Read Midnights Mask for Free Online Page A

“Stole my strength. Makes me want to….”
    A retch swallowed the big slaad’s next words and he sprayed vomit onto the floor and down his shirt. Riven wrinkled his nose at the smell. He did not look closely at the contents of the slaad’s stomach; he did not want to know what they might contain.
    Dolgan laughed as though the retching amused him. The laughter triggered another round of vomiting.
    Riven eyed the Sojourner and said, “I told you that I want Cale dead. I’ve just proven it.” He indicated Dolgan.
    “I could have killed him. Him too,” he said, indicating Azriim. “I could have knocked him over and broken off his head. Did you see all that?”
    “I saw,” the Sojourner said, his voice soft. “But even had you killed them, that still would have left me.”
    Riven kept his face expressionless, though the Sojourner’s words hit near to his thinking. Too near.
    “Yes,” he said, and left unspoken the acknowledgement that he could not have killed the Sojourner. “But I could have fled after putting them down.”
    He pulled Dolgan’s teleportation rod from his cloak and showed it to the Sojourner.
    Dolgan got control of his retching and laughing, and patted at his cloak.
    The Sojourner gave a soft smile.
    “That is mine!” Dolgan said, and climbed to his feet. He wobbled, but managed not to fall.
    Riven did not bother to respond. He kept his gaze on the Sojourner.
    “I would have found you,” the Sojourner said.
    Riven shrugged a “maybe.”
    “Why did you not run?” the Sojourner asked. The black globe-the void—still hovered beside him. Riven understood the implicit threat it represented
    “I just told you why,” Riven answered, and was reminded by those words of Cale’s response to him back on the Plane of Shadow, when they first had put together the plan to get Riven close to the Sojourner.
    “You chafe at being Second,” said the Sojourner, and floated nearer to him, nearer. The void orb and the stink of medicines drifted at his side.
    Riven’s jaw tightened. He said nothing but gave a brusque nod.
    Holding his axe in both hands, Dolgan advanced and stood beside the Sojourner. Vomit stained the front of his cloak. The stink was abominable. He looked like the idiot he was.
    “Kill him, father,” the big slaad said to the Sojourner. “Or let me kill him.”
    Riven put a hand to a saber hilt. “He could do it,” he said, pointing his chin at the Sojourner. “You would not have a chance.”
    Dolgan snarled at him, ran his finger along his axe blade until it bled, but did not advance.
    Riven looked to the Sojourner.
    “Enemy or ally?” he asked.
    “Kill him,” Dolgan said again, his voice hard. He sliced open his entire palm on the axe blade.
    Riven felt the Sojourner touch his mind. Riven did not resist, even though he did not like the intrusion. There was only mild pain this time. The ordeal ended quickly.
    You believe me now?” Riven asked.
    “I do not have to believe,” the Sojourner said. “I know.”
    Riven nodded. “Then that’s the last time anyone gets into my head. Agreed?”
    The Sojourner answered by letting the void orb wink out.
    Dolgan deflated visibly.
    The Sojourner eyed him sidelong and said, “Do not let embarrassment color your judgment, Dolgan. As I said before, this one wants transformation as much as you and Azriim. He wishes to be First in the eyes of the Shadowlord. And he cannot be First so long as he is the ally of Erevis Cale. Is that not correct, Drasek Riven?”
    Riven acknowledged the point with a tilt of his head. He decided to take the final step—he tossed the teleportation rod back to Dolgan. He now had no way out.
    The big slaad caught the rod, looked at it suspiciously, sniffed it, and shoved it back into his vomit-stained cloak.
    “Done, then,” Riven said.
    The Sojourner turned away from him and floated back to Azriim. He touched the slaad with his staff. Magical energy flashed and Azriim reverted at once back to flesh.
    The slaad