Page 113 of Master of Storms
“The drekling,” he replied.
“Goddess’s mercy.Elin’sthe killer. Elin’s the one with the queen inside her.”
* * *
“Areyou sure this is the right place?” Marduk asked, lifting the torch and staring into the hollow mouth of the cave.
Dusk settled over the mountains with a rosy caress. Soon it would be night, and visibility was already dropping. Shadows loomed.
“This is where theZilittuworship the goddess,” Elin replied. “There’s a well of pure Chaos magic in the center of the cave. It’s a holy place that only their Chaos practitioners are allowed to enter.”
“You know a lot about this place.” He cut a look toward her.
“As I said,drekitalk.”
“And the key?”
“Hidden deep inside the heart of the Abyss.” She plucked a thin strip of cloak that was tangled in a bramble outside the cave. “This is Andri’s. He must already be here.” Her startled eyes met his. “If he gets to the key….”
“Then we are doomed.”
“Doomed?”
Marduk watched her very carefully. “We suspect my mother’s wraith survived her death. She’s possessed one of our party. Andri, perhaps. If she gets her hands on that key, then she will ruin us all.”
Elin sucked in a sharp gasp. “The queen is alive? And in Andri?”
“All the evidence seems to point to him.” But he couldn’t take his eyes off her face. “Klara warned us to look for personality changes. And my cousin has been quiet of late. You’d have to have noticed? I thought he was courting you, and then suddenly, he wasn’t.”
“Oh, my goodness,” she whispered in horror. “It all makes a terrible sense. He was so… so cruel to me. We have to stop her!”
He took a deep breath and stepped inside the cave, waving the torch. Cobwebs seared away from the flames. Nobody had been in here for a while, by the look of it.
Relax. Marduk closed his eyes and swallowed.The walls won’t cave in.
Ithadto be a cave.
“What’s wrong?” Elin whispered. “Are you afraid of the dark?”
“No.”
“Surely you’re not afraid of being underground?”
“I’m fine.”
He opened himself up, trying to search for the bond within him, the one that linked him to Ishtar. “Are you there?”
Only silence answered him, but he could sense her attention focusing upon him. She was somewhere far to the north.
“Whatever happens next,” he told her, “I don’t want you to come for me.No matter what you feel or hear. Stay away.”
“Marduk?” she whispered in his head.
“Find Solveig. She’ll protect you. Just stay far away from me. Promise?”
There was no answer.
Taking a deep breath, he entered the cave.
