The man walked around Averone, looking him up and down as if the farmer was a steer he was considering purchasing. Averone was still able to blink, although he couldn’t move his eyes or turn his neck to follow the man with his gaze. But the man was now close enough that when he moved in front of Averone’s eyes, he could see that the shape he had taken for a familiar was some manner of snakelike creature with a single large eye. If Averone hadn’t been in the grip of the strange paralysis, he would’ve recoiled at the sight of the thing. As it was, he still found it somewhat disturbing.
“I saw you talking with my niece,” the man said. “Lovely girl, isn’t she? A bit on the serious side, but she gets that from her father. We’ve been playing hide and seek all day, but of course I have an unfair advantage. I always carry a few toys around with me-including a device called a concealer that allows me to roam about undetected if I wish. For the last few hours I’ve been within shouting distance of Lirra and she didn’t know it. It’s been amusing watching her adjust to the presence of her new friend, and I was especially intrigued by her encounter with you. After she took the life of your cow, I thought for certain that she wouldn’t be able to resist taking yours. The lust to spill blood runs strong in symbionts, you see, and once they start killing it becomes almost impossible to stop them. But Lirra was able to resist the symbiont’s influence and spare your life. I always knew my niece was strong, but I’m beginning to see that she’s far stronger than I ever imagined. I’m going to have so much fun plumbing the depths of her strength and learning what it takes to finally break her.”
The man stopped in front of Averone and grinned.
“But in the meantime, there’s something else I’d like to try. You might have noticed that I’ve recently acquired several new friends of my own.” The man raised his misshapen clawed hand, and the sinuous creature draped across his shoulders trained its single milky white eye on Averone. “But my symbionts aren’t the only gifts I’ve received. A powerful benefactor graced me with his touch, and not only did he open my eyes to the true nature of reality, but he granted me certain abilities as well-abilities that I’ve been dying to try out.”
The man reached toward Averone’s face with his left hand-this one perfectly normal-and brushed the tips of his fingers across the farmer’s cheek. Averone felt his flesh grow warm beneath the artificer’s touch, and when the man pulled his fingers away, the skin stuck to them, stretching like warm tree sap.
“I can now shape flesh and bone the way a potter shapes clay, and you, my dear farmer, are going to be my first work of art.”
Averone could see the light of madness shining in the artificer’s gaze as the man shook loose the strands of cheek flesh from his fingers and reached toward his forehead. He paused for an instant and then plunged his hand into Averone’s skull, fingers passing through flesh and bone as easily as if they were made of water. Still paralyzed, Averone stood completely still as the artificer went to work molding, shaping, and rearranging his mind, but inside he screamed in agony.
Ranja crouched on a hilltop a quarter of a mile from where the two men stood. She kept low to the ground, her mottled green clothing helping to conceal her from them. She’d been following Lirra at a distance and watched as the woman savagely killed a cow for no apparent reason. She’d seen the farmer confront Lirra, and she’d fully expected the woman to slay him as well, and she’d been surprised when Lirra had turned away and departed, leaving the man alive. Fusing with a symbiont had clearly taken a toll on Lirra’s mind, but she’d been able to resist the urge to kill the farmer. It seemed the woman hadn’t completely succumbed to madness yet, and that intrigued Ranja. She respected strength and courage, and it appeared Lirra had an abundant supply of both.
When Lirra rendered the farmer unconscious and departed, Ranja had fully intended to follow her, though she’d planned to wait before doing so to allow the woman to put some distance between them. But as she waited, she was shocked by the sudden appearance of Elidyr. And “appear” was precisely what the man had done. One moment he wasn’t there, the next he was. Ranja didn’t know what sort of magic the man had used, but she was familiar with any number of spells or devices that could accomplish the task, and the specifics didn’t really matter to her. As this was the first time she’d seen Elidyr since he’d walked away from the lodge, she decided to stick around and see what he’d do. She could always catch up to Lirra later.
But Ranja regretted her choice when she saw a symbiont burst forth from Elidyr’s mouth to paralyze the farmer, and she really regretted it when he touched the farmer’s face, stretching the man’s flesh as if it were bread dough. And when he actually stuck his hand inside the farmer’s head …
The hackles rose on the back of Ranja’s neck, and a low growl sounded deep in her throat. Instinctively, she changed form, teeth and claws lengthening, hair thickening and becoming furlike, her face assuming a more bestial aspect.
Perhaps it was her growling, soft though it was, or perhaps it was due to some preternatural sense that Elidyr possessed, but the man looked away from the farmer and turned his gaze toward the shifter. He grinned, as if delighted to see her, raised his oversized claw of a hand and waved.
That was too much for Ranja. She bolted and fled as swiftly as her bestial form would allow.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The town of Geirrid lay in the center of Warlord Bergerron’s lands, surrounded by open fields and dense forests beyond. It was the kind of place you stopped briefly at on your way to somewhere else, and that was precisely why Lirra hoped she’d be able to move about without drawing too much attention to herself.
The guards stationed at the town’s main entrance hadn’t given her a first glance, let alone a second, as she entered. Though identification papers were still required and checked in the larger cities and bordertowns, those living in Karrnath’s interior were able to travel freely and only had to show their papers if they caused a disturbance or were suspected of a crime. As a soldier, Lirra had been against such lax discipline, but she was grateful for it now, as it allowed her to enter Geirrid unchallenged and unnoticed.
After leaving the farmer lying unconscious in his field, Lirra had walked all night to reach Geirrid, and while her symbiont made her physically stronger, she was bone-tired, and it took an effort of will for her to keep putting one foot in front of the other. She’d managed to find water during her journey, but nothing to eat, and her stomach was so empty she thought it had probably forgotten what food was by now. Concealed by the folds of her “borrowed” cloak, the tentacle whip continually squeezed her forearm in a rhythmic pattern. She could sense the symbiont’s hunger. After all, it drew nourishment from her blood, and if she didn’t put food in her belly, the symbiont would have nothing to sustain itself. The way the aberration squeezed her arm reminded her of a hungry pet whining and pawing at its owner’s leg in order to get fed.
Patience, she told the whip. We need to find a place where we won’t be noticed.
But the tentacle whip refused to be mollified and continued squeezing Lirra’s forearm.
She felt a wave of irritation, but she was too weary for the emotion to build into anger. She knew she couldn’t afford to wait much longer to eat though. She needed her mind strong and clear if she was to continue resisting the aberration’s corrupting influence-and so she could plan a strategy for tracking down Elidyr. She didn’t know why she’d ever thought that she’d find her uncle by simply wandering around Karrnath’s countryside hoping to stumble onto him. Elidyr might not have been a soldier, but he was an intelligent man and an artificer as well, and even before his transformation yesterday, Lirra would’ve had a difficult time locating him if he didn’t want to be found. But now he had additional abilities to drawn on, and just because he was insane didn’t mean he was any less intelligent. To find her uncle, she would need a better plan, a real plan. But first she needed a decent meal.