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.The speck brightened and swelled, then smeared to a sinuous form that twisted and undulated in the air.No one was able to move, for the effect of the light was hypnotic.The phenomenon coalesced into a horrible, glowing apparition.Scintillating eyes appeared, and a wedge-shaped head, and a deadly, tapered tail writhed against the floor.Under his breath, Hoppara said, ‘A relli!’Kevin knew the poisonous snake of Kelewan, but this surpassed the biggest river viper he had ever seen.Fully two feet in length, the serpent shimmered with a green incandescence that cast an evil glow over every object in the room.The creature slithered forward a few inches, its head slightly raised and its forked tongue flickering from armoured jaws to taste the air.Kevin glanced at Lujan, who gripped his sheathed weapon in taut fingers.Yet even a gifted swordsman could not draw from the scabbard and expect to strike before the serpent.Still on the mat, barely breathing, Mara whispered, ‘Don’t move, anyone.’As if the sound of her voice keyed response, a low buzz shook the air.The serpent’s head snapped toward the Lady of the Acoma.Its eyes brightened and seemed eerily to shine through the body of the soldier who knelt between, the basin by his knees and one hand raised to bathe his mistress’s face.The magical apparition writhed to one side.The slanted head twisted toward Mara and its tail whipped suddenly into a coil.The head rose and arched back.Lujan nodded to Kevin, who took a slow, soundless step back.Permitted room to swing, the Force Commander snapped his wrist.His blade sang free of its scabbard and descended, edge on, toward the creature’s neck.Yet against an arcane summoning no man could move undetected.The snakelike creature arose until it towered to full height.Then it struck, blindingly fast.Lujan’s sword sliced air, and Mara cried out in shock.The warrior by her side flung his body across hers, and the basin flooded water across the floor; the glowing apparition missed its mark.Fangs like arrows pierced through hide armour with no more resistance than cloth.The wedge-shaped head followed, vanishing into the warrior’s body like liquid sucked through a hole, and the sickly illumination poured after.For an instant, the room crawled with shadow.Then the warrior screamed.His hands worked and clenched in agony, and his eyes began to glow greenly.The illumination brightened, spilling across his skin in a flood that burned, then blazed, then dazzled.The room held nothing of darkness.Then flesh itself began to pucker and crumple.The whites of the man’s eyes swelled and collapsed, and his teeth glittered emerald in gums that smouldered and turned black.Hoppara and Iliando shrank away in voiceless terror; Mara sat frozen, as if the spell held her rooted.Only Kevin, driven by love, found the will to react.He stepped aside, reached past the shining flesh that now thrashed in mindless torment, and caught Mara’s upper arm.With a tortured cry of effort he half lifted, half dragged her beyond reach of the shrieking warrior.Then he flung his own body before hers.Lujan found his reflexes.His sword spun down in an expert stroke and silenced the harrowing screams.Smoke puffed from the corpse, and the green glow flickered and vanished.Ordinary gloom flooded back, full darkness held off by the flame of one guttering lamp.Openly shaking, the Lord of the Bontura made a sign against evil.‘A magician wishes your death, Lady Mara.That thing sought you out by the sound of your voice!’Kevin wiped sweating hands on his robe, forgetful that the cloth was already sodden.He shook his head, ‘I think not.’Lord Bontura looked irritated at the contradiction, but Mara raised herself from the floorboards without offence.‘Why?’The Midkemian looked back at her, his blue eyes level, ‘If a Black Robe wanted you dead, you would be, and no effort of ours could have spared you.Just one of those lightning globes we saw at the games, tossed in here, would make an end of things
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