isn’t there—but if one day I am…I know my sister’s made an example for me to live up to.”
She hugged him back; for now, things were exactly as she’d hoped, and she thanked Myrionar for that. “And I know you will live up to it.”
Chapter 11
Once more the scroll remained silvery, blank, even as the voice spoke from it. “A few weeks only, now.”
“Really? You have made good time. The matrix remains intact?”
“Astonishingly so. I need only focus on my intended path and impression, and it brings forth the words, the posture, the gestures…everything I need.” The voice paused, and in the silence it read something else.
“You sound troubled, my friend.”
“It brings forth…feelings, as well. I cannot fight those any more than the thoughts, without risking discovery. Yet…”
“You are not being… affected by these feelings, are you?”
The hesitation was a far clearer signal than the answer. “I…I am trying not to be. I know the penalty for failure. But…she was…very important to him.”
“Of course she was. But you must not allow this to affect your own emotions. You know how dangerous that would be—and not merely because you might be discovered.” It was just as well that its unseen agent could not see it either, or it might have found the broad, vindicated grin the creature wore to be incongruous, even eerily unsettling, in comparison with the concerned, warning tone of its voice. Perfect. He will hold out for a bit longer, but fall eventually—as I have expected.
“Yes, I know. I will not allow it to affect me. Other than that, everything seems perfectly on schedule. They…” A pause, in which the creature could hear some other distant sounds. “…sorry, I must go.”
The scroll went inert, now a simple metallic object. It leaned back and laughed, then shook its head. Only a few weeks? I will have to prepare soon!
It stood and began to leave, but it had taken no more than two steps when the scroll chimed an emergency alert—something most unusual. It immediately returned to the table and passed its hand over the surface. “I am here.”
The face revealed on the scroll was of Chissith, a sand-demon of moderate power but excellent tactical skills, second or third in command of Yergoth’s forces—forces that were supposedly in the process of crushing Skysand.
Chissith did not look like someone who was busy crushing a country; on the contrary, the congealed, unshifting mess on one side of its normally fluid visage looked like someone else had been doing the crushing. “L-Lord Viedra…help me…”
“What a surprise, Chissith. I hadn’t expected Yergoth to hand this scroll over to anyone else.” It smiled broadly.
“Yergoth…dessstroyed,” Chissith said, voice slow, hissing and moaning like the wind over sand in pain and disbelief. “Mosssst of the forcesss…annihilated…” It glanced away, as though fearing pursuit.
“Dear me. And last I had heard there was just ‘a little unexpected resistance,’ and ‘we are assured of victory shortly.” What terrible powers could have intervened there, Chissith? Did one of the gods violate the Pact?” It couldn’t keep its grin from widening yet more.
“No…gods…jusssst two—” The sand-demon’s remaining eye widened. “Noooooooo—”
There was a momentary flash of movement that to the creature’s eye looked like a river in flood, and the connection abruptly ceased, leaving the scroll as reflectively blank as ever.
Well, well. That was a bit of a surprise. Not entirely , true, but I would have expected something not quite so utterly overwhelming. But…the same sort of thing seems to have happened at Artania. Balgoltha’s forces were abruptly shattered just yesterday and none of the survivors gave a coherent account of what actually happened.
It seems that the plan is—
Without warning, the scroll darkened, to show a figure visible only as the darkest outline within darkness, the eyes blank
She hugged him back; for now, things were exactly as she’d hoped, and she thanked Myrionar for that. “And I know you will live up to it.”
Chapter 11
Once more the scroll remained silvery, blank, even as the voice spoke from it. “A few weeks only, now.”
“Really? You have made good time. The matrix remains intact?”
“Astonishingly so. I need only focus on my intended path and impression, and it brings forth the words, the posture, the gestures…everything I need.” The voice paused, and in the silence it read something else.
“You sound troubled, my friend.”
“It brings forth…feelings, as well. I cannot fight those any more than the thoughts, without risking discovery. Yet…”
“You are not being… affected by these feelings, are you?”
The hesitation was a far clearer signal than the answer. “I…I am trying not to be. I know the penalty for failure. But…she was…very important to him.”
“Of course she was. But you must not allow this to affect your own emotions. You know how dangerous that would be—and not merely because you might be discovered.” It was just as well that its unseen agent could not see it either, or it might have found the broad, vindicated grin the creature wore to be incongruous, even eerily unsettling, in comparison with the concerned, warning tone of its voice. Perfect. He will hold out for a bit longer, but fall eventually—as I have expected.
“Yes, I know. I will not allow it to affect me. Other than that, everything seems perfectly on schedule. They…” A pause, in which the creature could hear some other distant sounds. “…sorry, I must go.”
The scroll went inert, now a simple metallic object. It leaned back and laughed, then shook its head. Only a few weeks? I will have to prepare soon!
It stood and began to leave, but it had taken no more than two steps when the scroll chimed an emergency alert—something most unusual. It immediately returned to the table and passed its hand over the surface. “I am here.”
The face revealed on the scroll was of Chissith, a sand-demon of moderate power but excellent tactical skills, second or third in command of Yergoth’s forces—forces that were supposedly in the process of crushing Skysand.
Chissith did not look like someone who was busy crushing a country; on the contrary, the congealed, unshifting mess on one side of its normally fluid visage looked like someone else had been doing the crushing. “L-Lord Viedra…help me…”
“What a surprise, Chissith. I hadn’t expected Yergoth to hand this scroll over to anyone else.” It smiled broadly.
“Yergoth…dessstroyed,” Chissith said, voice slow, hissing and moaning like the wind over sand in pain and disbelief. “Mosssst of the forcesss…annihilated…” It glanced away, as though fearing pursuit.
“Dear me. And last I had heard there was just ‘a little unexpected resistance,’ and ‘we are assured of victory shortly.” What terrible powers could have intervened there, Chissith? Did one of the gods violate the Pact?” It couldn’t keep its grin from widening yet more.
“No…gods…jusssst two—” The sand-demon’s remaining eye widened. “Noooooooo—”
There was a momentary flash of movement that to the creature’s eye looked like a river in flood, and the connection abruptly ceased, leaving the scroll as reflectively blank as ever.
Well, well. That was a bit of a surprise. Not entirely , true, but I would have expected something not quite so utterly overwhelming. But…the same sort of thing seems to have happened at Artania. Balgoltha’s forces were abruptly shattered just yesterday and none of the survivors gave a coherent account of what actually happened.
It seems that the plan is—
Without warning, the scroll darkened, to show a figure visible only as the darkest outline within darkness, the eyes blank
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