Diablo 3: The Reaper of Souls Read Online Free PDF Page B

horrid woman again. She would retreat into gentile poverty and lick her wounds, but she could not bear what had happened to Elizabeth. Carlotta had used her desires against her, and Elizabeth had suffered terribly for it—and would suffer the rest of her hideous life unless Nerissa could somehow undo what had been done.
     
    Twice she had gambled for the wealth she desperately craved, and twice something terrible had befallen those close to her. The old witch was not going to trick her a third time. A cold and bitter certainty came over her, and she knew what she had to do. Tonight, Nerissa would be ready for her. Tonight, she would raise the stakes. And yet tonight, it would not matter if she won or lost.
     
    Maurice peeked out through the chamber's heavy drapes and gazed at the street below like an elderly hawk. He blamed himself for what had happened to Elizabeth, and while Nerissa had done her best to reassure him, she could not tell him the truth behind the horrible accident. So he took up his new post like a soldier in the field, and he watched the street for the carriage they both expected. If he found it strange that Nerissa was entertaining guests and playing cards on the heels of two tragedies, he did not say so.
     
    Nerissa forced herself not to pour another cup of wine and considered, once again, Carlotta's impending arrival. The thought had come to her that she did not have to play another game with the old creature. She could turn her away from her door. But that, of course, would not be necessary; she knew that Carlotta would only arrive if Nerissa wished her to. And she knew that Carlotta would arrive without fail if that was what Nerissa wished.
     
    She listened to a distant clock toll the hour out over the town and shuddered. She wondered what decrepit warren the woman had crawled out of, and it occurred to her that what had happened when she won at cards would likely seem mild compared to what would happen if she lost. Whispered tales of bloody hearts ripped still beating from victims' chests came to her, but she pushed the grisly images aside; Carlotta would soon be here, and Nerissa needed her wits about her. The old woman was like some sort of demon who could be called up by the mere utterance of her name. Nerissa silently mouthed the syllables, imagining that she was summoning a loathsome, foul spirit from a festering pit.
     
    "Madam," Maurice croaked, "there she is."
     
    Nerissa's smile of amusement froze into a grimace of sour determination. "Very well, Maurice. Let her in." Nerissa leaned back in her chair and contemplated the cards again. Twice now they had won for her, and yet she had lost more with each game. But tonight would be different, she thought, and she poured herself a cup of wine. Tonight, if all went according to plan, it would not matter that this was almost the last bottle in the house, she mused as she rolled the spicy drink around her mouth. Of course, with this—this witch, or demon, or whatever the woman was, she could not be sure that things would go according to plan. But she was resolute. She had committed herself, and now it was time to see the game through. Stationing Maurice at the curtains had been her first move in the new gambit. She was not going to be taken by surprise this evening.
     
    However, instead of the knock at the door, Nerissa heard the hard staccato clatter of that dreadful ebony cane on the marble floors. Maurice couldn't possibly have hobbled down to open the door that quickly, and in fact, she had not heard the great oaken door open at all. Yet Carlotta was in her house, already scuttling up her stairs, coming closer with each insistent crack of the cane upon the steps.
     
    Nerissa listened to the noise mount the staircase and then approach the chamber, Maurice shuffling after it. Carlotta fairly stormed into the room, and Maurice announced, "Madam Carlotta," rather pointlessly.
     
    Nerissa very deliberately did not rise to meet her guest. She