Enraptured? Not quite. It was as though he were seeing the stars for the first time.
“Ged.” Avram Semira’s voice carried a measured warning. He appeared more troubled than surprised. Akkani, too, displayed not so much as a raised eyebrow.
A test,she’d said. Perhaps the skull was an intricately crafted forgery. Perhaps it belonged to some creature—heretofore unknown to Jacen—bearing similarities to the gods. Perhaps this was all a deranged practical joke.
Jacen waited for the due explanation, but no one seemed inclined to give it. Instead, Avram narrowed his garnet eyes and leaned forward to question him. “You spoke to no one else? No one at all?”
“No,” said Jacen. “We came straight here.” “And you?” Avram asked of the scavenger.
“N-no, my lord.” He wrung his hands. “I—I don’t think my daughters saw it.”
“You don’tthink?” Akkani murmured.
Avram loosed a heavy sigh and rubbed his forehead. “Search him, Drusa. Be thorough.”
She bowed. “At once.”
At the wordssearch him,the scavenger shrank back. Few witnessed this side of the Church and lived, but rumors of what a telepathic inquisitor could do persisted nonetheless.
“Look at me,” Akkani whispered, soft as a chill breeze. She held her right palm to the scavenger’s temple.
To delve into one’s memories, an inquisitor required a weakness. People always let something slip, whether it was passion, grief, a deeply held desire, or—as was Akkani’s favorite tool—fear. Of that, the scavenger had no shortage. It seethed on the very surface of his consciousness, an infection spread out of control.
“Look at me,” Akkani said again.
The man obeyed—and went rigid. His eyes rolled back in his head; his jaw slackened. He began to tremble. At sixty years old, Akkani was not an imposing woman, but she kept the scavenger upright. Her fingers cleaved into his skin with bruising strength.
She recited, “He followed a fallen star past the dunes. He hoped to find gems or precious metals, but he found . . . something he did not understand. A crater. He followed the tracks to a cave, across the great stone bridge, below the northern rim. He wasn’t sure how far down, but . . . quite far. Deeper than he wanted to go. Sand turned to glass. It marks the trail through the ruins of Zal Fel. Down a ravine . . . there’s a rock arch near the entrance. Then, he thinks, a temple.”
She released the scavenger. He slumped to his knees with a hollow groan. There was the sense of a lifting heaviness, which even Ged and Avram seemed to notice. Ged scratched his neck in a vain attempt to hide his discomfort.
Akkani herself swayed where she stood, her face drained of color. To plumb the depths of human memory was excruciating for both parties, even when the victim was a defenseless insensate.
A necessary reality of their work, the Holy Mother had always said. To serve the gods was worth any sacrifice, for only then could Zivora have peace.
She composed herself with practiced haste. “He did not see all that transpired, nor did he comprehend it. He told no one but Brother Kheris.” She pointed at the skull. “He could not fully articulate it, but he believes a demon did this.”
“A demon?” Jacen repeated. He’d spoken out of turn, but a cold fist formed around his heart.Heat and shadow,the scavenger had said.
Impossible.
“I didn’t realize demons were capable of . . .” Ged gestured at the skull, still wearing that odd look.
Hunger,Jacen decided. It was hunger.
“Ifhe was correct.” Akkani cast a sideways glance at Jacen, almost too quick to perceive. “What we’re dealing with here is far stronger than common vermin. I will instruct my exorcists to be vigilant. No one could survive such a possession for long.”
Not even a god?
The gods ruled over the Source and all its creatures, just as they did this world. Their authority was ultimate. If there existed a demon powerful enough to destroy a god . . . it defied everything he knew.
“Well,” said Ged, gingerly picking up the skull and turning it over in his hands, “whatever it was, he didn’t bring it back with him.” He scrutinized the scavenger now kneeling despondent on the floor. “Demons tend to seek new hosts quickly, no? Why not you?”
“Different demons are compatible with different hosts,” Jacen said without thinking. “The strongest favor telepaths.”
Akkani shot him a glare, but the damage was done.
“Then it must still be out there,” said Ged. “If we were to send a telepath?—”
