Corvan expected to see a squad of red-cloaked soldiers march into the hall. Instead, the rge bck lizard that had murdered Harmon and taken the key from Tarran, slipped through the door with a rustle of scales, its keen eyes searching the room. Corvan pressed himself lower on the ledge.

  Tyreth’s father stepped away from the tapestry. “Chief Watcher, we are honored to have your presence in our quarters. May you find the truth you seek.”

  A chortling hiss of a ugh slithered across the room. “High Priessst of the Cor, this time your pious religious greeting is most appropriate for what I seek is standing right before me.” It gestured to one side with its damaged paw, the long, polished cw glinting in the light of the overhead lumien. “The mossst lovely Tyreth.”

  “Why would you seek me, mossst honorable Watcher?” Tyreth replied, her voice thick with sarcasm.

  The bck spines along the lizard’s neck bristled. “I think you know my purpose here. I imagine your spies have already announced my arrival.” The hissing words were now evenly clipped and suppressed.

  The High Priest folded his arms. “If you have business in our quarters, then you are required to state it clearly, Chief Watcher.”

  “Oh, yes. You and your precious ws. Of course, we all must observe the rules and obey the priests. If we do, then the light will come back to Kadir and truth and justice will flow from the temple, just as it shows in your beautiful tapestry.”

  The bck lizard approached the wall hanging. “It’s a wonderful thing, this religion of yours. False hope is so useful in keeping you humans in line.”

  As the Chief Watcher examined the tapestry, the High Priest moved in behind the lizard. “Hope is all the people have these days. Everything else has been taken by the pace.”

  The lizard whirled about, its thick tail spping the tapestry and sending ripples across its surface.

  “Do not abuse your position by insulting me, High Priest. It is only by my permission that your religion survives. The people find my Wasting Ceremonies much more satisfying than your tired old practices, perhaps even more hopeful.”

  “Yes,” Tyreth said coldly. “First you take away their food, then you have them worship gods who will give it back so long as they sacrifice the best and brightest of their youth—the only ones who might eventually stand up to you.”

  The reptile’s face contorted, and the sharp spines around its neck pushed out like an angry porcupine. It studied Tyreth through narrowed eyes. “You are the best and brightest I have seen for a long time, Tyreth.” His words hung in the air. “Now I understand why Morgan was so determined to acquire you for himself.” He sneered. “But I do not have the same use for you as he did, so the next Wasting Ceremony shall serve as your punishment for defying me.”

  The old man shook a finger at the Chief Watcher. “I demand a trial by the city council, for she is the daughter of their High Priest.”

  The bck lizard jumped forward and shoved the elderly man to his knees. “Do not demand anything from me, priest.” It grabbed the old man’s hair and yanked his head back. The long, curved cw was dragged slowly across the High Priest’s wrinkled neck. “I hold your life in my hands and will do as I wish.” The creature nodded to the door. “Does it not seem strange to you that I am here without any of my guards? Without my Rakash? They all know I am here to arrest your daughter, so if I say you attacked me and I had to kill you, then that is what they will believe.”

  “You can’t deceive everyone.” The High Priest tried to pull away, but his hair was held fast. “The truth will eventually be known. You can’t kill the truth.”

  The lizard pulled the old man’s head closer. “The only truth that matters right now is that I rule Kadir.” It gestured toward the tapestry. “Even your precious religion and your Cor-Van cannot—” A long, hiss filled the chamber, as if a writhing nest of snakes had awakened from hibernation.

  The lizard dragged the High Priest toward the wall. “Where did you get this tapestry? This is not from Kadir.”

  Tyreth’s father raised his head to the wall hanging. “It has always been kept at the temple. The legends say that only the Cor-Van can tell us what it means.”

  “Legends!” The lizard spat the word in the old man’s face. “When I am finished, that’s all you priests will be, legends.” It pressed the point of its cw into the taut skin of the old man’s neck. Drops of blood welled up and trickled down into the folds of the priest’s robe. “Your foolish pns to overthrow me have failed.” The Chief Watcher pushed the old man’s head back even farther and the High Priest’s gaze fell directly on Corvan’s face. The man’s eyes grew wide.

  Out of nowhere, a chair shattered over the lizard’s back, toppling its scaly body into a heap under the tapestry. Tyreth rushed in and stood over her father, her shoulders heaving as she clutched the legs of a broken chair in her fists.

  The scaly reptile uncoiled like a snake rising from a basket, then leapt at the young woman. Brushing the chair legs aside, it lifted her struggling body over its head, strode to the huge table, and smmed her down on top of it.

  Spinning her body about to bring her face closer to the edge, the Chief Watcher pushed its nose against her cheek. “If you were not so useful to me in destroying this foolish religion, I would kill you now. Fearless ones like you are most dangerous, especially beautiful ones the men will follow.” The lizard pulled back and studied her face for a long moment before its cw flicked out and ripped a jagged gash across her right cheek. Tyreth cried out and csped her hand over the wound. Blood squeezed past her fingers and dripped off her wrist onto the table.

  The thin, forked tongue of the Chief Watcher whipped out and licked its cw clean, then looked at Tyreth writhing in pain and clicked its teeth. “Sssuch a wassste,” it hissed softly.

  The bck lizard turned to the High Priest. “Your daughter just saved your life, old man, for I did not use enough of my poison to kill you. Instead, I will let you live to see her sacrificed to the Cor’s new gods at the next water ceremony.” It looked back to Tyreth, the sinews in its neck twitching and twisting. “Yessss, this will be a special event. I will have all the priests summoned from the settlements to join us for the trial of Tyreth, daughter of the former High Priest. I do hope you live long enough to see this, High Priest. Once Tarran is hunted down, it will be a fitting end to your family line and your truly hopeless faith.”

  The lizard sauntered away from the table and shouted a command. In an instant, the hall was filled with soldiers.

  “Take these two to the cells,” the Chief Watcher commanded. “When I questioned them on the whereabouts of Tarran, they attacked me.” It pointed to the pieces of chair scattered across the floor. “The punishment for such treason is death.”

  The soldiers froze, staring at the High Priest and the scene before them.

  “I said take them!”

  The men scurried to help Tyreth down from the table and her father to his feet, then ushered them cautiously toward the door as if something terrible might happen to them at any moment. Tyreth pushed the men away with her free hand and walked before them with her head held high. Blood ran from the hand over her cheek and dripped to mark her path as she exited the hall.

  Ushered along by the red cloaked guards, the High Priest reached the doorway, then wrenched himself free and turned around. His face was toward the lizard, but his eyes were firmly fixed on Corvan. He put his hands together as if he were praying and pointed the tips of his fingers at Corvan. “This is not over, Chief Watcher. The Cor-Van will soon be here to put an end to your tyranny.”

  The bck lizard dismissed the old man with a contemptuous wave of its arm. Corvan watched transfixed as the High Priest backed slowly from the room with the guards following after him. Why had the man pointed his fingers in that way? They were already inside the peaked roof of the temple.

  As the footsteps of the soldiers faded away, the Chief Watcher remained motionless, studying the tapestry for what seemed an eternity. Finally, with exhaled hiss, it extended its long cw and crudely cut a rge circle from the fabric. The sound was like fingernails on a chalkboard and sent shivers down Corvan’s spine.

  A jagged circur piece of tapestry fell to the floor. The lizard picked it up, then folded it into a neat packet.

  “Now, it is over, High Priest,” it muttered.

  The Chief Watcher turned and strode toward the door. Abruptly it whirled about and looked past the glow of the rge lumien directly at Corvan’s hiding pce. “I almost forgot about you.”

  Corvan could only watch helplessly as the lizard dropped the folded tapestry on an unbroken chair, pulled a short, curved bde from a scabbard at its waist and gave it a twist. The bde opened to a circle of four hooked bdes. With practiced ease, it pulled back its muscur arm and released the weapon.

  Corvan had no time to move. A fsh of silver whirred past his head, then turned back to its owner. The lizard caught the weapon in midair and stepped away, its cruel face full of anticipation.

  In the stillness, drips of shimmering fluid spshed down on the table beneath the lumien. The rge globe shuddered and fell a few inches, its main cord almost severed by the lizard’s flying bde. A growing stream of luminescent drips trickled onto the table where Tyreth had been ying as long vine tendrils reached out to keep the heavy globe from falling.

  It was too te. The stem snapped, dropping the lumien with a sickening spt on the stone table. The globe convulsed then burst, sending rge chunks of lumien fruit raining down over the stone floor.

  The lizard jumped into the quivering mass on the table, flicked his weapon back to a single bde, and sshed away at the center of the smashed globe. Shards of light flickered amid the exposed flesh of the shattered lumien until he finally drew out a pulsing red core. Clutching it to his chest, he poked about greedily in the pulpy mess, sloshing his way about on top of the table. Finally, he jumped down, slipped his knife away, and kicked aside a chunk of the lumien’s thick skin. “Just like everything else in this foolish religion. The mother pnt was also a lie. Only one heart.”

  As it held up the glistening pod, its face wrinkled with deep concern. “The rgest one ever,” it said quietly but then its eyes narrowed in anger. “I won’t become an animal again.” The lizard spat the words out. “You,” it said, pointing at the ruined tapestry. “You fed the power to me.” The lizard raised the red core to the hole in the cloth. “You needed me to understand. Now I will know much more than you ever intended. I will make you pay for what you have done to me.”

  Tipping back its head, the lizard dropped the lumien heart into it mouth, chewing quickly and exhaling in ecstasy. Blood red juice trickled out between its pointed teeth and dripped off its chin. The creature’s dark eyes closed in intense satisfaction—then bugged open as if they would pop out of its head. Every muscle and sinew in its body tightened in sharp definition as the lizard, writhing and gurgling, fell to the floor.

  A pool of shadows appeared to spread out around the contorted body, as if the creature were bleeding darkness. The room grew darker as the vines overhead bunched up to block the light. The Chief Watcher y whimpering amidst the shifting shadows, its breath shooting from its nostrils in spasmodic jets of cold vapor.

  The lizard gave one st agonizing cry, then it y still. The light from the lumiens outside pushed in through the skylights and flowed past the vines to spotlight the dark creature.

  The lizard groaned, rolled onto its knees, and looked into the light. A thin smile spread across its face. “Such amazing power in only one seed. Now I clearly see what I must do to defeat you.”

  The Chief Watcher struggled to its feet. It lifted up the heavy scales that ringed its neck, exposing a bck segmented band hidden beneath them. Hooking his cw beneath it, the lizard stretched it way from his neck. “Then I will finally be free,” it snarled.

  The words had no sooner left its lips, and the bck lizard hunched low, released the bck band to disappear back under his scales and looked nervously into the hallway.

  Satisfied that no one was listening, the Chief Watcher raised its head, strode out the door, and smmed it shut with its whiplike tail.