The Eyes of Sarsis

by Andrew J Offutt

  In Bardon’s arms, she looked up to study his face. He was not truly handsome, her savior and hero, but … there was an austere nobility about his angular features, and it stirred her. She sighed.

  My savior! My hero! Only now did she notice the ring — pentacle, really — in his ear. It seemed a wonderfully romantic touch. Jiltha snuggled. When Bardon paused to rest — which delighted her, really; it did after all prove that he was a man — she attained her feet and spoke softly.

  “My good lord, our situation is desperate, but we may do that which will make pursuit futile. The Eyes desire me only because I am a virgin princess.”

  Bardon remembered Jiltha as a spoiled child, less to his taste than the cow-laced women of Sonul. “Your Highness, were I to take base disadvantage of your fears, it would dishonor us both.”

  Jiltha decided that either her hero was very, very noble indeed or because of the darkness he hadn’t got a good look while she lay on the black altar. She could solve both problems.

  “My heroic lord, marriage by Sword Oath is a little used but ancient and honorable custom. I give myself to you not from fear, my savior and hero, but because I love you with all my heart.” With her hands clasped behind her she lowered her eyes and stepped back from him, wishing the sword gave off more light.

  To her delight it suddenly flamed brightly. Thus she was well displayed as she dropped the cloak. She preened in the light, turning slowly so that he would see every intoxicatingly sweeping curve of her. Then she stepped close and pressed her body against Bardon, noticing his large eyes and positively gaping mouth. Ouch! Dratted mail … but O, the male!

  For a moment Bardon stood dazed while he was kissed by a very beautiful and very naked girl. Young woman, even. Drat this mailcoat! This situation involved a most complex decision. He could foresee many problems, whatever he did. Then he remembered that Pyre had bidden him follow his instincts.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Tiana awakened suddenly from dreamless sleep. Her mind was clear. Indeed, it was well rested and functioning at peak capacity. She remembered the past events and understood them. The Eyes of Sarsis had outwitted her. She had dropped an avalanche on an illusion, then served illusions, sailing the ship to the Bear’s chosen destination.

  She could not see, for something covered her eyes. She felt she was resting on a soft bed, tightly bound by many ropes. The bed was moving; was she still at sea? No; this was not the roll of the restless waves. Tiana was lying on something soft, large and alive. Her bonds, too, were alive. Twisting slightly, she was able to uncover her right eye. It was night. Perhaps she was in a garden, for the air was filled with a delicate sweet scent.

  “You are awake. It is well.”

  The voice came from her left. It was a sibilant voice of sweet softness, much like the voice of the Eyes of Sarsis. When she tried to turn toward the sound, she succeeded only in covering her eye.

  “Be still a moment.”

  Tiana felt something sharp close to her neck. She felt warm liquid spill on her, then her head was free. The figure on her left was concealed in black shapeless robes but was clearly not human. With a pointless short-bladed knife it cut the worm-like things that held her left arm. The rope worms were a living part of the bed on which she lay. As soon as her arm was free, the black figure placed the twin of its knife in her hand.

  “Time is short, so you must help yourself. The tendrils have little feeling. Cut them with swift clean strokes, without pulling at the main body. Above all do not cut or injure the main body.”

  He or it began to free her left leg. Once its skin brushed against her bare flesh. It was cold, and scaled. Tiana regarded the dark figure with suspicion. It had given her a knife that was not a weapon, and nothing in the appearance of this creature of darkness prompted trust.

  “Who are you?” she demanded.

  “My name was forfeited long ago. I am an ally of Pyre.”

  “That’s small recommendation. Why do you free me?”

  “So that you can — ” It stopped speaking and glided away from her. Though Tiana had heard nothing, she concealed her knife and pretended to be unconscious.

  Watching through eyes that were slits she saw stone walls and two more black-robed figures approaching. They came close to her. One reached down toward her leg and there was sudden burning pain. Tiana let the leg twitch, and sighed. The black forms turned away from her, apparently satisfied that she was still senseless. Now they saw the ally of Pyre. No words passed between them, nor did the two move toward the one. The three figures stood in frozen silence, while tension gathered until the air seemed laden with it. A single word registered in her brain, as though whispered there almost silently but with much force: Traitor.

  Though Tiana could feel no breeze, the robes of the two dark figures fluttered as if a wind blew from Pyre’s nameless ally. Its robes moved slightly, a ripple as if an occasional gust came toward it from the two. The robe of one of the dark pair was flapping violently, an unrestrained motion as if there was nothing under the fabric.

  That robe flopped and collapsed like a sail cut from the rigging. Of whatever had worn it there was no trace. Now the unnatural wind blew strongly in both directions. The robes of the two remaining figures flapped more and more intensely. Abruptly all motion ceased. The robes of the ally fell to the floor, empty. The last dark figure turned briefly toward Tiana, then hurried away.

  Swiftly but cautiously Tiana cut her way free. She set off to find Bjaine and Jiltha. A few paces from the live bed that had held her, she found a second: a pallet of soft gold fur with long silk hairs that slowly moved. Jiltha’s clothes lay beside it. It was empty.

  An unconscious Bjaine stood beside it, chained to a steel form. His yellow hair dangled. Like Tiana, he was fully dressed, though his leather mail coat was gone. His shirt was torn. Dark red flowers had been twined about his neck so that he must continually breathe their narcotic perfume.

  The world and I are probably better off with this Nor’man just as he is! Still … Tiana cut the stem of the flowers and, using Jiltha’s clothes to protect her hands, pulled the flowers away. Almost at once Bjaine began to mumble groggily. Tiana had a feeling that she needed no picklock — and too she had a deliciously wicked thought. Stepping back, she aimed a hard kick at Bjaine’s backside.

  With a roar the giant pulled the steel frame to pieces, wrenching his chains loose. Tiana watched with admiration. Small wonder that this magnificent brute trusted to luck and brute force. His strength was so great that his enemies perpetually underestimated him.

  His eyes cleared, became flecks of sky, and he saw her. “What madness is this? Why aren’t we in Thesia?”

  “There’s no time to explain, Bjaine. The Bear is not dead. We must find Jiltha and flee.”

  “Where’s the Bear?”

  “I don’t know. From what it said, probably in the temple.”

  “Good,” grunted Bjaine. “You find Jiltha and I will go slay our enemy.”

  Tiana was shocked by the way the man calmly proposed suicide. “Bjaine you — idiot! Your brawn is useless against that unnatural monster.”

  He looked at her with unhappy surprise. “Suddenly your tongue has grown sharp and you try to give Bjaine orders. Mayhap you need a good beating and then the binding cord.”

  “Don’t you d — oh!”

  The giant blond seized Tiana, and calmly began beating her. In his mind, beating a woman was like spanking a child. He wished to cause pain and humiliation, without serious injury. With his right arm he shook Tiana back and forth while leisurely slapping her face with his left hand. Unfortunately for the Northman, Tiana was fighting in earnest. His iron physique could absorb great punishment but just as he pulled Tiana violently toward him, she threw an elbow smash at his neck. The giant wavered for a heartbeat, then crashed to the earth.

  In some small horror Tiana realized she could have killed this deluded Northman. To her (some, small) relief he was still breathing, albeit with some difficulty
.

  Tiana considered her dilemma. Blast and bedevil the man! Even if she could find Jiltha, which did not seem likely, she just couldn’t abandon this oaf, so despicable and so lovely. Certainly he was too big to carry! If she couldn’t run, she must fight. That seemed hopeless, for mighty weapons had failed and now she had only a little knife without even a point.

  Still, Pyre had arranged to free her, and she was sure it was not from the goodness of his heart. No. The wizard wanted her to do something.

  The knowledge of what she must do had died with the nameless ally. She could not solve this riddle; indeed she found that she could not concentrate on it. There was the distraction of a strong feeling that she was being watched. Ah! She had looked at it before; now she saw it. Bjaine’s shirt had torn more, and gaped slightly open. From his magnificently muscled belly, a red eye was staring at her.

  One tug revealed the demon confined by the pentagram. So this was how the wizard Ekron had bound the Northman to his service!

  Suddenly Tiana was smiling. Everything fun is dangerous, she’d been known to say. Well, this would be dangerous — and fun. Tiana knew what she must do and knew that she must do it swiftly.

  *

  When the moon rose, she had just finished her task and was leaving the garden, moving silently through the shadows. Hearing a slight sound from around the corner she approached, she dodged behind a large flowering bush. Several black robed figures passed the bush, gliding eerily. Then Tiana was racing away. She reached the steps of the Temple of Cignas before she saw another of the minions of Sarsis. This one stood in the doorway of the temple.

  “I have business with your master!” she shouted urgently. “Stand aside.”

  It moved out of her way without the faintest sign of surprise. Tiana hurried past. The Bear stood in the center of the temple, a piece of ugly rottenness in a shrine of beauty.

  The stench was terrible. Tiana’s stomach lurched and turned at this mass of slime-covered bones. Bits of rotted skin hung like tattered ribbons. And still it stood, and walked. Its awful eyes no longer blazed, but burned with a dull red glow. Those eyes focused on her and it spoke.

  “You are wise to submit. The battle is over and we have won. Further resistance is futile.”

  “Battle?” Tiana blinked. “Yes, you do appear … weakened.”

  “True, but it does not matter. While you slept, Pyre and we fought. Ours was a battle such as the world has not known since time’s dawn. We have won, for our power is slightly greater. Pyre fought with skill and apish cunning. His most clever move was the winged chariot he sent, apparently to rescue you. By that trick he caused us to destroy one of our own minions. Thus he substituted a traitor in our ranks, unsuspected. But despite his cunning and the forces he rallied against us, we have prevailed. Nothing can prevent my return now! In the Ceremony of Return you shall be my servant, and my meal.”

  Tiana bore something in her hand. She moved closer to the Bear. “As a matter of fact,” she replied equably, “I came here to kill you.”

  The obscene gurgling that emanated from the Bear might have been laughter. She sprang forward and slapped that which she held over the Right Eye of Sarsis. The Bear’s clumsy paw scratched at it: a sticky piece of human skin. Thus it broke the pentagram inscribed on that skin. The Bear howled as it began to disappear into a mouth of night.

  Hmp, Tiana observed. That demon off Bjaine’s belly has no shape and no form , but it certainly has great hunger!

  There was a flash of complete darkness and Tiana smiled.

  “Farewe — Fare not well, Sarsis,” she murmured.

  Her smile faded when she beheld the Bear erect before her, throwing the piece of skin from itself. Oh , Theba — won’t it ever just die? Its bright green eyes blazed as it shouted its contempt.

  “Silly stupid trull … you think such a petty trick could harm us?”

  The room spun and the figure of the Bear was no longer in front of Tiana. Dizzily she whirled to see the Bear behind her, barring her path to the door. Raising hideous, rotted paws, it stepped toward her. Weirdly, its stench was gone.

  “Now we shall take you.”

  The sound of its voice did not completely cover the background sounds: the crunch of bones and the sound of great teeth chewing with gusto.

  Green eyes and no stink, eh ? Tiana knew that again she saw illusion; a trick to make her feed herself to the devil and permit the Eyes of Sarsis to escape. The demon’s mouth was but a step away — and she knew not in which direction. She knew only that she dared not flee the advancing Bear, that she must not move. The sickeningly decayed beast was close, reaching out to take her in its revolting embrace.

  The paws closed about her … and the scene faded, became blurry; and dissolved.

  No trace remained of the Bear. On the floor two large diamonds clattered, flashing as they danced up and down. Pools of red seemed to swim in their depths. She saw no sign of the demon, but she heard the intense sucking noise. Blood spurted out of the big gems to disappear into empty air.

  This no illusion, she thought. The demon has devoured the Bear and is draining Sarsis’s store of blood. It can’t consume the diamond — the Eyes . But —

  The red tinge in the gemstones faded to a pallid pink, to a spot. Slowly it diminished still more. And then it was entirely gone. The sucking noise ceased and the diamonds lay still, clear as faceted crystal. Beautiful. Tiana gazed upon two eminently desirable stones, the seizing of which would produce a life of ease. Except that she knew better. She looked at the dread gems with dismay. Was there no way to destroy the accursed things? For the moment the Eyes were without blood and power. Yet she knew very well that if she touched them, they would drink her. Tiana did not fancy herself as the Bear’s replacement; the next host-body for Sarsis.

  At a loss, she was pondering when something moved behind her. She whirled to face a slim long column of white.

  It said, “So Ekron’s magicks did defeat the Eyes.”

  “Pyre!”

  “Brought here by Caranga, yes, as an empty body. Able to reunite soul with this clay on the death of a minion and Sarsis’s present weakness. Well done, Tiana; I had feared that only your death would bring my soul and body together again.”

  “You said … defeated?” Tiana glanced hopefully at the diamonds.

  “Aye — and just as dangerous as they were back in Ilan when some idiot dug them up,” Pyre assured her. “Now then. Tiana: at the far end of the temple you will find a large jar of oil. Fetch it.”

  In a delight that was almost a delirium of relief, Tiana ran to obey. She was halfway back to the wizard, lugging the oil, when she stopped. She stared, as if unable to understand how he had accomplished her obedience.

  “Sacred Udders — I’m no slave! I have been used enough by our enemy. Why should I be commanded to fetch and carry for you? If you want my help, Wizard, ask politely, as one equal to the other.”

  The deep cold eyes fixed on her, the eyes of Pyre of Ice. “If you were my equal, Tiana High-and-mightyrider, you might do and suffer what I am about to do and suffer. Now pour that oil over my body. All over me, Tiana, and hurry! All, all hangs in the balance!”

  As she poured, Tiana said, “Whether the world falls or not, Pyre of Ice, you will say ‘Please’ if you want your next command obeyed!”

  The diamonds clattered restlessly on the temple’s flagging. Drenched and dripping, bedraggled and decidedly unimposing, Pyre turned from her without acknowledgment.

  “Sarsis,” he said, and he sounded sad. “We have come to a final parting. I am victor, for the Sons of the Ape are more subtle and deceitful than the Children of the Snake. I can say no benediction for now I work your damnation. Let it be remembered that I did not seek this day, that I fairly warned you that there was no return for those whose time is past.”

  “You — you sound sad!” Tiana’s voice accused.

  Pyre turned to her, his robes plastered to him with oil so that he could not have concealed a twig. N
evertheless from within that once-white robe he drew forth an unlighted torch. As he handed it to her, its greased head burst into flames. Tiana jerked, and gave him a satirically reproachful look. She held onto the flaming brand.

  I am not sure I am longer capable of surprise, she mused.

  “Your part in this plan is simple, Tiana Highrider of Reme. I am going to place the Eyes of Sarsis on my own eyes. They will — ”

  “Pyre ! No !”

  “They will possess me and — ”

  “Pyre! Wait! Stop and listen. Please!”

  He gazed serenely at her. How could he?! “Very well, Tiana, I am listening. But the Eyes are peril so long as they exist, no matter how harmless they appear.”

  “Yes but you can’t just — Pyre, listen! Once, in an inn, you sought to scare me to death — most literally! When that failed — because I don’t know fear, of course — we talked; rather, I and a sending of yours talked, Wizard. We came to an agreement, once you explained a few matters. You said words to me, and I have not forgot a single one:

  “‘Tiana, your magnificent beauty is a flame and your brilliant wit is as sharp as your rapier. You have been a thorn in the side of many of the great and powerful. Were I not so far down the lonely path of black arts, I myself would naturally desire you. The world will be a poorer place when you leave it. I, Pyre, who knows he is supreme, vow by the fires which shall destroy the earth that I shall avenge your death.’”

  “You remember well, Tiana, though I did not preface ‘beauty’ with ‘magnificent’ or ‘wit’ with ‘brilliant’ and I said ‘might desire you’, not ‘would naturally.’”

  “Well, you should have said it my way. Do you know what I thought, then?”

  “Tiana, the Eyes — ”

  “I thought: And I, Tiana, who knows she is supreme, Pyre, vow that we’d be a marvelous couple indeed! Pyre … I … don’t want you to do this thing.”

  “Sentiment,” he said, and his voice was almost soft. It firmed. “My alternative does not exist. Now attend, woman, and do what you must. I shall place the Eyes of Sarsis on my own eyes. They will, possess me, drink my blood, and make me their vampire slave.”