her voice to a barely audible whisper. “But don’t tell Yaku! Oh no! Secret! Where is he? Where? Where? He mustn’t have the power. He will misuse it. Only Yissil Froon knows!”
“Yissil Froon?” Clarissa and I exclaimed.
“It was he I sent to the forest. He drank Dar’sayn and helped me protect the Yatsill. Only a few fell. And, again, the Blood Gods that came died before reaching the sea. Heh! Heh! Dead! Dead!”
She drew a long, shuddery breath and emitted a long, eerie moan. I flinched away from the sound. There was madness in it.
“Another cycle. Heh! Now there were adults to take the children to Immersion, and Ptall’kors to hasten the journey. Yes! And Yissil Froon went for more Dar’sayn. But—Oh! Oh!—he found Koluwaians! They had fallen through the hole. My Yarkeen dream! Food for the Blood Gods, to replace the Quee’tan! Oh! Poor people! Poor people! And I was very afraid because Yaku was happy. Happy! Why? Why? When he left the cave to meet the islanders, I drank more Dar’sayn and used my mind to hide away from the Yatsill—and even from my husband! I couldn’t trust him any more. I didn’t understand him. He had become very strange and secretive! Now only Yissil Froon knew how to find me. The rest forgot this cave. They forgot me!”
“Not entirely,” I noted. “They consider you a god. They call you the Saviour.”
“They remember only that someone once changed them!” she answered. She fell silent for a moment before going on, “The demons came again. I stopped many, but still some possessed the Yatsill. Some, yes. Oh! Oh! It was as I’d foreseen—the Blood Gods fed on the people and escaped into the sea. Every cycle now, the same! For a long, long time! More Koluwaians came to Ptallaya!”
She sucked at the air, her lungs creaking, and said, “Always, at the rising of the two suns, Yissil Froon brought me more Dar’sayn. Heh! I think he wanted it. Him! Ha! I controlled his mind. I would not let him keep it all for himself! I made him share it with a small number of Wise Ones and I sent my power through them to protect the Yatsill. The Blood Gods always took a few but not many. Not enough to eat all the Koluwaians, and so children were born, and families lived in the tree houses. But I hid! I hid! Heh! Heh!”
By heavens, how old was Pretty Wahine? For how many generations had she survived like a hermit, hidden away in this cave? Was Clarissa, who’d also taken Dar’sayn, now endowed with such an extended lifespan?
“Heh! Heh!” the woman crowed. “Change! Change! Always change! Now, at Immersion, some of the Yatsill children were Shunned.”
Clarissa interrupted. “Do you know why?”
“No, my child. No! Maybe Yissil Froon knows—Dar’sayn has made him a clever one, oh yes!—but I have not spoken with him. He started to conceal Yaku from my senses. It is not good! So I hid myself from Yissil Froon, too. Oh! Oh! Where is Yaku? Where? Where? Dead by now, surely! Dead and turned to dust. But not me! I have been in darkness for so long—Alone! Alone!—eating the mushrooms and the moss. Growing older and older.”
“And always fighting the Blood Gods,” Clarissa said.
“Yes! The Dar’sayn made my mind very strong! I drank so much that I stopped needing it. Heh! Heh!”
“But why, Pretty Wahine? Why continue to defend the Yatsill?”
“Immersion! I went into the pool! You know, my child! You know! The same happened to you! It joins you to the Wise Ones, yes?”
“It’s true,” my companion replied. “I have never felt such a sense of belonging.”
“Heh! They shape themselves from your thoughts and memories. Of course you belong! As do I, for there is still much of me in them!”
I heard Clarissa sigh. She said, “I’ve already experienced the loss of one home. Now I feel I’m losing another. I don’t want to. How can we fight the Blood Gods?”
“I am dying,” Pretty Wahine answered. “Finally! Finally! So, my child, you must learn to do what I have done. I will show you how to use your mind to stop the demons taking the Yatsill. But we need Dar’sayn.”
“There is none.” Clarissa responded. “The Magicians have run out of it.”
“Find Yissil Froon! Always, he wanted to be the only Yatsill to drink it, and he hoards it jealously. I had to force him to release it to his fellows. He didn’t like that! No! Find him,