The torch in Talen’s hand spit and hissed. He and Sugar proceeded farther down the passage.
Sugar held the tooth in front of her in her white-gloved hand as if she were holding a blade.
The passageway bent and curved. The walls were not as well preserved here. Stalactites had grown. And here and there parts of the wall had crumbled to the floor. Only a few paces farther and they came to a gaping rent in the wall. It was big enough to belly through. Big enough for the monster.
He looked at Sugar. He did not want to go into that dark space.
She pointed ahead at a scuffle in the dust of the floor that indicated the monster had followed the main passageway. However, even as they moved past the rent, he kept his eye upon it. He was convinced something was there, waiting for the right moment to strike.
“Hide the torch,” Sugar said.
Talen turned to her. “What?”
“I think I see a light,” she said. “But the torch is ruining my vision. Muffle the light.”
The hairs on the back of Talen’s neck stood up. He peered down the passageway, but saw nothing. The rent was still close. Nevertheless, he found an outcropping of rock and held the torch behind it. The angle was such that it lit the passage behind them, but cast a shadow ahead.
They stood until their vision began to adjust. What he saw surprised him. “There’s a faint bluish sheen reflecting from the rocks,” he said.
Bluish lights had been seen in the caves of the stone-wights before. Of course, very few who went to investigate the lights ever returned. And the reports of those who did seemed to conflict. Some said the lights dashed about like will-o’-the-wisps. Night maws, small lizardlike creatures, made a light if they were cut the right way. But those who had seen the blue light said the light always retreated farther into the cave as if it were leading the explorers to a trap.
But the lights had always been there. Did that mean this monster had been there all along and had only recently come out to forage for its food?
Talen wondered if the monster was like a lion that killed its prey immediately or if it were like a spider that stunned its meals to let them ripen. Or was it like a leech, draining the life out in small portions? What if this monster had a brood to feed? He imagined a number of rough children wrapping their limbs about Argoth and Legs, the Creek Widow, draining them until they were nothing more than husks.
The very thought of being eaten sent fear down his legs to the soles of his bare feet. But it didn’t matter. They needed to move more quickly. Every minute they hesitated gave whatever was up there more time to devour those it had taken.
They both stood there a moment longer. He could hear the drip of water. They could turn back and still perhaps avoid the creature. They might deliver the teeth to one of the authorities. But it would be far too late for any rescue.
“We need to pick up the pace,” he said. Yet he did not move.
“Right,” she said.
Talen mustered his courage and retrieved the torch.
“We have surprise on our side,” Sugar said.
But Talen wondered if that was indeed the case.
They stepped forward. All they needed to do was get one of the teeth into the monster. Or deliver the crude crown to someone who could use it. When it came to it, Talen knew his job would be to throw himself into harm’s way to distract the monster. Perhaps into the arms of the monster itself. He did not relish that idea.
The torch burned low. He retrieved the fourth. Even if they hurried, he doubted the two remaining torches would be enough for the trip back. But then there would be no trip back if they fell into some gaping hole in the floor.
He lit the fourth torch and dropped the burned one to the floor.
A little farther and the passage opened into a chamber that contained a large pool of black water. They followed the trail that skirted the edge of the water. At one point, he saw something glowing palely at the edge of the water up ahead. When they got close, he saw it was from many small, thin crablike insects feasting on the remains of a spiny, translucent fish.
They soon exited the chamber and passed what looked to be a number of pillars. They came upon openings to other passageways, but the tracks never varied from the path.
The bluish light grew stronger, as did the odd sulfur smell. It was so strong he could taste it on the edges of the back of his tongue. One thing he had noticed was that the light wasn’t moving away from them. In fact, he suspected that around the next turn they’d see its source. He signaled to Sugar to stop.
He whispered, “I’m going to douse the torch.” The last thing he wanted was for the monster to know they were coming, but the torch would announce them along the walls ahead with its flickering yellow light. Of course, it might already know of their presence and simply be waiting around that bend. And that’s why he was going first. Sugar needed to be able to wield the tooth.
“Follow me,” he whispered and quietly stepped forward.
He heard something-human voices. Had he heard River’s voice? His heart soared. They were yet alive!
He glanced at Sugar, who shared his hope.
Two more steps and he stood at the corner of the chamber ahead. He peered around the edge and saw it opened onto another chamber. This was definitely the source of the light.
He glanced at Sugar one more time. The tooth’s sharp point and the intricate pattern on its side shone in the bluish light. In her other hand she carried the silver case that contained the remaining tooth.
He would distract the monster, draw it to them, and she would stab it anywhere she could.
Talen nodded and stepped out into the full light.
He expected an immediate attack. At the very least he expected the creature to see him and charge. But no such thing happened.
Da’s voice sounded from around a bend in the room where Talen couldn’t see him.
Talen took another step forward, then another, until he saw first Uncle Argoth, then River, the Creek Widow, Da, Ke, and another woman, all manacled at even distances with chains that had been fastened into the semicircular rock wall. Ke stood. The rest of them sat with their backs against the wall.
The monster was nowhere to be seen.
“Mother!” Sugar cried and rushed forward.
The conversation ceased. All of them looked up.
Sugar ran to the woman Talen had not been able to identify. Her hair had been shaved off. She was covered with cuts and bruises.
“No,” the woman said. “Not here!” But she held up her arms anyway and received her girl in an awkward embrace, Sugar holding the hag’s tooth well away from her.
“Talen,” Da said. “What have you done? You must flee.”
Talen withdrew the red cloth from his pocket, unfolded it, then held the odd crown up by one of the leather straps. “I thought you might need this.”
“Hogan,” said the Creek Widow with some hope.
“We can’t use it,” said Da. He motioned at his neck. “Not with these things devouring our power the moment it springs forth.” Da glanced at an exit from the chamber Talen had not seen when he first came in. “I don’t know how you found us, but you must leave before it comes back. Go!”
“Wait,” said Uncle Argoth. He pointed at Sugar. “She carries the teeth.” He turned to Da. “The Skir Master’s ravelers.”
All eyes focused on what Sugar held in her outstretched arm.
Uncle Argoth waved to Sugar. “Here,” he said. “Quickly!”
Sugar rose from her mother and hurried to Uncle Argoth.
He stretched his neck to one side and motioned to a patterened object encircling it. “Careful now. I want you to prick the surface. Let it get a taste.”
“Stop,” said the Creek Widow. “What are you doing?”
Uncle Argoth turned to her. “I’ve been enthralled once. I will not be enthralled again. Let’s see if the tooth can unravel this collar.”
“It will unravel you,” said the Creek Widow.
“Then so be it,” said Uncle Argoth. He turned to Sugar. “Quickly, we don’t have time.”
Sugar glanced at Talen. Then she turned back to Argoth and brought the tooth close to the collar.
The collar moved. Then the worm head of the thing about Uncle Argoth’s neck rose as if it were sniffing the tooth.
Sugar paused, fear on her face.
“Go on, girl,” said Uncle Argoth.
She moved the point of the tooth closer and the collar struck, curling an end around the tooth.
Sugar cried out.
The tooth seemed to shudder, then it leapt out of her fingers.
Uncle Argoth gasped.
The tooth was wriggling, entwining with the collar.
“Grab it,” said Uncle Argoth.
The tooth and collar were now one, struggling, twisting about his neck.
Uncle Argoth fell back against the wall.
Sugar tried to grab the tooth, but it resisted. She tried again. This time she was able to catch it and tug.
She grunted. “It’s stuck,” she said.
“Yes,” said Uncle Argoth. He winced. “I can feel it weakening. Get a good grip. Be ready to yank it back when I tell you.”
The collar writhed.
“It’s slipping,” said Sugar.
Suddenly the collar jerked, spasmed.
“Now!” said Uncle Argoth.
Sugar yanked. The tooth did not budge.
Uncle Argoth cried out, clutched at his neck.
Lords, it was going to burrow into him.
Then Sugar pulled a second time and the tooth came free. It twisted once, twice, and then stilled.
Uncle Argoth grasped the dead worm thing about his throat and ripped it free. He held it up before him then cast it to the floor.
A bright spot of red glistened on his neck.
Uncle Argoth stroked the spot. Then he pulled his hand away and looked at the blood there.
“That was a nasty bite,” he said to Sugar. “But well done. Now free Ke and the Creek Widow. Then Hogan, River, and Purity. In that order.”
“Bring the crown here,” he said. “She’ll feel the breach. We don’t have much time.”
Talen hurried over to Uncle Argoth, who was still in chains, and held the crown out to him.
Uncle Argoth took it by the strap and lay the square medallion in the palm of his hand. He stroked its surface with his finger.
Sugar moved to Ke, who stretched his thick neck to the side.
“Wait,” said Talen. “Give me the other gauntlet and tooth. We’ll do two at a time.”
Sugar nodded and removed the second gauntlet from her belt. She tossed it to Talen.
He caught it midstride. It was as light as silk and thin. Even the weave in its palm was thin. He expected to feel some surge of power when he pulled it on to his left hand, but he felt no such thing. It felt simply like an exceedingly fine glove. The gold studs were small enough that it wouldn’t affect the grip of the glove too much. He had no time to tie the sleeve, so he let the straps dangle.
Sugar lay the silver case containing the last tooth on the floor and turned to Ke. He gasped when she put the tooth to his collar. But this time she kept a firm grip and the tooth did not jump from her hand.
Talen bent down, opened the case, and removed the last tooth. He approached the Creek Widow. Her eyes danced with delight. “Did I not say you were the one to watch?”
She turned her head and put her arms behind her back. Her chains clinked and clattered. How they were going to break those he did not know.
He now saw that the collars weren’t all one color. Instead, they were dark and muddy, shot through with browns and greens and a heavy blue. There was a pattern to it, but it was all too dark to distinguish it well. They reminded him of hideous, too-short eels.
Talen did not hesitate, but quickly pricked it with the sharp point of the tooth.
He was not ready for the power and slipperiness of the tooth. It jumped like a fish from his hand to twine and wrestle with the dark collar. Then it began to wriggle in.
Frantically, Talen grasped for the tooth. He caught the end barely before it completely disappeared into the body of the collar.
He glanced at the Creek Widow’s face. She was grimacing in pain, gritting her teeth.
The collar about the Creek Widow’s neck jerked and rolled. The tooth strained against his grasp. And then it stopped and the collar hung limp about the Creek Widow’s neck.
Talen yanked back on the tooth and it came out, trailing some substance that was dark and sticky.
Behind him, he heard Ke grunt. Talen turned and saw Ke straining, pulling at the chain where it was bolted to the rock wall. He gave another heave and, with a crack, pulled the iron loop from the rock.
Talen shook his head. Admiration bloomed in him: his brother was as strong as any dreadman. Stronger.
The Creek Widow tugged at the collar. When it came loose, she flung it to the floor and then felt her throat. “You can be sure I won’t be asking for one of those during the Festival of Gifts.”
The skin where the collar had coiled about her neck was red and raised in a long welt.
Ke strode over to the Creek Widow, rolling his shoulders and shaking his arms to loosen them. He looked at Talen and grinned. “Step aside, little man.”
He picked up the chain binding the Creek Widow to the wall, grimaced, and gave it a mighty yank. The chain ripped completely out of the wall.
Ke grunted.
“Handy,” said the Creek Widow, “isn’t he? Now get your sister.”
The Creek Widow joined Ke and Uncle Argoth off to one side in an odd circle. They began chanting-one would speak, then the other two would repeat it in unison. Talen couldn’t understand the words and realized they were in some odd tongue. Each one of them had turned sideways and placed their left hand on the neck of the person in front of them. With their right, they each supported the crown.
Talen rushed to River. The left side of her face was purpled with bruises.
Sugar had already set her tooth to work on the collar about Da’s neck. He could see his father was in pain.
When he approached River, she turned her head to expose her long neck. This time when he brought the tooth close, it did not escape his grasp.
However, it had only begun to work on the collar when River cried out. “Remove it!” she said.
Talen yanked the tooth back. “What is it?”
She gasped. “It was in me.”
To Talen’s left, Da fell to his knees, Sugar’s tooth still struggling with the collar about his neck.
“What’s happening?” asked Talen.
“Grab it,” Da said to Sugar, gritting the words out.
Sugar knelt and grasped for the tooth.
Da groaned in pain.
Sugar yanked the tooth back.
Da heaved great breaths. When he caught his breath, he turned his head to look at River. “You and I have worn the collars longer. The binding must be tighter. Be prepared: it’s going to take a part of you.”
“I felt that,” said River.
Da turned to Sugar. “Finish it.”
He winced when she pricked the collar again.
Talen looked at his sister.
She held her hand up. “Give me a second,” she said.
They didn’t have a second. Talen was sure the monster was going to walk into the chamber at any moment.
The Creek Widow cried out in delight. “It’s quickened,” she said and held the crown aloft.
Da gritted his teeth. His face was red with strain. “Now,” he commanded, and Sugar withdrew the tooth.
Still kneeling, Da ripped the collar from his neck. His face was sweating with strain. Blood shone in a thin line around his neck.
“Quickly,” he said and motioned to the Creek Widow.
She, Uncle Argoth, and Ke encircled him.
“But it’s gold,” Talen said. Not the black of powerful magic. “Are you sure it’s going to work?”
“I told you,” the Creek Widow said. “It operates on different principles, and it’s very much alive. Long ago, perhaps in a different age, three years of life were poured into it. The power of three years of life-you can feel it pulsating. It requires three now to waken it.”
Da stood and struggled with his chains, but could not remove them from the wall as Ke had done.
“Put it on me,” said Da.
The Creek Widow strapped the crown to Da’s head.
“It looks so flimsy,” said Talen. “What if it comes off?”
“Once the crown and your father are joined,” said the Creek Widow, “no power can separate them.”
Ke, the Creek Widow, and Uncle Argoth formed their odd circle again, turning sideways to the center of the circle, placing their left hands on the neck of the person in front of them, stretching their right arms out to the center of the circle to rest on Da’s head and touch the medallion. This time, Da spoke the strange words, followed in unison by the other three.
Sugar, her tooth in hand, stood in the center of the chamber like a guard dog.
“We need to get this off me,” River said. “The three of them will be useless once the bond fully forms.”
Talen returned his attention to his sister. “Are you ready?”
She nodded. Her eyes shone with determination.
He held her chin still with one hand and pricked the collar again. It immediately twisted and writhed.
River’s face screwed up in pain. She breathed in measured pants.
Talen pulled the tooth back so that the sharp head was barely in the collar.
But tears still formed in the corners of River’s eyes.
“Do you want me to take it out?” he asked.
She panted, shook her head. But moments later she sagged to one side, and Talen had to quickly remove the tooth or risk stabbing her.
In spots the coloring of the collar had turned ash gray. Yet he could see other parts were still very much alive, undulating as if it were taking long, slow breaths.
Talen saw specks of light. He blinked and looked down at the hag’s tooth. Had it affected his vision? He rubbed his eyes with his free hand and looked again.
A handful of shining flecks were floating in the chamber. They looked like dust motes, except they shone with their own light. What’s more, they seemed to be floating lazily toward Da.
“My eyes,” he said.
“Not your eyes,” said River. “The crown.”
There were more sparks now. Talen couldn’t tell where they were coming from.
The Creek Widow, Uncle Argoth, and Ke stepped back.
“The crown bestows its wearer great strength,” said the Creek Widow, “but it also calls forth a mantle of incredible might. It is said that the Creators seeded the world with power to be given to those of their choosing. And to those who respond to their call, the powers distill upon them as freely as the dews of heaven. Until then, the powers remain locked up within the earth and sea. It is almost finished. A few minutes more.”
This didn’t make complete sense to Talen. Didn’t the Divines wield great powers as well? And this monster was not something to be ignored. Obviously, all the power wasn’t locked up.
The sparks floated in through both entrances, but more seemed to simply spring forth from the rock about them. Talen caught a twinkle in the dust at his feet, and then the fleck of light floated free to join the rest.
The sparks coalesced into thin, whirling streams that were drawn to Da like water is drawn to the center of a lazy whirlpool. Da knelt in his chains as the bits of light flowed and clung to him. The shining flecks began to accumulate thinly in his hair and eyebrows, upon his nose and arms, between the very fibers of his clothing. Specks of light tinged ever so faintly with blue and yellow.
River put her hand to the collar about her neck. “She’s coming,” she said. “I can feel it.”
Sugar couldn’t help but marvel at the tiny sparks that suddenly glimmered and glittered in the stone ceiling, walls, and floor. Each would build in intensity only to break free and float purposefully toward Zu Hogan.
He was drawing the very might of the earth to him. Zu Hogan still knelt on the floor. She wanted him to get up, to take the tooth from her. She wanted any one of them to take it.
But she looked at the others, stooped with weariness, and realized they would not be taking the tooth from her. She would have to defend them.
Now was the moment. Her heart pounded in her chest. She was the only thing standing between the others and their approaching doom.
Things to act, and things to be acted upon. She was not going to quail. She had the tooth. She had seen its power work on man and weave. She was going to face this enemy head-on, just as Mother had faced that mob only a few days ago. Whatever came out of those entrances was going to feel the bite of Purity’s daughter.
She glanced at the entrance to the chamber that she and Talen had used. Nothing was there. But then it was so black she wouldn’t see anything until it was in the chamber anyway.
There was a slight breeze running to that entrance from the other one. The breeze brought her a strong whiff of sulfur and pine. And then another even stronger.
She turned. The monster would come from that direction, from the second entrance. She wouldn’t have much time once it entered the chamber.
“Talen,” she said. “Bring me the other tooth!”
Something flickered in the corner of her eye. And then the monster burst from the blackness.
She should have been more used to the sight of it, but the creature was even more horrible to behold than it had been in the vale. Its enormous ragged mouth. Its dark pit eyes. Her knees quivered.
The monster gave her one look and, in an enormous stride, flashed past. It swatted the Creek Widow aside and grabbed Zu Hogan by the throat.
Ke and Zu Argoth did not attack, but stood aside, slumped, the crown obviously having its effects on them.
The monster grasped the crown and began to tug. Zu Hogan clutched at the creature’s rough arm. The thin streams of sparks in the room had grown thicker, but now slowed their movement. Zu Hogan was shining with the flecks of light, but the monster grabbed the crown and began to pull. It was going to rip it off. And then it would kill Zu Hogan just as it had the Skir Master.
She thought of Legs and Mother and the tooth in her hand.
The tooth in her hand!
Her courage returned even if the fear remained. She cried out and charged.
The monster turned and caught her by the waist in its enormous grip. It felt as if she’d run herself onto a post. Its fingers, hard as stone, wrapped round and squeezed so hard she could not breathe.
She gasped for breath, tightened her grip on the hag’s tooth, then brought it down, stabbing deep into the monster’s ragged forearm.
The monster looked down at the tooth.
The tooth bucked like a fish and disappered into the stoney flesh.
The monster released Sugar. It reeled back, let go of the crown, and clutched its forearm.
Sugar turned, looking for Talen and the second tooth.
Zu Hogan spoke a word under his breath, and the sparks around him grew thicker. A low thrumming began to reverberate through the room. It built in intensity.
The volume and pitch rose, vibrating through her and the very rock about them. The sparks in the room multiplied. The air was thick with them now. The thrumming turned into the rushing of waters or a mighty wind.
Zu Hogan stood, his chains still binding him to the wall, and stretched out his arms. His face shone with fierce knowledge.
The whirling streams of blue and yellow sparks picked up speed, converging on him. The volume built to a roar. Sugar covered her ears.
Then came a concussion, an enormous slap of air that forced Sugar to stagger back. It was followed by a blinding flash as all the remaining sparks in the room rushed to Zu Hogan.
The thrumming and roar cut off, vanished, and Sugar’s ears rang in the silence.
Zu Hogan stood. From head to toe, he shone with a thin skin of blue and yellow light. Joy suffused his face. And when he moved the very air about him seemed to bend and blur.
Zu Hogan took hold of his chains and pulled them apart like a child might break a thin braid of grass.
The monster had fallen on its back, frantically clutching at its arm.
Out of the corner of her eye, Sugar saw the passageway beyond the second entrance flicker and then illuminate.
A ribbon of blazing violet flame flew through the opening. It was followed by another and another. Each stretched a yard or more. Each undulated like an eel swimming through water. The three ribbons of light sped about the room, hissing like the wind through dry weeds. One circled her with blinding speed. It paused momentarily as if looking her in the face, the hot white of its core fading to tongues of violet flame. It seemed to be whispering something.
Fear gripped her. These weren’t ribbons of some strange fire-they were alive!
The light in the passageway grew brighter. And as it did a thick knot of the creatures, blazing their oddly tinged light, swam through the opening to the chamber. Some of these were shorter than the first three, but most were as long as a man’s leg. Some longer. They moved like a school of shining eels, hither and thither, wrapping themselves around something at their center.
The school of light shimmered to one side, parting ever so briefly, and Sugar saw a glimpse of what it contained-a woman wrapped in undulating, living segments of light.
The first three ribbons swirled about Zu Hogan. In his right hand he held a long length of the thick chain that had bound him.
“Whatever you are,” Zu Hogan said to the woman, “your time is at an end.” He stepped toward the knot of light. But as he did so an arm shot out of the knot of shining serpents and pointed at Zu Hogan.
The school of light, paused, shimmered, and then a mass of the creatures sped toward him. The undulating segments struck. She saw one open its mouth, full of thin sharp teeth, and bite him on the throat. Another attacked his cheek, and then the great mass swallowed him like a storm, the ribbons jerking and biting.
Zu Hogan stumbled back, the creatures covering him in a thick knot. He flailed his arms, tried to pull and swat them away, but the creatures attacked as if in a feeding frenzy.
Zu Hogan yelled a word in some tongue she didn’t understand. Immediately, there was a flash of light at the center of the seething mass.
A number of the creatures flew back. She could see much of Zu Hogan now. Yet many of the creatures still clung to him, biting in fury.
Zu Hogan reached up and grasped the one clinging to his eye.
Sugar fully expected to see some grotesque remnant of his eye pull away with the eel, but when he yanked it off and flung it to the ground, she saw that both of his eyes were exactly where they should be-perfect, whole, and gleaming with purpose.
The creature had not penetrated the mantle.
He pulled another knot of the creatures from his neck and took a step toward the shining woman.
She was beautiful. Far more beautiful than anything Sugar had ever imagined.
She was singing furiously, holding her arms out. Whatever she was doing, she didn’t have time to finish.
Zu Hogan ran at her, weapon in hand. The light that covered Zu Hogan had extended down most of the chain. He brought the shining chain around in a side stroke like a massive whip and struck her full force in the head.
The woman stumbled back.
Sugar expected the woman to fall dead. The blow would have killed a bull. But the woman steadied herself.
She was dazed, it seemed. That was all.
Zu Hogan swung the chain again, but the woman dodged back. With a roar, he dropped the chain and charged. Midstride he reached down and picked up a stone and then he had her by the throat. Zu Hogan reared back with the stone. He was going to brain her.
“The monster!” Talen yelled.
Sugar glanced at the creature. It held the arm she’d stabbed high in the air. With its other hand, it appeared to have caught something deep in the flesh of its shoulder.
She turned to Talen. He was standing with his back up against the rock wall, tooth in his good hand. His injured arm hung useless at his side. Two of the shining creatures undulated before him. One coiled and struck, but Talen jabbed and slashed with the tooth, sending it back.
“Ready yourself,” he said. “I’m going to toss it.”
She glanced at the monster. It was tugging the tooth out. “Quickly!” she said.
Talen feinted left, leaned right, and tossed the tooth to her. She caught it in her gauntleted hand, immediately flipped it to get a better grip, then turned.
The monster it stood with all the concentration of a surgeon, its fingers deep in its arm.
Perhaps it can contend with one tooth, she thought. Let it try a second.
Sugar hurled the second tooth like a knife. It spiraled, end over end, its sharp point flashing in the unearthly light of the chamber, and buried itself deep in the monster’s belly.
The tooth gleamed once, then wriggled and disappeared into the monster’s gut.
The creature looked down, gasped horribly, and stumbled back.