The Serpent's Shadow by Mercedes Lackey

Author:Mercedes Lackey [Lackey, Mercedes]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
ISBN: 9781439568156
Publisher: DAW
Published: 2001-01-02T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

SHIVANI sat comfortably in lotus position on her tiny cushioned “throne,” as the Englishman she had recently annexed to her service stood before her. He shifted his weight from foot to foot uneasily, but made no move to seat himself before her, and thus put her head above his. He was so careful of his position, this sahib, and yet did he but know it, he might as well be in chains before her; he had forged them himself, of greed, desire, and ambition. This “Simon Parkening” could be very useful to her. She had learned much more about him since he had last brought her the list of names and addresses she had commanded. These had been culled from among the employees in the firms where he worked, and were all denoted men who had served in the Raj and thus were her enemies, and the enemies of her land. Those who would not be immediately missed had been marked out. Her thugee would seek them some dark night, and more enemies of India would fall, quietly, unregarded. She had learned he could be even more useful to her. It transpired that his uncle was the head of a great hospital in London. This place could be the source of information on more enemies. Many retired soldiers and civil servants from the Colonies and Protectorates passed through the portals of his uncle’s hospital for treatment of various tropical ailments they had contracted over the course of their careers. He was in a position to find out addresses and other details; he was also in a position to spirit some of them away and into Shivani’s possession, were he inclined to cooperate.

Soon or late, he would cooperate.

“I trust that the Goddess has made all smooth for you with your uncle, as I promised?” she asked—knowing that of course She had. Or rather, Shivani had. The mere altering of a memory or two in the unguarded mind of a fat, foolish sahib was nothing, and never mind that he was supposedly an all-wise doctor. A spell, a word of power, a whisper on the wind, the clue of a strand of hair, and the Serpent slid into the old man’s mind and swallowed a few memories of an unpleasant altercation over a vanished patient.

“Uncle doesn’t recall a thing,” Parkening replied, a gloating smile on his sensuous lips. “I’m back in his good graces again. I wish, though, you could get him to dismiss that damned Irishman; I’m sure he was the one that spirited Jenner out of there. He’s too arrogant by half, that O’Reilly.”

Shivani frowned behind the black cloud of her veil. She didn’t like to admit that there were things she couldn’t do, especially not to this barbarian. “If the Goddess had ample evidence of your commitment, something might be done,” she temporized, her tone made sharper with an edge of accusation. “No!” she corrected waspishly as his hand moved slightly toward the wallet pocket in his jacket.

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