Argoth wanted to fight, but his limbs were sapped of strength. Across the chamber, Hogan raised a stone to cave in the woman"s head, but she struck his arm, knocking the stone from his grasp. Then she bucked and slipped out from under him. Hogan chased after her, caught her, and slammed her against the rock wall.
The ribbons of light flew at him, cl.u.s.tered around.
Hogan grabbed her around neck with both hands and began to throttle her. The lines of his body blurred at the edges, blurred even her form. She was choking. Her ribbon familiars seemed to shudder with a sympathetic pain.
For a brief moment her visage flickered. One moment she was a woman whose face shone with such beauty it almost took Argoth"s breath. The next, the woman was gone, and in her place was something horrible with a round, sucker mouth full of teeth that looked like it belonged on a leech or lamprey. Her undulating creatures seemed to swim with less vigor for a moment. And then the G.o.ddess was back.
She held a pointed weapon in her hand. With a quick jab she thrust it at Hogan"s gut. There was a flash, but it didn"t look as if it had penetrated the mantle.
Argoth began to believe they might win this fight.
But then the monster rose from the ground, holding up the two hag"s teeth in its rough hands.
Argoth watched in dismay as the teeth stilled their movements. Then the monster crushed the teeth and threw the lifeless twists of metal to the dust.
"Hogan!" Argoth yelled in warning.
But it did no good. Hogan was too focused on the woman.
The monster charged. With three enormous strides it covered the distance between it and Hogan. It dropped its shoulder and crashed into Hogan, its large bulk hurling him away from the woman.
Argoth wanted desperately to join in the battle. But the crown yet drew from him, leaving him with hardly the energy to even walk.
Hogan whirled on the monster and, with terrifying violence, struck it in the head with his stone.
The monster reeled to one side.
Argoth marveled at the power of Hogan"s blow. He"d seen the dreadmen attack this thing. He"d seen the Skir Master. None had come close to this.
Hogan followed with another blow, the very air seeming to bend before him.
The monster fell back to the floor.
There was more in those blows than the simple force of stone. The mantle was at work. He could see the stone glistening with the power of it.
The ribbons of light swirled about the room. A number still clung to Hogan, and Argoth could see they"d eaten partway through the mantle.
Hogan raised the stone again, then the woman attacked him from behind, penetrating the mantle, stabbing deep into Hogan"s back.
He jerked in pain, then twisted round and struck her with an elbow.
She flew backwards, but Hogan dropped to one knee. He tried to rise, but the monster fell upon him and ripped the stone away from his grasp.
Hogan struggled. He delivered two mighty blows to the monster, but they were not what they had once been. Argoth could feel a weakening in the binding between him and the crown. The monster caught the second blow in its rough hand, and wrapped Hogan in its long arms. Then it took him down to the floor in a full body hold. Hogan thrashed, but he did not break free.
The woman walked up to Hogan, a number of her shining school of light still writhing, hissing, and whispering about her. She reached down and clutched at the golden square of the crown.
Hogan twisted in the monster"s grip.
Argoth felt the woman through the bond of the crown. It felt like something gnawing on his bones. She was breaking the crown.
How was this possible? This was a Victor"s crown. It was supposed to be impenetrable. And then he realized the crown was, but the bond was another matter entirely.
The bond suddenly changed. The harmony that sang through him departed, replaced by something painfully off key. Then the bond snapped altogether.
The Creek Widow cried out.
Argoth felt a great gust of his essence whirl up and away. The break had rent him. In panic, he tried to close up the leak.
Hogan grunted and struggled once more against the monster"s grip.
Argoth stemmed the rent in his being. A portion of his strength returned, but it felt as if a sword had just sliced through him.
The woman ripped the crown from Hogan"s head and tossed it aside. It landed only a pace or two from Talen.
The monster squeezed Hogan tighter, shook him. And as it did, sparks of light fell from Hogan like pieces of ash to the floor.
"Unruly beast!" the woman said to Hogan. The remnants of her shimmering school drew round her, but not so tightly as before. She felt the side of her face where Hogan struck her with the chain then turned to the monster. "Take him there," she said and motioned to a place next to the rough figures on the floor.
The monster changed its hold on Hogan to clasp him firmly in one arm and got to its feet. Hogan struggled, but to no avail. The monster dragged him to the earthen bodies lying in their horrible rows on the other side of the chamber.
"That one will do," said the woman.
The monster laid Hogan next to a rock and clay figure with a vicious muzzle. Splotches of dead gra.s.s sprouted from the side of the figure"s head and chest.
The woman moved close to the monster. She hovered over it. "This," she said, "will be your first child. He"ll be more aware than you were, have more human memories from the start, and be more intelligent, more powerful. You were a mishmash of many things; I couldn"t recover you whole. Not with the binding your original master had put upon you. But he is unfettered and pure."
What was she talking about? Fear rose in Argoth"s mind.
"Separate the man," she said. "Put his soul and Fire into the body of earth."
At first Argoth could not believe his ears. Then the shock rolled over him. She was transferring Hogan"s essence-spirit and soul-to one of the still creatures on the floor.
"No!" he cried. "Stop!"
The woman turned to them. "You all will serve me," she said, "with a lesser binding or with one of rock and stone. With your current bodies or that of another. I am now your master."
Hogan struggled in the monster"s grasp. "Ke!" he called out. "River!"
Ke was already charging. But how could he? The breaking of the bond had nearly crippled Argoth. Argoth marveled at the strength in the boy.
Ke held Hogan"s chain in his hand. In a blinding motion, he drew back and struck at the monster with terrible ferocity. The chain wrapped around the monster"s neck.
Ke grabbed the chain with both hands and yanked it backwards. Such a move would have ripped the head off a normal man. The monster jerked back, but it did not loosen its grip on Hogan. Instead, it reached up with one hand and tore the chain out of Ke"s grasp. Then it struck him with it full in the face, knocking him to the floor.
Talen yelled. He held a knife aloft and charged.
The monster turned slightly when Talen got close and struck out in an almost lazy fashion. Argoth thought he heard ribs crack. The blow sent Talen flying backward to land sharply on his side.
Talen gasped, rolled over and tried to catch his breath.
The monster turned back to Hogan.
"Please," said River, her collar still circling her neck. "We can come to an agreement." But the woman paid her no mind.
"Nothing!" Hogan shouted. "Give her nothing!"
The monster covered half of Hogan"s face and head with one hand. It put its other hand on the face of the earthen figure.
The woman turned to the rest of them and spoke. Her voice carried like soothing music into his mind. "You cannot hide the one that was conceived and developed by my power."
She held something up. It was the wisterwife charm Argoth"s sister had found on the chair in her bedroom. "Where is the one I planted? Where is the one that wore my might?"
Her words confused him. The one she planted?
Legs suddenly came shuffling in through the entrance to the chamber, feeling the wall as he went. "Sugar?" he called.
"You are such wild creatures," said the woman. "Such difficult things to manage." She motioned at Legs. "You fooled my servant with your ploy, but you cannot fool me."
The ribbons of light obscured her face for a moment. "A new order is arising here," said the woman. "One that hasn"t been seen in ages. And the master that leads this harvest will rule empires. You will bring him to me."
Argoth looked at Talen who was holding his side in pain. Arogth"s mind raced. His sister, Hogan"s wife, had conceived wearing that weave. She had worn it through the whole pregnancy as the boy ripened in her belly. She had placed it upon Talen from the day of his birth.
They had all suspected he would be a prodigy: a restorer of lost knowledge, a champion. A gift from the Creators to help them fight their enemies.
He looked at the weave, but this couldn"t be from the Creators. His mind snagged on something: "this harvest," she had said. If her creature was any indication, he knew the kind of harvest she would oversee.
Dear G.o.ds, what was Talen? A great foreboding rose up in him. Snippets of ancient tales and lore flashed in his mind. Tales of devouring. He"d thought they were figurative, but he now realized they were literal.
"I have been calling," the woman said. "I know he"s alive. I can feel him. He should have heard me. He should have come. But instead you hide him."
"Lies," shouted the Creek Widow.
"We shall see," said the woman.
The monster turned back to Hogan and the earthen figure on the floor. Then the creature covered Hogan"s face with its ma.s.sive hand.
Hogan twisted, trying to wriggle away, but he could not. He cried out and grasped the monster"s forearm.
"Be careful," said the woman.
Hogan arched his back, he struck violently at the monster"s arm. The schools of light moved furiously, shining, shimmering, swirling around the woman, around the monster, around Hogan and the figure on the floor. Hogan jerked once, twice more.
Argoth was paralyzed.
How could he fight this being? How could anyone when they didn"t even know what she was? The only thing he did know was that she was full of malice and that she wanted Talen. For what purpose, he could not guess. But she wanted him. And so that was the very thing she must not have.
Argoth could not save Hogan, but he could rescue Talen from her.
He turned to River who had almost worked the collar off her neck. "There is no way out," he said. Even if they could find their way in the dark, they could not run fast enough to escape the monster. They could not fight it or its master with lore. "I used to think we could fight the thralls, but we cannot. Better to die free than live a slave to some horrible purpose in which we deliver our kind up on platters."
River paused. He could see the anxiety in her bruised face.
"Only you have the strength," he whispered. "Deny her the one thing she desires. Put Talen beyond her reach. And then eliminate the rest of us."
River"s eyes grew wide in dismay.
"I beg you," he said. "Tell me another way."
Death was their only escape. He wasn"t prepared to go through that doorway, but who ever really was? He thought of his wife, his daughters, and wondered if they still lived. He could not protect them now. He thought of Nettle lying on that table and the sacrifice which Argoth had recklessly wasted. Grief welled up in him.
He could see River felt that same grief. Her mouth was a line of grim determination. Her eyes brimmed with angry tears.
River nodded. Then she slipped the collar about her neck ever so slightly to the left, gave it a smart tug, and broke it free.
The woman"s words reverberated through Talen. They stroked and caressed him. Every time she spoke he was filled with a small elation. He wondered if she were one of the old G.o.ds. And yet, there was Da, lying in the dust. Surely that was not the work of one of the ancient Holy Ones. Not the work of those that blessed. So maybe she was one of the ones that served Regret.
Da jerked beneath the monster"s hand then screamed.
"No!" Talen cried out. "No." His ribs were on fire. They cut like knives every time he took a breath. Talen tried to stand and gasped from the pain.
The woman was cooing, her shining escort swimming about the monster kneeling between Da and the clay figure on the floor.
He needed to stop this. The crown lay in the dust within his reach. It still glittered as it had upon Da"s brow. He clutched at his side, crawled forward, and picked it up.
A vast power stirred within. It was alive as the Creek Widow had said. He could feel its music. A small thread of peace welled up in him. He could feel the power, but he was blocked from it as if a heavy iron door stood fast in his way. What was more: Talen had no idea what to do with this weave. He knew no lore, only the bestowing of Fire River had taught him.
He looked up at the Creek Widow for help, but she on her on her hands and knees as if recovering from a mighty blow. He turned to Uncle Argoth. "How?" he mouthed, begging him to tell him how to use the crown.
"You can"t," Uncle Argoth said, his face full of despair.
Talen clutched the crown. There had to be a way, but he could not think.
Through the ribbons of light, he watched a thick blackness pa.s.s from Da into the monster"s arm and rise up to its elbow and realized that blackness must be the essence of Da"s soul.
Da writhed. "Nooooo!" he shouted.
Talen could not speak.
A moment pa.s.sed. Another. The blackness rose almost to the monster"s shoulder.
"Well done," the woman said. "Well done."
Talen felt the praise in those words and craved it.
The monster removed its now black hand from Da"s face and moved to the rough figure on the floor.