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  “A heartburst,” I heard someone say—maybe the Majoran doctor who had tried to help me with Kristoff. “That’s a heartburst, but I’ve never heard of one getting so big before.”

  Dr. Churika had moved far away from Tannus now—in fact, everyone had. He was in his own little circle of Hell, trapped between the immense snake and the Fire Drake which waited just on the other side of the door of the Flame and Scale chamber.

  “I…I’m sorry,” he said in a high, nervous voice, his bushy eyebrows working like wooly caterpillars on his forehead. “I never…I didn’t mean…”

  “Do not lie in your final moments on the mortal plane,” the Goddess said through me. “Choose.”

  Slowly, the massive heartburst snake wove its way towards him. Tannus backed up a step and then another and another. Slowly, he was being herded towards the dragon’s door.

  He didn’t seem to realize that, though, until he was right at the doorway and another gush of hot smoke puffed out to envelope him.

  “What? No!” he gasped, spinning around to see the huge golden eye. He tried to back away but he only succeeded in stepping on the trailing tail of the heartburst.

  The giant snake hissed angrily and struck, its three-inch fangs sinking deep into the Head Councilor’s neck. He wailed and stumbled blindly forward, straight into the doorway of the second Trial and the waiting jaws of the dragon.

  The heartburst let go just in time as the Fire Drake snapped, its massive, razor-sharp teeth clicking shut around the Head Councilor. We heard him wail in terror and pain and then he was gone—a single mouthful for the immense Fire Drake.

  With a hiss, the heartburst snake turned and headed back towards the Garden of Death.

  I watched it go and felt the Goddess withdraw—though not all the way. I still had unfinished business here.

  I was able to move and speak for myself again, so I walked over and shut the door to the Garden of Death firmly, making sure it was locked. Then I went to the door of the second Trial and shut it firmly too, closing away the Fire Drake until it should be needed again, hopefully many years in the future when I was ready to pass the throne on to my successor.

  When that was done and the area was secure, I turned to face everyone again.

  “Now—let all my faithful guards come forward,” I said, motioning to my honor guard, the handpicked group that Kristoff had chosen who had remained loyal to me and had come rushing in to the deadly garden to save me. The Goddess was no longer speaking through me but I still felt her power—and she was the one who was giving me the words to say.

  Silently, they shuffled forward. Many of them were scarred and cut by the poisonous plants and flowers and all of them were choking and coughing, having inhaled too much of the poison air in the garden.

  “Your courage is beyond praise,” I told them. I gave the golden scepter and orb to Kristoff to hold and turned back to them, holding out my hands. “Come to me and the Goddess will heal you through me.”

  One by one they came and I touched them and felt the healing power flow through me and my hands glowed with golden light. The marks and wounds faded from their skin and they stood upright, no longer coughing and choking. It was the most amazing thing—I watched it as though it was someone else doing it. And in fact it was—the Goddess was working through me in the most wonderful way. It made my doctor’s heart sing with joy and I suddenly understood where my passion for healing had come from in the first place.

  Then I heard a croaking voice say, “What about me?”

  I looked up and saw a horrible sight.

  Prince Morbain was hobbling forward although how he could move at all was beyond me. His face was horribly scarred and disfigured both from contact with the deadly leaves he had fallen into and from the angry terlings which had bitten and scratched him everywhere.

  The vicious little creatures had chewed off his lips and earlobes and most of his nose, making his face look like a bloody skull. His formerly fine and rich clothes hung in tatters on his tall frame and somehow half of his luxurious mustache had gotten either ripped or burned or bitten off, giving him a gruesome, lopsided look. His feet must have gotten into the acid stream because his shoes were mostly eaten away and it looked like he was missing several toes. For that matter, his fingers weren’t looking too good either—the terlings had really done a number on him!

  He was what Zoe would have called “a complete fucking mess.”

  “What about me?” he croaked again. “I also went into the Garden of Death! And I am of Royal blood! You should have healed me first—before all these commoners.” He jerked his head at my honor guard who stood around me, eyeing him impassively.

  I looked at Kristoff who looked back at me frowning.

  “He tried again and again to have you killed or to usurp your power. If it was up to me, he would die for his treachery. But the final decision must be yours, my Lady,” he sent through our bond. “I don’t believe the bastard deserves to be healed but I know how compassionate you are.”

  First do no harm, I told myself. With a sigh, I placed my glowing hands gently on Morbain’s shoulders.

  He reacted with a gasp and tried to shake off my grip. But he couldn’t—again I felt the Goddess’s energy flow through me and again she spoke, using my mouth as her own.

  “For the sins you have committed against your own mother, Sundalla the 999th and for the attempts you have made against my new scion, Sundalla the 1000th, I condemn you,” the Goddess boomed. “You shall carry the wounds and pain of your time in the Garden of Death with you for the rest of your immortal life, Morbain. Never healing, never scarring—always fresh and weeping—your wounds will serve as a reminder to those that come after. This is your punishment from which you may not escape, even into death.”

  Then she left me again with a great rush. I took a staggering step back into Kristoff’s waiting arms, breathing hard. The Goddess was so immense it was hard to hold her all inside me. I felt like an overfull water balloon about to burst when she used me for her purposes.

  “Gods,” Kristoff murmured, trying to juggle the scepter and orb and hold me up at the same time. “Did you just curse him to an immortal life of pain and torment?”

  “Not me,” I whispered, feeling incredibly weary. “The Goddess. She did it.”

  “No!” Morbain staggered back, looking down at his bitten, burned, and maimed hands and arms. “No, this cannot be!” Turning, he fled in a shambling run. The people around him parted, making way as though he was infected with some horrible disease that might be catching.

  I watched him go, feeling relieved and also very, very tired. Being the vessel of the Goddess was hard work.

  “Is there anything else?” I murmured to Kristoff, as much as to myself.

  “Doloroso—whatever happened to him? Did he die?” he asked.

  “No and he needs to stay alive.” I took a deep breath. “As long as he’s locked in the form he’s currently in, his ship won’t generate another Doloroso for us to worry about.”

  “What?” Kristoff frowned and shook his head. “What do you mean?”

  “His ship—it keeps a record—a backup copy, if you will, of his twisted personality. And whenever he dies in one form, it generates another to take his place—that’s how the Assimilation works. We can’t let that happen—Doloroso needs to stay alive and his ship needs to be quarantined and locked away forever.”

  “How do you know this?” he asked me.

  I shook my head. The knowledge was just there, like a nugget of wisdom inside my brain. I had an idea that it was something my predecessor, Sundalla the 999th might have known and now her wisdom was being passed on to me.

  “The Goddess, I suppose,” I said. “Or maybe your old mistress knew.”

  “Ah yes, the Goddess.” Kristoff gave me a quizzical expression. “Is she…gone?”

  “I have a feeling she’ll never be completely gone,” I said thoughtfully. “I’m her conduit into the mortal world. I connect her to he