But Talen wasn’t thinking about the compliment. He was thinking about the power to weave living things. And if this lore master could weave a wickerman, what other living things could he make?
“So,” continued the Creek Widow, “if this thing is akin to the creature I read about, then we have at least three options. We can kill it, bind it, or kill its master.”
“I don’t think the first is an option,” said Talen.
“Then it’s a good thing you’re not the one doing all the thinking.”
“How can you do what Da and Uncle Argoth and a whole cohort at the fortress could not?”
“What are you going to do?” she asked. “Talk or listen?”
“Listen,” he said. Of course, that was if she could get to the point.
“That’s better,” she said. “I’m telling you this because you’re now part of the Grove, do you understand? Whether you like it or not, you’re one of us. You’re in an inch, you’re in a mile.”
Indeed, Talen thought.
“We are not without hope. There is lore, very old lore. The Divines have their dreadmen: we have something else. I’m not saying their weaves are evil. They can be used for much good. But what I am saying is that there yet exists lore that is older than dreadmen, older than the Divines themselves.” She reached into one of the Tailor’s saddlebags and withdrew something wrapped in dark cloth.
“We need some light,” she said and stepped into a patch of ground fully lit by the moon. She motioned to him and Sugar. “Come here, both of you.”
Talen and Sugar stepped to the Widow’s side. Sugar stood so close their arms touched. He found it amazing that one day earlier he had been prepared to kill her.
The Creek Widow unwrapped the cloth. In it lay a square of gold half the size of his palm. “Look at it closely,” she said.
Talen leaned in close, but not so close that he obscured the moonlight. The face of the square was covered in an exceedingly intricate design. A leather strap dangled from each of two opposite sides. It looked like something you might tie around your arm. Even so, it was nothing impressive. He’d seen gold medallions and brooches far more intricate and weighty on the hats of fat town wives.
“We only know of five of these that survived the ancient wars. Three were destroyed. One taken by the Witch of Cathay. The final was lost.” She took the object over to Legs on the Tailor and let him feel it.
Legs picked it up. His head was turned as if he were looking off in the distance. Suddenly, he held the crown out, a look of surprise on his face. “Take it,” he said.
“What is it?” the Creek Widow asked.
“It’s,” he said, “nothing.”
“That doesn’t sound like nothing.”
“It doesn’t feel like normal metal,” he said.
She considered him for a moment, then took the crown back.
Talen recounted the numbers she’d just recited. “You said only five survived?”
“Only five.”
“So how did you get this one?” he asked.
“Something lost can be found, can’t it? Especially if a thief is the one who caused it to be lost in the first place.”
“You stole this from a Divine?”
The Creek Widow cocked an eyebrow, but did not answer him. Goh, he thought. Nobody, not even the Widow, was what they seemed.
Talen looked at the object again. He picked it up as Legs had, but couldn’t feel anything special in it. It was crude—too simple to be a crown. “I’ve never seen a lord tie anything like this to his head.”
“Perhaps there’s a message in its simplicity,” she said. “But it’s a weave nonetheless. An immensely powerful one.”
Talen put it back.
“What does it do?” asked Sugar.
“There are three great powers in the world—Fire, Earth, and soul. This harnesses Earth and soul in a way that gives its wearer the power to cut through illusion and keep a clear heart. Of course, it also bestows incredible might.”
Talen had never heard of such a thing.
“What you’re looking at,” she said, “is a victor’s crown.”
“A dreadman’s weave?” asked Talen.
“No, I told you. This isn’t the work of Divines. This is the work of the old gods. When the Divines stamped out the old ways, they targeted the victors first. With them out of the way, their battles with the old gods went much easier.”
“But if they were so easily overcome, doesn’t that mean the Divines had a better way?”