In the Claws of the Tiger (33 page)

“If only we’d come a few moments later,” Dania said.

“I said that’s enough, Dania,” Janik said.

Dania got to her feet for the first time. “Well, I’m not going to stop until you get it through your head that this isn’t just some lark that Maija is pulling on us. Don’t you see? If
Maija has the Tablet of Shummarak and she’s here, that means she’s trying to release whatever fiend lord is imprisoned here. She might as well be plotting to destroy the world!”

“And of course we’re going to stop her,” Janik said, “but that doesn’t mean we’re just going to cut her down.”

“What if that’s what it takes? We’re not just going to talk her out of it, either. What do you have in mind?”

“We are talking about my wife, damn it!” Janik’s face was a hand’s width from Dania’s. “I will take up arms against the Sovereign Host before I kill her—or let you do it!”

“She is not your wife any more, Janik, any more than she is the friend I once loved. Evil has consumed her! There isn’t any Maija left.”

“You talk as if evil were a monster, like the chuul we fought on the shore. Evil doesn’t eat people, Dania. What are you saying? That she’s undead? That she’s been turned into a vampire, like Krael?”

“I don’t know, Janik! She’s not a vampire, she’s definitely still alive, but—” She stopped abruptly. “Wait,” she said to herself.

“But what? If she’s not undead, then what do you think happened to her? What kind of evil could consume her and leave nothing behind?”

“The undead aren’t the only great evil in the world, Janik. Look around you! We’ve been fighting fiends in the flesh since we entered the desert three weeks ago. This whole place was erected by a force of evil so great—” She broke off suddenly.

“What, then? You think she’s been turned into a rakshasa?”

“Hosts of Shavarath, how could I be so blind?” Dania whispered. “Janik, I think you might be right!”

“What do you mean?”

“We’re here because the Keeper of the Flame sensed something—an evil spirit escaping into the world about the time that we were here. Janik, what if that spirit possessed Maija?”

P
ossessed?” Krael said. “That would explain a great many things.”

“So you’re saying that the evil spirit we accidentally released while we were here is Maija?” Janik said, incredulous.

“It’s in her,” Dania said. “It has taken up residence in her body and controls her actions.”

“And that’s the evil that has devoured her?”

“That’s just it, Janik! If I’m right, then Maija is still in there—like a passenger in a carriage the fiend is driving, helpless to stop it. And that means we might be able to save her—if we can drive the fiend out of her!”

Janik could not speak. He had clung to shreds of hope for so long without having any idea what to hope for. Now, when hope seemed justified, he wasn’t sure how to deal with it.

“Dania?” Auftane said, looking up from Mathas. “What makes you think she’s possessed?”

“Look,” Dania said, “all along we’ve been baffled by what happened, unable to explain such a sudden and dramatic shift in her behavior. It was like it came out of nowhere,
and we felt like she must have been keeping up an incredible charade for over a decade. But if I’m right, that’s not what happened at all—it really was a sudden change. She wasn’t lying to us all those years. When the spirit entered her, that’s when she turned against us.”

“So that makes it desirable to believe your theory,” Auftane said, “but what evidence supports it?”

“Evidence? There’s the stink of evil on her, which is stronger than the mere taint of a corrupt heart. It overpowered me back in that room. Even Krael’s evil odor isn’t strong enough to do that.”

“I’ll have to work on that,” Krael said.

Dania ignored him. “Then, there’s the connection with this place. It was here that she changed, as if the evil of the spirit imprisoned here had seized her. And, once she found that tablet in Karrnath, she brought it back here, as if she were obeying the orders of the rajah. And finally—” She paused a moment, searching for a conclusive argument. “Krael—you said possession would explain things. What things?”

Krael grimaced. “Well, as I said to you in Karrnath, I never thought much of Maija. I always thought of you and Janik as my real enemies, Mathas to a lesser extent, and Maija as sort of the annoying accomplice—Janik’s good little wife. Believe me, I was as surprised as you were when she brought me the Ramethene Sword. And when she gave me to Havoc, I was stunned. I never trusted her, but I would have expected her to go back to Janik rather than betray me to a hundred-year-old vampire.”

Janik scowled and opened his mouth to speak, but Krael cut him off.

“And then, just before we found the Tablet of Shummarak, she killed a man—a priest of the Blood of Vol, really just
an innocent bystander. She used a spell on him to split him open. Blood oozed from his eyes first, then his skin erupted. I asked her where a cleric of the Sovereign Host learns magic like that.”

“Exactly,” Dania said. “A cleric of the Sovereign Host doesn’t use spells like that. But ancient demons of Khyber do.”

“I’m convinced,” Janik said, and Auftane nodded as well. “So what do we do?”

“If we can drive the fiend out of her, then we can confront it on a different footing, perhaps destroy it. No matter what, Maija should be restored to her right mind.”

“I liked the plan of killing her better,” Krael said.

“Careful, Krael,” Dania said. “There are three people in this very small room who have been hoping to kill you for fifteen years. Don’t provoke us.”

“Without weapons, I’m fairly certain that Sever would rip all your arms off before you managed to hurt me,” Krael shot back. Sever accentuated Krael’s point by slamming one fist into his open hand.

“Krael, help me here,” Janik said, dropping to his knees in front of the vampire.

“What?” Krael said, one eyebrow arched in surprise.

“You stole all my books that have anything to do with Mel-Aqat, damn it. I assume you had a reason for doing that besides spite. What is the spirit possessing Maija?”

“Dhavibashta?”

“Don’t be stupid,” Janik said, and Krael grinned.

“What are you talking about?” Dania said.

Janik got to his feet. “Dhavibashta is the name of the rajah imprisoned here, according to the
Serpentes Fragments
. But it’s clear to me that whatever spirit has possessed Maija is trying
to release the rajah, so it’s obviously not the rajah.”

“I’m glad to see you can function without your books,” Krael said.

“I still want them back.”

Mathas sat up, his desire to participate in the conversation finally overpowering his weakness. “Is it possible,” he said, “that the imprisoned rajah could extend its will beyond its prison to control Maija, while most of its essence remained trapped here?”

“That would mean the rajah could be using Maija to try to free itself,” Dania said. “And I confess I don’t know enough about this kind of thing to say for sure. Kophran might have been able to answer that, but—”

“But we wouldn’t want to be locked in this tiny room with a pompous ass,” Auftane said.

Janik ran his fingers through his hair. “I want to consider the more likely possibilities first.”

“And what are those?” Dania asked.

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” Janik snapped. “If my theory is correct, the city of Mel-Aqat was built long after the rakshasa rajah was imprisoned. The ziggurat was built to mark the site of the rajah’s prison, and the city was built around it.”

“Who built the city?” Auftane asked.

“Based on the scale of the ruins, most of the city was inhabited by giants.”

“Giants?” Auftane exclaimed. “Not the areas we’ve been in so far!”

“Right. The subterranean chambers, which include the chamber where we found the Ramethene Sword, were neither built nor used by giants. It suggests two possibilities. The pattern often seen elsewhere in Xen’drik is that of giant-sized
main structures, plus attached quarters built on a human-sized scale that were used by the elf slaves of the giants. The chambers we’ve seen don’t fit that pattern. They don’t look like slave quarters—they’re far too well built and extravagant. And they’re not decorated with the typical elven motifs of skulls and scorpions. Instead, we find stylized tiger faces.”

“Hmm,” Krael said with mock seriousness. “Now who would have carved tiger faces in these ancient stone walls?”

“Right,” Janik said, ignoring Krael’s sarcasm. “I have long argued that Mel-Aqat was built by a fringe cult of giants that worshiped the rakshasa rajahs. I think now that this cult was led by a smaller cadre of rakshasas—a force of zakyas responsible for direct control of the giants, and smaller echelons of the more powerful fiends above them.”

“So you think that one of these rakshasas might be the spirit possessing Maija?” Dania said.

“That’s where my theory was heading,” Janik said.

“The Fleshrender,” Krael said.

“What?”

“The Fleshrender,” Krael said. “That’s the spirit in Maija.”

Janik’s brow furrowed. “The Fleshrender is a name for the Ramethene Sword,” he said.

“I thought so too, until just now. But what’s the one text that uses that name?” Krael asked.

“One of the
Serpentes Fragments.”
Janik searched his memory for a moment, then quoted:

“It’s a clear textual parallel, the Sunderer in the first couplet and the Fleshrender in the second, both referring to the sword.” Janik was thinking out loud.

“And what’s the next couplet?” Krael said.

“Something about the blade and the hand that wields it. I don’t remember exactly.”

“‘For the blade drinks the blood, and the hand that wields it feasts on the life.’ The two couplets are parallel, but not synonymous. The blade is the Sunderer, drinking the dragon’s blood. But the hand that wields the blade is the Fleshrender, feasting on the dragon’s life. See?”

Janik opened his mouth and closed it again, raising his eyebrows in surprise.

“I think you might be right, as much as I hate to admit it. But what makes you think this Fleshrender is the spirit possessing Maija?”

“Two things,” Krael said, “neither one more than a gut feeling. First, there’s the kind of magic Maija used in Karrnath. I suppose any fiend might use such spells, but they seem particularly well suited to one called the Fleshrender. Second, consider the connection to the Ramethene Sword. Like it or not, Janik, I think you released that fiend when you pulled the Ramethene Sword from its place.”

“I don’t like it, but I can’t argue that right now. So—we have a name for our enemy—though not a very pleasant name. How do we get the Fleshrender out of Maija’s body?”

“First, we get out of here,” Krael said.

“We?” Dania said. “I don’t plan on letting you out of here alive, let alone helping you escape.”

Krael looked distinctly uncomfortable and Janik felt a strange twinge in his chest. A large part of him agreed with Dania. Krael had caused him so much misery and difficulty
over the last few months, to say nothing of the previous fifteen years, that helping him and accepting his help in return seemed unthinkable. At the same time, he couldn’t avoid seeing himself in Krael’s situation: helpless and at the mercy of his worst enemies. Krael had been cooperative, and, well, useful—probably because he knew he needed the help of his enemies if he was to escape.

More than that, though, Janik somehow felt that Krael wasn’t fundamentally different from himself. He had not seduced Maija away from him—Janik had grown so used to blaming Krael for what happened that he had a hard time separating his anger at Krael from his despair over Maija. And he was here for the same reason that Janik was: to claim revenge against the fiend that had destroyed his life. They had some common goals, both in the short term and in long-range pursuits.

“You need me,” Krael said. “You’ll never find your way out of here without my help, and you’ll never find Maija.”

“She might very well find us if we escape from here,” Janik said.

“And she’ll overpower you again, probably kill you this time,” Krael said. “With me and Sever along, you’ve got a fighting chance.”

“I don’t think so,” Dania said. “Now that I know what we’re facing, I think our victory depends entirely on my ability to force this Fleshrender out of Maija’s body. Two extra swords aren’t likely to make the difference—assuming we can recover our weapons.”

“Both of us are very effective without weapons.”

“Krael, stop begging,” Janik said. “It’s embarrassing.”

Krael visibly bit back another sarcastic retort and looked away, toward the door.

“Seems to me it’s an open question how any of us will escape, whether we decide to help each other or not,” Janik said. “But it’s certain that sitting in here arguing with each other isn’t going to get anyone out of this room.”