Felisin laughed softly. ‘Yes, they do haunt one, don’t they?’
L’oric grunted. ‘A mystery here, in Toblakai’s creations. Those faces-they are T’lan Imass. Yet…’
‘He thought them his gods, yes. So Leoman told me, once, beneath the fumes of durhang. Then he warned me to say nothing to Toblakai.’ She laughed again, louder this time. ‘As if I would. A fool indeed, to step between Toblakai and his gods.’
‘There is nothing simple about that simple warrior,’ L’oric murmured.
‘Just as you are not simply a High Mage,’ she said. ‘You must act soon, you know. You have choices to make. Hesitate too long and they will be made for you, to your regret.’
‘I could well say the same to you in return.’
‘Well then, it seems we still have more to discuss this night. But first, let us eat-before the wine makes us drunk.’
Sha’ik recoiled, staggered back a step. The breath hissed from her in a gust of alarm-and pain. A host of wards swirled around Heboric’s abode, still flickering with the agitation her collision had triggered.
She bit down on her outrage, pitched her voice low as she said, ‘You know who it is who has come, Heboric. Let me pass. Defy me, and I will bring the wrath of the goddess down, here and now.’
A moment’s silence, then, ‘Enter.’
She stepped forward. There was a moment’s pressure, then she stumbled through, brought up short against the crumbled foundation wall. A sudden… absence . Terrifying, bursting like the clearest light where all had been, but a moment earlier, impenetrable gloom. Bereft… yet free. Gods, free-the light- ‘Ghost Hands!’ she gasped. ‘What have you done?’
‘The goddess within you, Sha’ik,’ came Heboric’s words, ‘is not welcome in my temple.’
Temple ? Roaring chaos was building within her, the vast places in her mind where the Whirlwind Goddess had been now suddenly vacant, filling with the dark, rushing return of… of all that I was . Bitter fury grew like a wildfire as memories rose with demonic ferocity to assail her. Beneth. You bastard. You closed your hands around a child, but what you shaped was anything but a woman. A plaything. A slave to you and your twisted, brutal world .