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Je
Jermsen stepped over the candles.
She had to do this. She had to end the rule of Richard Rahl.
Thankfully, the center of the whole careful arrangement at least looked dark. Je
As she stepped across the circle of glimmering white sand, it felt frighteningly colder, as if she were stepping into the grip of living winter. She shivered and shook, hugging herself, as she made her way to the center of the circle of women.
In the middle was a Grace made of the same white sand, sparkling in the moonlight. She stood staring down at it, a symbol she herself had drawn many times, but her hand was not guided by the gift.
"Sit," Sister Perdita said.
Je
Je
The woods were dark and gloomy, the trees bare of leaves. The branches clacked together in the wind like the bones of the dead Jermsen feared the Sisters were calling forth.
The chanting suddenly halted. Rather than sit in the single empty spot remaining in the circle of Sisters, as Je
At points in the long, singsong speech, Sister Perdita stressed a wordGrushdeva-and cast her arm out over Je
As the fire ascended, the seven Sisters spoke as if with one voice. "Tu vash misht. Tu vask misht. Grushdeva du kalt misht.»
Not only were those words she knew, but Je
"Tu vash misht. Tu vask misht. Grushdeva du kalt misht.
Je
"Tu vash misht. Tu vask misht. Grushdeva du kalt misht.
Je
"Tu vash misht. Tu vask misht. Grushdeva du kalt misht.»
When she looked up, through her watery vision, she saw something dark sitting in the spot before her that had moments before been empty. Its eyes glowed like the candlelight. Je
"Tu vash misht, Je
Je
Sister Perdita, behind her, cast out her dust again, and this time, when it ignited, it lit the person sitting there with the glowing eyes.
It was her mother.
"Je
"What?" Je
" Surrender.»
Tears flooded forth in an uncontrollable torrent. "Mama! Oh, Mama!"
Je
As the rolling flames lifted and evaporated, as the light faded, her mother vanished into the darkness, and before her was the thing with the glowing candlelight eyes.
"Grushdeva du kalt misht, " the voice growled.
"What?" Je
"Vengeance is through me," the voice growled in translation. "Surangie, Je
"Yes!" Je
The thing gri
It rose up, a wavering shadow, leaning forward toward her. Moonlight glistened on knotted muscles as it stretched out, coming toward her, almost catlike, smiling, showing those heart-stopping fangs.
Je
The thing was right before her, shimmering power and form that was there, but not, partly in this world and partly in another.
Je
"Je
"What. ." She whispered through her tears. "What are those things out there?"
"Why, the hounds of vengeance," the voice whispered intimately. "Embrace me, and I shall unleash them."
Her eyes widened. "What?"
"Surrender to me, Je
Je
She was trying to think of that little word, that important little word. It was somewhere in her mind, but as she stared up into those glowing eyes, she couldn't think of it. Her mind felt frozen. She wanted that word, but it wasn't there.
"Grushdeva A kalt misht, " the voice cooed in that throaty, echoing growl. "Vengeance is through me."
"Vengeance," Je
"Open yourself to me, open yourself for me. Surrender. Avenge your mother.»
The thing passed a long finger over her face, and she could feel where Richard Rahl was-as if she could feel the bond that told others where he was. To the south. Distant, to the south. She could find him, now.
"Embrace me," the voice breathed, inches from her face.
Je
"Surrender your will, Je
The word was gone. Lost. Just like her… lost.
"I… I," she stammered as tears ran from her wide eyes.
"Embrace me, and vengeance will be yours. Richard Rahl will be yours to kill. Embrace me. Surrender your flesh, and with it, your will."
She was Je
"No.»
The Sisters in the circle wailed in sudden pain. They held their hands to their ears, crying in agony, howling like hounds.
The glowing candlelight eyes peered down at her. The smile returned, this time vapor hissing from between wet fangs.
"Surrender, Je
"No," she said, shrinking back as the thing stretched closer to her face. Her fingers dug into the dirt. "No! I will surrender my flesh, my will, if that is the price, if that is what I must do to rid the world of life of the murdering bastard Richard Rahl, but I will not do so until you give me that, first."
"A bargain?" the voice hissed. The glow in the eyes went red. "You wish to bargain with me?"
"That is my price. Release your hounds. Help me kill Richard Rahl. When I have vengeance, then I will surrender."
The thing gri
A long thin tongue snaked out, licking her, in terrible intimate promise, from her naked crotch all the way up to between her breasts. It sent a violent shudder through her to her very soul.
"Bargain struck, Jermsen Rahl."