style="font-size:15px;"> The man pissed himself, his urine pooling about his feet, and struggled desperately, uselessly, to free himself from his bonds.
The two arrivals walked slowly into the area contained by the semicircle of witnesses. A man and a woman, they too were cloaked in crimson, although for the moment their hoods lay draped about their shoulders. The man was in middle age, his face thin and lined, his dark hair receding, his dark eyes curiously compassionate, but only as they regarded his companion. When he glanced at the man chained to the wall those eyes became blank and uncaring.
His name was Aziel, and he was the archpriest of the Coil, now gathered in the Reading Room.
The woman was in her late twenties, very lovely with clear hazel eyes and dark blonde hair. She listened to Aziel as he spoke softly to her, then nodded. She turned slightly, acknowledging the semicircle with a small bow — as one they returned the bow — then turned back to face the chained man.
She was the archpriestess of the Coil, Aziel’s equal in leadership of the order, and his superior in Readings.
Ishbel Brunelle, the little girl he had rescued twenty years earlier from her home of horror.
Aziel handed Ishbel a long silken scarf of the same colour as her cloak, and, as Aziel stood back, she slowly and deliberately wound the scarf about her head and face, leaving only her eyes visible. Then, equally slowly and deliberately, her eyes never leaving the chained man, Ishbel lifted the hood of her cloak over her head, pulling it forward so that her scarf-bound face was all but hidden. She arranged her cloak carefully, making certain her robe was protected.
Then, with precision, Ishbel made the sign of the Coil over her belly.
The man bound to the wall was now frantic, his body writhing, his eyes bulging, mews of horror escaping from behind his gag.
Ishbel took no notice.
From a pocket in her cloak she withdrew a small semicircular blade. It fitted neatly into the palm of her hand, the actual slicing edge protruding from between her two middle fingers.
She stepped forward, concentrating on the man.
He was now flailing about as much as he could given the restriction of his restraints, but his movements appeared to cause Ishbel no concern. She moved to within two paces of the man, took a very deep breath, her eyes closing as she murmured a prayer.
“Great Serpent be with me, Great Serpent be part of me, Great Serpent grace me.”
Then Ishbel opened her eyes, stepped forward, lifted her slicing hand and, in a movement honed by twenty years of the study of anatomy and practice both upon the living and the dead, cleanly disembowelled the man with a serpentine incision from sternum to groin.
Blood spurted outwards in a spray, covering Ishbel’s masked and hooded features.
As the man’s intestines bulged outwards Ishbel lifted her slicing hand again and in several quick, deft movements freed the intestines from their abdominal supports, then stepped back nimbly as they tumbled out of the man’s body to lie in a steaming heap at his feet.
The pile of intestines was still attached to the man’s living body by two long, glistening ropes of bowel, stretching downwards. The man himself, still alive, still conscious, stared at them in a combination of disbelief and shock.
The agony had yet to strike.
The man trembled so greatly that the movement carried down the connecting ropes of bowel to the pile at his feet, making them quiver as if they enjoyed independent life.
Ishbel ignored everything save the pile of intestines. Again she stepped forward, this time leaning down to sever the large intestine as it joined the small bowel.
Behind her the semicircle of the Coil began to chant, softly and sibilantly. “Great Serpent, grace us, grace us, grace us. Great Serpent, grace us, grace us, grace us.”
“Great Serpent, grace us, grace us, grace us,” Aziel said, his voice a little stronger than those of the semicircle.
Ishbel had pocketed the slicing blade now, and stood before the intestines, her hands folded in front of her, eyes cast down.
Please, Great Serpent, she said in her mind, grace me with your presence and tell me what is so wrong, and what we may do to aid you.
The man’s intestine began to uncoil. A long length of the large bowel, now independent, rose slowly into the air.
The man had bitten and masticated his way through his gag by now, and he began to shriek, thin harsh sounds that rattled about the chamber.
No one took any notice of him.
All eyes were on the rope of intestine now twisting into the air before the archpriestess.
It shimmered, and then transformed into the head and body of a black serpent, its scales gleaming with the fluids of the man’s body and sending shimmering shafts of rainbow colours about the chamber. Its head grew hideously large, weaving its way forward until it was a bare finger’s distance from Ishbel’s masked face.
Then it began to speak.
When it was over — the serpent disintegrated into steaming bowel once more, the agonised man dispatched with a deep slash to the throat — Ishbel turned and stared at Aziel, dragging the scarf away from her face so he could see her horror.
“We need to speak,” she said, then walked from the chamber.
Aziel followed Ishbel to the day chamber they shared, pouring her a large of glass of wine as she undid her cloak and tossed it to one side.
“Pour yourself one, too,” she said. “You shall be glad enough of it when I tell you what the Great Serpent said.”
“Ishbel, sit down and take a mouthful of that wine. Good. Now, what —”
“Disaster threatens. The Skraelings prepare to seethe south. Millions of them.”
“But …”
“Millions of them, Aziel.”
Aziel poured himself some wine, then sank into a chair, leaving the wine untouched. The Skraelings — insubstantial ice wraiths who lived in the frozen northern wastes — had ever been a bother to the countries of Viland, Gershadi and Berfardi. Small bands of ten or fifteen occasionally attacked outlying villages, taking livestock and, sometimes, a child.
But millions?And seething as far south as Serpent’s Nest?
“I know only what the Great Serpent showed me, Aziel,” Ishbel said. “I don’t understand it any more than you.” She took a deep breath. “I saw Serpent’s Nest overrun, the members of the Coil dragged out to be crucified on crosses. You …” her voice
