The dreadmen halted, then turned and ran. The Fir-Noy shouted. Those on horse galloped for the other end of the valley. Those on foot followed, casting their weapons and what armor they could from them.

“Run!” he shouted to Sugar. “Run!”

He turned to Uncle Argoth on the ground. “Get up, Uncle! Get up!”

He pulled and tugged. Uncle Argoth looked up at him. “My boy,” he said and touched Talen’s face.

“Get up,” said Talen. “We need to leave.”

“He’s gone,” he said. “He’s gone.”

Talen glanced back. The monster raced toward them with giant strides.

There was no way Talen could outrun it, no way he could get to the Tailor in time. The creature crashed through the brush behind him.

Talen turned.

It stood not more than two paces away. Great hunks of dirt were missing here and there from its body, exposing bones of rock and some other substance. And yet the skin, if that’s what you could call it, moved like hundreds of worms to cover the rents.

The thing snorted and shook its head. It reached out and took a step forward.

44

THE MONSTER’S LAIR

Hunger’s desire to chase the Fir-Noy and consume them was immense. The battle with the enemy’s Skir Master had required huge amounts of Fire. The Skir Master had been very hard to break, but he’d killed him, just as the Mother had commanded. Killed him and reached through the doors of his binding to ravage the enemy whom the Skir Master served. But the Mother of the Skir Master broke the binding before he had a chance to do any damage to her.

He needed to eat. While he felt no physical pain, his body had sustained a large amount of damage. It would require Fire and soul to repair itself completely. He needed to eat. Except he dared not. If he distracted himself, he might lose this opportunity while it was in his grasp.

The Mother had commanded him to gather in all of this Grove of Sleth, all those who stunk. She’d commanded him to find the young male. He hadn’t recognized him at first. He’d recognized his scent, but couldn’t place it. But as he was carrying Ke and Matiga back to the Mother, he remembered smelling him in the yard of Sparrow, smith of Plum.

Hunger had found the male, Purity’s son. And he’d found the last member of the Grove. The last member that mattered. From Larther, he knew there were two others, but one had been lost for a very long time. The other, the rumored half-beast named Harnock, was elusive and unstable. In all the years Larther had been part of the Grove, he’d never once seen him. He suspected none even knew where he abode. But all those that lived on this side of the mountains had been accounted for. All except Argoth.

He could feel the Mother’s anticipation. And his own anticipation joined with hers. When he delivered these two, his task would be fulfilled. And she would be bound to let his family go. In the back of his mind he feared she would not keep that promise. But he pushed those fears aside. She kept her word; hadn’t she already proven that?

____________________

Sugar ran with Legs toward an outcropping of rock on the hill. Partway up she turned and watched the monster swat Talen aside as if he were nothing more than a grass doll.

Zu Argoth knelt in the grass, rocking back and forth, back and forth. He didn’t even look up to see the creature standing behind him.

Sugar watched as the thing bent over and picked up Zu Argoth, cradling him in one of its massive arms, and then it turned and looked directly at her.

“Down,” she said to Legs, pushing him behind the rock. “Down!”

There was no way she and Legs could outrun it. She could only hope it hadn’t seen her.

But it had. It had.

She waited there, listening.

Legs clutched at her hand.

She heard it coming, a pounding thump, thump, thump. Closer and closer. And then it was upon them. They couldn’t hide, couldn’t run. She glanced back, and the creature, in midstride, plucked Legs up and stole him from her grasp.

“Sugar!” he cried, panic on his face.

She bolted after him.

“Sugar!” he yelled.

The creature’s strides were immense.

Soon she was panting, her lungs burning, but she ran after him, laboring up the slope. The creature drew away from her, Zu Argoth in one arm, Legs in the other. One, five, ten strides, then it disappeared over the crown of the hill.

“Brother!” she yelled.

She could not go on.

“Brother!”

She doubled over, resting her hands on her knees. He was gone. Gone!

“Lords,” she cried. “No. Please, no.”

She slumped to her knees, panting, her mind racing. There was no way she could defeat it.

But she did know where its lair lay. She could lead an army there.

No. That would do nothing. It couldn’t be killed. Not by dreadmen, not by Skir Masters, not by whirlwinds. And then she thought of the remaining hag’s teeth. The Skir Master hadn’t been able to use them. Did they still lie below?

She turned and looked back downhill. The bodies of men lay scattered in the grass and scrub. The Crab smoldered in the coals of the fire, sending up a smoke that thinned in the breeze. Across the meadow the morning winds stirred the tree-tops. She spotted the Skir Master lying at the edge by a cluster of massive elms.

Something moved below. Talen was on his knees in the scrub.

“Hoy!” she called out.

Talen grabbed something then stood. He held his ribs on one side as if he’d injured them. Then he spotted her, and raised something high into the air, something silver that flashed in the morning light.

It was the case that contained the hag’s teeth. Maybe, she thought, they could stab the monster with one of those.

“I’m coming, brother,” she said. “I’m coming.”

At that moment, one Fir-Noy who had not fled with the others slowly rose from his hiding place. He gave Talen a glance, but turned away. As Sugar raced back down the hill, the Fir-Noy ran to a horse that still stood in the meadow. It was saddled, its reins tied to a bush. The Fir-Noy untied it, mounted, and then kicked it into a gallop heading away from her.

When Sugar reached Talen, he said, “I see you put the fear of Regret into at least one Fir-Noy.”

It was a hollow jest, but she responded in kind. “It’s a start,” she said.

He held the case up to her, showing its contents. Originally, there had been three spikes. Two remained. The spikes were almost the length of a span, their tips sharp as needles. She quickly scanned the ground around her, fearful of where the third one might be. The sight of it working its way out of the Crab’s temple still sickened her.

“We’re going after the others,” Sugar said.

“Of course we are,” said Talen.

She pointed, but didn’t dare let her finger get close. “What do you think the etching on the sides indicates?”

“Who knows?” asked Talen. “But I’m sure some of that makes them easier to hold.” He shook his head. “After seeing the Crab, I wouldn’t want one of these to accidentally slip out of my grasp.” He closed the case. “We’ll finish the job. But I suspect we need the gauntlets to handle them.”

Sugar laughed. She wondered how that was possible.

“What?” asked Talen.

“It sounds so preposterous, the two of us finishing what a Skir Master and a host of men could not.”

He smiled a tired smile. “Perhaps it is. I doubt the Creek Widow thought we’d face these kinds of ‘limitations,’ but we will do the best we can.”

“You were holding your side, are you okay?”

Talen tried to move his arm and winced. “It’s nothing, probably only a minor shoulder break from the monster’s love tap. It will heal wrong, and I’ll be deformed for the rest of my life, but such is the life of a fearsome Sleth like myself.”