The pillars of creation

Jennsen couldn t blink as she sank back away from the thing. She could hardly breathe. A low sound, a kind of purring rattle, came from the throat of the thing as it stretched over her, looking down into her eyes.

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," Jennsen whispered numbly in answer.

"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.

Jennsen was flat on her back. The realization both surprised and alarmed her. She didn't recall lying back. She felt like she was watching someone else do these things. She realized that the thing that was the voice was kneeling between her open legs.

"Surrender your will, Jennsen. Surrender your flesh," the voice cooed, and I will release the hounds for you. I will help you kill Richard Rahl."

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 Jennsen Rahl. It was her life.

"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, Jennsen," the voice rumbled with such terrible command that Jennsen thought it might crush her. "Surrender your flesh. Surrender your will. And then you will have vengeance. You will have Richard Rahl.»

"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 grinned a nightmare grin.

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."

CHAPTER 53

Friedrich wove his way between the fat clumps of grasses at the edge of the small lake, trying not to think about how hungry he was. With the way his stomach grumbled, he was not having much success. Fish might be nice for a change, but fish had to be cooked, and first he had to catch one. He gazed along the water's edge. Frog legs would be good, too. A meal of dried meat, though, would be quicker. He wished he had gotten a hard biscuit out of his pack the last time he'd stopped for a respite. At least if he had, he would have something to suck on.

In some places, shorter grass bowed over to line the lake's edge like a green pelt. In other places there were hushed stands of tall reeds. As the sun sank behind the low hills beyond the lake, it began to turn gloomy in among the imposing trees, contorted by great age, on the other side of the path. The air was dead still, leaving the mirrored surface of the water gilded with the golden glow of the western sky.

Friedrich paused to stand at ease, stretching his back, as he peered into the shadows among the trees. He needed a brief break to rest his tired legs as he considered whether or not he should stop for the night to set up a shelter, or at least get out a biscuit. He could see dark stretches of standing water in among trees draped with long strands of gauzy moss.

The hilly countryside was easy enough traveling, when the path stayed up out of the low places. Down in the depressions it tended to be swampy and hard going. He didn't like the swampy places; they brought back painful memories.

Friedrich swished at a small cloud of gnats flitting around his face, then shifted the shoulder straps of his pack as he tried to decide what to do-make camp, or push on. Even though he was tired and sore from an arduous day of traveling, he had grown stronger over the course of such a long journey and was now better able to stand the rigors of his new life-at least, much more so than he had been at first.