Lugal, the Cabal,
stared into the globe atop the serpent rod and willed the mists to clear and
show the past. He never tired of watching the defeat of those who had served
the Mistress of the Moons. The battle had depleted his predecessor’s powers and
had allowed Lugal to challenge for the rod that marked him as one of the Triad
of rulers. The swirling clouds parted to reveal a woman’s face.
A roar of rage rose
from his lips. He knew that one. He’d questioned her and watched the serpent
animate and mark her with its fangs. Thus, she belonged to the Lord of Shadows.
What had gone wrong? Had her flight into darkness nullified the venom? The
veins of his neck were engorged with rage. He sought to clear her face from the
globe.
“Not so! I won’t
have this.”
His jaw clenched and
he thought of what he’d seen nearly thirteen years before. The then Cabal and
the mind mages had joined the champions of the Gladius and the minions of the
Thamaturg. The forces of the Mistress had been defeated. His anger escalated.
Something had gone wrong and now, a second eclipse approached.
The globe darkened.
The woman’s face vanished. Lugal’s anger erupted.
As though a
miniature cyclone entered the room, wind whipped his robe. Papers whirled through
the air. The draperies at the windows shredded beneath the storm. The shutters
crashed against the wall. Outside the sky darkened. Lightning flashed and
crackled. Rain fell in torrents.
Slowly, Lugal’s rage
subsided. He lumbered down the hall to the audience chamber of the place that
had once been the Seat of Judgment. Upon his entrance, the coterie of
first-level mind mages rose. He walked to the dais. As he sat, his robes
swirled around his ankles. “The woman. The one who was a seer, Ashiera. Bring her
from the pens.” His fleshy fingers tightened around the rod. The snake stirred.
The Right Hand
snapped his fingers. Two mages departed the chamber. A short time later, they
returned. The master of the pens walked between them.
“Where is she?”
Lugal asked.
The pen master knelt
on the first step. “Two months ago a sea merchant, one Sieper, came to me. He
bore an order from you giving him his choice of women. After he paid the tax,
he took her.”
Lugal leaned
forward. Why hadn’t the man reported the incident? He curbed the desire to lash
the pen master’s mind. He had no time to train another. He turned to the Right
Hand. “Send mages and guards to the sea merchant’s house and bring the pair to
me.” If she’d slipped from his grasp his plans for gaining ascendancy were
ruined.
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