Blinded by Power: 5 (The Death Wizard Chronicles) Read Free Page B

said, but the voice was not his own. Rather, it came from a shadowy corner of his mind. “Is that you?”
    Now there was no doubt: the chain had cooled considerably, and it didn’t feel quite so tightly wrapped around his torso and thighs.
    “Yes, Deva  . . . it’s me. Come forward. Allow me to take you in my arms. If you do, everything will be as it once was, I promise you.”
    “Utu? Utu? I should never have left the mountaintops. Where am I now? What have I done? Tell them  . . . tell them I’m sorry .”
    “For what you were made to do, you mean? Tell them yourself.”
    Harīti, sensing that her master was weakening, let out an angry shriek and pounded toward Utu, her six arms outstretched. A black blur, wielding an icy blade, struck her down. This tore the other monsters and newborns from their reverie, and they rushed forward. But more black-clad warriors encircled Utu, forming a formidable barrier. The snow giant wrapped his arms around Mala and pressed his bare torso against the cooling chain. Where his right hand touched the chain there was a flare of light, and then the links went cold. Again the hidden presence seized control of Mala’s mouth.
    “Utu,” it shouted. “Save me, before it’s too late. I beg you  . . . save me !”
    UTU RECOGNIZED Yama-Deva’s voice, though he had never before heard his brother plead. Much to Utu’s pleasure, he no longer doubted that Deva could be healed. The chain already was defeated, and the ring and trident seemed not to recognize the pure Maōi as a threat. If Torg and the Tugars could buy him more time  . . . if Utu could hold his brother for a while longer  . . . then the blessed purity of the ring would absorb the evil like a limitless sponge.
    “I will save you, Deva,” Utu crooned. “Cling to me, and all will be well.”
    “Utu  . . . where am I? Tell them I’m sorry. Tell Bhari  . . . tell Gambhira  . . . tell Sampakk  . . . tell them all !”
    “There is no need for me to tell them, Deva. You will tell them. When this is over, we will return to Okkanti together.”
    When Mala sagged in his arms, Utu’s confidence grew. Though a wild and terrible battle had begun to rage all around him, Utu had never felt more at peace.
    The trident fell from his brother’s right hand, rattling on the black stone at their feet. The ring on Deva’s left middle finger went dim. Utu could sense—no, feel —the horrific magic of Invictus being drained from his brother’s tortured body . It was going to work. Yama-Deva would be healed.
    But then the night sky suddenly became like day, and from the firmament leapt a dense beam of golden power as thick as the trunk of an ancient tree. With supernatural intensity, it struck Utu on the top of his head, causing him to cry out.
    Deva fell back. All others were cast violently aside.
    WHEN THE BEAM of magic blasted upon the fortress, Mala fell onto his back, his thick skull thudding on the stone floor. He lay there confused, while the strange voice continued to come out of his mouth: “Help me! Save me!” But a portion of the golden energy that fell from the sky surged into his chain and superheated its links to levels of agony beyond any that had come before. The madness returned. And when Mala regained his feet, Yama-Deva had been chased back into hiding. Mala knelt and grasped Vikubbati in his right hand. Carūūl glowed on his left. Once again, he was complete.
    The disturbing creature who had claimed to be his brother lay crumpled in the base of a deep depression blown into the stone by the power of the magical discharge. Eerie wisps of smoke oozed from Utu’s scorched hide, and he shivered and moaned. But his sounds and movements were barely perceptible. The ring that had clung to Utu’s right middle finger had been cast off his hand—and it now rested a few cubits away, still glowing and thrumming like a thing alive.
    Mala understood he had been given a second chance to retain his identity.