clouds of poison gas came billowing out, she waved the tip of her darksword around the entrance to check for motion activated traps, then pushed down on the first stair. Nothing happened. 'Well?' Parth called.
'No traps so far,' she reported, 'and no cobwebs. Something comes down here, and it doesn't leave tracks.'
The Shadovar stepped out from behind his hiding place and motioned her down the staircase. 'We're right behind you.' 'Sure you are,' Vala muttered.
Deciding Parth and his comrades deserved no warning about the gray figure she might or might not have glimpsed and the whispered word she might or might not have heard, Vala crouched on her heels and dropped to the fifth step down.
The steps continued to spiral downward through another ten feet of solid stone, then opened up into a grand corridor running parallel to the base of the stairs. By crouching on her heels and craning her neck, Vala could look far enough up the passage to see a series of arched doorways opening off to either side at irregular intervals, but the magic of her darksword did not allow her to see all the way to the end of the hallway. When nothing came charging up the stairs to meet her, she descended the first ten feet in two quick bounds, braced her hand on the banister, and leaped into the corridor facing the opposite direction she had been descending.
Vala found herself facing a large round silhouette with a wriggling crown of bulbous-ended tentacles. She had just enough time to recognize the silhouette as that of a large beholder before several eyestalks began to swing in her direction. Leaping into a foot-first slide underneath the thing, she flipped her darksword toward its huge central eye and grabbed for her dagger.
Vala hit the floor at about the same time her darksword found its mark-though, without the weapon in her hand, she could no longer see in the dark and knew that she'd hit the beholder only by the bloodcurdling screech that echoed down the corridor. She was showered in warm gore as she slid under the still-floating eye tyrant. Knowing better than to think even a perfect slash to the central eye could kill a monster this big, she reached up and caught the bottom of the cut with her free hand, then jerked its wounded side to the floor and smashed it into the stone. At the same time, she was bringing her dagger up behind it, driving the steel blade through its thick skull once, twice, half a dozen times, until the trapped beholder finally collapsed in a limp heap atop the arm that had been holding it pinned to the floor. Vala pushed the thing aside.
'Vala?' Parth called down the stairs, then more loudly, 'Vala?' 'No such luck, Parth,' she yelled back. 'Still here.'
A deep rumble reverberated through the ceiling as the secret pillar was pushed back over the stairwell. 'Coward,' Vala muttered.
She extended her arm to call the sword back but felt its hilt under her knuckles already. Counting herself lucky she had not found the blade instead, she rolled to her knees and took the weapon in hand-and, once she could see in the darkness again, found herself looking into a huge, toothy mouth surrounded by four arms. Even at this unfortunate angle, she recognized it instantly as a large phaerimm. 'Tempus give me strength!' she gasped.
Why pray to Tempus, my dear? I am your god now. The raspy voice came to Vala inside her head, not like the single whispered Eltargrim she had thought she heard earlier but definitely inside her thoughts. Set aside your sword, and we will talk.
Vala gathered her legs beneath her and sprang to her feet-then found herself rolling head over heels down the dark corridor.
What don't you understand, human? the voice demanded. Put down your weapon.
Showing no fear of the darksword whatsoever, the phaerimm continued to come down the corridor, two of its four arms pointing at the mossy floor. Puzzled by the thing's strange behavior, Vala wavered between doing as it ordered and throwing her sword at it-though she felt sure it was ready with magic to bat the weapon out of the air the instant it left her hand.
She made no move to do either, and the phaerimm stopped just beyond her sword's reach. Obey!
Parth's muffled voice began to reverberate down the stairwell, demanding explanations and shouting threats about what would happen if she didn't open the doorand suddenly Vala understood. The phaerimm did not want to kill her. It had trapped her alone, believing that it could turn her into one of its mind-slaves-but Vala's helmet protected her against that.
'Y-yes,' she said. Moving very slowly, she dropped to her haunches and set the sword on the floor. 'I want to talk.'
As soon as her hand left the hilt, she was plunged into blindness again. Unaware of the phaerimm's presence, Parth and the others continued to yell for her to open the door. Silently cursing them for fools as well as cowards, Vala kicked her darksword away and backed down the corridor. She was so terrified that her whole body was shaking. Without the sword, she could no longer see what the phaerimm was doing.
A bony hand clamped her shoulder. That is far enough, child.
Vala stopped and prayed it would not remove the helmet Escanor had given her. Without it, she would become the thrall it believed she was. Unless she lulled it into a false sense of security, she had no chance of killing it anyway. The things could cast spells as fast as she could think-maybe faster. You are not one of the Shadovar.
It was not a question. Did the phaerimm expect an answer? What are you?
'V–Vaasan,' Vala replied. 'My people owe them service.'
Vala? the phaerimm asked. The one Escanor favors to carry his egg?
Vala had to concentrate to keep from gasping and asking how the phaerimm knew such a thing; instead, she merely nodded. What are you doing here?
'I refused him,' Vala said, 'and so he sent me to kill phaerimm.'
At the top of the stairs, Parth had finally realized something was wrong and stopped pounding on the column. And could you?
Vala shook her head. 'No!' At the moment, it was an honest answer. 'Never again.'
Again? The phaerimm seemed astonished, then said, But I forget who you are. How do you feel about him now? 'I hate him.' It was not far from the truth. Can you betray him?
'Perhaps,' Vala said. A low rumble shook the ceiling as the false column began to slide aside. 'He is very powerful.'
7 will help you with that, the phaerimm said. Hold out your hand.
Vala extended both arms, palms up. She felt some-thing small and round pressed into her palm.
You will allow him to mount you, then press this to his back, the phaerimm said. It will rob him of his power. Do you understand? 'Vala?' Parth called down the stairs. 'Are you there?'
Vala did not dare shout a warning. 'I understand,' she said. 'What?' Parth called.
She ignored him. 'Then what, my master?' As she asked this, she called to her darksword in her mind. 'Do I kill him?'
No! You sneak him into the woods, the phaerimm said. This will make it easy. 'Vala, answer me, or we're coming down!' The darksword arrived. 'Hurry!'
As Vala yelled this, she was already bringing the dark-sword across the phaerimm's midsection. Her dark vision returned and she saw a fang-filled mouth the size of a cavern yawning before her. Instead of trying to back away or strike again, she twirled along the phaerimm's thorny body and saw a fiery column scorch the stone where she had been standing. Reversing her grip as she moved, she drove her black blade through the thorn- back's midsection and rolled back in the opposite direction, using the edge of the wound as a fulcrum to pry the darksword through three feet of tough flesh and scaly thorn.
The corridor exploded into howling winds as the phaerimm bellowed its rage and brought its barbed tail around in a classic distraction maneuver. It was a fatal mistake. Vala was already vaulting onto its thorny back, lopping off first one, then two more flame-shooting hands. She brought the darksword down on the rim of its mouth, and the phaerimm dropped to the floor, its tail lashing ineffectually at the stone where it had expected her to be standing. She spun around and risked another blow from her same location, this time slicing the creature cleanly in two behind her.
The tail struck at the stone twice more, then fell limp and lay motionless. Vala took the precaution of slicing the thing into a few more pieces, then finally heard boots pounding down the stairs and turned to find the first pair of Shadovar legs descending into view. 'Parth, take your time. The hard work-'
