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 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 cookie upon it. Then she lit four more candles and turned them on their sides about the plate to give the cookie more illumination.
She dug at it with the point of a knife, examining the crumbs. “I see nothing.”
She held one up and sniffed it. She took a bite. After savoring it for a while she shook her head and swallowed it. Then she ate the other two cookies and drank a cup of water. “Sometimes certain herbs magnify the effects of the charm. But I can detect nothing of that sort in these,” she said. “If there’s anything in them, we will shortly know. In the meantime 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,” she 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.
The trough was slick with slime and the freezing water just about sent him into shock. But he soon didn’t 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. They itched with sleep and he tried to close them, but River kept slapping his face.
“Let me alone,” said Talen. Then he drifted off into no thought at all.
“Listen to me,” said River. “You will die tonight if we do not change the course of what’s happening.” She felt 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 cookies. 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. “You keep him awake. Use whatever it requires—don’t 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.
That’s when Nettle retrieved a stick from the fire and burned Talen’s arm with it.
Talen started and yelled.
“Aha,” said Nettle. “It’s fire that will keep him awake.”
But soon Talen’s eyes began to droop, and Nettle had to burn him twice more before River returned.
“Put your tortures away,” said Talen. He looked at Sugar. “She can perform her depradations after I’ve rested.”
But River said nothing. She tied what she’d been weaving to his arm where Da had tied his charm.
“I’ll give it a few minutes,” she said. It sounded as if she were trying to reassure 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 glass 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 she faced Talen. She’d decided something. He could see that by the set of her brow.
“You’ve been multiplied,” she said. “Da has begun your awakening. But it’s all gone wrong. You need to