"Will you shut up," said River. "You have no idea what you"re talking about. This isn"t her doing. It"s Da"s."
That made no sense, no sense at all. But River wouldn"t listen to him. She brought a candle near to get a good look at his eyes and mouth. Then she began peppering him with questions: when did the thirst start, how many small cakes did he eat, what did Da do when he tied the charm on his arm, had he been hearing a ringing in his ears? Talen struggled to answer them all.
Finally, he held up his hand. "My leg. She"s sucking the life out of my leg."
Something moved at the window.
The shutters had not been closed tightly, and a pair of pale twigs seemed to shoot in over the sill. From his position on the floor, he couldn"t make any sense of them, but there they were. Tree roots on the window. Then a twisted head appeared, followed by a long body. Another fright, smaller than the one about his leg, pulled itself up onto the sill.
"There"s another," he said.
"Another what?"
"Nasty little thing," he said and motioned at the window. "It"s got cold fingers."
River looked up and followed his gaze. "There"s nothing there."
"There is," said Talen. "And there"s another wrapped about my leg. Right there by your hand."
River froze, her expression changing from puzzlement to dismay. The creature about his leg didn"t move either. It watched them, extending its fingers in a slow crawl.
River put her hand on Talen"s leg, partially covering the thin fingers of the fright. Her hands felt warm.
"You"re touching it," Talen said. "Do you not feel it?"
She pulled her hand away. "How many are here?"
"Two," he said.
She cursed then calmly picked up Talen"s G.o.dsweed charm, took it to the hearth, and thrust it into the fire. The G.o.dsweed smoked then caught fire. "And thus a portion of my life goes up in smoke," she said, which made no sense at all to Talen. Then she pulled the weed back out of the fire, blew out the flames, and tossed the smoking remains onto the ash pan. Then she took a pair of tongs and removed three hot coals from the fire and put them in the pan as well.
"Where are they now?" she asked.
"The little one"s at the window. The bigger one is right here." Talen moved his leg.
River picked up the ash pan and approached, blowing on the smoking braid. She blew smoke into his face. Blew it on his leg. G.o.dsweed was not a sweet herb and Talen did not like the taste of its smoke.
"Don"t worry," He said. "Nettle says it"s just the come-backs."
"Be gone!" said River. She blew more smoke about his leg.
The k.n.o.bby creature on his leg eyed her.
"It"s not afraid of you," said Talen.
River blew again and waved the smoking pan around him.
The creature turned as if trying to avoid the smoke. But River blew again, and the thing released Talen"s leg and jumped to the floor.
"There he goes," Talen said. But the thing only shuffled a few steps, then stopped.
River followed Talen"s gaze. She waved the smoking bowl around in the air. Blew more smoke. Then the fright scuttled up the wall and out the window. The little one lingered a few seconds longer, then followed the first.
"You got him," said Talen. "He"s off to torment the chickens." Then Talen wondered why it would do that? Was this the reason Da"s last batch of hens died off? It seemed reasonable. "They"re the ones killing the chickens," he said.
"You"re babbling," said River. She went to the window and waved the smoking bowl there, and then she closed up the shutters and brought the bowl back and placed it in the middle of the room on the floor. There was no fire to it anymore. Just coals and smoke.
Nettle and Sugar opened the door and b.u.mped their way through with the empty trough and set it close to the hearth.
"Stand over that bowl," she said. "Smoke yourselves."
"Goh!" Nettle said. "Are you kidding? A real fright?"
"Just do it."
When Nettle and Sugar finished, River said, "Now fetch the water."
"With a fright out there?"
"The smoke"s in your clothes. No move!"
Nettle growled, and Talen couldn"t tell if it was in frustration at River or to muster up his courage to face the fright. Then he marched out the door, the sleth girl right behind him. River walked over to the wall where their five white ceramic plates hung. She took down one plate, brought it to the table, and broke a small cake upon it. Then she lit four more candles and turned them on their sides about the plate to give the small cake more illumination.
She dug at it with the point of a knife, examining the crumbs. "I see nothing."
She held one up, sniffed it, and then took a bite. After savoring it for a while swallowed it and shook her head. She ate the other two small cakes and drank a cup of water. "Sometimes certain herbs magnify the effects of the weave. But I can detect nothing of that sort in these," she said. "If there"s anything in them, we will shortly know. In the mean time you need to soak. Take off your clothes."
All this time Nettle had been hauling in water, first to fill the large pot Sugar had put over the fire and then to fill the trough. The thought of moving daunted him, and Talen found he couldn"t do more than look at that trough.
"Never mind," River said. "I"ll do it. Sugar, is that hot yet? We don"t want to freeze him."
Talen wanted to protest, but it was no use. River had him out of his tunic and pants in moments. Mercifully, she left his linens on. Then she helped him over and slid him into the trough.
The trough was slick with orange slime, and the freezing water just about sent him into shock. But a second later, he couldn"t muster enough energy to care. The cold meant nothing. He didn"t even care when the girl dumped the boiling water in too quickly and scalded his legs. The hatchlings were in control now-it was too late for all of them.
His eyes were heavy, so itchy with sleep. He closed them.
A moment later River shook him by the shoulders. "Talen!"
"Let me alone," Talen said and drifted off into no thought at all.
River slapped him. Then slapped him again.
He opened his eyes.
"Listen to me," she said. "You will die tonight if we do not change the course of what"s happening." She pressed her hand to his chest again as she had done at first. "This isn"t come-backs. Some herbs can heighten the effect. But there was nothing in those small cakes. If there had been, I would be feeling the effects by now."
"Effects," repeated Talen. Something about that struck him funny and he giggled.
River stood and addressed Nettle. "Keep him awake. Use whatever it requires, but do not let him sleep." She moved to the table and began unraveling her weaving of Da"s hair.
Nettle first tried to make Talen talk. When that failed, he began with slapping, pinching, and poking. But Talen didn"t care. He just wanted to close his eyes.
The next moment a searing pain ran up Talen"s arm. He cracked an eye and saw Nettle standing there with a stick from the fire. "Are you trying to roast me!"
"Aha," said Nettle. "It"s fire that will keep him awake."
But he was wrong. Talen"s eyes drooped close again.
Nettle burned his other arm.
"Aagh!" Talen said and almost came out of the tub.
"You can"t sleep," Nettle said.
"Put your tortures away," said Talen.
"No," Nettle said and poked him with the burning stick again.
"Goh," Talen said. "You and that sleth girl can perform your depredations after I"ve rested."
But then River finished braiding Da"s hair and tied what she"d been weaving to Talen"s arm precisely where Da had tied that G.o.dsweed charm.
"I"ll give it a few minutes," she said. It sounded like she was trying to rea.s.sure herself.
"There"s no virtue in hair," said Talen.
"There isn"t?" asked River.
"I"ve never heard of it," said Talen.
"What about Atra"s hair?"
"She"s given me up," said Talen.
River made him relate the whole story of what happened at the gla.s.s master"s until Talen realized all she was doing was trying to keep him talking so he"d stay awake.
"I"m going to sleep," he said. "Burn me if you like. I don"t care."
River put her hand to his chest again. She looked desperate. She took him by the head then, her two hands clasping the back of his skull. "You need to help me," she said.
"I can"t get up," he said. "You"ll have to kill her yourself."
"Talen," said River. "I can"t stop the flow. You"re bleeding Fire. Your days are rolling off you like smoke. You must help me."
"Fire?" asked Talen.
River glanced at Nettle and Sugar then faced Talen. She"d decided something. He could see that by the set of her brow.
"You"ve been multiplied," she said. "Da began your awakening, but it"s all gone wrong. You need to close it off."
That made no sense to Talen. Only dreadmen and Divines could do that. Then through the fog of his mind he began to feel at the edges of a horrible idea.
"You"re going to feel an intrusion," said River. "Fight it. Push with all your might. You"re leaking through a thousand holes. You"ve got to close every last one of them."
Suddenly he felt something enter him. It was crushing, and he gasped.
Push! A voice in his mind said.
He"d been caught once in a tumble of earth, and this was what it had felt like. A panic began to rise in him.
He could feel her. He could feel River in him. The weight of her presence began to bear down, and it terrified him.
Talen tried to flee, but she was everywhere. A crush of sand.
Fight me, you fool.
He struggled against her.
Fight!
"I don"t know how!" he shouted.
All about him the sand of her presence pushed at him, coming in through his ears, his nose, his mouth. She stole the very air he breathed.
Talen lashed out, and in one part he felt her recede.
Was it his imagination?
He tried to push her again, but whatever he"d done fell to pieces and River"s presence swallowed him. He was trapped, pinned, a man drowning under a ton of grain.
His panic rose to a pitch, then he did something-he couldn"t explain it-he pushed, and he found he could breathe again. He pushed again. And she moved further.
That"s it! Fight!
River rushed at him with renewed force, but he held his s.p.a.ce and withstood her. He did not know how long he struggled, managing only to keep her far enough away to breathe. Then he closed a small rent in his fabric.
Another, she said.
But there were so many.
Close another!
Talen was so tired, but he fought. He fought and lost track of time. It was only him and the suffocating sand of his sister.
After what seemed like hours he found himself facing the last hole, one rent in his fabric that separated him from the rest of creation. It was like trying to stop a river with his hand. Talen fought to no effect.
"I can"t do it," he said and did not know if he"d spoken this aloud or just in his mind.