engraving her own future onto the most appalling story of horror ever written. When she had finished, she tucked the book beneath her jacket and secured it there with her belt. Then she mounted her horse and rode to the nearest port. I have been a fool, she thought. I have learnt the truth, and lost even the hope of hope, but what does that matter? It doesn’t matter at all, it means nothing. But Alaak’s suffering – Forluin’s – mine – I can only try – I said I would not rest until I had done my utmost. It’s all I can do, there’s nothing else left.
She found a small ship to take her to Eldor, because she knew of nowhere else on Earth she could go. The sage, at least, might know something that could help her, if only in the small way that he had helped that previous host by telling him of Miril. Later, she was surprised to find that Eldor seemed to have been expecting her, that a Quest was to take place and in due course Estarinel and Ashurek arrived to go with her. It was as if pre-ordained. Despite what she had written in the book, she had not expected such concrete help; and although her struggle against M’gulfn had hardly begun, let alone ended, she found a kind of peace in knowing that she faced a final journey.
When she first arrived and met the sage, she could not speak. The Serpent would not allow her to explain what she was. Eldor, however, as soon as he saw the small dark-haired woman, her face as coldly white as quartz, needed no explanation. He recognised the shadows in her eyes and he recognised the thin book she was clasping in her hands. When he reached out and took it she seemed to uncurl herself grimly from the volume, like a witch who had learnt terrible spells therein.
He turned its few pages and found a new hand on the end-paper, compressed and erratic as if the writer was struggling against a persuasive power to express herself. He read,
The Serpent has nightmares.
I have lived alone with it in the quiet void. I have heard its thoughts, seen its snowy home through its own eyes, dreamed its dreams. I have seen desolation. It makes me afraid.
It possesses me, though I struggle to defy it. But escapeless bleak eternity cannot be denied forever. Once I spoke to it, offering my surrender to its will if only it would stay in its cold domain and not fly south to feast upon innocent flesh… No, it said to me, your long silence has caused me pain. Now the bargain does not suffice.
Never again will I offer it surrender. Though the denial has been colder than the frozen wastes of space, it is ice that can never again be thawed. When the desolation of the Serpent overwhelms me at last, as I know it must, my coldness will burn it. The Serpent should not have made me more desperate than itself. It has lost me for all time.
All say the Serpent must win. I have perceived this through the inescapable nightmare of my life. But the Serpent, too, has nightmares. It must have cause; and if not, it will be given cause before I die.
I am Medrian of Alaak.
I am the Last Witness of the Serpent.
Chapter Three. Forluin
Medrian was leaning against a spindle of blue rock as she finished speaking, tracing the facets of its glittering surface with her fingers. She murmured, ‘It is so easy to dream of staying here forever… and so treacherous. For I know that I must leave here and resume the Quest, and when I do…’ she turned around in the mist, a slow, graceful movement like the strange calm of madness. ‘It will be waiting for me. Waiting for me.’
‘I had thought your deliverance from M’gulfn whilst on the Blue Plane to be a welcome respite,’ the Lady admitted sadly. ‘Now I see that it may only serve to make things harder for you in the end.’ Medrian nodded, her eyes dark with suppressed dread. ‘Estarinel and Ashurek do not yet know who you are, do they?’
‘No, of course not,’ Medrian replied with a self-mocking smile. ‘The Serpent would not permit me to tell them. How can
She found a small ship to take her to Eldor, because she knew of nowhere else on Earth she could go. The sage, at least, might know something that could help her, if only in the small way that he had helped that previous host by telling him of Miril. Later, she was surprised to find that Eldor seemed to have been expecting her, that a Quest was to take place and in due course Estarinel and Ashurek arrived to go with her. It was as if pre-ordained. Despite what she had written in the book, she had not expected such concrete help; and although her struggle against M’gulfn had hardly begun, let alone ended, she found a kind of peace in knowing that she faced a final journey.
When she first arrived and met the sage, she could not speak. The Serpent would not allow her to explain what she was. Eldor, however, as soon as he saw the small dark-haired woman, her face as coldly white as quartz, needed no explanation. He recognised the shadows in her eyes and he recognised the thin book she was clasping in her hands. When he reached out and took it she seemed to uncurl herself grimly from the volume, like a witch who had learnt terrible spells therein.
He turned its few pages and found a new hand on the end-paper, compressed and erratic as if the writer was struggling against a persuasive power to express herself. He read,
The Serpent has nightmares.
I have lived alone with it in the quiet void. I have heard its thoughts, seen its snowy home through its own eyes, dreamed its dreams. I have seen desolation. It makes me afraid.
It possesses me, though I struggle to defy it. But escapeless bleak eternity cannot be denied forever. Once I spoke to it, offering my surrender to its will if only it would stay in its cold domain and not fly south to feast upon innocent flesh… No, it said to me, your long silence has caused me pain. Now the bargain does not suffice.
Never again will I offer it surrender. Though the denial has been colder than the frozen wastes of space, it is ice that can never again be thawed. When the desolation of the Serpent overwhelms me at last, as I know it must, my coldness will burn it. The Serpent should not have made me more desperate than itself. It has lost me for all time.
All say the Serpent must win. I have perceived this through the inescapable nightmare of my life. But the Serpent, too, has nightmares. It must have cause; and if not, it will be given cause before I die.
I am Medrian of Alaak.
I am the Last Witness of the Serpent.
Chapter Three. Forluin
Medrian was leaning against a spindle of blue rock as she finished speaking, tracing the facets of its glittering surface with her fingers. She murmured, ‘It is so easy to dream of staying here forever… and so treacherous. For I know that I must leave here and resume the Quest, and when I do…’ she turned around in the mist, a slow, graceful movement like the strange calm of madness. ‘It will be waiting for me. Waiting for me.’
‘I had thought your deliverance from M’gulfn whilst on the Blue Plane to be a welcome respite,’ the Lady admitted sadly. ‘Now I see that it may only serve to make things harder for you in the end.’ Medrian nodded, her eyes dark with suppressed dread. ‘Estarinel and Ashurek do not yet know who you are, do they?’
‘No, of course not,’ Medrian replied with a self-mocking smile. ‘The Serpent would not permit me to tell them. How can
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