first.
'Are the applessss in sssseasssson? Issss your essssence broken, assss is mine? Hassss the inquissssitor come? Where issss the ssssword that wassss sssstolen, the life it took, the life it killed, the life it definessss?'
'My lor-'
'For whom would you fall, child? Who would feel the blade meant for your breasssst? Who puts a ssssword in your heart? Whosssse kissss would you sssswallow and whosssse betrayal you lament?'
In her agony, Twilight opened her mouth to cry that she did not understand, but then she went pale. She knew the answer, though she'd never heard the question.
'For whom would you fall?'
Ruuk's gazes crushed her even further. It took all her furious determination-her rage at her betrayals, her hatred of those who had loved and wronged her-to resist the crushing hands that sought to annihilate her mind, the claws that shredded her soul, and the ever-tightening chain that grasped her heart.
How could it know? Did its eyeless gaze penetrate so deep? How could it know what she didn't even know?
'For whom would you fall, daughter of foxessss?'
Twilight's lip trembled and her body screamed, but she said it anyway. 'All of them!' she moaned.
The sharn paused, considering. Twilight knew that upon its whim lay her life, that of Gargan, and those of her allies. She had been a fool, trusting in chaos…
Then the agony vanished and she fell breathless to the ground. If Gargan had not darted forward to catch her, Twilight might well have split her face on the burning stones.
As the goliath cradled the limp elf, Ruuk loomed over them, its three heads gleaming hungrily. Its hands traced patterns in the air-whether meaningless or slaying spells, she knew not. Then it spoke, and Twilight could hardly believe her ears.
'Two livessss for a death, two deathssss for a life,' the sharn said. 'Sssslay him, and your companions I-I-I…' It coughed, hissing ochre magic that flowed to the ground like blood. Veins like metal ribbons stood out on its black carapace. 'I free will.'
'Who?' Twilight croaked. 'Who must I slay, my lord?'
The sharn coiled in upon itself, hissing madly, both in pain and in hatred.
'Gessstal!' Three throats screamed in unison.
Lord Divergence gazed down into the blood, scanning the overgrown city. Their scrying swept into the great hive, as far as the sharn's defenses would allow. As before, they could see only the borders of Amaunator's temple. That was far enough.
Yes, mayhap the heavy magic Ruukthalmuramaxamin kept in place would shield against farseeing. It would probably burn their eyes from their sockets or fry Gestal's mind to a blackened husk. But the way the sharn boomed-well, heavy magic did not keep sound from traveling.
Gestal heard their plan. Not that he expected anything different. For Ruukthalmuramaxamin was mad, and what lovelier madness could there be to a Sharn but predictability?
The eyes turned to a lifeless husk propped in the corner. 'Time to go,' they said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
'Gestal?' Twilight dared speak back. 'Who is…?'
Ruukthalmuramaxamin screamed in her mind and the world went fuzzy.
'Ssssilence!' the sharn shouted with enough force to drive even Gargan to his knees. The thing lunged, mouths slavering, and the elf's heart skipped.
But death did not fall upon her. Instead, a new sound assailed her ears and a heavy mist struck her skin. Ruuk drew back, issuing an involuntary assortment of sounds ranging from growls to crows to outright coughs. Fluid trickled between the jaws of one head, which slumped down for just an instant, then shot up and leaned over its back, as though to hide itself.
'Then,' Ruuk said. 'We have a foe, you and I. He dwellssss above, in cavernssss dark, there deceivessss, demon sssservessss.'
Twilight opened her mouth but wisely did not speak. Instead, she reached up at the black fluid coating her face, and realized it felt like blood-blood mixed with bile and tears, but blood nonetheless.
The sharn spoke more softly then, though its voice was no less powerful.
'Long ago,' the sharn said. 'Before the elf ssssang, before the human dreamed, my and mine came, out of the formlessss darknessss from which had arissssen moon and her dark ssssisssster. Chaossss had ever been our sssstrength…'
Ruuk hissed with one mouth, screeched with another, and whined with the third.
'Now dying,' he said. 'Killed by antihessssissss, buried by logic. Ssssoul-sssstuff becomessss bane, madnessss issss death to him-her-it. Trapped!' The last was a shout, with all three voices. 'Now demon-fiend- prince'ssss power waxessss and wanessss that of my people.'
Twilight was uncertain whether he was talking about the race or himself. That Ruuk might be dying, Twilight had not realized, but once that thought occurred, she accepted it as a possibility-an unsettling one. What could kill a sharn?
A buzzing warned her. She cleared her mind as best she could.
The sharn gave a gesture with its three heads that might have been a nod. 'Ssssink to rise, do the deed. Kill Gesssstal, your friendssss be freed.'
Though Twilight's blood raced at the suggestion, she had negotiated too often to be fooled. 'What if we refuse?' she asked, having no intention of doing so.
Gargan blinked at her in shock. As she could separate truth from falsehood as easily as an angel might, so could she lie with the best devils.
'Ruukthalmuramaxamin issss not cruel,' the sharn said. 'You and he remain here, my guesssstssss until you go.'
So those are the stakes, Twilight thought. She did not know how long a sharn could live, but fancied it would prove much longer than her own span.
'What if Gestal kills us? Will you release them, or keep them as prisoners?'
The sharn answered instantly, having already considered that. 'No use for them,' it said. 'They go free.'
'Your word?' she asked. Gargan looked at Twilight as though she had lost her mind, but she did not react.
The sharn growled, hissed, and spat at her, all at once with three heads. A spasm shook its body, and rune- shaped veins stood out on its black torso. It wrenched its heads toward her and bowed. 'My word bindssss,' it said. 'My word given.'
'All of them go free?' she asked, her heart speeding up.
'Both them.'
A weight pressed upon Twilight's chest, then, and she would have fallen had not Gargan reached out strong arms to steady her. In one three-pronged syllable, the sharn had told her that Liet might live, yet his chance was only two in three.
'Which?'
'Those whom order definessss,' said the sharn. It spat the word 'order' with another gob of the blackish blood.
Twilight's mind raced. Surely that included Davoren-he was vile, yes, but predictably vile, to a fault. And devils had created the most rigid hierarchy in the multiverse outside the planes of law and clockwork. So that was one. One other…
Was it Slip or Liet?
