Venom’s Taste

Tanju sighed. “I didn’t think it would. The mind seed is too powerful a manifestation. I can’t uproot it.” He gestured at Arvin’s backpack. “You can keep your rope.”

Arvin felt panic rise in his chest. “Is there nothing else you can try?”

Tanju shook his head.

“The mind seed was planted around Middark on the twenty-second of Kythorn,” Arvin said, wetting his lips. “If it blooms after seven days, that means I’ve only got four days left-until Middark of the twenty-ninth.”

“Possibly.”

Arvin caught his breath. “What do you mean?”

“It could bloom sooner than Middark,” Tanju said. “Any time on the twenty-ninth, in fact.”

“But Zelia said it would take seven days to-”

“A mind seed is not like an hourglass,” Tanju said. “It doesn’t keep precise time. The seven-day period is somewhat… arbitrary.”

Arvin swallowed nervously. “So I’ve really only got three days,” he muttered. He shook his head. “Will I… be myself until then?”

“As much as you are now,” Tanju said. “Not that this is much comfort to you, I’m sure.”

“When will I be able to start manifesting the powers that Zelia knows?”

Tanju shook his head. “You won’t. Not until it’s her mind, not yours, in your body. If it worked any other way, the victim would be able to use the psion’s talents against him.”

“Is there nothing that can be done to stop it?” Arvin moaned.

“Nothing. Unless…”

Arvin tensed. “Unless what?”

Tanju shrugged. “There is a prayer that I once saw a cleric use to cure a woman who had been driven insane by a wizard’s spell. He called it a ‘restorative blessing.’ I asked him if it was a divine form of psychic chirurgery. He had never heard the term before, but his answer confirmed that the prayer was indeed similar. He said a restorative blessing could cure all forms of insanity, confusion, and similar mental ailments-that it could dispel the effects of any spell that affected the mind, whether the source of the spell was clerical magic or wizardry. Presumably, that included psionic powers, as well. If you could find a cleric with such a spell, perhaps he could-”

“I don’t know any clerics,” Arvin said in exasperation. “At least, I don’t know any that would-” Here he paused. Nicco. Did Nicco know such a prayer? He’d known what a psion was. Perhaps he knew more about “mind magic” than he’d let on. But if Nicco did know the restorative prayer, would he agree to use it?

Thinking of Nicco put Arvin in mind of the promise he’d made to the cleric: to attempt vengeance upon Zelia. If Arvin actually succeeded-if he was somehow able to defeat Zelia-perhaps she could be forced to remove the mind seed. The only trouble was she was a powerful psion, and he, a mere novice.

But a master was sitting just across the room from him.

Zelia had taught Arvin, in a single evening, to uncoil the energy in his muladhara and reach out with it to snatch his glove from the air. Perhaps there was something that Tanju could teach him, too. Some power that would help him confront Zelia-or at the very least, to defend himself against whatever else she might throw at him.

“That ‘mind thrust’ you used on me when I first arrived,” Arvin said. “Could you teach it to me?”

“I’m surprised you don’t know it already,” Tanju said. “The five attack forms-and their defenses-are among the first things a psion learns. What lamasery did you train at?”

“I didn’t,” Arvin said. “My mother was going to send me to the one she trained at-the Shou-zin Lamasery in Kara Tur. Unfortunately, she didn’t live long enough to-”

Tanju’s eyebrows lifted. “Your mother trained at Shou-zin?”

Arvin paused. “You’ve heard of it?”

Tanju chuckled. “I spent six years there.”

Arvin’s mouth dropped open. “Did you know my mother? Her name was Sassan. She was a seer.”

Tanju shook his head. “She must have trained there after my time.” He paused. “How old were you when she died?”

“Six,” Arvin said, dropping his gaze to the floor. He didn’t want to discuss the orphanage, or what had followed.

Tanju seemed to sense that. “And those who cared for you after her death never thought to send you to a lamasery,” he said. He pressed his palms together and touched his fingertips to his forehead then lowered his hands again. “Yet you know how to manifest a charm.”

Alvin’s cheeks flushed. “It didn’t work, did it?”

Tanju shook his head.

“Did it anger you?”

“No.”

Arvin glanced up eagerly. “Will you teach me the attacks and defenses?” As he spoke, he stifled a yawn. The long walk had left him weary and exhausted; he was barely able to keep his eyes open.

“Tonight?” Tanju chuckled. “It’s late-and I’m as tired as you are. And I have an… assignment I need to attend to. Perhaps in a tenday, when I return to Hlondeth.”

Arvin hissed in frustration. “I haven’t got that much time. The mind seed-”

“Ah, yes,” Tanju said, his expression serious again, “the mind seed.”

“I’ll pay you,” Arvin said. “The trollgut rope is yours, regardless of whether I learn anything or not.”

Tanju stared at the rope. “For what you ask, it is hardly enough. The secrets of Shou-zin are living treasures and do not come cheaply.”

“I know how to make other magical ropes. If you wanted one that could-”

“Your ropes are of less interest to me than your eyes,” Tanju said. “You’re Guild, aren’t you?”

Arvin hesitated. “What if I am?”

“I may need a pair of eyes within that organization, some day,” Tanju said. “If I agree to help you, can I call upon you for a favor in the future?”

Arvin paused. If he agreed, Tanju would be yet another person to whom he’d be beholden. Then again, in four days’ time the promise might not matter, anyway. At last he nodded. “Agreed.”

Tanju smiled. “Then in honor of your mother-may the gods send peace to her soul-I’ll teach you what little I can. But not until tomorrow morning, when you’re rested and your mind is clear.”

“In the morning? But-”

Tanju folded his arms across his chest.

Grudgingly, Arvin nodded. He’d hoped to begin his walk back to the city at dawn’s light. But Naulg had survived this long. An additional morning probably wouldn’t make much difference. “All right. In the morning, then.”

Tanju turned toward the doorway.

“Where are you going?” Arvin asked.

“To join my companion,” Tanju answered. He paused, his palm against the blanket that was the shelter’s doorway. “I’m reluctant to sleep in here with you. The mind seed…” He shrugged.

Arvin hissed in frustration, but held his temper.

“Sleep well,” Tanju said. He stepped out into the night, letting the blanket fall shut behind him.

CHAPTER 14

26 Kythorn, Sunrise

In his dream, Arvin gasped as the mental blast slammed against the shield he had thrown up, shattering it. The shield exploded into a bright nova of individual motes of thought, which swiftly vanished. Immediately, before he could manifest a fresh shield, a second mental blast slammed into him. The psionic attack targeted his mind, rather than his body, but even so it sent him staggering backward. The backs of his legs struck something-the low wall around the fountain-and he flailed backward into its pond.

Leaping to his feet, he was dimly aware of water streaming from his hair and the sodden fabric of his dress