the words, I do not even consider you a man!
Shame and humiliation flooded through me.
The fatal blow was paralysed.
I raised my head and screamed my frustration and terror.
The tentacle suddenly loosened and slipped from me. I fell sideways. At the periphery of my vision, I saw Clarissa clinging to the back of the creature, plunging her dagger into it again and again. The thing flopped to the ground, flailed wildly for a moment, and lay still. My friend rolled off it and stood, swaying, her eyes glazed.
I struggled to my feet. “Clarissa!”
She staggered forward. I caught her as she buckled but hadn’t the strength to hold her. We both went down in a heap.
A minute or so went by, and we lay breathing heavily before pushing ourselves upright to regard the fallen thing.
“It’s all right,” I said huskily. “You killed it.”
She picked a strip of my shredded clothing from the ground and used it to wipe her dagger blade. Sheathing the weapon, she said, “Poor Mademoiselle Clattersmash.”
I shivered. “I don’t know what’s happening here, Clarissa, but we’re right in the middle of it. I’ve been used to weaken the Yatsill, and a powerful influence has kept me in a state of emotional confusion, accentuating my natural timidity and fears. Look—” I turned and pointed at the gutted corpse of the Yatsill.
In that instant, everything was as it had been in my Yarkeen vision.
“That is exactly what I saw in the Valley of Reflections.” I gazed into my companion’s yellow eyes. “How deeply have I been manipulated?”
She took a deep breath, released it slowly, and gave a slight shrug. “I don’t know, Aiden. Let’s get back to the house.”
I sheathed my sword and looked down at myself. My clothes were hanging in tatters and I was covered from head to foot in gore, some of it my own. The Blood God had lacerated the right side of my chest, my back, and both my arms. Round sucker marks dotted my skin.
“I feel numb, but when the venom wears off, this is going to hurt.”
We began to retrace our steps but hadn’t got very far before my legs started to give way. Clarissa stepped in and lent me physical support.
The fog had become so impenetrable we could see only a few feet in front of us, and when we finally reached Dissonance Square, the figures standing in it were all but obscured. We approached and discovered them to be Father Clutterfuss, Kata, and two of the three Koluwaians we’d seen with her earlier. The third was on the ground at their feet. He was dead.
Clarissa left my side and squatted beside the body. After a brief examination, she said, “Drained of blood. There are sucker marks all over him.”
Kata nodded. “He has been released.”
“Father Spreadflower Meadows was taken,” Clutterfuss said. He pointed at the corpse. “The Blood God fed.”
I rounded on Kata. “Is this what it means to be released?”
She nodded. “It is how we are sent to Koluwai.”
“This man hasn’t been sent anywhere, Kata! He’s been killed!”
“His body is gone, but his spirit will be reborn on your world.”
I, who had once been a priest, snorted disdainfully. “Absurd!”
“Where are the sentries?” Clarissa asked.
Clutterfuss answered, “They chased after the Blood God. It will try to enter Phenadoor, as they always do after first releasing a Servant. Perhaps it will be stopped at the wall.”
“Mademoiselle Clattersmash has also been taken,” Clarissa said. “And you, Father? How do you feel?”
“I am quite well, thank you.”
“Let me see your hands, please.”
The Yatsill held out his arms. His long fingers were moving slowly but steadily, without the trembling and jerking that had been so noticeable in his colleagues.
“Good,” Clarissa said. “Will you come inside and help me to dress Aiden’s wounds?”
“Of course.”
I ordered Kata to follow us.
“But I’m waiting to be released,” she said.
“I’ll not have you killed,” I responded angrily. “Get inside, at once!”
Our housekeeper reluctantly followed us in. The shell of Father Meadows was lying on the vestibule floor.
Clarissa said, “Kata, clean up as best you can. We’ll arrange to have the body removed as soon as possible.” She steered me through into the laboratory. Clutterfuss entered and closed the door behind us. They sat me on a bench and started to clean my wounds. I looked at my hand. My missing little finger was already half-grown back.
“Father,” I said, “Miss Stark and I have been on Ptallaya for some time now. Why did no one tell us that the Blood Gods invade through