“So the World Serpent is an enemy of the derro?” Krailash said. “Then perhaps the thing I thought was a god was an emissary of-”
“No.” Alaia shook her head. “Ouroboros the World Serpent is an ancient primal spirit. It shifts its coils and the earth shakes-it doesn’t appear in a cloak and make jokes and threats and send little snakes to lead us places. That’s the sort of thing gods do, you’re right. But serpents are complicated, Krailash. They can be ancient, wise creatures. Or they can be poisonous, unexpected death in the night. Some shamans revere the World Serpent, but there are darker forces that assume the form of snakes.”
“You mean the serpent god Zehir?” Krailash said. “But Zehir is a god of the yuan-ti, and a few mad human cultists-what would it care about Zaltys? Why would it help us find her? Why would an evil god want to make trouble for the derro, an evil race?”
Alaia opened her mouth, then closed it, and shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t care to find out.”
“But-” Krailash said.
“Please. Let’s just go, and bring Zaltys and Julen out of this place, and hope we’re never troubled by gods or unnatural things again.” She stormed off toward the cavern’s only obvious exit, kicking the arm of a dead kuo-toa out of her path, and Krailash had to hurry to keep up.
“You’re from my village?” Zaltys said, staring at Iraska’s teeth. Her fangs. Had the derro experimented on her too? Given her the bite of a serpent, the way the derro savant she saw earlier had given himself a tentacle for an arm?
“I am. Well, I grew up there. I lived far away for most of my adult life.” The Slime King had stopped smiling, which was reassuring, and walked over to a low cabinet and lined up three carved wooden cups. She lifted a ceramic jug-looked like Delzimmer manufacture in the classic style, blue glazed, with a handle meant to look like a frozen stream of flowing water-and filled the cups, offering them to Zaltys and Julen.
“I don’t suppose she’d bother poisoning us,” Julen said, as if to himself, “when she has armed guards standing by.”
Iraska sipped from the cup. “Actually, once upon a time, I preferred poison over more obvious approaches to murder. I was a devotee of a certain god with a fondness for venoms and toxins and treachery. But these days, I have other allegiances. I’d like to propose a toast.” She raised her cup. “To family reunited.”
Zaltys and Julen raised their cups and murmured something vaguely affirmative. The water was icy cold, almost as pure and delicious as the water that poured from Julen’s magical crystal bottle.
Iraska strolled over to the edge of the pool, her back turned to them. Julen leaned in close to Zaltys and whispered fiercely, “Did you see her teeth? Do you think the derro did that to her? Do you think she wanted them to?”
“I don’t know,” Zaltys said. “I don’t understand this at all.”
“Don’t worry,” Iraska said, gazing at the still water at her feet. “I don’t dip my drinking water out of the pool. It’s from a private spring, very clean. This water … Well, I can’t confirm that aboleths shit as other creatures do, but if so, this pool must assuredly be filled with it.”
“I’m sorry,” Zaltys said, putting her cup down. “I’m not very good at talking in circles and implying things and letting silences speak louder than words. My mother-ah, my adopted mother-says it’s a good thing I’m not part of the Traders, or I’d be demoted to swineherd, because only pigs are as tactless as I am. So I’m just going to say, I don’t understand what’s happening here. I came to save my people from slavers-and now I find out they’re your people too, but you’re the king of the slavers.”
Iraska turned. She had moved farther from the torches, and the light reflecting off the pool of water cast her in additional flickering shadows, making her look older and younger by turns. “Did you really? Come on a mission of mercy and salvation. Whatever possessed you to do that?” There was genuine interest in her voice, but also amusement, and-Zaltys was almost sure-something like contempt. She didn’t know how to respond.
Julen cleared his throat. “The people that adopted Zaltys … We Serrats hold family sacred. We grow up knowing that nothing’s more important than standing by your kin. We have our feuds, and our rivalries, and I have aunts and uncles who haven’t spoken to each other in years over slights no one can even remember, but those uncles would kill or die to defend those aunts from outside threats, and vice versa. We have a saying in the Guardians: Trust nothing, save for family.” He shrugged. “Zaltys just … carried the idea a bit farther than most of us do. If family is all-important, and some of her family is trapped underground, then she had to go and save them.”
“Extraordinary,” Iraska said. “I mean that.”
“But if you’re the leader of the derro,” Zaltys said, “then it doesn’t make sense that my village was taken as slaves by the derro, because it’s your village too. Or were you not leader then? Were you taken by the derro as well, and somehow became leader later? Does that mean my family is all right? Do they live down here with you?”
“As a theory,” Iraska said, “it has much to recommend it, not least of all the prospect of a bona fide happy ending. Alas, the virtues of your premise do not extend to accuracy.”
“Do you mean they all died,” Zaltys said, “or-”
Iraska held up her hand for silence. “Let me explain the best way I know how. It may be a trifle roundabout. I ask you to bear with me. Have you ever heard the parable of the turtle and the serpent?”
“I don’t think so,” Zaltys said.
“That’s a shame. I shudder to think what you learned from the apes who raised you. Creatures who huddle together for warmth, suck milk from one another’s bodies …” She turned her head and spat. “This is a story everyone in your real family learned when they were children. A useful story. One day a turtle came down to a river, planning to swim across and go about his turtleish business. Now it so happened that a snake was sunning itself by the riverbank, and it too, wanted to get across the river, but it didn’t know how to swim. Because it was not a water snake, but instead the sort of snake that twines itself around tree branches. So it said to the turtle, ‘You and I are much the same-indeed, we’re practically cousins. Both reptiles, both cold-blooded. Why, if I had a shell and arms and legs, you and I would be almost indistinguishable in poor light. Could you do me a favor, out of family courtesy, and give me a ride across the river?’
“The turtle considered running away, for it knew snakes of this sort were lethal, but it was slow, and the snake was fast, and it was afraid if it ran it would be caught, so it said, ‘I am a kindly creature, and disposed to help others, but your reputation is fearsome. How do I know that, if I let you coil upon my shell, you won’t strike me dead as I’m swimming?’
“ ‘Simple self-preservation,’ the serpent replied. ‘If I kill you while you’re swimming, we’ll both die, you by biting, me by drowning.’
“ ‘Fair enough,’ the turtle said. ‘But what if you kill me when I get you to the other side?’
“ ‘I’m not without gratitude,’ the snake replied. ‘I would owe you a kindness in return for your help. And anyway, your blood is cold, and I don’t eat reptiles for preference, and why would I kill you, except to eat you?’
“In truth the turtle was not greatly reassured, but the serpent seemed sincere, and running wasn’t an option, so the turtle agreed, and the snake coiled up on his shell, which was almost as good as sunning on a rock, really. The turtle plunged into the water and began its slow swim across the river. When they reached the other side, the turtle said, ‘Well, here we are.’ And then the snake rather lazily bent down, nuzzled the exposed bit of the turtle’s neck, and bit down with its fangs, pumping poison into the little reptile. The paralysis set in almost immediately, and the turtle went still as the snake slithered off its shell. Just before it died, the turtle cried out, ‘Why? Why bite me? I helped you!’ And the snake just replied, ‘I had no choice. I can’t help my nature.’ ” Iraska beamed at them like a schoolteacher imparting wisdom to her brightest students.