bright red tongue slithered in and out of his mouth, testing the night air.
“We did not heat the river water,” Shailiha said at last. “You and your vipers did that. I allowed you to emerge so that I might kill you personally.”
Khristos threw back his head and let go a wicked laugh. “ThePon Q’tar told me that you were not trained in the ways of the craft,” he answered. “Even so, I never dreamed you were so stupid! I am a powerful wizard, you fool! Do you believe that I can be tricked so easily?”
“It’s quite true,” Shailiha answered. “The spell that we used was of Failee’s making. She hid it in her grimoire for safekeeping, should she need to kill you and your horrible servants. It wasn’t the water surrounding you that first became heated.” Smiling slightly, she widened her stance a bit more, putting Khristos on notice.
“You are the victim of a Blood Pox,” she added quietly.
At the mention of Failee’s name, Khristos looked stupefied, as if he had been struck across the face.
“You’re lying!” he shouted. “The First Mistress would never have done me harm! We loved each other!”
“No, Khristos,” Shailiha answered. “Youmight have lovedher, but I doubt that she ever really loved you. From the time she went mad and left Wigg, she loved only the Vagaries.”
Her expression becoming darker as her memories of the First Mistress surfaced, Shailiha glared hatefully at Failee’s reptilian creation.
“I should know,” she said menacingly. “For a time, I too was under that bitch’s aegis.”
“I still say you’re lying!” Khristos raged. “And you are about to pay for those lies with your life! I’ll enjoy watching my vipers eat your liver! It is a prize to which they have aspired for a long time!” Taking a step closer, he pointed the tip of his silver staff directly at Shailiha’s chest.
To everyone’s amazement, Shailiha lowered her sword and stepped toward the Viper Lord. Holding her arms wide, she brazenly offered herself up for the killing.
“Then do it, if you’re so sure!” she hissed. “Kill me now and prove the First Mistress’s love for you! Kill me, you twisted freak!”
Shailiha’s taunting finally put Khristos’ hatred into action. Summoning all his power, he called the craft.
Shailiha tensed as she watched the craft’s power slowly build in the tip of Khristos’ staff. With a wicked smile, he let it loose.
The azure beam that streaked toward Shailiha was narrowly focused, yet far slower than any she had seen before. Whirling to one side and trying to ignore her pain, she avoided it.
Screaming with frustration, Khristos began to grasp the terrible truth. Again pointing his staff at theJin’Saiou, he did his best to call the craft. This time the results were even less powerful, and the azure bolt that erupted from the staff’s point fizzled in midair and crashed to the ground between them, knocking clumps of dirt and grass into the air.
Shailiha took a deep breath, then raised her sword again. “It’s over for you, Khristos,” she said. Although they were lessening, from time to time she could still hear the sounds of her warriors struggling with the vicious vipers.
“Kneel before me and I promise to grant you a quick death,” she offered. “I suggest that you do it. It’s a far more compassionate way to die than being impaled on a stake and disemboweled.”
Seething with anger, his powers all but gone, Khristos glared viciously at her.
“Never,” he whispered.
Screaming wildly, he raised his staff like a sword and charged straight at her.
Whirling on her heels, Shailiha sidestepped Khristos’ staff as it came flashing down, then brought her blade around swiftly. Her sword cleanly severed Khristos’ head from his shoulders and it fell to the ground, its reptilian eyes still wide open. The lifeless corpse crashed down beside it.
TheJin’Saiou took several precious moments to look around. The azure bolts had stopped raining down, and it seemed that Khristos’ Blood Vipers had been all but vanquished by her Minion warriors. Given the monsters’ depleted condition, she had gambled that they could be defeated by a lesser force, and she had won. Wanting to be sure, she called out for Traax.
The Minion commander was by her side in seconds. He appeared exhausted, and his dreggan blade was covered in blood. Hissing and screaming still pierced the cold night.
“What is our situation?” she demanded.
“Viper stragglers are being killed as I speak,” he answered. “Given the enemies’ weakness from the Blood Pox spell, our losses were light.”
Shailiha nodded as she sheathed her sword. “See to it that every viper head is taken,” she said. “Not one of those creatures is ever to walk the earth again.”
“I live to serve!” Traax answered, then quickly turned away to carry out his orders.
Shailiha watched the Minion litter descend and land nearby. As Faegan and Adrian disembarked, Shailiha approached them tiredly. The look on Faegan’s face told her that he was relieved but perturbed. Scowling, he folded his arms across his chest.
“You took a great chance, did you not?” he asked. “After all, I said that I couldn’t be sure about Khristos’ waning powers.” Then the wizard looked at the beheaded corpse and he let go a quick smile. “But don’t think we’re not glad to see him dead,” he added.
“I trust your judgment,” Shailiha answered simply. “I always have.”
She looked up at the nighttime sky. “It will start soon now, won’t it?” she asked.
Faegan nodded. “No matter how many times I witness it, I remain amazed.”
“As do I,” the princess replied.
No sooner had she spoken than lightning streaked across the sky, accompanied by thunder so loud she thought her eardrums might burst. On and on the display continued as Khristos’ many forestallments left his blood to go and find their way back into the Well of Forestallments. The wind howled, the trees shook, and the gentle waves that had once hidden Khristos and his Blood Vipers turned into swiftly moving whitecaps. And then, as quickly as it had begun, it was over. Shailiha placed one hand on Faegan’s shoulder.
“Let’s go home,” she said.
Saying nothing, Faegan grasped her hand and nodded.
CHAPTER LI
AS TRISTAN AND HOSHI’S BARGE PLUMMETED DOWNWARD, at first theJin’Sai could see nothing but snow as it rushed toward him. Soon the snowfall became so dense that it became difficult to see Hoshi, even though she stood at his side.
For a few terrifying moments Tristan wondered how the katsugai officer piloting the barge could possibly see through the blizzard, then he remembered that the warrior was a Shashidan mystic. The wind was bitter cold, and had Tristan not been so intent on wanting the barge to clear the blizzard, he would have realized that his body was trembling and his teeth chattering.
Although he couldn’t see them, Tristan knew that thousands more tataki fune were flying down the mountain slopes from every direction. Thousands more would be unloading their katsugai divisions at the north and south valley entrances to claw their way through Vespasian’s legions.
Just then the barge burst from the squall to reveal the lush valley that the Shashidans called the Tani Kinkiro. The valley was so spectacularly beautiful that Tristan forgot his fear. The rolling pastures were lush and green, the river running through the valley’s center majestic and swift. Even from such a great altitude Tristan could see gold veins glinting in the mountainsides and nuggets twinkling in the riverbed. Then he got his first glimpse of the Rustannican legions, and he gasped.
Rustannican soldiers blanketed the valley floor. Even now they were hurriedly gathering up all the gold they could steal. Vespasian’s war tents stretched for leagues toward each end of the valley. Great herds of exotic beasts could be seen hauling the purloined gold toward hundreds of whirling azure vortices. Tristan couldn’t begin to imagine how much plunder Vespasian had sent to Ellistium.
Nor could he guess why the legions had yet to notice the thousands of katsugai-laden barges that were streaking down the mountainsides, until he grasped how silent was their approach and how intently the
