“Do you see?” Mistress Shin’dara spun back around, a cruel smile twisting her thin lips. “Lady Twa’linda is no more! She’snevercoming back to usurp my rightful place again!”
“But…but if she’s dead, doesn’t that mean she’ll begin rotting?” Lucy demanded, completely horrified. “How can you live, tied to a decomposing corpse like that?”
Her question seemed to make Mistress Shin’dara angry.
“Do you think I care?”she screeched at Lucy. “She kept me locked away for fifteen solar years…fifteen years!I would rather die myself than let her live! I will never regret what I have done!NEVEEEEER!”
The last word was a screech so shrill that Lucy winced and put her hands to her ears. Mistress Shin’dara was getting more and more upset. So upset that her features were changing, running together in an odd way, like some invisible hand was re-molding her face into a whole other shape…
“Watch out, Lucille!” T’zaren shouted from behind her. “She’s changing—taking her third form! Get back—get away from her!”
But Lucy felt frozen to the spot. The big Monstrum was right, she saw, staring at the slowly writhing Twainer in front of her. Mistress Shin’dara’s black cat-suit seemed to have become part of her and her body was growing and elongating. At the same time, her dark eyes had turned a glowing yellow and her face had become streamlined while her lips had disappeared altogether. This made it easier to see that two of her upper teeth had turned into long, curving fangs that protruded from her mouth like twin daggers.
A snake!Lucy thought as horrified fascination filled her.I think she’s turning into some kind of giant black snake!
And indeed, that seemed to be the case. As the fangs elongated even more, Mistress Shin’dara opened her mouth to hiss. She was coiled in front of the throne now and all the guards had scattered, leaving Lucy and T’zaren alone in the vast Throne Room.
We should run!Lucy thought numbly. But of course theycouldn’t. T’zaren was still chained, helpless, to the Penetration Arch and there was no way in hell she was leaving him!
So she stood her ground, though her legs felt wobbly as the enormous black snake reared up over her.
“You thought you could leave here without giving messsatisfaction?”the snake Mistress Shin’dara had become hissed. “I’ll kill you both! You’lldieyou pathetic little magotsss!”
“Lucille move!Run!”T’zaren’s deep voice had become a roar and she was dimly aware that she could hear the chains that bound him to the Penetration Arch clinking together frantically.
“I’m not leaving you!” she exclaimed, never taking her eyes from the giant snake. “Never!”
“Then you ssshall die, you little fraud!” the Shin’dara snake hissed. “Die on the pointss of my fangsss!”
The snake lunged suddenly and Lucy threw herself to the ground. But just as she did, someone jumped between her and the snake.
It was T’zaren she saw, looking up at him. The broken links of the bent and twisted chains dangled from the leather manacles he still wore. God, how strong was he, anyway? She’d had no idea he could twist and bend metal like that!
Before she could think anything else, the big Monstrum had jumped at the snake Shin’dara had become and wrapped his muscular arms around its neck, just below the sleek black head.
At first it seemed that he might prevail. The snake hissed and spit and whipped back and forth trying to dislodge him, but it was no use. T’zaren had a death grip on it and his eyes had gone from golden to Rage-red, Lucy saw.
But then, just as the enormous head started drooping, the long, muscular tail covered in shining black scales began to wind itself around the Monstrum warrior’s legs and waist.
“T’zaren, look out!” Lucy gasped. “She’s coming at you from below—trying to crush you!”
Almost before the words left her lips, it was already too late. As she watched in horror, the sliding scales crept higher and higher, squeezing tighter and tighter as they wound themselves like steel cables around T’zaren’s torso.
In a minute he won’t be able to breathe anymore! Oh my God, what am I going to do? If only there was someone to help us! But all the guards are gone—there’s no one!Lucy thought frantically.
Suddenly a warm presence enveloped her and a powerful feminine voice spoke in her ear.
“There is still a weapon you can use, my child,”the voice told her.“Look beside the throne and avail yourself of what you find there.”
Then the presence and the voice were gone but Lucy had a new focus. Turning her head she saw what the voice was talking about—it was the large copper barrel where the branding irons had been stored and heated during the Loyalty Ceremony. Even better, the irons were still there and still red hot—if the glow coming out of the barrel was any indication.
Charging across to the barrel, she seized one of the brands by its thick silicone handle and jammed the glowing end against one of the writhing, scaly coils wrapped around T’zaren.
The enormous snake let out a screeching hiss that nearly deafened her. It writhed around, dropping the limp form of T’zaren from its coils and stared with malevolent yellow eyes right at Lucy.
“You!” it hissed. “Now youdie!”
It lunged at her and only Lucy’s clumsiness saved her. As she tried to dodge aside, her feet got tangled together and she fell hard to the marble floor.