Crucible
Page 38
This thought had occurred to me as well, and yet I was loath to keep the One’s heart for fear of what it might do to the rest of my body. “Perhaps it could be fixed, Most High. I am certain you will want your own back.”
“I think not, Malik.” Cyric shook his head, then tossed my heart over his shoulder. “I can always find another, but you had better keep mine. You will need it.”
This filled my stomach with a sick feeling. “I will?”
The One nodded, then patted the couch beside him. I rose and sat on the edge of the cushion.
“I have something very special in mind for you, Malik.” Cyric draped his arm around my shoulders. The orange blood of my heart still dripped from his fingernails. “You are going to be my Seraph of Lies.”
“Seraph of Lies!” I cried. “But I cannot lie!”
The One smiled. “That makes you perfect. I already have a task for you; but we will discuss that in a minute. You wanted two things. What is the second?”
I held up my hand and pinched my thumb and forefinger close together. “A small matter, Mighty One. I was wondering …” My trepidation grew so great that not even Mystra’s magic could keep me from hesitating. “I was wondering what kind of reward—”
“Reward?” Cyric’s hand pinched my shoulder, and it was a marvel that he crushed no bones. “After what you did?”
“What I did?” I leapt to my feet—I could not help myself. “I cured your insanity! I saved you from being found innocent!”
“True—but I commanded you to get the Cyrinishad.” Cyric pulled me back down and pushed me so deep into the cushions I feared I would smother. “You failed me, Malik—for that, I should send you to join your wife in the City of the Dead.”
I began to tremble, as I knew now what I had only feared before—that if I ever saw my wife again, it would not be in the One’s palace.
Cyric continued, “But you also helped me see that I am not the Prime Mover of the Multiverse, and so I forgive your failure.” The One brought his face so close to mine that I did not dare exhale for fear that my breath would offend him. “But that can be changed, Malik. I have a plan—and you will play a part in it.”
“Me, Mighty One?” In truth, I had been hoping for a somewhat smaller reward. “What kind of a part?”
“When the time comes, Malik … When the time comes, I will reveal all.” The One grinned, then spun away from me and rose. “But first, you must do your penance.”
“Penance!” I shouted—but I was also quick to add, “Whatever you command, Most High.”
The One clasped his hands behind his back, then turned and strolled toward the wall of the Pavilion. “I want you to write an account, Malik—a chronicle of the search for the Holy Cyrinishad, so that my worshipers will understand the many trials their god endures on their behalf.”
“Yes!”
I saw at once that I had been blessed, that the vision I had seen on the plain outside Candlekeep would come to pass, that I would stand beneath a stormy sky before a vast host of True Believers and speak to them in the thunderous voice of the One True Prophet and reunite the Church of the Faithful under my own banner!
In my excitement, I leapt up and followed the One toward the wall of the Pavilion. “It shall be a True and Faithful Chronicle of the Trial of Cyric the Mad, and I shall report all the things that happened from the time I found the Cyrinishad until we saved Faerûn from a second Time of Troubles!”
The One whirled with black fire in his eyes. “We, Malik?”
And so it was that Cyric the All gave his blessing to this humble account, that he renewed my Faithless heart and returned me to the Way of Belief and burned my eyes with the Flames of Glory and Truth, until I saw all that had occurred in the world and in the heavens since before the Razing of Zhentil Keep, so that I might set down in complete accuracy and perfect truth all the things done by men and by gods during the search for the holy Cyrinishad.
Praise be to Cyric the One, Most Mighty, Highest of the High, the Dark Sun, the Black Sun, the Lord of Three Crowns, and the Prince of Lies! All Blessings and Strength upon his Church and his Servants, who alone shall rule over the Kingdom of Mortals and Dwell Forever in the Palace of Eternity in the time beyond the Year of Carnage!
This is the book of the Seraph Malik el Sami yn Nasser, Favored of the One and the True Prophet of all Believers, in which I give a complete account of my Faithful service to Cyric the All in the boundless lands of Faerûn and beyond, and of the Great Reward I received for my Valiant Labors during the Trial of Cyric the Mad. Every part is true, and I swear that if one word is false, then they all are!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Troy Denning has journeyed through the FORGOTTEN REALMS® from the plains of Shou Lung to the storm-tossed shores of the Sword Coast. Recently he spent some time with the Cormyrean royal family in Beyond the High Road and Death of the Dragon (co-authored with Ed Greenwood) and wandered through the Anauroch Desert in search of the City of Shade in The Summoning, The Siege, and The Sorcerer. He is also author of the best-selling STAR WARS® novels Star by Star and Tatooine Ghost. He lives in Wisconsin.
STAR WARS is a registered trademark of LUCASFILM LTD. FORGOTTEN REALMS and the Wizards of the Coast logo are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC ©2003 Wizards of the Coast LLC
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