What he did see surprised him. The seed suddenly jerked and his eyes widened. He whirled, and as his back came into Arvin's view, Arvin saw the dart that had lodged in the seed's neck.
'No!' the seed gasped. 'Not-'
Then he fell.
As the rigid body struck the ground, Arvin felt the net that held his mind fray then suddenly loosen. He saw Pakal step from the jungle, blowpipe in hand. Astonished, he gaped at the dwarf-but only for-a heartbeat.
Karrell, he thought. The children…
He turned and raced back toward the hut.
As he neared it, he heard a baby's cry. Then another. Then Karrell's voice, thanking Ubtao. He plunged inside and saw Karrell holding both children in her arms, tears streaming down her cheeks. The midwife and her assistant stood nearby, relieved looks on their faces.
Arvin fell to his knees beside Karrell. 'By the gods,' he said. 'I thought I'd lost all three of you.'
Karrell closed her eyes and took a shuddering breath. The children in her arms continued to cry, strong, healthy wails. Arvin gently stroked his son's hair then his daughter's. They were alive. He touched a hand to the stone that hung at his neck.
'Nine lives,' he whispered to himself.
Karrell's eyes opened. They bored into Arvin's 'It was her, wasn't it?'
Arvin nodded grimly. 'One of her seeds.' 'Is it-'
'Dead?' Arvin asked. 'Yes, Tymora be praised. By a stroke of her luck, Pakal happened to be-'
Hearing something behind him, Arvin turned. Pakal stood in the doorway, arms folded.
Arvin crossed the but and squatted in front of the dwarf. 'You saved my life,' he said, 'and Karrell's, and our children's.' He let out a long sigh. 'I thought you'd gone back to your people. How did you manage to show up in just the right place and at just the right time?'
Pakal grunted. He said something in his own language-a brief prayer-then spoke in the common tongue. His eyes were smiling. 'Having me watch the village was your idea. You anticipated that a seed might come.'
'My idea?' Arvin echoed.
Pakal nodded. He touched a thick finger to Arvin's temple. 'The memory. You erased it.'
'Ah.' Arvin said. Suddenly understanding his lingering unease.
Karrell passed the twins to the other women and rose to her feet. 'You knew that a seed would attack us?' she said, rounding on Arvin. 'You might have told me.'
'He could not, Karrell,' Pakal said. 'The seed might have probed your thoughts and learned that I was lying in wait for it.'
Karrell continued to rage. 'You risked our children's lives, just to eliminate one seed?' she shouted. 'You might have killed this one, but what now? Will you erase all of our memories of what just happened and send Pakal back into the jungle to wait until the next seed comes? And the next? And the one after that?'
Arvin balled his fists. Karrell was right. More seeds would come. Arvin and Karrell might flee, but there would be no guarantee that wherever they chose to hide wouldn't be home to another of Zeli a's seeds, and once Zelia learned the Circled Serpent had been destroyed, she'd stop at nothing to have her revenge. As she'd demonstrated, killing Arvin alone wouldn't be enough.
Pakal interrupted that grim thought. 'There is a way to end this,' he said. He turned to Arvin. 'Before you erased your memory, you told me to remind you of this: one year ago, you stripped away Zelia's power to create seeds at will. Since then, she has been able to seed only two people: Naneth and Dmetrio. Both are dead. All of her other seeds-those created before Zelia met you-do not share her animosity toward you. They simply do as Zelia orders. To them, you are just another target for them to kill. Eliminate Zelia, and no more such orders will be givon.'
'That much is obvious,' Arvin said, 'but it raises one big question. Did I happen to tell you why I didn't set out for Hlondeth at once?' He glanced at the twins. 'Aside from the obvious reason?'
Pakal smiled. 'Before confronting Zelia in her tower, you needed to learn more about its defences,' Pakal answered. 'I have a spell that allows me to question the dead-and the dead cannot lie.'
Arvin smiled. 'Not a bad plan,' he said. 'I wish I'd thought of it.'
Pakal grinned. 'You did.'
Arvin glanced at Karrell. The anger had fled from her eyes; determination had replaced it. 'I'll come too,' she said. 'My magic-'
'Is needed to protect the children,' Arvin said. 'If another seed should find them while I'm gone…'
Karrell's mouth tightened. She held his eyes a moment longer, then nodded. 'Do it,' she said. 'Kill her. End this.'
Arvin and Pakal strode across the flagstone plaza toward the pyramid that dominated the center of the city. Ss'inthee'ssaree was as ancient as Ss'yin, but unlike the Jenestaa, the Se'sehen had worked
hard to reclaim it from the jungle. The buildings that ringed the plaza had been repaired and restored to their former glory, their stonework cleaned and remortared. The serpents that twined on their carved facades had been repainted in bright colors. The flagstones underfoot were smooth and even, without so much as a tendril of vine growing between their cracks.
They were also stained with dried blood. House Extaminos had not only triumphed over the Se'sehen in Hlondeth but had carried the fight to the Black Jungle. Sibyl had inadvertently shown them the way, when she used the portal on Mount Ugruth to follow Arvin and Pakal. House Extaminos controlled what had once been the Se'sehen stronghold.
Flies rose lazily into the air as Arvin skirted the largest of the dark brown stains that marked the plaza. The corpses of those who had fallen in battle had been carried away, but the smell of death still rose from the sun-hot stones.
A score of Hlondeth's militia stood guard in front of Arvin's destination: the pyramid that housed the Pit of Vipers, a temple identical to the one that had been Sibyl's lair, a temple that contained the one-way portal the Se'sehen had used to reach Hlondeth.
Though they were sweltering in bronze chain mail and flared helmets, the Hlondeth militia was alert. They lowered their crossbows and snapped to attention as Arvin approached. Their officer-a halfblood with a narrow, black-scaled face that echoed those of the twined serpents embossed on his breastplate-touched his sword hilt to his chest, then bowed low.
'Lord Extaminos', he said. 'We thought '
'You are paid to obey, not think, Captain Vreshni,' Arvin said, neatly plucking the officer's name from the man's mind. He raised his chin haughtily, as
Dmetrio would have done. His forked tongue gave his words an imperious hiss. 'Accompany me to the portal. I have urgent business in Hlondeth.'
'Yes, Lord Extaminos,' the officer said, bowing a second time. He sheathed his sword and gestured at the pyramid. 'This way.'
Arvin turned to Pakal, who had also disguised himself as a yuan-ti. The dwarf's illusion was perfect; his body appeared twice as tall as it really was and slender as a serpent's. The tattoos on his body had become a pattern of snake scales, his matted braids were gone, and the necklace of claws and teeth around his neck had become a ring of tiny, sparkling jewels set into the scales of his chest, shoulders, and back. The only detail untouched by his illusion was the armband of gold, set with a turquoise stone, on his upper right arm.
'You may go,' Arvin told Pakal in a cold voice. Using his lapis lazuli, however, he bade the dwarf a more pleasant farewell. Thank you. For everything.
Pakal returned his grim smile. Thard Harr watch over you, he sent back. And… good luck. He bowed then strode away.
Arvin followed the officer, moving his feet with a sliding motion as Dmetrio had done. The metamorphosis had been an easy one; Dmetrio's appearance was still fresh in his mind. The club-toed feet, however, were tricky to walk on.
The pyramid was tall and narrow. It resembled a series of ever-smaller blocks set one upon the other. Each of the four sides was dominated by a stone serpent that seemed to be slithering down the stonework, its head
