Chapter twentyThe throne bulked as I had seen it before, stupendous, barbaric, evil. Scale-covered draperies swept away, golden ornaments glinted in the silver light. The shadows lay at angles that corresponded to my own shadow — my own single shadow. Carazaar was here, then, on the same plane as myself. He was surrounded by his retinue, naked and half-naked girls of surpassing beauty. Monstrous shapes hovered vaguely at his back. The little scaled creature chained with the silver collar crouched against his right leg. N’gil, an obscenity of fish belly whiteness and gaping crimson mouth, huddled at the side, and the corpse-rotten thing hissed at my appearance.
Carazaar himself brooded on me, apparently entirely unshaken that I had sprung from nowhere onto this private plane of sorcery.
H
