[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.As soon as the goddess moved away, though, they resumed their howling."Come here, Adon.I want you to meet Talos," Mystra called.Still tense with anger, the patriarch stalked to Mystra's side."Have you lost enough of your humanity to make light of these wretches?""Hardly," Mystra said, her blue-white eyes snapping fire."Look again, Adon.I know you're bright enough to understand this."The madman was naked, his hair long and unkempt.With blue eyes narrowed in suspicion, he watched the patriarch closely.All the while, he plucked the beard from his chin one whisker at time.He dropped the hair onto the floor around him, which was already crowded with the unraveled threads of his blanket and the cloth shreds that had once been his clothes."Go ahead, Adon," Mystra said softly."Try to stop him."The patriarch reached out and stilled the man's hands.The lunatic trembled, watching Adon with watery eyes.After a moment, when he thought the inmate had calmed, Adon released him.The bony fingers flew to the offending beard and tore at it again, neither faster nor slower than before.Mystra laid a gentle hand on Adon's shoulder."What does he see when he looks at you?""Someone stopping him from plucking his beard out.Maybe not even a person.Maybe I'm just some huge paralyzing shadow or a set of chains.""So now you've met Talos," Mystra said flatly."Or one very much like him.This poor man destroys whatever clothes or bedding they give him.No one can figure out why.His mind is set on it, and if they keep him chained too long, he stops eating, stops sleeping.They let him out like this now and then to tear something up.And like the gods, he's only aware of anyone around him insomuch as they help or hinder his mad view of the world.""But surely the gods-"Mystra shook her head."Their minds are more expansive, but just as limited in perception.""Then how can they communicate?" Adon asked."If they're madmen, they shouldn't be able to agree on anything.""Something in their consciousness must translate what the other gods say," Mystra replied."They're all looking at the same reality, but seeing it in myriad ways.Talos can see nothing but a world that must be destroyed." She swept manically across the chamber to a man with his knees pulled up tight to his chest.Bloody tears streamed down his sunken cheeks."And this is Ilmater, who sees only the suffering of Faerun.His cell mate is Gond, the Wonderbringer, whose mechanical marvels will spread across the world like a clockwork army." Mystra gestured to a bald dwarf busily constructing a tower from shattered chains and fractured servings bowls.Finally, the Goddess of Magic came to a young boy, his face twisted into a hideous mask by some misfired enchantment.He primped and fussed over the tufts of hair sprouting from his blackened scalp."You already know Sune Firehair," Mystra said."It doesn't matter that he's a man, of course.We gods can be whichever sex we choose.""And you?" Adon asked bluntly."What is the face of your madness?""Ao allowed me to keep something of my humanity, but that means I can see all the others are mad," Mystra said."Talos has no idea how the others perceive the world.I, on the other hand, can share in his and every other god's twisted visions.In the end, that could make me the maddest-"Mystra stiffened in pain and clutched her side.Cyric had wounded her there a decade ago, during the battle atop Blackstaff Tower."It was only a matter of time," she hissed.His hands held out to the goddess, Adon rushed forward."What is it?""Cyric," the Lady of Mysteries said through clenched teeth, though now her face was contorted with anger, not pain."He's striking against the weave.I've got to stop him."The inmates howled at the sudden burst of blue-white radiance as Mystra disappeared.Even through their madness-fogged brains, they felt some unknowable pain at the use of sorcery in their midst, the damnable Art that had done them all so much harm.And in the center of all the shrieking and screaming, Adon of Mystra stood in silence, with tearing eyes.He made his way to the door and pounded on the thick metal with his mace.The guards hadn't noticed the presence of a goddess.He hoped they would hear his calls now and take them as something more than the unusually lucid cries of one of the inmates."Warders!" he shouted."I am here from the Church of Mysteries.Open this door, for Mystra's sake, and bring some water."The priest turned back to the dim room.He laid his fine cloak over a shivering, rag-clad man chained to the wall.Then, choking back his gorge at the stench of offal and disease, he kneeled next to the scarred boy who Mystra had called Sune."You look quite handsome today," he said soothingly as he wiped grime from the boy's arms with his handkerchief.Something like a smile crossed the lunatic's lips.Adon shuddered despite himself."Maybe the scholars were right in this much," he murmured."Perhaps the gods can't live without their worshipers after all."* * * * *Deep within the maze of lightless, hope-forsaken tunnels known as Pandemonium, Cyric raised Godsbane and slashed again at a glowing curtain of magical energy.The short sword bit into the seemingly insubstantial wall with a screech that sounded like an axe sliding on slate.A thin gash opened for an instant, then sealed itself, just like every other hole the Lord of the Dead had cut in the curtain.The magic wounds me, Godsbane whispered in Cyric's mind
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]