The binding of the magic took hold and he said, "Kesson Rel sends you greetings. And death. I am sent to retrieve one of your number. Send forth Avnon Des the Seer. He is the next to die."
A figure appeared in the doors. Blood spattered his robes; crimson glistened on his hands; a peculiar aura of shifting darkness surrounded him, not shadows but … something else. His eyes behind the mask were tired but determined. He walked forward to the dragon.
"You have done well, dragon," Avnon Des said in his deep voice.
The compulsion did not allow Furlinastis time for questions or comments. He took Avnon Des in his claw and took wing. Strangely, it felt as if the priest was squirming in his grasp, though he could see that the human was motionless.
As they flew away from the temple and toward the swamp, the soul spell's grip on him grew less compelling and freed his tongue.
"You spoke of my freedom," he said.
The dragon tried to keep the urgency, the hope, from his tone. He found it odd to be conversing with prey in his claws.
"And you shall have it," the human said, over the rush of the wind.
Furlinastis thought Avnon's voice sounded different, softer, breathier, younger.
"You stink of blood," Furlinastis said. "Did you kill your fellow priests?"
To that, the human said only, "We were of like mind and they were willing."
"The darkness around you…" the dragon said. "What magic is this?"
Avnon Des twisted around in the claw to look up into Furlinastis's eyes. When he spoke, his voice sounded like that of a human female.
"A special kind," he said. "The only kind that can free you." The human looked off into the gloom, thoughtful. "I must see him, speak to him, before this ends. He must have a chance to repent his sins."
Furlinastis snorted, and streamers of shadow went forth from his nostril.
"He repents nothing, human."
"We will see," replied the priest, and his voice was his own.
For a time, they flew in silence. The human continued to feel as though he was wriggling in Furlinastis's grasp, and Furlinastis kept adjusting his grip to compensate. Soon, they would reach the swamp, and Kesson Rel.
"There is more, dragon," the human said. "Before this can be completed, I must have your oath, an oath on your soul."
Furlinastis snarled and pulled the human up before his face-a difficult maneuver while in flight. He hissed a tiny amount of shadowstuff into Avnon's face and squeezed him a little in his claw.
The priest winced, tried to turn away from the life-draining breath.
"No oaths, priest," Furlinastis said. "And no mention of souls."
He had experienced enough of oaths and souls. Avnon Des's gaze did not waver from behind his mask as he said, "Your oath, dragon, or we will not free you."
"We?"
"Oath, dragon!" the human demanded, and his voice sounded as though it were many voices.
The shadows around Furlinastis writhed with his anger. The darkness around the priest swirled as if in answer.
Furlinastis ground his fangs, roared into the sky, and shook the priest in his claw before he finally said, "Very well."
The priest managed to look relieved even through his mask.
"In a time far from now, two men will enter your swamp. The taller will be bald, and will bear a blade of black steel that leaks darkness. The shorter will have only one eye, and will carry twin blades. These are the First and Second of the Shadow God. You will allow them passage without harm and will lend them what aid you can. It is they who will fulfill the will of the Shadow God and destroy Kesson Rel. Oath it, dragon. On your soul."
Furlinastis swallowed his pride and said, "I swear it, priest. On my soul."
At those words, the piece of Kesson Rel that contaminated Furlinastis's soul wriggled in agitation.
The priest sagged in the dragon's grasp. Furlinastis moved his claw and passenger back to the more comfortable flying position. The swamp was near.
"But I will kill Kesson Rel," the dragon said. "After you've freed me from the soul magic."
Avnon spoke, and it sounded again like many voices speaking at once, "It is not for you to kill him. Nor for us."
Furlinastis spiraled downward toward the swamp and replied, "We will see."
He landed on the muddy ground behind a flat stone, almost an altar, that stood on the shore of a shallow, stinking pool. Blood from Avnon's fellow priests still stained the gray stone of the altar brown. The beat of his wings bent the black-leafed trees of the swamp and sent up a mist of water.
Kesson Rel floated above the pool, aloft under the power of a spell, cloaked in shadows. He eyed Furlinastis's passenger coldly.
As he had with each of the dead priests, Furlinastis set Avnon down on the altar and pressed the point of one of his claws into the human's abdomen. The greasy, squirming feeling surrounding the human's flesh went quiescent, as though trying to be inconspicuous.
Kesson Rel began to laugh-a hateful sound to which Furlinastis had become accustomed. The theurge floated forward, alit on the soft ground, and stood over the prone Avnon.
"Avnon Des," he said, looking down on the captive priest. "I had proposed to save you for last, that you could see the temple and all in it die before you met your own demise."
The priest squirmed under Furlinastis's grasp, trying to free his chest enough to speak.
"You are a heretic, Kesson Rel, and a thief. You drank of the Chalice of Night and thereby made yourself apostate. For that-"
Kesson Rel lunged forward, tore off Avnon's mask, and seized the priest's jaw in his hand.
"And you are a fool, First Demarch, a timid fool. Do you think the Shadow God would have made me this-"
Kesson Rel released the priest and stood back and held up his arms, showing his dusky skin, his yellow eyes, and the shadows that danced around him-"if he did not want me to drink of the Chalice? Do you?"
Under his claw, Furlinastis felt the darkness around the prone priest writhing. Kesson Rel seemed not to notice.
"Repent now, Kesson Rel," Avnon said. "It is not too late. You are the first Chosen of the Shadow God, but you are not his First. Repent, or you will die."
The theurge smiled and said, "I think not." He stared into Avnon's face while he said to Furlinastis, "Eviscerate him, dragon. Slowly."
Keep your promise, priest, Furlinastis thought, as the soulbinding forced his hand. And I will keep mine.