She handed him the staff
The chalk white man raised the staff, looked at it. He nodded in approval. Then he raised it high, holding it in both hands. He stepped right behind the radiant woman, the being who embodied magic.
The chalk white man brought the staff down, slamming it on the radiant woman's head.
He struck her so hard the staff cracked.
There was blinding light.
Aliisza screamed.
The alu came to, huddled in a ball within darkness. Her head throbbed, but she no longer felt the assault of knowledge upon her. She could hear herself panting, but otherwise, all was quiet. She was drenched in sweat.
The images of the rotunda, of the trickery, came back to Aliisza. She did not understand it all, wasn't even sure who it was she had witnessed, but she knew one thing: Tauran and Micus would feud, and Zasian would use it to his advantage.
And another god would die.
I have to warn Tauran!
She sat up and peered around. She was just inside the cave mouth. It was a small chamber, no larger than a couple of paces on a side. The light of the torches shone dimly from just beyond the entrance. She had no idea where it came from, but a terrible sense of urgency overcame her. She had to hurry, though she did not understand why.
Aliisza heaved herself to her feet and ran. She launched herself out of the small cave and into the air, pumping her wings as hard as she could.
There was so little time.
Please be there, she thought, imagining her companions waiting at the dock for her.
She didn't want to be the first one back. She wanted them to be finished already, to know what she knew, to be ready to go when she returned.
So little time!
Though she had lost track of the way back to the dock during their passage, she knew the direction intimately during the return trip. She kept seeing her companions standing on the dock, waiting for her, and that kept it clear in her head. She fixated on that, thought of nothing else.
Get to the docks. Warn Tauran.
She saw the dock lights from a great distance away. They were nothing but a set of tiny glowing pinpricks, but she knew without a doubt that they were her beacons. She increased her speed, flying for all she was worth. Aliisza gasped for breath, fighting the weariness in her wings. The lights grew slowly larger.
At last, she began to make out features. She saw the boats first, moored to the docks, then the docks themselves.
There was no sign of her three companions.
Where are they? she wondered in dismay. We have to hurry!
She landed upon the docks and rushed over to the hound archon that had greeted them. It was the same one, his gray muzzle familiar.
'My companions,' she gasped. 'I must find them, now. Can you help me bring them back here?'
The celestial creature looked at her in surprise. 'They have already gone,' he said. 'You have been missing for four days.'
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
'This is unacceptable!' Tauran shouted. 'You have done nothing but throw bureaucratic barriers in front of us since we got here. It's been three days!' He jabbed a forefinger into the archon's chest to drive home his point. 'Now let me speak to someone who can do something about this!'
The archon stood straighter and glared at the angel. He reached up and straightened his white tunic so that the emblem of a hand wreathed in blue fire on his chest showed a little bit more prominently. 'Do not touch me again,' the dog-headed creature warned. 'Or I will call for help, and you will be escorted out of here.'
The clerk's officious tone made Tauran want to punch him. I've been around Vhok for too long, the angel thought. I'm too quick to lash out. He took a deep, calming breath and tried again.
'I'm very sorry,' he said in gentler tones. 'I am weary and it has been a long, perilous journey. But I have explained my urgency to you, and you do not seem to heed it.'
'As I told you three times already,' the archon said, 'everyone is very busy. The proper people have been notified of your request, and when one of them gets a free moment, he or she will be happy to meet with you to discuss your concerns. Until then, you… must… wait!' The archon punctuated the last three words with little jabs of his finger, though he did not touch Tauran when he did so.
The angel sighed and turned away. 'This is getting us nowhere,' he muttered to Kael and Vhok. 'We're going to have to find another way. Come.'
He led the other two out of Azuth's Hall of Petitions. He stopped when they stood upon the street running in front of it and turned to look back. The edifice was immense, filling the cavern like some monolithic mountain. Tauran swept his gaze up, taking measure of the seemingly endless levels, plazas, and towers that rose by turns toward the ceiling of the great chamber. Near the top, surrounded by walls and minarets, a very large dome sat, the most splendid part of the structure.
Right there, the angel thought. That's where it happens. And if we could just get inside and warn someone, we could stop it. That would be it. Zasian's plot would be foiled.
'A lot of good it did us to leave Aliisza behind,' Vhok grumbled from behind the deva.
Tauran resisted the urge to whirl on the cambion and glare at him. He could feel it all crumbling apart. We're so close, but I can't hold this together much longer. My sanity teeters on the edge of oblivion.
Vhok had been angry about abandoning the alu since Tauran made the decision. In fact, he had refused to entertain the possibility at all when the angel suggested it. Tauran was forced to explain the direness of the situation in terms that magically coerced the half-fiend to acquiesce. Vhok had fumed for the three days since, constantly uttering disparaging remarks, often under his breath, about every move the angel made.
'No more,' Tauran said to Vhok. 'You made your objections clear the day we left, and I've heard enough. Keep your silence.'
'What? You think I'm some child you can scold and discipline?' the cambion said. 'You may compel me to assist you in stopping Zasian, but you hold no sway over what I say.'
Tauran closed his eyes and swallowed. He did not open them as he spoke. 'Perhaps,' he explained, 'but if you do not cease your complaints, it will hinder my ability to think clearly, and we might not be successful in denying the priest his scheme.'
He opened his eyes again. Vhok tried to say something, but he could not form the words. The harder he worked at it, the more his eyes bulged. Veins in his neck stood out from the exertion of trying to defy the geas upon him. When he finally stopped, he just glared at Tauran and then moved off a few steps to pace.
'That was clever,' Kael said, keeping his voice soft so that Vhok could not hear.
Tauran sighed. 'I didn't even mean for it to work that way,' he said. 'I merely wanted him to understand how maddening his comments have become. I'm losing control, Kael. Everything is slipping through my fingers.'
The knight cocked his head to one side. Tauran could see the worry in the half-drow's eyes. 'You're just weary and frustrated,' he said, trying to sound encouraging. 'You know we're close. And I'm here to help. Just tell me what we need to do.'
Tauran took another deep breath, thinking. He wanted to tell Kael that the champion's trust in him was misplaced, that he had led them all on a big, frolicking adventure to a dead end and had managed to ruin all their lives in the process. Instead, he said, 'We need to find a way to get inside the rotunda.' He pointed to the dome at the top of the Hall of Petitions. 'That's where my vision happened. That's where Zasian and Kashada will steal Azuth's staff. You saw it, too.'
