your lady will rule Solace. You will have wealth and power. All this will come to pass. You can spread the word of the Old Gods throughout the world, you and your lady. The two of you will never die. Your bodies will become young again; you will be fertile; you will have many children. And these children will worship the Old Gods.'
Tarscenian covered both ears. 'It cannot be so,' he whispered. 'It is against nature.'
'I can make it so.'
Tarscenian pulled again at Snoop's arm. Snoop struck out, sending the older man sprawling back into the mud. The thief lunged toward the monster, but as soon as Snoop touched the creature, he began to scream. In a moment the creature had covered him with ice-blue slime.
Snoop beat frantically at his torso and legs, trying to remove the sticky stuff that gnawed at his skin. Tarscenian held the lance forward, hoping the light at the tip would be enough to dispel the ooze, but Snoop gave one final cry and collapsed, lifeless, on the tunnel floor. The creature hovered over the thief, eating ravenously.
The older man seized that moment to dash around the creature and escape up the tunnel. There had to be a way out.
The tunnel curved. Tarscenian heard the sound of water ahead at the same time the whisper of the creature behind him stroked his mind.
'I will give you eternal life. You will have countless life shy;times to worship your gods, you and this mage woman you love. Your bodies will be young, your lives easy.'
Tarscenian bounded around the curve and skidded in the slippery muck. The tunnel ended. Water streamed from two openings in the wall above Tarscenian's head. Between and above them was a trapdoor.
The slime monster came slithering around the curve behind Tarscenian.
And at that moment he remembered what would stop the creature.
'You will be wealthy. And you will be forgiven. All your sins, Tarscenian, will be swept aside at once, like dust. Those years as a Seeker fraud-forgiven. Those years of greed and pride and deception-as nothing. And you will have Ancilla at your side.'
The mound of blue ooze slithered toward him and stopped just short of the fresh water that cascaded from the wall. Tarscenian edged back into the space between the waterfall pipes.
'Think of it, Tarscenian, a life of ease. You can rest. Don't you want to rest? Aren't you exhausted, Tarscen shy;ian? I can help you.'
Tarscenian's clothes were sodden, but the water was clean. He felt the filth of the tunnel slough from his body, and with it, some of his exhaustion. The creature edged aside. Its whisper never ceased, but Tarscenian steeled his mind against it. He bolted through the waterfall and circled behind the creature.
Tarscenian stepped forward and jabbed the lighted lance at the slime creature. Smoke hissed from the ooze where the lance tip touched it, and the monster jerked backward toward the waterfall.
'Your lady will live again. Hederick will die. You will have wealth and power. You can spread the word of the Old Gods. You will never die. You will become young. You…'
Tarscenian slammed the lance into the slime creature as hard as he could. Still the hide resisted, even though smoke curled above the ooze. The light in the lance tip made the slime glow like blue flame. Tarscenian braced his feet against the tunnel wall and threw all his weight into his next thrust. The tip did not pierce the creature's hide, but the force of the blow sent the slime monster slid shy;ing back into the cascades of clear water.
In an instant, the creature's protective coating of ooze was swept away. The tough hide quivered with shock beneath the force of the pure water.
Then the monster exploded.
Chapter 20
Tarscenian felt for the footholds he'd seen fastened to the wall behind the cascades of water, and climbed. Cautiously, he extinguished the magical light on the lance tip and raised the trapdoor.
The door opened up into a dark hallway. Tarscenian climbed out and flattened himself against a wall. Too late the adventurer realized he was leaving a telltale stream of water. Why not just paint an arrow on the floor with a sign saying 'Fugitive This Way'? he thought disgustedly.
His nose twitched. The smell of food and soap came to him. This, then, must be the kitchen and laundry area. And where there was a laundry, there would be dry clothes.
Tarscenian edged along the wall. The rooms he passed had no doors, just curtains to mask their contents from the prying eyes of passers-by. He poked his head into the first room. A small lantern burned. He saw brooms, mops, wooden buckets and shelves holding a lifetime supply of chamber pots, but no clothes.
Nothing but an apron. He snatched up the apron and slipped back into the corridor to wipe up the traces of his arrival.
Just then, a burst of raucous laughter greeted him. Tarscenian froze. It wasn't until a loud female voice sounded, prompting more laughter, that Tarscenian real shy;ized he hadn't been spotted.
Footsteps came his way, though. He dived across the hall, behind another curtain.
Steamy air engulfed him. The dim light showed nothing but a row of what looked like two dozen coffin handles. Tarscenian grabbed one of the handles and yanked-perhaps a secret passage?
A drawerlike contraption rolled smoothly toward him on tiny wheels. Inside were wooden dowels that held rolls of white fabric. Hot air rose from some heat source under the floor.
'A clothes-drying room,' Tarscenian muttered, intrigued despite himself. 'Ingenious.'
'Hello, dearie!'
Tarscenian leaped around to see a smiling nymphet of a woman. Her red hair was wild, her grin suggestive, her clothes barely decent. Her feet were bare-no doubt the reason why he had not heard her approach. She laughed coarsely. 'Are you one of the new girls, dearie? My, my, Hederick has taken to hiring some ugly women!'
'What is it, Helda?' Another woman shoved aside the curtain. 'Are you talking to yourself… Oh, looky here!'
Tarscenian, for the second time in as many days, found himself speechless before a woman. He clutched his lance and waited.
'Well, man?' asked a black-haired woman. 'Are you one of Hederick's prisoners?'
'Mmmm, not yet,' Tarscenian muttered. 'Any moment now, though, I suspect.'
The women laughed as though he'd said something ter shy;ribly witty. It occurred to him that they were just this side of drunk. More of them appeared behind the first two. 'Do you work here, ladies?' Tarscenian asked.
Another chorus of giggles resounded in the humid room. 'Ladies! He called us ladies.' 'Well, ain't he a sweet one?' 'I ain't been, called a lady some twenty years or more.' 'Are you married, sweet man?'
At Tarscenian's hesitant nod, they sulked for a bit, then resumed their chatter. The redhead who'd discovered Tarscenian waved an imaginary fan and curtsied deeply to the black-haired woman. The rest of them went into gales of mirth, and soon everyone was curtsying and fan shy;ning someone else.
Perhaps the Seekers were operating a home for lunatics or dipsomaniacs, Tarscenian decided. Perhaps he had stumbled into the main dormitory. He had no idea how far he'd traveled in the discharge tunnels, after all.
He put a hand on the nearest woman's arm. 'This is Erolydon, isn't it, my dear?' he whispered. 'The temple?'
Clearly he'd scaled new levels of hilarity with that remark. The women giggled until one of them, practicing a curtsy in the crowded drying-room, slipped on the damp floor and landed with a yowl.
Then the little redhead was back by his side. 'Here, dearie,' she said. 'My name is Helda. You ain't going to get far running around the temple in those clothes.' She shooed all but one of the women into the corridor. 'He's mine. I saw him first. So back to work, ladies,' she said, causing even more hilarity. Tarscenian could see he'd pro shy;vided them with entertainment for days to come.
With the help of the black-haired woman, Helda hauled on the handle of another drying rack. This one held brown robes.
'You'll make a nice-looking priest, even if you are taller than most of them,' Helda said, rummaging through the garments. 'So what are you, an escaped prisoner? An assassin? Ah, I do hope you're an assassin. I'd stick a par
