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.He could not bear the sight of Chiun's proud face as it succumbed to death.Then a voice spoke.Its origin was not outside Remo, but somewhere in the recesses of his mind.It was more a feeling than a voice, but it carried the acrid scent of the goddess, acrid and cloying.It might have been the stink of his own burning flesh, he thought, but the pain was so great and the certainty of Chiun's death was so hard that he was forced to accept the truth: that Kali was now inside him, controlling and mocking him.Then She spoke to him in Her own tongue just as She had spoken to Master Lu two millennia before."This is only the beginning of your punishment," the voice said.Then it laughed, high and tinkling as a chorus of tiny bells."I brought her back for you, child of Lu," the voice told Remo."A different body, but the same woman.Born to bring you a moment's joy, as Lu's woman Page 98ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlserved him.And taken by me just as quickly."The bells were gone from the voice now, and it was rock-hard ice."You could have loved me as Lu could have loved me.You could have served me.But you chose to die instead.And you shall: As your woman has died.As the old man now is dying.Except their deaths will be quick.Yours will be the best that I can provide."Remo forced his eyes open.The voice disappeared.Chiun lay on his side, unmoving.He had given up.He had waited for Remo to save him, and Remo once again had chosen to hide behind his own closed eyelids."You will not kill him," Remo said, pulling himself with a desperate effort to his knees.A wave of unseen energy slapped him hard across the chest.Bile rose in his throat, and he wavered, but he pulled himself up still further."Maybe I deserve your punishment," he whispered."Maybe Lu did.Maybe even Ivory.But you will not have Chiun."He brought himself to his full height.His hand still burned.His head still spun.His insides were water.His legs were immobile, but he was standing and he knew in that moment that he would never kneel before Kali again."False hero," the voice said again."You are weak.Your teacher was weak.All are weak before me." But I will not bow before you, another voice inside him said.It was a small voice, from a place very far removed from his mind, but it spoke, and Kali listened."No."A sharp stab of pain clutched at his stomach.Blood spurted from his nose and mouth.Remo stood.The glob of molton silver in his hand sizzled into liquid again, burning down the length of his fingers.Remo stood.His ears were pierced by something that felt like two hot wires jabbed into his eardrums.They filled his ears with a sound like the wail of a thousand screams.And yet he stood, and quieted them with his will.He could feel his strength returning.He raised his head and stared directly into the evil eyes of the stone goddess."You are not Lu," the voice said."No," Remo answered coldly, speaking aloud in the silent room."But you have his spirit.""And another's," Remo said."Who are you?" The demand was a shriek, silent in the physical room he occupied, but reverberating inside him like the keening of a banshee.And then he answered, from the place inside himself, the place that did not make itself known even to Remo, and the voice from the place spoke its own words, the words of the old prophecy of Sinanju: I am created Shiva, the Destroyer; death, the shatterer of worlds.The dead night tiger made whole by the Master of Sinanju."Remo moved toward the statue.In his mind he heard a scream.The statue repelled him with wave after wave, silent, invisible blows that pulled the skin from his face.But Remo was no longer afraid.He grasped the statue by its head.The touch of it burned him.The force inside it propelled his feet off the floor and sent him hurtling across the room.He crashed against the glass wall and went through in a sunburst of light and sound.But he held the statue.It moved.It twisted as if it were made of the softest clay.Its arms seemed to flutter and dance until they were around Remo's neck, clutching, squeezing, infecting him with their poison."You don't frighten me anymore," Remo said aloud."I am Shiva." He let the arms twine about him.With each twist, he compressed the statue more tightly between his two burned hands.With a final gasp, it spewed a yellow vapor from its nostrils.The vapor hung like a pall, thick and foul, for a moment in the clear Colorado sky.Then it dissipated like so much morning mist.The stone crumbled in Remo's hands.He crushed the head to powder, then broke it all apart and threw the other pieces over the side of the cliff.They made Page 99ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmllittle thudding sounds as they struck the earth and rocks below.He walked back inside the room.Fresh air poured into it through the shattered picture window, and there was no trace of the foul odor the statue had always carried with it.Sadly Remo knelt beside Chiun.He placed a hand gently over the blue dot on the old man's forehead.The forehead was cool and smooth to his touch.Tears streamed down Remo's face and he asked whatever gods might hear him: "Let me die so well as the Master of Sinanju."The forehead beneath his palm wrinkled.There was a fluttering of eyelashes and then Chiun's squeaky voice:"Die well? You will die immediately if you do not remove your big barbarian hand from my delicate skin.""Chiun."Remo sat back.The old man straightened himself with great dignity, and as he did, the blue spot on his forehead slowly faded until it was gone."How are you still alive?" Remo asked."How?" The Korean's hazel eyes widened."How? How indeed, considering that I am always burdened by you.""I.?""Yes.You," Chiun snapped."I was halfway into the great Void and you performed as usual.You did nothing.""l-""You should have used the ring as I told you.""I did use the ring.I held it-""You did nothing," Chiun said."I watched.""But my hands." Remo offered his burned palm for Chiun's examination.There was not a mark on it."The ring.I saw.It burned." He reached into his pocket.There was something there.He pulled out a pitted ring, cheap and impure, fashioned of silver."Was it all in my mind?" he asked incredulously.Chiun snorted."If it all fit into your mind, it must have been a very small thing indeed," he said
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