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.He looked around the large chamber.Several doors led out to adjacent rooms and halls.The stylized door handles caught his eye.He stared at them, trying to discern their shape.When he did, the realization made his heart race.All of the hardware featured a similar motif: a jawless skull in a sunburst.The hairs on the nape of his neck rose.He understood in that moment what the Shadowlord had intended all along, why he had required Riven to escape with the slaadi from Demon Binder, why he had wanted Riven to play his part through to the end.The tower was once a temple to Cyric, Mask's enemy.The Sojourner had taken the entire structure, and presumably murdered its priests.The god of shadows and thieves had manipulated all of them—all of them-to orchestrate the grandest theft of all.He'd arranged to steal an entire temple of the mad god.Riven marveled at the scheme.It had been a bold play, as bold as he had ever seen.And he had been the Shadowlord's hand in the play.Or at least one of Mask's hands.He could not help but smile, and the smile turned into a chuckle."You are amused?" Azriim said.The slaad held out his hand and examined his fingers, and his brow furrowed."What is happening?" Dolgan asked.He too stared at his body as if it were a foreign thing."Not amused," Riven answered, still chuckling."Free."`Free from the Sojourner," Azriim said, and nodded.His voice had grown deeper.His claws were longer."What is happening to me?""No," Riven said.'Not from the Sojourner.From you two.From this charade."Riven knew that Mask wanted him for one more thing."What do you mean?" Azriim asked.The slaad's gray skin bubbled and stretched, as if something were moving just under it."Allies and enemies, slaad," Riven said, and sneered.Riven's feigned allegiance to the slaadi was over.He was allies only with Cale, his brother in faith.Azriim caught his tone and backed up a step.Dolgan began to growl."Enemies, I take it?" Azriim asked."Enemies it is," Riven answered.He drew his blades.He knew that the Sojourner was not in the tower.It was just him and the slaadi."You're standing in my temple," he said.Azriim's gaze narrowed."Your temp-"The word turned into a bestial scream that Dolgan echoed.The slaadi raised their hands to the ceiling and roared.Veins, muscle, and sinew lined their flesh.Riven stepped backward, unsure of what was happening.The slaadi began to change.As before, when Riven had watched the Sojourner transform them from green slaadi to gray, now they were transforming before his eyes into something even greater.A chaotic flash of colors sheathed the slaadi.Both went rigid; both roared at the ceiling.Their claws extended; tufts of skin sprouted from under their chins; they grew slightly in stature; fangs darkened; green-gray skin lost its mottling, became like dark slate.Then it was over.The slaadi eyed him with hunger in their eyes.Riven pulled his holy symbol from under tunic and let it dangle openly.He knew the slaadi had just become more dangerous but he held his ground.Mask had put the temple under his feet, and he was a Chosen of Mask.He would not abandon it.*****Cale and Jak stood on the deck of Demon Binder, surrounded by crewmen, all of them staring up at the dawn."Gods," Jak whispered.Cale watched the rocky sphere slowly swallow the sun.He knew it was the Sojourner's doing.It had to be.Whatever the creature was planning, it was about to happen.Cale had seen enough eclipses on Faerun to know that a partial eclipse in one region might be a ful eclipse in another.He knew that wherever the Sojourner was, the eclipse was total.The water rose, causing the ship to bob.The darkness lengthened, stretched a shadowed hand over the bay.He thought of the Fane of Shadows, of Shar, the goddess of night, of Mask, of the Sojourner, of his own transformation, of the Weave Tap.He saw the thread that connected them all.He knew what he had to do."Go get Mags," he said to Jak.Magadon was meditating alone in a cabin in the forecastle."Tell him we have to go now, Jak.We're going to kill the Weave Tap [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]