to find you. And
Roghar nodded. “All right. Is he still here?”
Tempest closed her eyes and tried to relax, but Roghar could see that her whole body was shaking. He wanted to kick himself for not taking her seriously sooner.
“No,” she said at last. “He must have slipped out in the confusion.”
“Then he can’t have gone far,” Roghar said. “Let’s look outside.”
“I’ll get Shara,” Uldane offered, heading for the stairs.
Roghar took Tempest’s arm and led her out onto the crowded street. He scanned over the crowd, looking for … for what? He wasn’t sure. When they had faced the demon in its halfling body, the shimmering crimson of its true substance had shown through a number of gaping wounds in the halfling’s flesh. By the time they caught up with the demon in Tempest’s body, the only sign of its presence inside her was around her eyes. He had to assume that, if the demon had been lurking in the common room of the Silver Unicorn, it had taken pains to conceal its presence in whatever host body it was using. He decided to look for hooded figures moving quickly away from the inn.
At first glance, he counted seven people that fit that simple description. He picked the nearest, ran to catch up to him, and put a hand on his shoulder. “Excuse me,” he said.
The person wheeled around and the hood fell away from his face. A middle-aged human man with a neat salt-and-pepper beard and dark brown eyes frowned at him. “What do you want?”
Roghar stared at the man’s eyes, searching the shallow wrinkles at the corners for any sign of glowing red crystal liquid. He slumped. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “I thought you were someone else.”
Tempest caught up to him, looking around the crowd helplessly. “He could be any of these people.”
“Can you feel him now? Is he still nearby?”
“I’m not a bloodhound, Roghar! It’s not like I can track his scent.”
“Well, I just thought …”
“I know. But it was just a sudden impression, overwhelming for that moment, then gone.”
“Let’s walk a bit,” Roghar said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Maybe it’ll come again and we can do something about it, and maybe it won’t.”
Tempest nodded, and Roghar chose a direction and started walking.
Tempest walked beside him in silence for a while. They passed the House of the Sun and then the Temple of Erathis before she spoke again. “What do we do if we find him?” she said.
Roghar shrugged. “Kill him.”
“How?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, when he’s in a body, he’s so terribly strong. I’m not sure the two of us can defeat him alone. And even if we do, if we kill the body he’s in, he just slips out-the way he did when Erak stabbed me. Then what?”
“Well, I’ve thought about that some,” Roghar said. “You didn’t see it, but when the demon was trying to take Falon’s body, it recoiled from divine light. I figure that’s the way to destroy it. Bahamut’s light will consume it.”
“It could be anywhere, Roghar. It could be in any of these people.”
“No more overwhelming impressions?”
Tempest shook her head.
“Then let’s get back. Shara and Uldane will be wondering what’s going on.”
“You want to just let him go?”
“I don’t see any other choice. But listen-we’ve gained some useful information. We know he’s here, moving around in the town, and we know that we have at least one way to detect his presence. He won’t be able to spy on us again. And next time, we’ll get him.”
“But he’s gained useful information, too. He knows we’re here, and he knows that I sensed him. He’ll keep his distance now-there might not be a next time.”
“We’ll get him, Tempest,” Roghar said. “I promise.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Albanon knelt beside Kri and put both hands on the old priest’s shoulders. “It’s this place, Kri,” he said. “The taint of the Chained God fills the whole tower. You can hear the maddening whispers if you listen too closely.”
Kri nodded, covering his face with his hands.
“Let’s get you out of here.” Albanon shifted around to Kri’s side and lifted him to his feet. “Come on, one foot in front of the other.”
Kri’s arm lashed out, striking him in the abdomen and breaking free of his grip. “I know how to walk, damn it!”
Albanon stared at him, trying to catch his breath while Kri glared wildly back. “Fine,” he said at last. “Walk yourself. Follow me, or don’t. I’m getting out of here.” He didn’t wait for a response, but turned to the stairs and started up.
Kri called after him, fury still seething in his voice. “But the demon-what about Nu Alin?”
“He’s not here. And while we wander around here, other demons are overrunning the town I call home. I mean to stop them.”
“Yes!” Kri hurried up the stairs behind him. “Yes! They must be stopped! But Nu Alin-we have to find the last disciple.”
Albanon didn’t look back. “We need to get out of here and far enough away that you can speak calmly and sensibly again.”
“Wait!”
Albanon shook his head and continued up the stairs. Kri’s voice seemed lined with sinister echoes, harsh whispers that conveyed what the priest wasn’t saying-dire threats and fell omens. Albanon started counting stairs again so he could block out the madness.
“Albanon, I command you to stop and look at me!”
Before he could stop himself, Albanon had turned around and sat on a step facing Kri. He scowled at the priest, trying to make sense of what had just happened. “You used magic on me?”
“You weren’t listening!”
“That’s because you’re speaking nonsense or screaming at me. I’m not your apprentice, and I’m not a slave. I won’t take this from you.” He stood up again, though his feet and his head felt shaky. He put a hand on the wall to steady himself.
The wall beneath his fingers was thrumming with power. The whispers became a chorus of voices in his mind, and he had to sit down again or risk toppling down the stairs. His vision was swimming, but he saw Kri staring up at him, one hand on the wall, a look of triumph on his face.
Albanon put his fingers to his temples and drew a slow breath, a simple technique for focusing his mind that he’d learned in the first weeks of his apprenticeship. He blinked several times and looked again at Kri. The priest’s face was creased with concern, not gloating in triumph as he’d first thought. Not only were the voices bedeviling his mind, they’d fooled his eyes as well.
“Kri, listen,” he said. “This place is full of madness. It’s in the air, in the walls, probably in the stairs beneath our feet. We can’t stay here, not even to look for Nu Alin. If we tried to face him here, he’d destroy us, use our own minds against us. We must leave now.”
He stood up again, wavering slightly but steadying himself without touching the wall, turned carefully, and started up the stairs again.
“Albanon,” Kri called behind him.
“I’m not going to stop, Kri. Come on. We have to leave.”
“Don’t you want to know about the Voidharrow?”
Albanon glanced over his shoulder but kept climbing the stairs. “Why are you asking me now?” he said. “It’s not the best place-you said it yourself. And far from the best time.”
