Arvin felt the hand fall away from his arm. He still held his dagger but was jostled by the panicked crowd and could not get a clear throw. Too many people were between him and the yuan-ti-but the crowd was quickly thinning.
The woman who had been bitten, her face pale, backed up until she was against a building then stared with wide eyes at the yuan-ti. 'No!' she moaned, her hands clasped in front of her. 'Please, no.' The yuan-ti's first bite must have failed to penetrate her thick cloak, but
his second one wouldn't. The yuan-ti's head wove back and forth, his eyes fixed on her bare hands. If Arvin didn't act swiftly, an innocent woman would die.
Just as the crowd thinned and Arvin raised his dagger, a deep male voice shouted from somewhere to the right. 'Hold!' it cried.
Arvin caused the dagger to vanish back into his enchanted glove and turned, but the command wasn't for him. The two armored men who had appeared in the plaza from out of nowhere had their eyes firmly locked on the yuan-ti. Both wore breastplates of brightly polished steel, each emblazoned with the blue eye that marked them as clerics of Helm. Their helmets were without visors, leaving their faces bare. Crimson cloaks hung from their shoulders. Their gauntleted fists were empty; amazingly, neither seemed to be armed.
'You,' one of the clerics ordered, pointing at the yuan-ti. 'Step away from that woman.'
The yuan-ti turned slowly. His lips twitched into a false smile, the effect of which was spoiled by the forked tongue that flickered in and out of his mouth. 'I was robbed,' he said. He pointed at the young rogue. 'By that human.'
The second cleric strode over to where the young rogue knelt and took hold of the boy's cloak, dragging him to his feet. 'Did you steal from this…' The cleric hesitated, then glanced at the yuan-ti as if uncertain what to call him. 'From this gentleman?' he concluded.
The rogue shook his head, but the cleric raised his left hand, turning the eye on the palm of his gauntlet toward the boy. The boy nodded. 'Yes,' he said in a broken voice. 'I stole from him. But I gave back what I took. And he blinded me.'
The crowd, recovered from its earlier panic, drifted back into the plaza. The yuan-ti drew himself up, imperiously wrapping his cloak around himself. 'Take the human away,' he ordered, pointing at the rogue. 'Throw him in the pit.' He began to slither back to the ship.
'Not so fast,' the first cleric said, stepping between the yuan-ti and the stairs. He turned to the woman the yuan-ti had been menacing. 'Did he harm you, miss?'
Before the young woman could speak, the yuan-ti gave an irritated hiss. 'Step aside,' he told the cleric. 'Step aside, human, or it will go badly for you. I am an important person. I will not be trifled with. Step… aside.'
Arvin felt the hairs on his arms raise, as if he'd just shivered. Once again, the yuan-ti was using his innate magic-this time, in an attempt to bend the cleric to his will. In another moment the cleric would either step obediently aside-or would feel the sharp sting of the yuan-ti's bite.
Ignoring the yuan-ti's order, the cleric raised his gauntlet and turned its eye toward the woman. He stood, waiting for her answer.
'He bit me,' she replied. 'By Helm's grace, my cloak stopped his fangs. If it hadn't, I'd be…' She shuddered, unable to say the word.
The spectators crowded forward, calling out to the two clerics.
'I saw the whole thing…'
'The boy did give the jewelry case back…' 'The yuan-ti spat in his eyes…'
'It was a silver case. It's in the serpent man's pocket…'
The yuan-ti's eyes darted right then left. Slowly he raised his hand. Acid trickled down his palm; he was about to use the same trick he'd used to blind the rogue. Arvin opened his mouth to call out a warningNo need. The cleric neatly sidestepped the flick of acid. A weapon appeared in his fist-a translucent mace that glowed with an intense white light. He used it to knock the yuan-ti's hand aside. The blow was no more than a light tap, but as soon as the mace touched the yuan-ti, his body became rigid. He stood, paralyzed, his eyes wide, the tips of his forked tongue protruding from his mouth, so still and silent that Arvin wondered if he was still breathing.
The cleric's glowing mace disappeared.
'That'll teach him,' the man beside Arvin said-the fellow who had grabbed his arm earlier.
'What will they do with him?' Arvin asked him. 'Throw him in prison.'
Arvin's eyebrows rose. 'But he's a yuan-ti.'
The other man shrugged. 'So?'
'But…' At last it sank in. In Sespech, the yuan-ti were afforded no special status. Arvin had heard this-but witnessing it firsthand made his mind reel. It was as if sky and earth had switched places, leaving him dizzy. With the realization came a rush of satisfaction that bent his lips into a smile.
'Intention to kill,' the stout man continued. 'That's what they'll charge the yuan-ti with. If he pleads guilty and shows repentance, the Eyes of Helm may allow him to make atonement. If not, he'll be branded with a mark of justice. If he tries to bite or blind anyone again, he'll suffer a curse-as foul a curse as Helm can bestow.'
Arvin whistled softly, glad the clerics hadn't seen his raised dagger. He watched as the second cleric placed a gauntleted hand on the rogue's head and chanted a prayer.
'And the boy?' Arvin asked.
The cleric's prayer ended. The rogue blinked, looked around with eyes that had been fully restored, and fell to his knees, weeping. His right hand raised above his head, he broke into fervent prayer.
Once again, the man beside him shrugged. 'He'll probably be released, since he seems to have genuinely repented.'
Arvin shook his head, incredulous. 'But he's-' Then
he thought better of what he'd been about to say. The young rogue could no more cast off his guild-and its obligations-than he could shed his own skin. But if Arvin said this aloud, the fellow next to him might think back to Arvin's earlier actions and draw some conclusions that could bode ill for Arvin. It was bad enough that Arvin had drawn his dagger. He should have been more careful and stuck to his psionics. '-a thief,' he concluded.
'Yes,' the man said. As he spoke, he scratched his left elbow with the first two fingers of his right hand- probably the local sign for guild.
Arvin pretended not to see the gesture. The last thing he needed was to get enmeshed in the web of the local rogues' guild. He clenched his left hand, and the ache of his abbreviated little finger-the one the Hlondeth Guild had cut the tip from-enforced his resolve. This time, he'd stay clean. The whole point in coming to Sespech was to make a fresh start.
'And the gauntlet?' Arvin asked. 'Can anyone use it?'
'Anyone. Even thieves. It shields the petitionary from blows, weapons-even spells that cause harm. But not,' the man added with a twinkle in his eye, 'against justice. Use it carefully, if you've committed a crime.'
'Sound advice,' Arvin replied. 'But I don't intend to commit any.'
He watched as one of the clerics laid a hand on the paralyzed yuan-ti and spoke a prayer. An instant later they both vanished; snowflakes swirled in agitation in the spot their bodies had just occupied. The second cleric touched the young rogue gently on the shoulder then- waved him away, dismissing him. Then he, too, teleported away.
The snow continued to fall, dusting the ground with a thin layer of white. The crowd began to disperse. The man beside Arvin shivered. 'Need a place to stay, friend?' he asked. 'That's my inn over there: Lurgin's Lodgings.'
Arvin shook his head. 'Thanks, but no. I'm just passing through Mimph. I hope to catch a boat for Ormpetarr this afternoon.'
The man placed a cupped hand over his heart. 'As you wish.'
Arvin turned and walked away, still awed by the treatment the yuan-ti had received.
He was going to like it in Sespech.
CHAPTER 2
