still speaking telepathically to Arvin, still linked to him by the sending. He shook his head violently, and his eyes seemed to clear for just a moment. Arvin? he asked. You escaped?
“Yes, Naulg, I escaped. Where are you?” Arvin spoke out loud, despite the fact that Naulg wouldn’t hear him. That was how a sending worked: the psion sent a brief message, and received one in return. Then it ended.
Fortunately, Naulg was still answering-though his eyes had resumed a wild, darting look. The walls… It’s hot. They’re burning. The rogue paused, and his eyes cleared a little-though they were glazed with pain. It hurts. Oh gods, my stomach feels like it’s-
Abruptly, the sending ended.
Arvin stood, shaken by what he’d just seen and heard. His friend was in the grip of a hideous transformation that seemed to be sapping both his strength and his sanity. And he was counting on Arvin to rescue him.
Arvin spoke the command word and the lapis lazuli fell from his forehead. As he tucked it back inside the false seam of his shirt pocket, he debated what to do. Tanju was well to the north of the city-it would take Arvin a full day to reach him and another to get back to the city. Could Naulg wait that long for rescue?
If Naulg had been able to say where he was, Arvin wouldn’t be asking that question. But his reply to the sending had been baffling. Burning walls? The Pox could be hiding inside a foundry, or a pottery factory… or next to a building that was being cleansed of plague.
With a sinking heart, Arvin decided that Naulg would have to come second. Tanju would only wait one day for Arvin; Arvin couldn’t let his only chance