It must have taken mere seconds but it seemed I stood watching that unspeakable progression for hours, and at the end of it Tahman’s face slid across Tophet’s writhing features and was sucked into the worming mass, and Tahman the thief, the fool, was an eyeless thing of stone like the hundreds we’d encountered upon our arrival. Not statues at all, they were the former citizens of that span—whatever it had been before Tophet claimed it. His body seemed to swell with vigor as he turned to me. ‘One less division of the spoils now,’ he declared. ‘Two, if you give her up.’ He cast off the robe and his attendants came flocking to fit him with costume and wig for the day, but beneath it was that horror of a visage ever in motion until the mask moved up between us again.
“He gestured my dismissal. ‘Now I will have your boat prepared,’ he said. ‘We’ll see you off in the morning. I expect you will explain to your comrades why this one can’t play. I’ll stand him in the dining hall should they need further prompting. Your thief makes your job that much simpler, doesn’t he? This could happen to any or all of you, and for me it would be simpler to execute, but I’ve no wish to deprive the world of its Bardsham just now.’
“I took from his words that he wanted this story performed. He wanted the world to know he existed: Tophet the Destroyer, the god of Chaos, did not reside in Edgeworld, but rather walked the spans of Shadowbridge with us.
“The Agents who’d brought in Tahman took hold of me and dragged me away.
“None of this could I keep from your father or the troupe. Tophet didn’t really grasp the bond at the center of a theatrical troupe, even when they war with each other.
“Unbeknownst to me, he’d already met with your father and your mother. Your father, he’d entertained late into the night, and as was Bardsham’s custom he’d hobnobbed with his lordship, who had wanted to hear only one thing: What stories did Bardsham know of people who’d sold their souls? He’d asked him to list them all, every story he’d ever heard like that, and your father of course obliged. He saw no harm in it. And as he knew literally hundreds of such tales, it meant he got to continue enjoying Tophet’s cellars while he rattled off every one. In the end, it seemed that Tophet had been satisfied with that recitation, and had sent him to bed.
“We were more surprised to find he’d also made overtures to your mother. She’d rebuffed him, no surprise there, but she’d known that wouldn’t be the end of it—she had too much experience of men who thought themselves powerful and desirable. She just didn’t know where it was going to come out next. And do you know what she did?”
Soter leaned forward though it cost him in pain. “Your mother told us to go, the three of us, to leave her behind. She wanted to save you. To save him. I think she knew what was coming if we didn’t comply. As is said of the gods, the best you can hope for is that they don’t take notice of you. This one had fixed on her, and that was that. Your mother . . .
“Bardsham, he wouldn’t hear of it. ‘Are they providing us a ship?’ he asked and I said they were, Tophet claimed it was being readied. ‘Well, then, we’ll take it,’ he said. ‘Not tomorrow at his lordship’s convenience, but tonight, after our performance.’ He told Grumelpyn to find out where it was moored, but to be careful not to end up like Tahman.
“And that’s what we did. Bardsham gave one of the best performances of his life, like he was in the grandest hall, in front of the very gods of Edgeworld themselves for an audience. It was so fine that Tophet had to toast him, hail him a genius and all that. For once your father’s excesses and ego came in handy. He matched that monster drink for drink—he’d taken his measure the night before while babbling away—and he drank him into oblivion. When Tophet finally collapsed and had to be carried to bed, Bardsham retired, too, unsteady on his pins and having to be helped to his room. Of course he wasn’t half so drunk as he feigned, but it convinced the staff, which was what