'Lord Foesmasher,' Arvin interrupted. 'Be at ease. I assure you that, whatever I might see, I will be… discreet.'
'For Glisena's sake, Thuragar,' Marasa said. 'Let him cast the spell.'
Arvin smiled to himself. Marasa, so doubtful of his powers at first, now seemed willing to believe in them.
The baron stood in silence for several moments, conflicting emotions in his eye. At last, reluctantly, he nodded. 'Very well.' His hand fell away from Arvin's shoulder. 'Begin.'
Arvin looked around the chamber, sizing up its contents. Though the power could provide glimpses into the past of any event that happened in the immediate area-up to three dozen paces away from the manifester-it was most effective if it was concentrated on a specific item-a bed that an angry young woman might have flopped down onto after an argument with her father, for example.
Touching one of the lace-trimmed pillows, Arvin manifested the power. Psionic energy awoke within two of his power points: his throat vibrated, and a coil of energy slowly unwound within his abdomen, tickling the area around his navel. The baron and Marasa glanced uneasily at each other as a low droning filled the air-part of the secondary display. As the power manifested fully, Arvin felt the pillow dampen with ectoplasmic seepage where his fingertips touched it.
The vision came almost at once. Suddenly the bed was occupied by two people thrashing against one another-a man and a woman making love. The figures were transparent, almost ghostly, and seemed to be writhing on the neatly folded-down sheets without ever mussing them.
The woman was young and somewhat plain in appearance; her face was a little too square to ever be pretty, though her naked body was sensuously curved. Her head was thrown back in rapture, her long loose hair splayed against the pillow Arvin was touching. Arvin felt a blush warm his face as he realized he was looking at the baron's daughter, soon to peak in her passion.
The man on top of Glisena had his back to Arvin. His lower torso was hidden by the bedding. But when he tossed back his long, dark hair, Arvin caught a glimpse of slit pupils and snake scales, and a face he recognized at once. Dmetrio ran the forked tip of his tongue along Glisena's breast, and as her mouth fell open in a low, shuddering moan, he began to laugh. The look in his eyes was harsh, triumphant. He suddenly withdrew from her, levering himself up off her body, and spoke in a sneering hiss. 'If you want more,' he taunted, 'you'll have to beg for it.'
'Please,' Glisena gasped, clutching at Dmetrio and trying to draw him back down to her. 'I'd do anything for you. Please.'
'That's a good start,' Dmetrio said, a look of triumph in his slit eyes. His feet were visible now, protruding out of the bedding. They were rounded and scaly and looked like snake tails; each foot ended in a single large, blunt toe. Dmetrio wrenched himself free of Glisena and sat up in a kneeling position, then twined his fingers in Glisena's hair and yanked her forward. Dmetrio, like many yuan-ti males, had a slit at the
groin, inside which his reproductive organs rested. Arvin, staring, was horrified to see emerging out of it not one, but two…
With a shudder, Arvin yanked his fingers away from the pillow. He felt sullied by what he'd seen. If he did manage to find the baron's daughter, it would be hard to look her in the eye.
'Well?' the baron asked. 'What did you see?'
Arvin hesitated. The baron had closed the gate long after the horse had bolted from the stable-or rather, into the stable, in this case. The wardings on the palace had been in vain, but how to tell the baron that diplomatically?
'Your daughter was quite… passionate about Dmetrio, wasn't she?' Arvin began.
The baron's face purpled as he realized what Arvin was implying. 'Here? In this room?'
Marasa glanced sharply at the baron.
'I saw Glisena and Dmetrio kissing,' Arvin said. 'The vision must have been more than a month old- from before the wards were set. It wasn't the one I was hoping for. I'll try again.'
Before the baron could reply, Arvin retreated into a second manifestation. As the droning of his secondary display filled the air once more, he looked around the room, this time trying to pick up general impressions. As he glanced at the baron, he once again saw a double image-a ghostly baron standing just behind the first, his face also twisted with rage. He was shouting something. Curious, Arvin extended his hand in that direction, willing the vision to come into focus.
It did, with a volume that startled him.
'You will never see him again!' the ghostly image roared.
Arvin heard the sound of weeping behind him. He turned and saw Glisena-fully clothed, this time, and sitting on a neatly made bed-wringing a lace-trimmed
handkerchief in her hands. Tears were sliding down her cheeks and a strand of her dark hair had fallen out of the pearl-studded net that held her hair in a bun at the nape of her neck. 'But we're in love,' she sobbed.
The baron snorted. 'You're in love. That… snake is as cold-hearted as any of his race. He cares nothing for you, girl. Nothing.'
Glisena shook her head fiercely. 'That's not true. You'll see. When I tell him about-'
'You'll tell him nothing.' The baron strode forward and loomed over Glisena. 'Nor will you tell anyone else what's happened. We're going to take care of this… quietly.'
Anger blazed in Glisena's eyes and flushed her cheeks. 'You only care about your stupid alliances. If Dmetrio marries me-'
'He won't.'
'Yes, he will,' Glisena shrilled. 'And when he does, your hopes of an alliance with Turmish are over. You can't force me to marry Lord Herengar's son. He's as stupid as he is ugly.'
'At least he's human,' the baron spat back.
'What do you think I am?' Glisena wailed. 'A child? I'm a grown woman. You can't do this to me.'
The baron's voice dropped dangerously low. 'You did this to yourself,' he growled. 'And now you'll face the consequences.' Turning on his heel, he wrenched open the door, startling the guard who stood in the hallway outside. 'Make sure she doesn't leave,' he snapped at the guard then slammed the door behind himself.
The vision-and Glisena's faint sobbing-faded.
'What did you see this time?' the baron asked. His voice startled Arvin; it took a moment for Arvin to realize that he was back in the here and now. A fine sheen of ectoplasm shimmered in the baron's hair. He didn't seem to notice it.
Arvin swallowed nervously. The last thing he wanted to report was that he'd listened in on a family argument-a very private family argument.
'I didn't see much this time,' he said, 'just Glisena sitting on her bed, crying. But I think I'm getting closer to the night of her disappearance. I'll try again.'
The baron gave a brief nod. His hands, Arvin noticed, were white-knuckled. What was it he was so afraid of?
Arvin manifested his power a third time, scanning the room, and out of the corner of his eye saw a movement near the hearth. There were two ghostly women there, one standing, the other kneeling in front of her. Concentrating on these, he brought them into focus.
The standing woman was Glisena. She held her night robe slightly open, revealing her stomach. The look on her face was one of acute apprehension.
The woman who knelt in front of her touched Glisena's stomach with a forefinger and chanted in a language Arvin couldn't understand. Her finger moved back and forth across the bare flesh as if sketching, but left no visible marks. She was casting a spell of some description, but Arvin had no idea what its purpose might be.
This second woman had her back to Arvin; all he could tell was that she was large and was wearing a dark green cloak. He moved across the room-closer to the hearth, which began to sweat a sheen of ectoplasm- and got a view of her face.
The spellcaster had heavy jowls, a double chin, and brown hair with a streak of gray at one temple. Her small eyes were screwed shut as she concentrated on her magic. Arvin looked for a brooch or pendant that might be a cleric's holy symbol, but saw none. The only item of jewelry the woman wore was a ring, a band of brownish-red stone around her pudgy little finger. A band carved from amber, Arvin thought, identifying the stone from the
