David Drake - Master of the Cauldron

"And a considerable power that is," said Davus with a nod. "But first things first, and your Lady Merota is first. Mistress, if you'll give me the jewel?"

Ilna lifted the gleaming stone from her tunic. It was bubble-light in her hands, but when Davus took it from her she felt a great weight pass from her soul.

"The jewel!" Arrea said. Her eyes glinted brighter than sunlight filtered into the shadowed alcove could account. She began to chant under her breath, mouthing a spell.

Davus walked toward the half-blocked entrance, holding the jewel out in his left hand. "The jewel in exchange for our passage, Arrea," he said in a hard, distant voice. "That is the bargain I offer you. Come out and take the jewel."

"Give me the jewel now!" Arrea said. "I'll blast the flesh from your bones, I'll fill your marrow with liquid fire!"

"You may do all those things," said Davus, halting a double-pace from the low wall and the woman behind it. Ilna and Chalcus were to his right and left.

The sailor's hands were open, emphasizing that he wasn't holding his weapons; Ilna's fingers knotted cords within her cupped palms. Davus knew what he was doing so he was in charge, but they'd act if the situation started to spin out of control. If it wasn't already out of control…

"You may do all those things," Davus repeated, "but you must come out from your cave and give us passage. Do you think to command me while I holdthis, Arrea?"

He tossed the shimmering jewel in the air and caught it one-handed. He was grinning.

Arrea said nothing, but her whole form quivered. Ilna waited, her face perfectly blank. She had no idea of what was about to happen, but something Davus tossed the jewel up again. Arrea crashed through the masonry wall, scattering the blocks. Her human head and torso were joined to the body of a serpent so large that it filled the tunnel beyond.

No wonder Davus said that beheading Arrea wouldn't gain them a way into the Citadel. That mass of flesh rotting would be as complete a barrier as the rock itself.

"Come out, Arrea, come out," Davus said cheerfully, tossing the jewel and catching it. "When you've opened us the passage, I'll give you the price you claim. As I swore."

As Davus spoke he stepped back and toward Ilna. She scrambled away, hoping she wouldn't manage to stumble over the cliff while her attention was on the monster.

"What is that thing, Master Davus?" said Chalcus. "What in the name of all Gods is she?"

More loops of Arrea's massive body curled out of the cave. Her scales broke sunlight into a rainbow haze; each was as broad as a spread hand.

"Arrea was a snake, no more than the scaly friend who keeps your hut free of rats," said Davus, continuing to sidle to his left as he tossed and caught the jewel. "But she found her place here beneath the Citadel and held it against her fellows, soaking in the power that trickled down through the passage. And in time she was not a snake but an echidna, a snake that hates humans because she wishes she were human. Yet she will give us passage."

The creature was following him. Ilna remembered winding a wire worm out of a sore, taking it up slowly on a straw until she'd removed the worm's full length and could swab the festering wound with spirits.

"Give me…," Arrea said, her voice an inhuman buzz like someone trying to form words with a bone rattle. Her tail squirmed clear of the tunnel mouth. She was as long as a trireme, but even so the serpent body seemed heavy. The ground shuddered as her weight slid over it. "… the jewel."

Davus had brought them circling around to the entrance. The echidna's body lay in a great loop along the cliff edge, virtually penning Ilna and her companions against the face of the Citadel.

"You've kept your bargain," Davus said approvingly. "And I will keep mine."

He tossed the jewel to Arrea. She caught it with hands that seemed absurdly tiny now that the full body was visible.

Davus gestured toward the tunnel mouth. "The two of you can start up, now," he said. "I'll stay here-"

"I've given you passage," Arrea cried. She set the jewel on her human-looking head; it clung there, much as it had to the larva which Ilna took it from. "I gave you passage, and now I'll kill you!"

Chalcus started forward, light trembling on his sword blade. Davus touched his arm and Ilna's both, saying, "No. Wait."

"Aleo," Arrea chanted. "Sambethor basultha…"

She pointed her right hand toward the humans.

"Erchonsi!" she shouted and began to laugh.

The jewel flashed brighter than the sun. It shivered and shrank without losing brilliance. Arrea's triumphant laughter turned to a high-pitched scream.

"In truth, it's an object of great power just as Arrea thought," Davus said. He sounded calm but Ilna could feel his fingertips trembling on her forearm. "But it's an egg, not dead crystal. The King wears such a jewel that's been properly prepared; it gives him power like no other in this land. But using using the egg for wizardry without preparing it first-"

The jewel had shrunk to a wire-fine glitter extending from Arrea's forehead. It vanished down the hole it'd bored into the echidna's skull.

"-causes it to hatch."

The serpent body gave a convulsive twitch. A loop rolled over the edge of the cliff, its weight pulling more loops after it. The whole echidna slid over with a rolling crackle and a cloud of broken rock.

"In time," Davus said, lowering his arms, "the hatchling will grow into a creature like the one in the Citadel now. A creature like the New King."

The echidna struck the water loop by loop, sending a long column of spray to dance above the crumbled cliff. For a long moment, Ilna could hear nothing but the waves.

"Let's go," Chalcus said quietly. He started to sheathe his sword, then paused and closed his eyes. Only when he'd opened them again did he slide the blade home. He whispered, "I hate snakes."

"Only the two of you," Davus said calmly. "I'll stay here at the tunnel mouth or another snake will take up residence. The power calls them, you see. It calls them to a treasure beyond the dreams of their scaly minds."

"But…?" Chalcus said.

"Go," Davus said. "Merota is your friend. And I must be here if we're to succeed."

"All right," said Ilna. She'd picked her yarn out and replaced it in her sleeve. With her back straight and her head high, she entered the tunnel.

She didn't know what was waiting at the top. Now that she knew what the New King had grown from, though, nothing but her sense of duty would have sent her to face it.

Ilna smiled wryly. If she'd believed in the Great Gods, she'd have thanked them for that sense of duty.

Sharina lay like a rolled carpet in the bottom of the boat, slowly getting her breath back. All she could see was the sky, the vessel's curved bronze sides, and the men in aboard with her.

Her head was toward the bow. Though she heard Hani chanting words of power, she couldn't see him without twisting around uncomfortably. There was nothing about the wizard that would've justified her strain.

The hull hummed like a taut line in a breeze. Sharina might not have noticed it through her thick sandals if she'd been standing, but lying down the vibration was more uncomfortable than the aftereffects of hitting the tree.

The People paid her no attention. They looked out over the landscape, rarely moving even their heads and not speaking that she heard.

The two humans who'd lifted her aboard were another matter. "Pretty little blonde thing, isn't she?" said the man with the slit nose. He giggled. "I like blondes."

"You like anything, Wilfus," said the taller man who was missing fingers. "I've seen you, remember?"

"Yeah?" said Wilfus, flashing suddenly hot. "Well, at least I stick to living ones, don't I? Which is more than some people can say!"