Of course, never would the ancient, once-powerful beast admit that the man had been right, that the Lord of the Jaguars was indeed too old, too slow to kill in the wilds. Yet, unfortunately, that had proven to be the case. Despite his shrewd intellect, equal or superior to a human’s, and his great size and long, sharp teeth, the predator had been unable to kill anything for himself save an occasional rodent or snake.
Now he growled again, for never had be been so hungry. And he craved real food now, red meat, with the juices of the kill still flowing. Pacing the forest paths restlessly, he traveled far in search of a kill. Sometimes, seething with frustration, he spoke aloud in the human voice that had proven so hypnotically frightening to his victims.
The cat-lord’s travels had taken him far to the north of his home among the Little People. Food had been scarce there, and he had hoped that this country-the land of the Payits, he knew-would prove more fruitful. Thus far he had been disappointed.
Yet still he kept prowling and searching. Sometime soon, he knew, he would have to make a kill.
The quarry at the end of her quest now compelled Darien into a quivering eagerness. She sensed it even as the hunting cat senses the weakness of the crippled fawn, and it provoked a similar quickening in her hunger.
The driders followed her, now, in resigned deference to her commands. They dragged themselves through the forest, ignoring the demands of hunger and thirst. Several collapsed, perishing slowly and left by their stronger kin.
Still, fifteen of the monsters remained alive as, at last, their goal emerged from the forest before them.
The pyramid at Twin Visages stood in the center of a wide clearing. At one side of the open area, to the north, a sheer bluff dropped precipitously toward the shoreline and its coral lagoon below. Three sides of the clearing fronted on the jungle.
And from the jungle emerged the driders, waiting for the coming of twilight to creep forward. They spread out, cautiously encircling the structure, nervously sniffing and searching for any sign of a trap. Nothing unnatural disturbed the calm of the forest night.
Finally they surrounded the structure and then hesitantly climbed the fifty-two steps that led to its crowning platform-No sound emerged from the forest as the stars slowly winked into sight above The moon, half full, cast its dry light across the driders, leaving faint shadows.
“We are here,” said Hittok, with a tired bow toward his mistress. “What do we do now?”
“Now-“ said Darien, with a look toward the forest and
what lay beyond, “now we wait for our quarry to come to us.”
As the drider settled into a crouch, she relaxed, her tension dissipating for the first time in weeks. And with her easing came the breaking of hishna. Through the air, over the short distance between Twin Visages and Ulatos, Darien sent the sundering of her spell.
Now she was prepared to meet her enemy.
“What happened? Where am I?” Erixitl asked weakly as her eyes fluttered open and she saw Halloran seated beside her bed.
For a moment, he could not speak, so great was his joy and relief. “This is Ulatos,” he said finally. “The temple of Qotal. By the gods, Erix, 1 was so afraid…” His voice faded, choking.
“Shhh,” she urged, sitting up slowly. “No harm could come to me as long as you were here to watch over me.” She squinted in concentration, trying to think. “I remember a horrible darkness settling around me, dragging me down and holding me there. It’s gone, now-finally.”
Suddenly her eyes widened. “Finally! How long has it been?”
“It has been ten days since I have seen your eyes,” he replied, his voice tight. He blinked several times and took her hand in his.
Fear flamed in Erix’s eyes. “We’ve got to go-to get to Twin Visages!” She struggled to get up as he tried gently to ease her back onto her pillow.
“You need to rest!” he said. “The baby-“
She pushed him back with surprising vitality and sat facing him. “The baby will come with me. We must go now! Who knows how much time we have!”
“The army of the Viperhand will be here soon-probably today, according to Chical,” Halloran went on. “The eagles have been observing it all along.”
“And what will happen then?” Erix gasped. “There will be battle, and the Little Men, the desert dwarves, Gultec’s warriors, they’ll all be killed!”
“There are fifteen hundred men-at-arms from Amn here, too,” Hal pointed out. “And Cordell has sent the ships to collect the rest of his men and the Kultakans.” Hal admitted privately that the latter forces had little chance of debarking before the issue would be resolved.
“But Zaltec is with them. And he’s the one who can stop Qotal. We have to get to Twin Visages-now, today!”
Jhatli, summoned from a nearby room within the temple, quickly agreed. The youth went to get his proudest possession, a steel short sword given him by Cordell from the arsenal of weapons brought by Don Vaez’s expedition.
Coton stepped forward, and there was no question but that the priest of Qotal should accompany them. Daggrande was with the legionnaires in the fortress, commanding a company of crossbow and harquebus and helping Cordell to integrate the Maztican troops into the tactics of the Sword Coast-Then Lotil, his feather blanket nearing completion, emerged from his room. His blunt fingers, as always, worked traces of plumage into the fine mesh of cotton.
“1 will come, too,” he said.
Halloran started to open his mouth in objection, to plea with the blind man that such a gesture merely endangered Lotil’s own life. But he stopped, feeling Erix’s touch on his arm.
“Of course. Father,” she said. “You shall accompany us.”
For more than a week after leaving Kultaka, Hoxitl had pushed his monstrous horde with maniacal frenzy. They marched along the coast, following the wide track laid down by the lumbering, monstrous form of Zaltec. The giant stone image appeared to take no note of the thousands of creatures following in its wake, but this, to Hoxitl, was as it should be.
Finally they pressed along the shore toward Ulatos, knowing that just beyond lay the culmination of the Payit lands, the point of Twin Visages.
The army of the Viperhand marched grimly now, a hardened edge marking troops that had pursued the Nexalans a ragged, bloodthirsty mob.
The ogres had assumed complete control over the ores, and the entire force was organized into companies comprising five to ten ogres commanding a hundred ores. Hundreds of these companies formed the thirty great regiments, each regiment consisting of one thousand ores and their ogre officers and two companies of ten bloodthirsty, regenerating trolls.
Hoxitl, towering over even the tallest of his trolls, ruled this army with an iron hand. The most savage of his troops cringed when the cleric-beast raised his hand. The most veteran and trail-worn of his companies puffed with pride when he praised their appearance or their acts.
And before them marched the great, imposing form of their god. Zaltec was capable of crushing a row of houses in one monstrous footstep. In a few hours, he could reduce a city to rubble. If any doubts assailed the cleric-beast, they concerned what use such a mighty deity would have for any army, however toughened and well organized.
The great force moved through the Payit country, driving the inhabitants in panic before them. Thus, when they approached the Payit city of Ulatos, word of their approach was sure to precede them.
Still, when they reached the savannah before that city, it gave Zaltec joy to see the enemy arrayed to meet him. The sun had long since risen and climbed high into the morning sky. The humans and their allies had advanced into the wide savannah, anchoring their position on a pair of small villages.
The beasts of the Viperhand saw them and prepared to a tack.