Zelia's eyes widened.
'Or perhaps I should say, Juz'la was working for Sibyl,' Arvin said. He ended with one of Zelia's gloating smiles.
The first Zelia cocked her head. Her tongue flickered from her lips. 'You'll have to tell me all about that,' she said. 'Later.'
As if at some unspoken signal, both Zelias swayed toward him. The first one ran a hand down his bare chest, toying with his scales; her tongue flickered out again, touching his chest.
'Interesting perfume,' she said. 'It tastes like ginger.'
Arvin forced himself not to recoil though his skin crawled. He nodded. 'I thought you might like it.'
The second Zelia lifted the hand that held the bottle. 'What's this?' she asked.
'The best wine in House Extaminos' cellars: a truly exotic vintage,' Arvin answered. He nodded at the lump that was Gonthril. 'I thought it would be appropriate to celebrate before we swat the gnat.'
Out of the corner of his eye, Arvin caught a flash of silver from the Zelia who had moved slightly behind him. She was manifesting a power!
Despite knowing that he was already a heartbeat too late, he plunged into his mu ladhara and started to draw energy intoThe cork popped from the bottle, startling him. As it drifted over the shoulder of the Zelia whose eyes had flashed, Arvin realized what power she'd just manifested-a simple far hand to pull the cork. She would have been suspecting treachery from her seed- contact poison on the neck of the bottle, perhaps.
'Drink,' she said.
The first Zelia stared up at him, the tips of the fangs showing as she smiled. One hand continued to stroke his chest. Behind her, Gonthril rocked back and forth in a futile effort to free himself, moaning softly.
Arvin lifted the bottle in a toast first to one Zelia, then the other. 'To the sweet taste of victory,' he said. He drank deeply. The wine was indeed a fine vintage, better than any he'd drunk before, but all he tasted was the hassaael's perfumey flavor, which prickled his nose. That, and a faintly bitter undertone that was his own blood.
He licked his lips with a forked tongue. He glanced between the two Zelias, as if uncertain which to pass the bottle to first. He still couldn't be certain which was the real Zelia and which was merely a duplicate. The one giving the orders might be the original-or she might just be playing a clever game. For all he knew, both women were duplicates.
He hoped not. Two Zelias were enough to deal with.
The one stroking his chest took the bottle. A cabinet opened, and three delicate crystal glasses floated
through the air toward her. She poured the wine into
them, set the bottle down, and passed one glass to
Arvin, the other two to the second Zelia-then took
all of Arvin's self control not to flinch away from her and still more effort to return the kiss. Their forked tongues entwined briefly, then she pulled away. She glanced at the first Zelia, nodded, then took one glass
and raised it in a toast. The other Zelia returned it but didn't drink the wine herself until the first had swallowed hers.
That decided it. The Zelia standing slightly behind Arvin had to be the original. The one that had met him at the door was taking the chances, tasting his mouth to see if he'd really consumed the wine, then drinking it herself.
The second Zelia clinked her glass against Arvin's then drank. Arvin resisted the urge to smile as he sipped from his own glass. His guess had been right: the Dmetrio-seed hadn't known what hassaael was, and neither did Zelia.
Lowering her glass, the second Zelia stared with a smile on her lips for several moments at Arvin-then coiled an arm around his neck and drew him close.
'You said you have both halves?' she breathed, her breath heavy with the scent of the potion.
Arvin smiled. 'Yes.' He nodded down at Gonthril. 'Your plan worked beautifully.'
'Where are they?'
'In a safe place.' He raised his glass to his lips and started to drinkThe arm around his neck tightened, preventing him from swallowing. Zelia's green eyes blazed. 'You weren't thinking about trying to keep it for yourself,' she hissed. 'Were you?'
The grip eased enough for Arvin to swallow the wine that was in his mouth. 'The thought never even entered my mind,' he answered.
'Liar,' she spat. She gave him a steely look. 'You know what happens to seeds who defy me. You'll deliver them, as promised, and we'll reap our reward.' Then she smiled 'Before we deal with that, let's have a little fun.'
That surprised Arvin. He'd expected her to demand that he hand over the Circled Serpent immediately.
That was, in part, why he'd tricked her into drinking the hassaael-so that he could persuade her to wait. His deception was going even better than he'd hoped, and that worried him. There was something he was missing-but what?
The second Zelia had dropped to her knees. Feeling her fingers on the laces of his breeches, Arvin stiffened, then forced his body to relax. He looked down and faked a lustful simile as he choked down his revulsion. There was a time he might have found Zelia alluring-but that was long passed.
Time to plant the suggestion and let the potion do its work. He pulled the first Zelia close, pretending to kiss her. 'I don't want to share you,' he whispered, deliberately making his words just loud enough for the second Zelia to hear. 'Get rid of her.'
As he spoke, he manifested a fate link between the two. The scent of saffron and ginger rose in the air, and he scratched his chest. He'd never manifested a power in her presence that caused that particular secondary display, and he counted on them to mistake the smell for his 'perfume.'
If either woman recognized it as a secondary display, they made no comment. They were too busy matching each other, glare for glare.
'What are you waiting for?' Arvin cried at the standing Zelia. 'Strike!'
Each of the Zelias hesitated for a heartbeat. Then the air filled with a loud hissing. Under the influence of hassaael-and goaded by their own suspicious natures-they attacked each other. Each reeled back as the other's power struck. The kneeling Zelia's eyes rolled back in her head, and the standing Zelia blinked, then shook her head. Eyes flashed silver, hissing lashed through the air and ectoplasm sheened first one then the other woman as powers were hurled back and forth.
Arvin tossed in an attack of his own. He lashed the mind of one Zelia with a whip of psionic energy, then sent tendrils of thought into the mind of the other, constricting and crushing her mind. His concentration held for the first attack, but in the middle of the second, the sound he'd been shaping into a hiss reverted back to a low drone.
One of the Zelias whirled. 'Arvin!' she shouted, pointing at the lump that was Gonthril. 'He's using his psionics. He's used a suggestion to turn us against each other!'
In the heartbeat of silence that followed, Arvin heard a faint crunch. He knew at once what it was: Gonthril biting down on the thin-walled ceramic vial he'd been holding in his mouth-the potion Arvin had purchased from Drin earlier that evening. Arvin silently cursed.
Not now! Arvin sent. They're both looking right at you!
Too late.
The magic-dispelling potion inside the vial did its work. Gonthril's arms and legs sprang apart. A quick twist of his hands-just as Arvin had taught him-freed the bonds around his wrists, and a sharp kick freed his ankles. He tore off the blindfold and spat out the remains of the vial, then leaped to his feet.
Arvin lunged for Gonthril, dragging him to the side. 'I'll deal with him!' he shouted at one of the Zelias. 'She's the one who manifested a suggestion on you.'
Instead of resuming their attack as he'd hoped, the Zelias turned toward him.
'Do you want to become an avatar or not?' Arvin screamed at the duplicate. 'Kill her!'
The Zelias exchanged a knowing look, and Arvin suddenly worried that he'd mistaken the original for the duplicate. Before he could correct the error, both
women's eyes flashed silver. Their mouths parted slightly in surprise, one a heartbeat after the other, as they glanced between Arvin and Gontrhil.
