Arvin stared back at her for a long moment. At last he nodded and said, 'There's just one problem. I don't know the power that will let me view someone at a distance.'
'That's easily remedied.'
Silver flashed in Zelia's eyes. She sat silent, staring out over the wrought iron railing that enclosed the rooftop garden. After several moments, a finger- sized crystal rose into view and floated toward her. She caught it then passed it to Arvin.
He glanced at the crystal. It was deep blue and blade-shaped: thin, with a chisel-like point at one end. Azurite.
'A power stone,' he said.
Zelia nodded.
Arvin closed his hand around it. 'You trust me to tell you what I see?' he asked.
Zelia laughed. 'No. That's why I'm going to look through your eyes.'
Arvin shuddered. He'd had Zelia inside his head- or rather, a fragment of her-a year ago when she planted her mind seed. Having her coiled around his
thoughts wasn't an experience he wanted to repeat, even briefly, but it was something he had to do. If Karrell was alive…
'Let's do it,' he said through gritted teeth.
Zelia stared into his eyes. Silver flashed across her pupils, then was gone. An instant later Arvin felt a soft fluttering under the scar on his forehead, the lapis lazuli silently alerting him to the fact that someone was watching him-from inside his own skull. As Zelia settled in behind his eyes, he saw her as she viewed herself: confident, poised, powerful-desirable. Then it was gone.
'How do I hail the crystal?' he asked.
'By its name,' Zelia said. 'Gergorissa.'
Arvin whispered the name. He sent his awareness deep into the crystal and felt it awaken.
Yes?a female voice hissed as a mote of pale green light bloomed in the darkness. The voice was unsettlingly close to Zelia's own, and for a moment, Arvin thought Zelia had spoken to him. She must have created the power stone.
Arvin grasped the mote of light with his mind. He felt its energy rush into the base of his skull, filling the power point there. Suddenly he knew how to view Karrell anywhore on any plane of existence.
Assuming she was still alive.
Holding his breath, he manifested that power- and gasped as Karrell appeared in his mind's eye.
She sat slumped on the floor of a dripping jungle, arms clasped around her round, protruding belly. She was still pregnant, but otherwise she looked terrible. Her cheeks were hollow, her eyes dark, her hair tangled. The dress she wore was in rags and her arms and legs were covered in angry red scratches. The scar on her cheek from the sword wound the marilith had inflicted was barely visible under the dried mud that smudged her face. A tear trickled down her cheek, eroding a
furrow through the grime. Despite her condition and the desperate, exhausted look in her eye, she was beautiful. Arvin's breath caught in his throat. He ached to reach out and touch her, to hold her.
To save her.
Karrell glanced up, startled.
'Karrell,' Arvin whispered in a choked voice. 'It's me.'
Her eyes widened. 'Arvin?' she gasped. 'You're alive?'
Arvin almost laughed. Six months in the Abyss, and she was worried about him. 'It's me, kiichpan chu'al. I'm alive.'
Karrell's image blurred as tears formed in his eyes. Suddenly, they blinked rapidly: Zelia, trying to clear them. Arvin tried to push her from his mind.
Don't, she cautioned, shoving back hard enough to make his eyes bulge. Talk to her, before the manifestation ends. Ask her what's happened to Sseth.
Karrell continued to stare at Arvin. 'Where are you?'
'In Hlondeth.' He shook his head, still not quite willing to believe his eyes. 'How did you survive?' he asked. 'It's been so long.'
Karrell gave him a weary smile. 'By Ubtao's will,' she said, 'and through my own resourcefulness.' She laid a hand gently on her stomach. 'Because I had to.'
Zelia gave him a mental jab that made his mind ache.
'Where are you?' Arvin continued. 'In Smaragd? With Sseth?'
Karrell didn't seem to find his question odd. 'Yes. The serpent god is stuck fast. His jungle has bound him. I escaped from the marilith, and now it's searching for me. It still thinks our fates are linked. It's been protecting me, but when I start to give birth,
and it doesn't feel my pain…' she shuddered. 'I can't let it find me.'
Ask her more about Sseth, Zelia interrupted. Is the god asleep? Awake?
Arvin ignored her. He stared at Karrell's stomach. 'The children. Are they still…?'
Karrell smiled. 'Alive? Yes. And kicking-at least one of them has feet, and not a tail.' She bit her lip. A haunted look crept into her eyes. 'It won't be long now. When my time comes, I won't be able to run any more. The marilith-'
'I'll get you out of there,' Arvin promised. 'I don't know how, but I will. I'll find a way.'
'Find Ts'ikil,' Karrell said. 'She'll know what to do.'
Sseth, Zelia insisted. Tell her to go to where Sseth is. Karrell looked warily around. 'Arvin! Did you hear a hissing noise?'
'It's nothing,' Arvin lied, mentally shoving Zelia back as he spoke. 'Who is Ts'ikil? Where is she?' 'She's-'
Their connection broke. Arvin found himself staring at Zelia across the rooftop garden. He leaped to his feet, furious. 'What did you do that for?' he shouted.
Zelia gave him a long, unblinking stare. 'You were supposed to make her go to where Sseth is.'
Arvin almost laughed. 'Karrell? I can't make her do anything.' He sighed. 'You got what you wanted-you heard Karrell. If she says Sseth is bound, he is.'
Zelia thought about this for several moments, her eyes narrowed. Then she lounged back against the fountain, a lazy smile on her lips. She looked like a serpent that had just swallowed a juicy, squirming morsel.
'Karrell's pregnant?' she hissed. She gave him a
withering look. 'By you-a human?'
'You can hardly talk, given what you like to sleep with,' Arvin shot back at her, 'and Karrell's pregnancy is none of your business.'
'Oh but it is,' Zelia said, rising smoothly to her feet. 'It makes you so much mere… motivated.'
'To do what?' Arvin asked, his voice tense.
'To rescue her.' She let the silence stretch out between them for several heartbeats, then added, 'Wouldn't you like to know how? Or would you rather let your children be born in the Abyss? I don't think they'd last long. Karrell couldn't possibly protect them. They'd be no more than a soft, squishy mouthful for any passing-'
'Get on with it,' Arvin snapped. 'How do I rescue her?' His hands balled into tight fists.
'By using the Circled Serpent. It can open a door to Smaragd.'
'You lie,' Arvin said in a low voice. 'It opens a door to the Fugue Plain, to the lair of Dendar, the Night Serpent. If that door opens and Dendar is released, thousands will die.'
'That's true,' Zelia said, 'but the Circled Serpent opens more than one door. There is a second-the door that Sseth used nearly fourteen centuries ago, when he vanished from this plane and became a god, a door that leads directly to Smaragd… and to Karrell.'
Arvin stood rigid, stunned. 'You're… making this up,' he said. 'It's a trick.' He thought back to the little he had learned of the serpent god's lore from the dreams he'd had after Zelia seeded him. 'Sseth left the realm of mortals by flying into a volcano,' he told her, 'one of the Peaks of Flame in Chult. Your own memories of the Cathedral of Emerald Scales told me that much.'
Zelia hissed with laughter. 'You believed them?'
she taunted. Then the mocking smile fell away from her lips. 'That's the official version,' she said, 'the one
