Her blood froze in her veins.
'Our master also speaks thusly: 'But do not forget your duty, my Jadis. Do not return to Avernus before you have discovered Caidin's intentions. My love for you is nearly boundless. My wrath for servants who fail me is boundless.' '
Jadis could not suppress the shudder that racked her body.
Qoreon's scaly claws scratched against the stone windowsill. 'Did I not warn you, Velvet-Claw? There is death in all the Wizard King touches.'
Rage flared in Jadis's brain. She grabbed a heavy silver candelabra and hurled it at the raven. 'Begone with you, carrion-eater!' she snarled. The dark bird fluttered into the air, easily dodging the missile. 'Tell Azalin that I am, as ever, his loyal Kargat. Tell him that he will have the knowledge he seeks. Now away with you!'
She launched a heavy book at the window, but the raven had already spread its night-cloud wings to rise into the azure sky. Gradually, she forced her anger to cool.
'That's more like it, love,' she murmured. 'Now finish what you came here for, and when you return to II Aluk, Azalin will make you whole and beautiful again.' Her flesh began to ripple in transformation.
It was midafternoon when Mika reached the cathedral. The forest parted to either side of the rutted track like a dark curtain, revealing the brooding ruins. She slipped from the back of the sturdy pony Lillen's husband, Elgar, had given her at Irsyla's stern command. The beast let out a nervous snort.
'I know.' Mika stroked the pony's gray-velvet muzzle reassuringly. 'I feel it, too. It's as though› something is watching over this place. A presence. Whatever it is, I don't think it wants us here.' She tied the pony's reins to a tree branch. Fighting her trepidation, she walked slowly up the crumbling steps to the gaping doorway of the cathedral. The shadows swallowed her up as she stepped within.
The ruin looked to have been abandoned for centuries. Piles of rubble from the high-arched ceiling were heaped everywhere, and nettles pushed up through the cracked floor. Stone gargoyles leered down from high ledges, grins plastered on their weird mouths. A crimson miasma hung in the air, permeating the stones. The light came from stained-glass windows that seemed oddly out of place amid the decay and disintegration. They shone as brilliantly as they must have the day they were first raised into place, their myriad fragments of glass transformed into shards of sapphire, ruby, and emerald by the sunlight that poured through them. Three stained- glass windows high in the cathedral's nave captured Mika's attention. Slowly, she climbed the steps, gazing upward at the glowing windows. Each depicted a stern-faced knight clad in ornate, archaic armor, and bearing an antique broadsword. The mosaic had been fitted together so skillfully that the knights looked almost real-so real they seemed to follow her with eyes of smoked glass.
Shuddering, Mika forced her eyes away from the windows. She found herself staring at the broad slab of dark porphyry that must have served as the altar. Like everything in the cathedral, the altar was covered with a thick layer of dust-except in the center. Here, there was a perfectly round space where the stone shone glossily, a circle about as large as…
'Of course,' she whispered excitedly. 'This must be where Wort discovered the bell.'
Cautiously, she began to explore around the altar and nave. After some time she could only sigh in frustration. She found nothing save ancient spider- webs and the small bones of rats and birds. She sat down on a fallen chunk of stone, resting her chin on a hand, wondering what she should do next.
That was when she saw them. They were almost completely obscured by dust and mold. Only now that the steep angle of sunlight cast deeper shadows could she just glimpse them. There were letters carved into the altar. She knelt, wiping away centuries of grime with her bare hands. At last she could make out archaic-looking words incised into the dark stone: In its breaking will the curse be lifted.
'That's it,' Mika murmured in realization. 'That's how to free Wort. The bell has to be broken.'
Suddenly sure of what she had to do to, she gathered up her dress and turned to descend the steps. A strange sound halted her. It was an oddly dissonant chiming, like the tinkling of glass. The hairs on her arms pricked up. She stared at the floor in front of her. The glowing patches of colored illumination that fell from above were swirling and flowing. Slowly, Mika turned around, craning her neck upward.
The armored knights in the stained-glass windows were moving. Like living creatures, they stretched their arms and shrugged their shoulders, as if struggling to free themselves of their imprisoning restraint. With a sound like breaking crystal, the knights pulled themselves free of the lead outlines that held them in place. They jumped to the floor. Slowly, deliberately, holding their glass swords before them, the stained-glass knights began to advance on Mika. Their eyes glowed hotly as though the sun still illuminated them.
Mika tried to stumble backward, but her legs didn't seem to work. One of the knights turned sideways, and she nearly lost sight of it-they were no thicker than window panes. Then the knight turned to face her once more, gnashing its glass teeth hatefully. All that escaped her throat was a low sound. She could not scream. The knights of glass bore down on her, raising their shardlike swords.
A ferocious snarl echoed around the cathedral. Like dark lightning, a shadow streaked from nowhere to crash into one of the glass knights. The knight stumbled, waving its sword wildly, then fell backward against the hard stone altar. With a deafening sound, the glass knight shattered into a thousand pieces of colored glass. Its eyes rolled across the floor like glowing marbles.
Mika could only watch, paralyzed with fear, as the two knights turned to face the creature that had attacked them. It was some sort of huge, black- furred beast with ivory fangs, slashing claws, and a twitching tail. Yet the creature was also vaguely human in shape, and walked on two crouched legs. Though the beast was powerfully muscled, it moved with clumsy, lurching motions, as if wounded.
The knights slashed at the beast, but it dodged their blows. It lunged again, shoving one of the knights forcefully against the other. The two stained- glass figures collided, exploding in splinters. A spray of shards rained to the floor with the din of a thousand chimes. The magical knights were no more.
The beast turned in Mika's direction, stalking slowly toward her.
'Please,' Mika somehow managed to gasp through her constricted throat. 'Please, make it swift.' She squeezed her eyes shut.
Oddly, a woman's voice spoke. 'I do not intend to kill you.'
Mika's eyes fluttered open. Instead of a beast, a naked woman stood before her. The woman's hair was as dark and glossy as onyx, and her eyes glittered green and gold like a summer forest. Mika recognized the woman. The Lady Jadis. Dark blotches covered her body, but before Mika could study them, Jadis pulled a woolen dress from a small pack tied around her waist. Swiftly, the dark-haired woman donned the dress, concealing the strange bruises.
'My lady Jadis,' Mika said breathlessly, trying to adapt to this peculiar turn of events.
Jadis nodded deferentially. 'My lady Mika.'
Mika took a hesitant step forward. Whatever the lady was-r-woman or beast-she was obviously injured. 'You're hurt, my lady. Will you let me examine you? Perhaps I could-'
Jadis's sultry laughter cut her off. 'Mo, my good doctor. Thank you. But I am afraid that you cannot cure me. Only one being can, and he is far away from this place.'
'I see.' Mika could think of nothing else to say.
'I had expected to find something of interest here, Doctor,' Jadis mused. 'I had not expected it to be you. Now, how does your presence here fit what is going on?'
Mika shook her head. 'I don't know what you mean, my lady.'
'No, Of course you don't.' Jadis lurched closer. 'Tell me, Doctor, if you will-why have you journeyed to this strange place?'
Mika hesitated, wondering just what she ought to say. 'I came to help a friend.'
'Let me guess-the hunchback in the bell tower?'
Mika let out a small gasp. 'How did you know?'
'Oh, you'd be surprised, Doctor, at the things I know.' Jadis smoothed her coal-dark hair. 'You must tell me, why should you care for a lonely wretch everyone else despises? Is it simply your inherent goodness that compels you to such perverse extremes?'
A frown touched Mika's brow. 'You say much I don't pretend to understand, my lady. I will tell you this. There is no one in this fiefdom who deserves my help more than Wort. Indeed, there is no one who has been more wronged.'
