"Avnon Des the Seer! Remember it! You must come for me tomorrow or you will remain his slave forever."
Furlinastis devoured Lorm Diivar while Kesson Rel mocked and smiled. The flesh tasted foul and the young priest's screams were unsatisfying. Furlinastis preferred his meat spoiled in his swamp before dining upon it. He also preferred to dine of his own free will.
Afterward, as he scoured with his tongue the last remnants of the human from between his fangs, he thought of the elderly priest's words. Avnon Des had spoken of freedom from Kesson Rel, from the accursed soulbinding that had made him a slave.
Kesson Rel hovered before him, floating in the air under the power of a spell, lost in thought. Despite his elaborate planning and affected glee, the theurge seemed to take little actual pleasure in the death of his former fellows.
Furlinastis glared hate at the theurge, at the human who had bound him. He decided abruptly that he had nothing to lose by cooperating with Avnon. He was nothing more than a slave to Kesson Rel, a fate that he found worse than death.
To Kesson Rel, he said, "One of the priests, other than the one called, emerged from the temple and offered a challenge."
Kesson looked up from his thoughts, frowned, and asked, "You did not harm him, did you?"
Furlinastis knew that Kesson wanted each of the priests to die before him. He had commanded Furlinastis to kill none, except at his command.
"The challenge was not to me," Furlinastis replied. "It was to you."
"Indeed?" Kesson said, arching an eyebrow. "Which priest? Describe him to me."
Even that slight command triggered the magic of the soul spell and the words poured forth from Furlinastis as of their own accord.
"He was tall and elderly, with black hair graying at the temples. His build was slight and his face was hairless. Like all of them, a mask obscured his eyes. He said his name was Avnon Des the Seer. He seemed unafraid at the mention of your name."
Furlinastis added that last to tweak Kesson's pride. The human's mouth tightened and he crossed his arms across his chest.
"Avnon… Avnon. I had planned to save him for last."
"He named you a heretic," Furlinastis said, recalling the words of Kesson Rel upon their first meeting in the swamp.
The human looked up sharply and glared at Furlinastis. The dragon knew his words had struck home.
"Tomorrow," Kesson said, "journey to the temple and bring back to me Avnon Des the Seer. He will die before this heretic."
The magic of the soul binding sank into Furlinastis's will but he did not resist. He had no lips with which to smile, though he would have if he could.
Twenty-four hours later, Furlinastis again soared over the temple. He saw no scurrying figures below, no hurried motion. The temple was as still as a tomb. He alit on the marble stairs, before the open doors.
From within, he caught the scent of blood. Lots of it.
The binding of the magic took hold and he said, "Kesson Rel sends you greetings. And death. I am sent to retrieve one of your number. Send forth Avnon Des the Seer. He is the next to die."
A figure appeared in the doors. Blood spattered his robes; crimson glistened on his hands; a peculiar aura of shifting darkness surrounded him, not shadows but … something else. His eyes behind the mask were tired but determined. He walked forward to the dragon.
"You have done well, dragon," Avnon Des said in his deep voice.
The compulsion did not allow Furlinastis time for questions or comments. He took Avnon Des in his claw and took wing. Strangely, it felt as if the priest was squirming in his grasp, though he could see that the human was motionless.
As they flew away from the temple and toward the swamp, the soul spell's grip on him grew less compelling and freed his tongue.
"You spoke of my freedom," he said.
The dragon tried to keep the urgency, the hope, from his tone. He found it odd to be conversing with prey in his claws.
"And you shall have it," the human said, over the rush of the wind.
Furlinastis thought Avnon's voice sounded different, softer, breathier, younger.
"You stink of blood," Furlinastis said. "Did you kill your fellow priests?"
To that, the human said only, "We were of like mind and they were willing."
"The darkness around you…" the dragon said. "What magic is this?"
Avnon Des twisted around in the claw to look up into Furlinastis's eyes. When he spoke, his voice sounded like that of a human female.
"A special kind," he said. "The only kind that can free you." The human looked off into the gloom, thoughtful. "I must see him, speak to him, before this ends. He must have a chance to repent his sins."
Furlinastis snorted, and streamers of shadow went forth from his nostril.
"He repents nothing, human."
"We will see," replied the priest, and his voice was his own.
For a time, they flew in silence. The human continued to feel as though he was wriggling in Furlinastis's grasp, and Furlinastis kept adjusting his grip to compensate. Soon, they would reach the swamp, and Kesson Rel.
"There is more, dragon," the human said. "Before this can be completed, I must have your oath, an oath on your soul."
Furlinastis snarled and pulled the human up before his face-a difficult maneuver while in flight. He hissed a tiny amount of shadowstuff into Avnon's face and squeezed him a little in his claw.
The priest winced, tried to turn away from the life-draining breath.
"No oaths, priest," Furlinastis said. "And no mention of souls."
He had experienced enough of oaths and souls. Avnon Des's gaze did not waver from behind his mask as he said, "Your oath, dragon, or we will not free you."
"We?"
"Oath, dragon!" the human demanded, and his voice sounded as though it were many voices.
The shadows around Furlinastis writhed with his anger. The darkness around the priest swirled as if in answer.
Furlinastis ground his fangs, roared into the sky, and shook the priest in his claw before he finally said, "Very well."
The priest managed to look relieved even through his mask.
"In a time far from now, two men will enter your swamp. The taller will be bald, and will bear a blade of black steel that leaks darkness. The shorter will have only one eye, and will carry twin blades. These are the First and Second of the Shadow God. You will allow them passage without harm and will lend them what aid you can. It is they who will fulfill the will of the Shadow God and destroy Kesson Rel. Oath it, dragon. On your soul."
Furlinastis swallowed his pride and said, "I swear it, priest. On my soul."
At those words, the piece of Kesson Rel that contaminated Furlinastis's soul wriggled in agitation.
The priest sagged in the dragon's grasp. Furlinastis moved his claw and passenger back to the more comfortable flying position. The swamp was near.
"But I will kill Kesson Rel," the dragon said. "After you've freed me from the soul magic."
Avnon spoke, and it sounded again like many voices speaking at once, "It is not for you to kill him. Nor for us."
Furlinastis spiraled downward toward the swamp and replied, "We will see."
He landed on the muddy ground behind a flat stone, almost an altar, that stood on the shore of a shallow, stinking pool. Blood from Avnon's fellow priests still stained the gray stone of the altar brown. The beat of his wings bent the black-leafed trees of the swamp and sent up a mist of water.
Kesson Rel floated above the pool, aloft under the power of a spell, cloaked in shadows. He eyed Furlinastis's passenger coldly.
As he had with each of the dead priests, Furlinastis set Avnon down on the altar and pressed the point of one of his claws into the human's abdomen. The greasy, squirming feeling surrounding the human's flesh went quiescent, as though trying to be inconspicuous.