stop him.
'Your own sisters!'
Nix staggered to his friend's side, caught his right hand by the wrist.
Egil whirled on him, tears in his eyes, left hand cocked.
'You can't beat it out of you by beating him!' Nix said.
The priest stared at him, blinking, pain in his eyes.
'You can't, Egil,' Nix said, more softly. 'We saw it. We felt it, at least in part. It'll never be out.'
Egil lowered his fists, looked over at the old woman. There were tears in her eyes, too. Egil slouched, started to weep.
Rakon groaned, his face a broken, bloody mess.
Behind them, the devil raged in his prison.
They didn't have much time.
'I have an idea,' Nix said, staring at Rakon.
Egil looked up, his bushy brows raised in a question.
Nix glanced over at the old woman, who was trembling against the wall. 'Get her for me, Egil.'
'Nix…'
'I'm not going to hurt her. You know me better than that.' He nodded at Rakon. 'I'm going to hurt him. Get me Rusilla, if you'd prefer.'
The devil's attack on the binding circle grew frenetic, his rage-filled slams against the magic causing it to spark and flare.
'Hurry,' Nix said.
While Egil gathered Rusilla, Nix tore a strip of his clothing and did his best to tie off his shoulder wound. Egil laid Rusilla down gently on the floor near Nix. Her eyes were open and she stared into Nix's face.
'I'm touching only your hand,' Nix said to her, not sure if she could hear him.
He took her hand in his, removed the transmutation wand from his satchel, and activated it with a word in the Mages' Tongue. Once more the gold cap glowed and the wand warmed in his hand.
'What are you doing?' Egil asked.
'Watch,' he said, and touched it to Rusilla.
'I still don't see…' the priest said.
Nix then touched the wand to Rakon. 'Let him experience what he intended for them.'
Rakon's eyes snapped open as the magic poured into him. As the transformation began, his eyes widened and his mouth opened in a silent scream.
The sorcerer's facial features softened. His body lost height, gained hips, his waist narrowed, his chest swelled with breasts. In moments the magic had turned him from sorcerer to sorceress.
'What have you done to me?' Rakon said, his now high-pitched voice slurred. The transformation had healed some of his wounds. His face was bruised, red in places, but not the ruin Egil had left it moments before.
'You wanted to honor your damnable Pact, whoreson,' Nix said, and jerked him to his feet. 'So you will.'
Accompanied by Egil, he dragged Rakon toward the devil, who still flailed and raged frenetically against his binding. Rakon seemed dazed, not quite understanding what Nix intended.
'Do you understand me, beast?' Nix said to Abrak-Thyss.
'The Pact demands a Norristru woman of childbearing age.'
Nix pulled Rakon toward the binding and shook him.
'I've brought you one.'
The devil stopped struggling. The eyes at the end of his arms fixed on Nix. The slits in his abdomen, his nostrils, flared wetly as he inhaled Rakon's scent.
'What?' Rakon said, finally understanding, his voice high-pitched and feminine.
'Let's have our own pact, devil,' Nix said, and shook Rakon again. 'This one is yours. But the others are left alone. Do we have agreement?'
Rakon struggled against Nix's hold. Nix shook him like a rag doll. Rakon's fear seemed to excite the devil, to judge from the further engorgement of his member.
'I think he likes you,' Nix said to Rakon. 'I'm sure he'll be a gentle lover.'
'No,' Rakon said, swallowing, going limp in Nix's grasp. 'You can't do this. You can't.'
Nix pulled him around and stared into his — her — face.
'This is what you would have done to your sisters! This is the fear they felt. Worse than fear awaited them. I've seen it, Norristru. I've seen it! And now worse than fear awaits you. You've earned it.'
'Don't do this,' Rakon pleaded. Tears fell from his eyes.
'It's done!' Nix said, the anger in his words spraying Rakon with spit. 'And you did it!'
Nix nodded at Egil and the priest withdrew, picked up Rusilla and Merelda, and carried them to the far side of the room. Egil recovered his hammers, his crowbar, and stood at the ready.
Nix turned to Abrak-Thyss, holding Rakon like an offering. 'Devil, what say you?'
The devil growled, a low, predatory sound that reminded Nix of a cat's purr.
Without warning, the energy sphere around the binding circle winked out. Rakon screamed, sagged. Nix shoved the sorcerer toward the devil and backed away fast toward Egil.
He drew his blade but needn't have worried. The devil grabbed Rakon around the waist with one of his serpentine arms. Rakon flailed, his small fists beating at the devil's grip, his screams high-pitched and fearful.
'Honor the deal, devil,' Nix said, backing up until he bumped into Egil.
The devil did not even glance at them. Carrying Rakon, who screamed helplessly, the devil strode for the open door that led into the manse.
The old woman abased herself before the devil as he approached.
'Scion of the Thyss, welcome.'
The devil neither paused nor acknowledged her. His girth barely fit through the doorway, but he squeezed through and inside, Rakon still screaming plaintively.
Nix knew where the devil was taking Rakon: to the hall of doors he'd seen in his dreams, a place of horror.
'It's worst the first time,' the old woman called after Rakon. 'It's easier after that. Take heart.'
Rakon's screams were desperate. Nix endured them only by reminding himself of the generations of women who'd uttered similar screams as a result of the scheming of Rakon and his sires.
Egil shifted on his feet. 'I don't know if that was the right thing to do.'
Nix stared at the open door, the darkness beyond. 'I don't know either. But death seemed… too neat an end for him. We both saw what'd been done here. If it was the wrong thing to do, it was my wrong thing.'
'No,' Egil said thoughtfully. 'I'm with you. If it was wrong, then it's our wrong and we both own it.'
'Well enough.'
'We should go,' Egil said.
'Aye.'
Nix kneeled and looked into Rusilla's pale face, her intense green eyes. Her hands spasmed, probably some aftereffect of the drug her brother had been giving her.
'Can you hear me?' he asked her. 'Do you know what I just did? Was it the right thing?'
They stared at one another a long while.
'The drugs, Nix,' Egil said. 'She can't answer.'
Then her lips moved. She made no sound and he wasn't sure if the movement was intentional. He stared at her, willing her to mouth again what he thought he'd seen. She did and he read her lips.
Applause, Nix.
For a moment, he could think of nothing to say, then he stood and said, 'I've been waiting for those.'
Nix and Egil bound their wounds as best they could. They'd need to see a priestess of Orella when they returned to Dur Follin, maybe visit the Low Bazaar to procure a healing elixir or ten. But before leaving, they approached the old woman, Rusilla and Merelda's mother. She remained by the door, and at their approach hid her face behind the wall of her wrinkled, veiny hands. She rocked back and forth, muttering to herself.
