Vengeance

CHAPTER 91

Can this unexpected boon outweigh the disastrous loss?

Lyf had been floating in the Abysm for a day, evaluating hundreds of possibilities, each a branch of the unknowable future. I have a body! he exulted. I’m free! Or at least, the framework of a body, ugly, misshapen and clumsy though it was. With flesh stripped from the facinore and the power stolen from the gifted child he would soon complete his body, and no longer would he be bound to the place of his death.

Lyf had discovered how to create a body for himself seven hundred years ago, and ever since he had fought and schemed and struggled to glean the power for it. And had failed every time.

Then those foolhardy intruders had brought the Pale child to his caverns, bearing within her a gift neither she nor they understood, one he had not realised he could feed on until the moment she had hurled that golden globe. Truly, fate was unknowable. He had always discounted luck and serendipity, but he should have made allowance for them — chance had given him in a moment what centuries of planning could not. He would not make that mistake again.

But could this prize outweigh the loss of The Consolation of Vengeance?

The balance was poised. If his enemies learned to read the iron book it would reveal almost the entirety of his plan. But could they read it? He had written it in an ancient script that had never been common, and the enemy had burnt most of Cythe’s books at the end of the war. Lyf doubted that any books survived in this script, save in his own library, yet if there were, Hightspall’s scholars might decipher the iron book in time. That would be a dreadful setback, though he could recover from it. Thankfully he had not yet written the ending.

But the theft raised another possibility, one that was terrifying. That they might understand the magery of the book, obtain a measure of alkoyl and write their own ending, one he had no way of knowing about or dealing with.

That possibility could not be allowed. His armies must encircle Caulderon so tightly that a flea could not escape. At the same time, he must set his traps from within.

First, allow Deroe to discover that the host of the master pearl was on her way to the cellar, and to believe that with her pearl he could break the possession for good. Deroe would follow her, carrying the three stolen pearls that never left his side.

Next, using Rix’s heatstone, tighten the compulsion on him and bring him to the cellar to kill the magian and cut the pearl from Tali’s head. Lyf’s new body, even when complete, would not have the dexterity to remove it safely. Then Lyf would take the pearl, kill his remaining enemies and rise in triumph as his armies broke into Caulderon.

Last, recover the iron book and write the true ending. Then the real war could begin.