wall that stood between him and the monster and let go. Pain shot through him, and instead of standing in the Fire and watching it flow away, the Fire picked him up, engulfed him, carried him like a piece of flotsam.
So much Fire.
The tips of the fingers of the monster lightened like ash. A wave of white passed up the creature’s arm.
“It’s too much,” said the woman. “Close him!”
The boy’s power was immense. His pool of Fire vast. Hunger had never felt such power in anything he’d ever eaten.
He hadn’t felt it in the Mother.
Power rolled off the boy and filled the room. He was a storm, and Hunger was desperately trying to devour it all.
The amount of Fire roaring through Hunger to his stomachs was astounding. But what shocked him was that, Lords, he felt pain.
But no, it was the Mother’s pain. How could that be?
The link, he realized. She used Hunger to wield powers she could not. And the link was exposing her to the heat of the raging Fire of the boy.
“It’s too much!” she said.
An idea shot through Hunger. Hope sprang forth.
“No!” she said and tried to break her bond to him, but Hunger held her fast.
“Release me!” she commanded.
“Never!” Hunger cried, and instead of funneling the boy’s raging might into his stomachs, he directed it all through his bond to the Mother.
Talen flowed forth. The Fire engulfed everything. His vision blurred. His body screamed.
The woman yelled but her voice was drowned out by the rushing of the Fire.
He felt her trying to close herself against him.
The monster’s arm and chest were now as white as ash.
Talen no longer watched the Fire. He was the Fire. He was a furnace, an inferno, a roaring, molten sea.
The woman yelled, commanded the monster to let go.
The creature ignored her.
“Here,” Talen said, “is my heart’s desire.” And he gave himself, every whit.
A patch on the monster’s face turned ash gray. Then all flashed a blinding white.
There was a deafening roar.
The woman screamed.
A huge blast cracked Talen’s world.
The shock tore the monster into pieces, flung Talen like a leaf, hurled the others in the room into the rock. The Creek Widow tumbled away and crashed into the pallid beast. The bowls of liquid light smashed into the walls.
Talen reeled and saw a body below him.
He expected to slam into the ground, but did not. He was floating above the scene.
He looked closer at the body on the floor, and realized it was his.
River coughed. She lay on the floor, tangled in her chains. She got to her hands and knees. “Talen,” she said.
“River!” he yelled.
But she did not respond.
“Sister!”
She did not hear him.
The fact of the body on the floor finally registered with him and Talen grew very silent.
He’d expected pain would vanish at the moment of death, but he hurt all over. He felt as if he’d lost something essential, a leg or an arm.
He looked about to see if the others were moving. Ke lay on his side, face to the wall.
Something caught him and tugged him around.
It was a hideous thing, all mottled blue with many twisting limbs and too many eyes.
“Save them,” it said in a voice of gravel. “My pretty girl. My wife. Unravel the mother’s binding.”
Talen tried to pull away, but couldn’t.
“Quickly,” it said.
A piece of the creature before him struggled, then broke away and flitted off over its shoulder. Talen knew this abomination was the monster. It looked nothing like it had in that body of grass and stone, but he knew that was because this was the many souls of the thing.
It pulled on him with violence and carried him to his body.
Another part of the monster wriggled free.
“Quickly,” it repeated. “She keeps them in the room where she sleeps.” Then it stuffed him back into his body.
Pain slapped him, left, and came back in earnest. Talen gasped for air.
Another part of the monster began to writhe.
A loud buzzing filled Talen’s ears.
The monster turned as if alarmed.
Something black darted past it.
“Find my stomachs,” it said. “The ones she already took. Unravel them.”
Something struck the monster, seemed to bite or bore into its back. The monster winced in agony, but continued to close Talen in.
“Loose them,” it said. “Set them free.”
Talen’s vision of this new world diminished like someone had drawn closed the mouth of a sack, leaving nothing but three horrid eyes. Then they too winked out and the monster, the wicked buzz, the motion and light—all of it vanished.