The Paths of the Dead (Viscount of Adrilankha) Read Online Free PDF Page A

else.”
    “Yes, I have heard of this. And your name, my good coachman?”
    “Miska.”
    The woman nodded. “Very well, Miska. You have done well. Here is your fee.” So saying, she threw him a small purse, which he caught out of the air.
    “How,” he said. “That is all for me?”
    “You wish more?”
    “Indeed.”
    “What more would you wish?”
    “How much is available?”
    “Nothing,” said the woman.
    Miska sighed. “Well, I should at least like to know how this all comes out in the end. You perceive, it might give me another story.”
    “I have no doubt,” she said, “that you will come to learn about it, sooner or later. But for now …”
    Her voice trailed off, her sentence punctuated by an eloquent look. Miska interpreted the look, bowed to each of them, and, addressing Morrolan, said, “Well, at least some of your tasks are now completed.” With this he backed out of the chapel, leaving Morrolan alone with the strange woman.
    “I am called Arra,” she said after Miska had left.
    “I am Morrolan.”
    “Morrolan?” she said. “‘Black Star.’ An auspicious name”
    “I hope so. And who—”
    “I am a priestess.”
    “Ah! Yes, of course. I should have realized. A priestess of—?”
    “The Demon Goddess. I serve her. You will serve her as well.”
    “You think so?” said Morrolan.
    Arra nodded. “Yes,” she said. “In fact, I am entirely convinced of it.”
    “Well then,” said Morrolan. “Perhaps you are right. But will you do me the honor to explain why I will do this?”
    “Because you wish for knowledge, and for power.”
    “And I can gain these things by serving the goddess?”
    The priestess indicated by a sign that, in fact, he could.
    “Well,” said Morrolan, “I do not wish to say that I doubt you—”
    “That is good. You should not doubt me.”
    “—but how am I to know that serving her will lead me to knowledge and power?”
    “Oh, you wish to know that?”
    “Yes. In fact, I so strongly wish to know, that I cannot conceive of committing myself to the goddess before this question has been answered.”
    “But then, what do you know of the goddess?”
    “Very little. I know that her feast day falls in the winter, and that she is one of the Daughters of Night, and that she is said to take an interest in certain of the smaller kingdoms.”
    “Have you heard that she takes an especial interest in those who study the arts of the witch?”
    “I had not heard this. In fact, I had thought that was one of her sisters.”
    “They are sometimes hard to tell apart.”
    “Very well.”
    “Nevertheless, it is true.”
    “Then I accept that she interests herself in the study of the Art. What next?”
    “Next? She is very powerful.”
    “That is but natural in a goddess.”
    “That is true, but, moreover, she is loyal.”
    “Ah! She is loyal, you say.”
    “I not only say it, but I insist upon it.”
    “Well, I admit that makes a difference.”
    “And then?”
    Morrolan suddenly found himself in one of those moments
where the direction of one’s whole life can change in an instant. Another might have hesitated, but Morrolan was not of a character for hesitation, and, moreover, he had set out from home with the idea in mind of putting himself into the path of just this sort of event.
    “Very well, I accept,” he said. “Is there a ritual or a ceremony?”
    “Yes, exactly.”
    “Well, when shall we perform this ritual?”
    “Unless you can think of a reason to delay, well, we can do so at once.”
    “I can think of no reason,” he said.
    “Then let us begin,” said Arra.
    Morrolan went forward to the altar and, towering over Arra, he said, “What, then, must we do?”
    “Will you agree to serve the goddess?”
    “I will.”
    “Very well, then.”
    “How, that is it?”
    “No, but it is a good beginning.”
    “I see. Well then, what next?”
    “Next is the consecration.”
    “Ah, the consecration!”
    “Exactly.”
    “Well,