"What "better one"?" the false Voice sneered disdainfully."Why do you think I haven"t been able to?" Kaeritha asked calmly, and both swords hissed from their sheaths as she catapulted towards the other woman.
The sudden eruption of movement took the false Voice completely by surprise. She"d never even suspected that Kaeritha had simply chosen not to move or speak when she became aware of the power crushing down upon her. Whoever-or whatever-the "Voice" might be, she had never before tried to control a champion of Tomanak. If she had, she would have realized that no coercion, no spell of control or compulsion, even backed by the power of another G.o.d"s avatar, could hold the will or mind of one who had sworn herself to the War G.o.d"s service and touched His soul as He had touched hers. And because the false Voice hadn"t realized that, she was still staring at Kaeritha-gawking in disbelief-as two matched short swords wrapped in coronas of brilliant blue fire drove through her heart and lungs.
A scream of agony cored with fury ripped through the audience chamber as the creature masquerading as a Voice of Lillinara fell back in a scalding gush of blood. Kaeritha twisted her wrists before the swords slid free, and even as she did, she went forward on the ball of her left foot while her right foot flashed up behind her. The heel of her heavy riding boot smashed into the person she"d sensed charging up behind her. It wasn"t the clean, central strike she"d hoped for, but it was enough to deflect the attack and send the attacker crashing to the floor with a whooping cry of anguish.
Kaeritha let the force of her kick pivot her on her left foot so that she faced Major Paratha and the Voice"s other servitors. The crackling blue aura of a champion of a G.o.d of Light roared up like a volcano of light, blasting through the audience chamber like a silent hurricane. It clung to her, flickering
between her and the rest of the world like a thin canopy of lightning. But she could see through it clearly, and her eyes found Paratha with unerring speed. The major"s saber was still coming out of its scabbard, and at least half of the others seemed stunned into momentary paralysis. But that paralysis wouldn"t hold them for long, and Kaeritha knew it.
Every champion of Tomanak had his or her own preferred combat style. Kaeritha"s was totally unlike Bahzell"s, except for one thing; neither of them was ever prepared to stand on the defensive if they had any choice. And since there was no one to watch her back or coordinate with, Kaeritha Seldansdaughter decided to make a virtue of the fact that there was only one of her.
She charged.
There was no doubt in her mind that Paratha was the most dangerous of her remaining opponents.
Unfortunately, Paratha seemed disinclined to face her in personal combat. The major dodged swiftly,
darting behind one of the corrupted priestesses, who shook herself and then charged to meet Kaeritha with no weapon besides a dagger and the naked fury blazing in her eyes.
Kaeritha"s right blade came down with lightning speed and all the elegance of a cleaver. It lopped off her
opponent"s right hand like a pruning hook removing a limb. The woman shrieked as blood spouted from the stump of her wrist, and then Kaeritha"s left blade went through the front of her throat from right to left in a backhanded fan of blood. Some of the blood splashed across Kaeritha"s face, painting it like a barbarian Wakuo raider"s.
"Tomanak! Tomanak!"Kaeritha"s war cry echoed in the chamber as another dagger grated on her breastplate, and a short, vicious thrust put one of her swords through her attacker"s belly. The mortally wounded priestess fell back, writhing and screaming, and Kaeritha"s champion"s healing sense cringed as she realized all of the daggers coming at her were coated in deadly poison.
She slashed a third priestess to the floor with her right hand even as her left sword darted out to engage
and parry yet another dagger. She twisted between two opponents, killing one and wounding the other as she pa.s.sed, and then she was behind them all and spun on her toes like a dancer to charge once more.
"Tomanak!"Her foes seemed less eager to engage her this time, and she smiled like a direcat, teeth white through the blood on her face, as she slammed into them once more. Two more priestesses went down, then another, and finally Kaeritha heard alarm bells ringing throughout the temple complex.
Her jaw tightened. She had no doubt at all that the Voice and Paratha had drawn upon their patron"s power to make certain Quaysar"s guard force was loyal to them, whether or not those guards knew what they truly served. And even if there"d been no tampering at all, any guardsman who entered this audience chamber and saw the Voice and half a dozen or more of her priestesses dead on the floor was unlikely to a.s.sume that the person who"d killed them was the intended victim of an ambush by the Dark. She had no more than seconds before a veritable flood of guardsmen and war maids came pouring in upon her, and her swords flashed like lethal scythes as she slashed her way through the dagger-armed priestesses towards Major Paratha.
The bodies between them flew aside, screaming or already dead, and Paratha was no longer falling back.
The major still declined to rush forward, watching with no more apparent emotion than a serpent as her allies fell like so much dead meat before Kaeritha"s blades. But she made no effort to flee, either, and as Kaeritha looked at her, she Saw something she had never Seen before.
A cable of vile yellow-green energy linked Paratha to the corpse of the false Voice, and even as Kaeritha watched, something flowed along that cable. Something coming from the dead Voice to the living Paratha. And there were other cables, reaching out to the fallen priestesses, as well. The web of sickening luminescence centered on Paratha, sucking greedily at whatever flowed along it. Kaeritha didn"t know what it was, but the corona which had clung to Paratha from the outset suddenly blazed up, fierce and bright as a forest fire to Kaeritha"s Vision. And as it did, Kaeritha knew at last which of the Dark G.o.ds she faced, for a huge, hideous spider wrapped in flame arose behind Paratha.
The spider of Shigu, the Queen of h.e.l.l and Mother of Madness. Wife of Phrobus and mother of all his dark children. Far more powerful than her son Sharna, with a foul and twisted malice none of her offspring could equal, and Lillinara"s most bitter enemy for the way in which her parody of womanhood perverted and fouled all that Lillinara stood for.
The flame-wrapped creature towered up, compound eyes ablaze with hatred and madness. Its mandibles clashed, dripping with venom that flamed and hissed, bubbling on the polished stone floor as it burned its way into it. Claws sc.r.a.ped and grated, and the vilest stench Kaeritha had ever imagined filled the audience chamber. The hideous apparition loomed over her, reaching for her with more than mere claws and pincers, and a black tide of terror lapped out before it.
Even as Kaeritha recognized the spider, Paratha seemed to grow taller. The false Voice hadn"t been Shigu"s true tool, Kaeritha realized; Paratha had. The Voice might even have believed that she was Shigu"s chosen, but in truth, it had always been Paratha, and now the major no longer hid behind the camouflage of the Voice. She was drinking in the life energy-probably even the very souls-of her fallen followers, and something more was coming with it. Potent as all that energy might be, it was only a focus, a burning gla.s.s which reached out for something even stronger and more vile and focused it all upon the major.
Paratha"s face was transfigured, and her entire body seemed to quiver and vibrate as Shigu poured energy into her chosen. Kaeritha remembered Bahzell"s description of the night he had faced an avatar of Sharna, and she knew this was worse. Harnak of Navahk had carried a cursed blade which had served as Sharna"s key to the universe of mortals. Paratha carried no key; she was the key, and Kaeritha"s mind cringed away from the insane risk Shigu had chosen to run.
No wonder she"d been able to penetrate Lillinara"s church, kill Lillinara"s priestesses and Voices and replace them with her own tools! For all the endless ages since Phrobus" fall into evil, no G.o.d of Dark or Light had dared to contend openly with one of his or her divine enemies on the mortal plane. They were simply too powerful. If they clashed directly, they might all too easily destroy the very universe for whose dominion they contended. And so there were limits, checks set upon their power and how they might intervene in the world of mortals. It was why there were champions of Light and their Dark equivalents.
Yet Shigu had intervened directly. She had moved beyond the agreed upon limits and stepped fully into the world of mortals. Paratha was no champion. She was Shigu"s focus, her anchor in this universe. She wasn"t touched by the power of Shigu-in that moment, she was the power of Shigu, and Kaeritha felt a terrifying surge of answering power pouring into her from Tomanak.
"So, little champion," Paratha hissed. "You would contend with Me, would you?" She laughed, and the web of her power reached out to her living minions, as well as the dead. Kaeritha heard their shrieks of agony-agony mingled with a horrible, defiled ecstasy-as Shigu"s avatar seized them. They didn"t die, not right away, but that was no mercy. Instead, they became secondary nodes of the web centered upon Paratha. They blazed like human torches to Kaeritha"s Sight as the same power crashed through them, and the will which animated Paratha-a will Kaeritha realized was no longer mortal, if it ever had been-fastened upon them like pincers. All nine of the remaining priestesses moved as one, closing in to form a deadly circle about Kaeritha with Paratha.
"So tasty your soul will be," Paratha crooned. "I"ll treasure it like fine brandy."
"I think not," Kaeritha told her, and Paratha"s eyes flickered as she heard another timbre in Kaeritha"s soprano. A deeper timbre, like the ba.s.so rumble of cavalry gathering speed for a charge. The blue corona flickering around Kaeritha blazed higher and hotter, towering over her as the luminously translucent form of Tomanak Orfro, G.o.d of War and Justice, Captain General of the G.o.ds of Light, took form to confront the spider of Shigu. The priestesses caught up in Shigu"s web froze as if stilled by some
wizard"s spell, but although Paratha drew back ever so slightly, her hesitation was only brief and her mouth twisted like the snarl of some rabid beast."Not this time, Scale Balancer," she-or someone else, using her voice-hissed venomously. "This one is mine!"Her body seemed to tense, and, on the last word, a deadly blast of power ripped from her. It screamed across the audience chamber like a battering ram of yellow-green hunger, and the entire temple seemed to quiver on its foundations as it slammed into Kaeritha. Or, rather, into the blue nimbus blazing about her. The nimbus which deflected its deadly strength in a score of shattered streamers of vicious lightning that cracked and flared like whips of flame. Small explosions laced the chamber"s walls, shattered fountains, and incinerated two of the living priestesses where they stood, and Kaeritha felt the staggering violence of the impact in her very bones. But that was all she felt, and she smiled thinly at her foe.
"Yours, am I?" she asked, and a strange sense of duality swept through her on the tide of Tomanak"s
presence. "I think not," she repeated, and Paratha"s face twisted in mingled fury and disbelief as
Tomanak"s power shed the fury of her attack.
Kaeritha"s smile was hard and cold, and she felt the call to battle throbbing in her veins. She was herself, as she had always been, and the will and courage which kept her on her feet in the face of Shigu"s hideous manifestation were her own. But behind her will, supporting it and bolstering her courage like a tried and trusted battlefield commander, was Tomanak Himself. His presence filled her as Shigu"s filled Paratha, but without submerging her. Without requiring her subservience, or making her no more than his tool. She was who she had always been-Kaeritha Seldansdaughter, Champion of Tomanak-and she laughed through the choking stench of Shigu"s perversion.
Paratha"s entire face knotted with livid rage at the sound of that bright, almost joyous laugh, and the
spider snarled behind her. But Kaeritha only laughed again.
"Your reach exceeds your grasp, Paratha. Or should I say Shigu?" She shook her head. "If you think you want me, come and take me!"
"You may threaten and murder my tools," that voice hissed again, "but you"ll find Me a different matter, little champion. No mortal can stand against My power!""But she does not stand alone," a voice deeper than a mountain rumbled from the air all about Kaeritha, and Paratha"s face lost all expression as she and the power using her flesh heard it.
"If we two contend openly, power-to-power, this world will be destroyed, and you with it!" Paratha"s mouth snarled the words, but the entire audience chamber shook with the grim, rumbling laugh which
answered.
"This world might perish," Tomanak agreed after a moment, "but you know as well as I which of us
would be destroyed with it, Shigu." Paratha"s lips drew back, baring her teeth like a wolf"s, but Tomanak spoke again before she could. "Yet it will not come to that. I will not permit it to."
"And how will you stop it, fool?!" Paratha"s voice demanded with a sneer. "This is My place now, and
My power fills it!"
"But you will bring no more power to it," Tomanak said flatly. "What you have already poured into your tools you may use; all else is blocked against you. If you doubt me, see for yourself."
Paratha"s eyes glared madly, but Kaeritha"s heart leapt as she realized it was true. She had never faced
such a terrifying concentration of evil, yet that concentration was no longer growing.
"If I am blocked, then so also are you," Paratha grated. "You can lend no more power to your tool, either!""My Swords are not my tools," Tomanak replied softly. "They are my champions-my battle companions. And my champion is equal to anything such as you might bring against her.""Is she indeed?" Paratha laughed wildly. "I think not."Her saber seemed to writhe and twist. The blade grew longer, broader, and burned with the same sick, green radiance as the giant spider and its web."Come to me, Champion," she crooned. "Come and die!"She leapt forward with the words, and even as she did, the remaining priestesses charged with her. They came at Kaeritha from all sides, a wave of deadly blades, all animated and wielded by the same malign
presence.
Unlike the priestesses, Kaeritha was armored. But there was only one of her, and she dared not let them swarm over her with those envenomed daggers. Nor did she care to face whatever unnatural power had been poured into Paratha"s blade while the priestesses came at her back. And so she spun to her left, away from Paratha, and her twin blades struck like serpents trailing tails of blue fire as she ripped open the belly and throat of the nearest priestess. She vaulted the body, lashing out with her right-hand sword, and another priestess staggered away as the backhand stroke slashed the tendons behind her knee.
Paratha-or Shigu, if there was any difference-shrieked in wordless, enraged fury. Her remaining tools pursued Kaeritha, charging after her madly, and Kaeritha laughed coldly, deliberately goading Paratha with the sound.
She supposed some idiots who"d paid too much attention to bad bard"s tales might have thought it cowardly, or unchivalrous, to concentrate on her unarmored, dagger-armed foes rather than go directly for the opponent who was also armored and armed. But although Kaeritha might be a knight, she"d been born a peasant, with all a peasant"s pragmatism, and Tomanak"s Order believed in honor and justice, not stupidity. She turned again, once she was clear of the closing perimeter, and two more of Paratha"s priestesses caught up with her . . . and died.
Paratha"s shriek was even wilder than before, but the two surviving priestesses fell back. The sole unwounded one bent over and seized the crippled one"s arm and dragged her to one side, and Kaeritha turned once again-slowly, calmly, with a direcat"s predatory grace-to face Paratha and the flaming spider form of Shigu.
The glaring light web still connected Paratha"s body to those of the false Voice and all of the others
except Kaeritha herself, living or dead, in the audience chamber. But there was a difference now. The strands connected to the dead women glared with a brighter, fiercer radiance that flared high, then faded and died. And as they died, the nimbus about Paratha blazed more brilliantly still. The bodies themselves changed, as well. They went in an instant from freshly slain corpses to dried and withered husks. Like flies in a true spider"s web, Kaeritha thought, sucked dry of all life and vitality.
Tomanak had blocked Shigu from pouring still more strength into her avatar, and so she had ripped everything from her dead servants, devouring even their immortal souls and concentrating that power in Paratha.
"Come on, "Major Paratha," " Kaeritha invited softly. "Let"s dance."
Paratha screamed wordlessly and charged.
Whatever else Paratha might have been, she was an experienced warrior. She had the advantage of
reach, and her armor was every bit as good as Kaeritha"s. But she also realized she had only one weapon
to Kaeritha"s two, and for all her shrieking fury, she was anything but berserk.
Kaeritha discovered that almost too late, when Paratha"s headlong charge suddenly trans.m.u.ted into a spinning whirl to her left. The demented shriek had very nearly deceived Kaeritha into thinking her foe truly was maddened by rage, attacking in a mindless fury. But Paratha was far from mindless, and she pivoted just beyond Kaeritha"s own reach, while her longer, glowing saber came twisting in in a corkscrew thrust at Kaeritha"s face.
Kaeritha"s right hand parried the thrust wide, and their blades met in a fountaining eruption of fire. Blue and green lightning crackled and hissed, exploding against the chamber"s walls and ceiling, blasting divots out of the marble floors like handfuls of thrown gravel. She gasped, staggered by the sheer ferocity of what should have been an oblique, sliding kiss of steel on steel. No doubt Paratha had felt the same terrible shock, but if she had, it didn"t interrupt her movement. She was gone again, fading back before Kaeritha could even begin a riposte.
Kaeritha"s entire right arm ached and throbbed, and sweat streaked her face as she turned, facing Paratha,