Faces of Deception (33 page)

Atreus glanced at the huge tentacle stretched across the gallery, trying to imagine the size of the beast at the other end. “Probably the same thing you’d do with a club … not much.”

Carrying his own bucket of pebbles, Atreus stepped onto the gallery behind Seema and Rishi. On the other side of the scaly black tentacle, the stream of shining water spilled out from the palace’s central arch and split into two currents, one flowing toward Atreus and the other in the opposite direction. Though the water was only fingertip deep, Atreus could feel its magic prickling his feet through his boots.

Seema reached the tentacle and stopped to stare down at it. When the creature did not withdraw the scaly appendage, she shook her pebble bucket loudly, then squatted down and duck-walked underneath. When she stood on the other side, her chestnut skin had paled to the color of honey.

She waved Rishi under the tentacle. “Come along,” she said. “The Dweller won’t bother you.”

“You are certain?” Rishi asked.

Atreus gave the Mar a gentle nudge and said, “Go on.”

“Yeah … what you waiting for?” added Yago. “Ain’t you got every right to be here?”

Rishi scowled over his shoulder, shook his pebble bucket as Seema had, and ducked under the Dweller’s tentacle. When he reached the other side, he stood quickly and turned to face Atreus and Yago. Before the Mar could repay their taunts, the tentacle slowly untwined itself.

Rishi dropped his pebble bucket and leaped back, reaching under his cloak. The tentacle merely rippled back into the murky archway, and the Dweller vanished into the darkness.

Atreus caught Rishi’s wrist. “What have you got there?” he asked sternly. “Seema said no weapons.”

“Most definitely, she did,” Rishi admitted and drew up his cloak, displaying the yak-hair tunic underneath. “My reaction was only out of habit, as the good sir will certainly agree if he cares to examine my person.”

Atreus studied the Mar’s torso and the inside lining of his cloak. When he did not find the telltale bulge of a hidden knife, he motioned Rishi to lower his cloak. “My apologies for doubting you.” “No apologies necessary,” said Rishi. “The blame is mine, entirely and without sharing.”

Atreus motioned the Mar forward, feeling somewhat guilty for his suspicions. He was hardly blind to Rishi’s anger over the Sannyasi’s decision, but it seemed hypocritical to doubt the Mar when he himself resented having to leave Langdarma. Seema had accused Sune of being cruel, but it seemed to Atreus that the Sannyasi was the heartless one. If Langdarma could abide someone as bitter and sharp-tongued as Kumara, surely the valley would not be ruined by the presence of a single ugly westerner.

Seema paused to wait at the central arch, and they all stepped into the murky palace together. A film of cool dew formed on their skin almost instantly, and the air smelled as dank and earthy as a cavern. The trickle of running water came from every direction, echoing through a ghostly forest of alabaster support columns. The only light came from the sparkling stream itself, leading like an arrow straight to a distant aura of silver radiance.

Atreus glanced into the murk alongside the stream and saw the Dweller lurking among the shadows, a nebulous black shape silhouetted against the alabaster columns beyond. The monster seemed as large as an elephant, with a slug-like tail and a formless body covered in dense black scales. Just looking at it filled Atreus with a cold, queasy fear. Seema led the way deeper into the palace. The monster slithered along beside them, laying a swath of white slime in its wake. As it moved, it emitted a low, constant rumble that might have been a gurgling belly or a threatening growl.

The thing swung its gruesome head around, locking gazes with Atreus. Suddenly, he could see nothing but an ebony beak and three scarlet eyes ringed by a mane of writhing black tentacles. He felt goose bumps prickling his skin, shivers running down his spine, and something oily and alien gliding into his mind. He experienced a sensation somewhere between thought and emotion, an instinct of pure, unbridled malevolence that might have been the Dweller’s or his own.

Atreus wanted to look away but could not free himself from the monster’s gaze. It was as though one of the creature’s scaly tentacles had somehow slithered into his skull and wrapped its tiny fingers around his brain, holding his head motionless so that he could neither close his eyes nor look away. His thoughts and memories began to swirl through his mind in a wild cyclone, then he heard his pebble bucket crash to the floor and felt himself step forward.

As his foot came down, the monster blinked. Atreus found himself dangling above the ground, pinned to Yago’s massive chest. His face was cold and wet and tingling with the magic of the shining water, and Seema was stooping down before him, cupping her hands in the stream. She stood and hurled another handful into his eyes, nearly blinding him with brilliant flashes of silver.

“That’s enough … I can’t see it anymore!” Atreus said, shaking the water from his eyes. “I can’t see anything.”

“That will pass soon enough,” said Seema. “But you must not allow the Dweller to lure you off. They are very unpredictable, and sometimes it is decades before they release their playmates.”

“They?” Atreus demanded. “There’s more than one?”

“So it is said,” Seema replied. “I have only seen one.”

“You told us it wasn’t dangerous,” growled Yago.

“I said you would not be harmed if you did exactly as I said,” replied Seema. “Has Atreus been harmed?”

The ogre placed Atreus on the ground and rapped him between the shoulders. Atreus, still struggling to overcome the water’s dazzling effects, stumbled two steps forward before catching his balance.

“I guess you’re okay,” said the ogre. “But I still don’t like coming in here with nothing but rocks. She could be leading us into a trap.”

“Seema wouldn’t do that,” said Atreus.

“Because you two did a fracas?” Yago mocked. Among ogres, it was not uncommon for an unhappy wife to arrange her mate’s death. “Maybe that’s the reason. It’s not like you’ve had a lot of practice with the real thing.”

“Seema’s not a thing,” Atreus said. “And humans don’t treat their mates… er, lovers… that way.”

“Why didn’t she warn us about that Dweller?” Yago demanded.

“The Dwellers summon every person differently,” Seema said. “I have heard of people being sung to or lured with sweet aromas—”

“And she didn’t want us to come here in the first place,” Yago continued, speaking over Seema. “She’s trying to protect something—just like she was trying to protect Langdarma when she nearly got you killed.”

“Yes, and I suspect now she’s trying to protect us,” said Atreus. He gestured into the shadows, which were empty of the Dweller. “Whatever that thing is, I don’t think weapons would do us much good.”

He gave Seema an apologetic shake of the head, picked up his pebble bucket, and gestured for her to lead the way. The Dweller did not show itself again, but they could hear it paralleling their course, its heavy body making wet sucking sounds as it slithered through the shadows alongside them.

After Atreus’s nose grew accustomed to the cavern-like smell of the place, he began to notice the subtle stench of brimstone wafting through the alabaster forest. At first, he thought it might be some odor the creature was emitting. Then he started to glimpse the jagged throats of rough-hewn tunnels along the palace walls. They had passed into the mountain itself.

As they neared the back of the huge chamber, the forest of alabaster pillars gave way to a black granite wall. The aura of silver radiance continued to brighten, and they soon recognized it as the shining aura of a small pond, formed when an alabaster pillar toppled or was pushed across the stream. The falling column had brought with it a sizable heap of rubble that someone had shaped into a shallow dam. On one rim of this dam sat a small marble bench, and scattered across its surface were a dozen floating lotus blossoms.

Beyond the pond, barely visible through its cloudy aura of brilliance, an even brighter stream of twinkling water cascaded down a stairway from the unseen depths of the palace’s inner sanctum. Atreus smiled. The water appeared to be growing more potent as they neared its source.

The Dweller emerged from the shadows beside the pond, its big belly scales hissing across the stone floor as it slithered up to the dam. Atreus’s stomach turned cold and queasy again. Without really meaning to, he stopped and averted his gaze, watching from the corner of his eye as the monster stuck its tentacle-festooned head into the water.

The creature looked as though it were drinking, but then it began to stretch forward and twist its neck about, searching for something on the bottom of the pool. Seema continued forward until she could peer over the rubble dam down into the pond, and waved her companions forward.

“This is very special,” she whispered. “You must see.”

Rishi crept ahead without hesitation, but Atreus found himself lagging behind, struggling with his memory of how easily the monster had taken control of him. Only his bodyguard’s looming presence, and the certain knowledge that the ogre would interpret any hesitation as further evidence of Seema’s trustworthiness, compelled Atreus forward at all.

When he reached Seema’s side, he bit his cheeks to keep from crying out in wonder. The bottom of the pool was buried in diamonds, rubies, sapphires, every type of precious stone, all in their natural form and some as large as a man’s thumb. The Dweller was rummaging through the jewel bed, pulling out the brightest stones and holding each one to an eye for a closer examination. It threw many stones back, usually those cloudier or less deeply colored than their fellows. It placed the other gems into the scarlet mouths at the end of its tentacles and sucked them up inside the scaly appendages.

“Seema, you are a hopeless liar!” cried Rishi. “Did you not tell me just this morning there was no treasure in Langdarma?”

“This is not Langdarma’s treasure.” Seema smirked at the Mar as though daring him to steal it. “It belongs to the Dwellers, and you must not touch it.”

“Are you mad?” Rishi gasped. “Those are diamonds … and rubies. They are not meant to fill the gizzard of some overgrown snail!”

“They will not,” said Seema. “The Dwellers take them down into the mountains and plant them beneath the far reaches of the Yehimals.”

“Where they will not be found for centuries?” A larcenous gleam appeared in Rishi’s eye, and he seemed unable to rip his gaze from pool bottom as he said, “What good does that do? It is better for me to take them now. I can carry them straight to the finest markets in the Five Kingdoms.”

The Mar dropped his bucket and started forward without awaiting Seema’s reply, but Atreus quickly caught him by the shoulder.

“Don’t you think the Dweller will object to another pair of hands in its gem bed? Seema promised no harm would come to us as long as we did what she said. I intend to see to it that we honor our agreement.”

Rishi’s gaze ran along the pool bottom to one of the Dweller’s scaly tentacles, then up the appendage to the shapeless bulk of the monster’s huge body. The larcenous gleam faded from his eyes, and he seemed slowly to return to his senses.

“You are absolutely right. A thousand gratitude’s. I was lost in the monster’s fiendish grip and would certainly have brought a swift and terrible end to us all if not for your ready intervention.”

“The Dweller calls to each of us in a different way,” Seema agreed. “I am glad you have heard yours and returned to us whole.”

“We will have to wait until after the monster is gone,” the Mar said, then sat down on his pebble bucket, his gaze still fixed on the pool. “Surely, there will be a bucketful left for us.”

Seema’s face grew stern and she said, “Even if you had so many days, that is not why I brought you here.” She jerked Rishi to his feet, snatched his bucket up, and thrust it into his hands. “Let us do what we came to do and be gone.”

Seema cast an angry look at Atreus, clearly holding him responsible for the Mar’s sacrilege, then climbed onto the dam and dumped her pebble bucket into the shining basin. A tentacle snaked over to inspect the stones and rose briefly out of the pool and slapped the surface, splashing Seema with a stream of shining water. It was impossible to guess whether the gesture was one of thanks or irritation. Seema motioned the others over, gesturing for them to do as she had. After dumping their buckets, Atreus and Rishi each received a similar splash. When Yago dumped his cask, the Dweller rested its tentacle on his shoulder and rubbed his face, smearing the ogre’s orange cheek with white slime. “Hey!”

Yago knocked the tentacle away and the Dweller responded by flicking the appendage back toward him. When the ogre fell for the feint and brought his other arm across to block, the monster struck, slapping Yago alongside the head so hard that he tumbled backward off the dam. He landed with a deafening crash and sprang instantly to his feet, only to find the tentacle’s finger-like end tendrils waving in his face.

Keeping a cautious eye on the tendrils, Yago began to edge toward the marble bench.

“Yago!” Seema hissed, wrapping both hands around the ogre’s wrist and pulling him toward the head of the pool. “What are you doing?”

“You saw,” the ogre said as he backed away from the Dweller. “That thing went after me!”

“It was only playing,” Atreus said, hoping he was right. “If that monster had been attacking, I doubt any of us would be here.”

Seema nodded, her eyes as hard as ice. “I pray we are not about to discover the truth of that,” she said, and began to edge along the dam toward the granite stairs. “I do not know what the Dweller will do when we pass the Pool of Gems. I have never been beyond here.”

Rishi rolled his eyes, clearly believing this was just one more lie designed to protect Langdarma’s secret treasures.

Atreus stepped to the head of the line. “In that case,” he said, “let me go first… alone. If the Dweller objects, perhaps he will only attack me.”

“I’m the bodyguard,” objected Yago.

“But it’s my quest,” Atreus said, then made the small leap from the dam to the first step. “What does it mean if I don’t go first?”