on her hands and knees as if recovering from a mighty blow. He turned to Uncle Argoth. “Help me,” he mouthed.
“I’m sorry,” Uncle Argoth said, his face full of despair.
Talen clutched the crown. There had to be a way, but he could not think.
Through the ribbons of light, he watched a thick blackness pass from Da into the monster’s arm.
Da’s leg shuddered.
The blackness rose into the monster’s forearm. It reached its elbow.
Talen could not speak. Was that the essence of Da’s soul?
A moment passed. Another. The blackness rose almost to the monster’s shoulder.
“Well done,” the woman said. “Well done.”
Talen felt the praise in those words and craved it.
The monster removed its now black hand from Da’s face, and Da’s head flopped to one side.
“Da,” Talen said, horror slithering itself about him.
The monster held its ink-black arm aloft, then it punched it into the belly of the figure lying on the floor. It knelt there until Talen realized the blackness was leaching out of the monster’s arm and into the clay belly of the second monster.
Talen could barely whisper. “No,” he said in a small voice. “No.”
An eternity passed, and then the monster withdrew its fist. The blackness was gone.
The earthen body upon the floor stirred. Its hideous mouth opened as if taking a breath. Then it turned its awful head to look Talen in the face.
Talen recoiled.
He could not breathe. Could not speak.
They had killed Da, used him to animate that creature.
The woman turned to them. She reached up, her escort shimmering about her.
Talen’s attention was drawn to her hands. They were smoky, flickering. Almost like that of a wraith. He had not noticed this before.
“Your former masters were lax and allowed untamed elements into the populace. So I shall educate you. There is a great order of beings. This is the nature of creation. Humans have mastered many things, but not all. There are greater powers still. I will protect you from all takers. Serve me, and I will give you knowledge and power beyond what you can imagine. I shall raise you and crown you as Divines to your people. Think of all you could do with such power. Just bring me the master of the harvest.”
Her words were as smooth as silver. She was so beautiful, so convincing. A scrap of a memory came to him. And he realized that when he was a child, he’d dreamt of this woman, of the bands of living light. He remembered the joy of those dreams. So long ago. Before Mother had died.
Part of him wanted to bask in her radiance. But there was a part of Talen that resisted her, part of him roiling with revulsion. If he could only don the crown, perhaps he could do something. But the power of the crown was beyond him.
“So I shall ask again,” the woman said. She held up the wisterwife charm. “Where are you hiding the one that bore my might?” Her words caressed Talen like silk. If he had known the truth, he would have told her.
But perhaps . . .
The charm, the dreams, the words River and the Creek Widow had spoken to him—they all roiled in his mind. His mother had discovered, working in the fiber of his body, strange and intricate patterns of power. “Twisted,” River had said. “Pruned and grafted for a great purpose,” the Creek Widow had said.
They had all suspected it was for some greater good. But none of them could have imagined this.
It’s me, he thought. I am the one she seeks. With a clarity that rang like a bell, Talen felt the truth of it. It sounded in his very bones.
But what was he? Was he even human? He felt the panic of standing next to a high precipice and knowing he was going to tumble over the edge. He felt the fear of being dragged by a treacherous current far out to the deep and rough waters of a cold sea.
The woman motioned at Da’s body. “He’s cooling even as we speak, but it’s not too late. I can reverse the quickening. Tell me where the master is and you shall save your friend.”
He could save Da. Talen’s world was gone, replaced by this nightmare. But he could save Da.
His mind told him this was true. But in his heart was a warning.
He looked over at River. Her face was wracked with grief and fear. She shook her head, indicating he should say nothing. He noticed she’d freed herself of