Free Lord of the Libraries by Mel Odom Page B

eyes warred with the crimson light, but they were purest amethyst. Her skin was dark, the color of old pecan. Her smile revealed fangs that spoke at once of a predator.
    “Hello, Craugh,” she said. Then she laughed and reached through the gem walls to grab Juhg around the head.

3
    A Secret Past
    J uhg dropped the lantern and tried to escape the woman’s clutches. Her strength proved too much and he couldn’t. Her laughter echoed the length of the monster’s belly and came back over them.
    She cackled with glee as Juhg’s struggles helped pull her free of the gem. She was almost as tall as Craugh. Obsidian black armor covered her and she wore an obsidian black blade at her side. She had seven fingers on each hand, and they were much longer than anything human, dwarven, elven, or dweller. Her long fingernails were razor sharp. Short red hair was plastered tightly against her head.
    Most surprising of all, she had a tail. It looked like a lizard’s. Juhg saw the appendage first when it whipped forward and closed around his neck, choking off whatever attempt he might have made at speaking.
    “Ladamae,” Craugh said in an even voice. He didn’t move a muscle. “Don’t kill him.”
    The woman took her hands from Juhg’s head. Her tail held him off the ground easily. She drew her obsidian blade as she turned her full attention to the wizard.
    “Don’t kill him?” she repeated. “You killed Methoss.”
    “Methoss would not listen to me,” Craugh said. “He chose to ignore my warning.”
    “He had been sent after that ship,” Ladamae said. “He did not know that you were aboard.”
    “And if he had known that I was aboard?”
    The woman grinned and waved the obsidian blade. “He would still have tried to killed you. You know how Methoss was, Craugh. He was always jealous of you.” She smiled, but to Juhg the expression was like watching a cat unsheathe her claws.
    Craugh said nothing.
    Dangling from the woman’s tail, Juhg struggled to breathe. Her tail around his throat was incredibly tight.
    Ladamae maintained her stance between Craugh and the red gem. “I knew about Methoss’s death, of course. How could I not? I am here, aren’t I? I have been with him for centuries, Craugh. When he slept at the bottom of the sea, where you and your friends spelled him, I did not sleep. Did you know that?”
    “No,” Craugh answered.
    Juhg watched the woman, wondering what she was. In all the books that he had read, he’d never seen anything like her.
    “But you knew that I was inside Methoss,” Ladamae accused. “You remember how he swallowed me whole after he was changed. He couldn’t bear the thought of me being with anyone else. And he hated you for the time that I spent with you.”
    Craugh said nothing, keeping his arms spread to offer no threat.
    “You cut your way into the corpse to kill me, didn’t you?” Ladamae asked in a shrill voice.
    Juhg feared that Craugh was going to say yes. He felt certain as soon as he did the woman would snap his neck with her tail. He kicked valiantly but couldn’t escape.
    “No,” Craugh said. “I didn’t come here to kill you, Ladamae.”
    The woman hesitated a little, watching him carefully. “You lie.”
    “No.” Craugh regarded her, seemingly totally at ease.
    “I had resigned myself to sitting at the bottom of the ocean till Methoss’s body rotted into pieces,” Ladamae said. “I didn’t know how I was going to get the gem to the surface again, but the water here is shallow enough. I had hopes of a fisherman finding me one day.” She smiled sadly.
“If it weren’t for that cursed gem, I could go anywhere that I wanted to. I could have anything I wanted.”
    “But that’s not how it is, is it?” Craugh’s tone wasn’t unkind, but his words were.
    “You turned away from me all those years ago. Just turned and walked away and forgot about me.”
    “I didn’t forget about you.”
    The woman laughed and the sound carried a hint of