Ascendancy of the Last - By Lisa Smedman Page 0,33

given Piri’s demon skin. If the wand’s blast had been deflected back at Piri, the fire would have sloughed off his body like water off a slate roof.

Eventually, Piri groaned and rolled onto his back. His eyes opened, then widened as he took in his surroundings—and the fact that Q’arlynd was pointing Eldrinn’s wand at him. Suddenly, they blazed red as forge-heated steel. Twin beams of red streaked out of Piri’s eyes at Q’arlynd—only to bounce off the magical protection Q’arlynd already had in place. The heat beams ricocheted off the master’s magical shield and scored deep burn marks on the ceiling instead.

Q’arlynd stared down the length of slim white wood at his apprentice. “I don’t know what this wand does,” he told Piri. “But I’m curious to find out. How about you?”

Piri shook his head. Though his green-tinged face seemed devoid of expression, his wide eyes gave him away. He was afraid of the wand in Q’arlynd’s hand. Deathly afraid.

Q’arlynd dug Piri’s ring out of his pocket and held it where the apprentice could see it. “Let’s have a talk. Mind to mind. I want to know why you and Eldrinn were dueling. Let me look into your thoughts, then maybe I won’t use this wand on you.”

“No!” Piri blurted. But at the same time, his fingers twitched. Do it.

Q’arlynd forced the ring onto Piri’s finger, then shoved his way into the apprentice’s mind. What he found there made him nod. Piri’s thoughts weren’t the only ones fluttering through the apprentice’s brain. Q’arlynd detected a second presence in there, one that spoke in a high, tittering voice.

The quasit demon Piri had bonded with hadn’t been content to remain inside the skin the apprentice now wore. It was also whispering around inside Piri’s skull. Piri was either listening to it—or being controlled by it. Thanks to the ring, Q’arlynd could read its thoughts.

The quasit had goaded Piri into seducing Alexa, the only female among Q’arlynd’s five apprentices. The demon had also ensured that Eldrinn, her consort, learned of the tryst. Despite his anger, Eldrinn wasn’t stupid enough to have chalŹlenged Piri; it had been the other way around. In the end, Eldrinn had been forced to accept the challenge. To have done anything else would have meant forever being subservient to the other apprentice.

The demon’s motivation in all this was simple—and simple-minded. Power shared between four apprentices was better than power shared between five. It had hoped to eliminate Q’arlynd’s apprentices, one by one, and thus claw its way to the top.

Even now, Piri was struggling against the demon’s influence—and failing. He’d rallied enough to agree to wear the ring, but was suffering for it now, as the quasit flayed his mind from within.

And why not? The quasit had nothing to lose. Not now. Q’arlynd knew, by reading its thoughts, which wand Eldrinn had selected for the duel. A wand of banishment, created by a moon elf cleric. A wand capable of sending the quasit back to the Abyss.

Eldrinn had been clever. Flensed of the demon skin, Piri would suffer greatly. Perhaps even die. But there was healing magic that would enable him to live—the magic within the vial Eldrinn had carried. Eldrinn had gambled that he’d be quick enough, and lucky enough, to preserve Piri’s life after killing his real foe in the duel: the demon.

From the floor, the apprentice glared up at Q’arlynd with demon red eyes. His lip twitched in a snarl. “I’ll have my revenge,” the quasit said aloud, forcing Piri’s voice into a high, brittle twang.

“I don’t think so,” Q’arlynd said. He took a deep breath. He didn’t want to do this, but he had to. Even if it killed Piri.

Q’arlynd retreated from Piri’s mind and activated the wand.

Piri screamed—his own voice, this time—as the demon skin wrenched itself from his body. Blood seeped from Piri’s body as fat, muscles, and ligaments were suddenly exposed. Q’arlynd leaned forward to teleport Piri to the apothecary, but before he could touch him the apprentice’s body disappeared. Q’arlynd’s fingers brushed blood-soaked carpet instead of weeping flesh.

Q’arlynd started. Had the quasit yanked Piri into the Abyss after it?

He attempted to scry his apprentice, but when he tried to call a vision through the ring, none came. Where was Piri? Even if the apprentice were dead, Q’arlynd should have been able to scry him—unless the ring had been removed from Piri’s finger.

Q’arlynd closed his eyes and sent his awareness into the lorestone. Ancestors, he asked. Is there any other way