the approval of some prince or god? Or is this all for my benefit? To spite me?”
Asha helped Omar off the table to stand between her and Gideon. “We didn’t come here to waste our breath debating morality with you. Get out of our way.”
“Or what?” Lilith smiled. The smoke had completely vanished now and she stood before them quite radiant in the light of the torches. The light danced and played over her jewels and skin… and over the tiny glints of gold on her bare shoulders and thighs.
Asha frowned.
Sun-steel needles? In herself?
“Lilith, please, let these people go,” Omar said. “I don’t mind staying a while longer to talk. We have all the time in the world. But let them go. And don’t stand there dreaming of ways to hurt them, or the others outside. Just let it go. Please.”
“No.” Lilith shivered as the changes began. The soft brown skin of her arms hardened into a rough, armored, reptilian hide, and thick curling ram horns erupted from the sides of her skull, winding around her ears to point forward as the shining blue feathers of a peacock rippled upward from her scalp. Dark scales covered her long, muscular legs, and her feet twisted and expanded into the three-toed talons of a bird of prey. And in her armored, jagged hand she held a short, slender seireiken that burned brightly, though not as brightly as Gideon’s.
“I knew you might come for him,” Lilith said, her eyes fixed on Gideon. “So I prepared this just for you. I’m going to kill you, and take that bright, shiny toy of yours, and then I’m going to play with your dead body for the rest of the evening. How does that sound to you?”
“Disgusting. And foolish.” Gideon shook his head. “I used to think you were the cleverest of us all.”
“That’s because I am.” Lilith lunged forward with the seireiken, driving it straight for Asha’s heart, but Gideon’s arm was faster and he slipped his fiery blade in front of her. Lilith’s slender seireiken disintegrated against the soldier’s weapon, the sun-steel erupting into smoke and aether and molten blobs of liquid metal that dripped and spattered on the floor.
Lilith glanced at the ruined sword once, and then tossed it aside. “So much for that.” And quick as a snake, she lashed out, grabbed Asha’s hair, and yanked her across the room. Gideon barely managed to pull his arm away before the deadly blade touched Asha’s skin, and she stumbled and fell against the far wall.
“She’s not even immortal,” Lilith said, turning back to the men. “What use was she supposed to be to you, Gideon? A distraction? Or a sacrifice?”
Asha stood up, her torn yellow sari hanging off her shoulders.
She’s strong. Too strong. And too fast. The souls of all those animals inside her, they’re too powerful.
She curled her hands into fists.
Dragon! You are dead, and you are mine. You will never own this body, never swallow this mind, and never devour this heart.
You are my servant now. My will is greater than yours. It always has been, even when I was a child.
You’ve tried to kill me and failed. You’ve tried to enslave me and failed. You will never try again.
Within her breast she felt the soul of the golden dragon writhing and glowering, but it did not scream, and it did not rage.
Now, dragon, give me your strength. Not because I am angry or because my memories rouse you, but because I will it!
The golden scales spilled out over her arms in a shining cascade from her shoulders down to her hands, where her ruby claws appeared and began to roast the air. She felt the scales harden on her belly and legs, enclosing her soft skin in armor stronger than steel and lighter than silk. Her body felt solid and warm, and sharp and bright all at once.
“Lilith,” she said.
The woman in blue looked back at her, and Asha saw the surprise in her eyes. “Who are you?”
“I am Asha, the Dragon of Kathmandu.” She stepped forward. “And for the sake of all those you have tortured and killed, and those you would torture and kill in the ages to come, I am here to end you.”
Lilith swung her crocodilian arm at her, and Asha raised her fist. Black scales crashed on gold scales, and though both women strained and pushed, neither woman moved.
“A dragon?” Lilith smiled. “Fascinating.”
“Gideon, get Omar out of here,” Asha said.
Lilith lurched away from her and dashed across the room toward the men. “No, I want them to stay.” She shoved Omar in the chest and sent him flying back against the edge of the table.
Gideon raised his sword to her in a defensive posture, but did not attack. “Please, Lilith, stop this now, while we’re all still alive. I don’t want to fight you. We can find another way!”
“Yes. Here’s one.” Lilith smashed her armored fist into the corner stones supporting the archway above Gideon’s head and the roof collapsed in one sudden, plummeting motion and roaring crash, knocking him to the floor and burying his back and legs. Only his hands and a bit of black hair lay out in the open, with his seireiken gauntlet on the floor, the blade still exposed and still locked on his arm. Lilith nudged the gauntlet with her talon-foot. “That’s fascinating as well.”
“Lilith!” Asha grabbed her by the shoulders from behind and hurled her away from Gideon.
The woman in blue rolled across the floor, but quickly rose to her feet and brushed at her dress. Her rough, scaled hands tore the delicate silk. “Damn. I liked this dress.”
Asha leapt at her again, crushing her against the wall. She slammed her left forearm against Lilith’s chest to hold her still and then reached for her throat with the gleaming red claws of her right hand, but a black scaled hand caught her wrist and held her still.
“What the devil are you?” Lilith asked, her expression shifting between curiosity and the strain of holding her away. “Where did Gideon find you? Or did Bashir make you? Did he make you to be a weapon just to kill me?”
“No one made me,” Asha said quietly as she pressed harder and harder on Lilith’s fist, her ruby claws edging ever closer to the woman’s throat. “And Gideon didn’t find me. I found him. He’s not the one who came here to kill you. I am.”
“Oh, I see.” For a brief instant, Lilith’s grimace became a playful smile. “I see. You’re a goddess, like me, and he’s your little toy. Oh, how delicious. How wonderful to find a kindred spirit!”
Asha slammed her claws forward but the woman ducked and Asha’s golden fist crashed into the wall, crumbling the stone into dust and pebbles.
Lilith shoved her back and strode across the room. “I know just what to do with someone like you. Maybe I can kill you, and maybe I can’t. But I can definitely take away your toys.”
“Get away from him!” Asha leapt again and drove her shoulder into Lilith’s back, knocking her down to all fours. She circled around the woman in blue and stood over Gideon, her ruby claws raised to meet the next assault. Lilith stood and strode forward again, a look of black hate in her eyes.
“Stop! Please, both of you, stop.” Omar stood up, one hand pressed to his ribs where he had collided with the edge of the table. He placed one hand on Asha’s arm and gently but firmly moved her back to the other side of Gideon so that he now stood between the soldier and the beast.
“No,” Asha said. “I didn’t come here to talk, or even to punish her for her crimes. She’s a cancer, and I’ve come to remove her from the world.”
“I know you did.” Omar tried to smile at her, but could only wince. “But I can’t let you kill someone, even her, because of what I set in motion all those years ago in my arrogance and stupidity. Because if you do, then I’ll have turned one more healer into one more killer. And I can’t have that. I can’t watch that happen. Not again. So please, don’t.”
Asha stepped back from him, wondering at the endless pain in his eyes. She nodded.
Omar turned to the beast in the blue dress, and held out his empty hands. “Lilith, come here, please.”
She was only a few paces away, and she swept up to stand before him, face to face, and she stared down at him with a cruel smile. In a husky, mocking voice, she said, “What now, old man? I’m as immortal as you, and stronger, and faster, and smarter. Are you going to try to convince me to live like you? To spend eternity serving others instead of myself? Are you going to appeal to my heart, to my true nature?”
“Yes, I am.” He reached up slowly with both hands and cupped her face, and then gently leaned forward and kissed her, pressing his lips to hers, moving his lips and tongue slowly at first and then more vigorously.
Her scaled hands rose, one slipping around the man’s waist and the other around the back of his head. She
