Absorbing the blood, he took form and solidified.Absorbing the blood, he took form and solidified. Zara set the knife away from her and handed the girl's corpse to the being before her. She knelt in the presence of her god. Her face averted, she never learned what he did with the body, but soon she felt a touch on her temple. The white streak he had marked her with was still there. She looked up at him. "This shouldn't be too unpleasant for you," he commented. "Or perhaps I can make it even less so." He began to change, the lines of his face altering into a face she knew as well as her own. "No!" she shrieked. It was what she had wanted all these years. This was the reason she had been married to Lord Fremde so soon after her fourteenth birthday. This was the reason her brother had been sent to school at the Vanadan monastery, where he developed his hatred of priests. Now the Destroyer's black eyes laughed at her from behind the mask of her twin's face. "Please, no. Do not grant me what I want with one hand and hold it out of my reach with the other," she whispered. "I prefer your form." Vendan laughed. "It was a test, most honored of my slaves. |