bring these men to her, and he would have to obey. Eventually, he would have to obey. But if she didn’t know, she couldn’t command.
Hunger turned and rushed back to Purity. He threw her over his shoulder like a sack of grain, then ran for the exit. The Koramite tried to stop him, but Hunger flung the man aside. Then it was up the stairs and into the dark, back the way he’d come. He’d get out, then he’d remove the collar before the Mother fully wakened. He’d cover it and all thought of the men. And when she fell asleep again, he’d come back for them all.
Argoth saw Hogan bury the Hog deep in the creature’s leg, but it had no visible effect. The creature knocked Hogan aside as it had done to him, tossed him like he was so much straw. Then the creature rushed out of the cleansing room with Purity clutched to its chest and the Hog still buried in its leg.
Hogan struggled to his knees. He grimaced and held his arm close as if it were broken. He winced. “That just might have cracked my collarbone.”
“I’ve never—” said Argoth in amazement. The power of that creature. What was it?
“I felt someone there,” said Hogan. “Inside the beast.”
“Who?”
Hogan shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Men yelled above. There was a crash, something heavy tumbling down the upper stairway.
“They’re not going to be able stop it,” said Argoth.
Hogan’s face twisted in surprise. “Lumen,” he said.
“What?”
“Lumen’s soul.”
Lumen, the Divine who had overseen the Nine Clans. The Divine who had gone missing last year. Is this how he had disappeared, in some experiment gone awry? Or had the Bone Faces taken him and put him into this rough creature?
Another crash sounded from above.
Argoth raced out of the room to the stairs. He saw the Hog lying on the steps where it must have fallen from the creature’s leg and called back to Hogan to pick it up. Smoke from the straw fire below rolled up along the ceiling. It choked him, so he kept his head low and ran up into the darkness. He burst into the first cellar and heard the clamor of many men above.
On his way up the next flight of stairs he jumped over two guards. One was dead, splayed out in a horrible pose. The other lay on his back, moaning.
Argoth reached the main level and saw that the battle had moved outside. Men with torches and pikes stood outside the door and shouted. They surged to one side as if hit by a large wave.
He’d been able to hack off the thing’s hand. Of course, it had done as much good as chopping a worm in two. But he’d much rather face that thing in pieces. And if all they could do was dismember it, then that’s what they must do.
He charged outside. A number of the men shouted and pointed at something on the wall.
Argoth turned. The thing climbed the wall like a dark, three-legged spider, shielding Purity against its chest like a mother might her newborn babe.
Men threw spears. The half-moon made silhouettes of a number of guards on the wall who were in the process of stringing their bows or taking aim.
Those would do nothing to the creature, but they could kill Purity. And if this was her monster, that might dissolve its bindings.
“The ballista!” he shouted. “Turn the ballista!” At various points upon the wall stood seven ballistae. Argoth shouted up the orders a third time, and the guards manning the one closest to the creature began to turn it.
Hogan appeared at Argoth’s side. “How can this be?” The Hog was in his hands.
“I don’t know,” answered Argoth.
“It’s hers, isn’t it?”
“We’ll soon find out,” said Argoth.
The creature moved with such speed he knew the ballista men were only going to get one shot.
“Take it when it crests the top!” Argoth shouted.
More archers arrived and the thrumming of their bows made a chorus. He could hear the ballista men on the wall cranking their engine back. One five-foot, iron-headed dart from these machines could transfix several armored men. The only weapon more powerful would be one of the warwolves, casting a massive stone. But those would be ineffective against such a small, mobile target.
The creature neared the top.
“Lead it!” a man shouted.
The moon suddenly shone through a gap in the ragged clouds and lit up the wall. It was hideous how the thing moved, like an insect. Then it reached the