Sugar lay the silver case containing the last tooth on the floor and turned to Ke. He gasped when she put the tooth to his collar. But this time she kept a firm grip and the tooth did not jump from her hand.

Talen bent down, opened the case, and removed the last tooth. He approached the Creek Widow. Her eyes danced with delight. “Did I not say you were the one to watch?”

She turned her head and put her arms behind her back. Her chains clinked and clattered. How they were going to break those he did not know.

He now saw that the collars weren’t all one color. Instead, they were dark and muddy, shot through with browns and greens and a heavy blue. There was a pattern to it, but it was all too dark to distinguish it well. They reminded him of hideous, too-short eels.

Talen did not hesitate, but quickly pricked it with the sharp point of the tooth.

He was not ready for the power and slipperiness of the tooth. It jumped like a fish from his hand to twine and wrestle with the dark collar. Then it began to wriggle in.

Frantically, Talen grasped for the tooth. He caught the end barely before it completely disappeared into the body of the collar.

He glanced at the Creek Widow’s face. She was grimacing in pain, gritting her teeth.

The collar about the Creek Widow’s neck jerked and rolled. The tooth strained against his grasp. And then it stopped and the collar hung limp about the Creek Widow’s neck.

Talen yanked back on the tooth and it came out, trailing some substance that was dark and sticky.

Behind him, he heard Ke grunt. Talen turned and saw Ke straining, pulling at the chain where it was bolted to the rock wall. He gave another heave and, with a crack, pulled the iron loop from the rock.

Talen shook his head. Admiration bloomed in him: his brother was as strong as any dreadman. Stronger.

The Creek Widow tugged at the collar. When it came loose, she flung it to the floor and then felt her throat. “You can be sure I won’t be asking for one of those during the Festival of Gifts.”

The skin where the collar had coiled about her neck was red and raised in a long welt.

Ke strode over to the Creek Widow, rolling his shoulders and shaking his arms to loosen them. He looked at Talen and grinned. “Step aside, little man.”

He picked up the chain binding the Creek Widow to the wall, grimaced, and gave it a mighty yank. The chain ripped completely out of the wall.

Ke grunted.

“Handy,” said the Creek Widow, “isn’t he? Now get your sister.”

The Creek Widow joined Ke and Uncle Argoth off to one side in an odd circle. They began chanting-one would speak, then the other two would repeat it in unison. Talen couldn’t understand the words and realized they were in some odd tongue. Each one of them had turned sideways and placed their left hand on the neck of the person in front of them. With their right, they each supported the crown.

Talen rushed to River. The left side of her face was purpled with bruises.

Sugar had already set her tooth to work on the collar about Da’s neck. He could see his father was in pain.

When he approached River, she turned her head to expose her long neck. This time when he brought the tooth close, it did not escape his grasp.

However, it had only begun to work on the collar when River cried out. “Remove it!” she said.

Talen yanked the tooth back. “What is it?”

She gasped. “It was in me.”

To Talen’s left, Da fell to his knees, Sugar’s tooth still struggling with the collar about his neck.

“What’s happening?” asked Talen.

“Grab it,” Da said to Sugar, gritting the words out.

Sugar knelt and grasped for the tooth.

Da groaned in pain.

Sugar yanked the tooth back.

Da heaved great breaths. When he caught his breath, he turned his head to look at River. “You and I have worn the collars longer. The binding must be tighter. Be prepared: it’s going to take a part of you.”

“I felt that,” said River.

Da turned to Sugar. “Finish it.”

He winced when she pricked the collar again.

Talen looked at his sister.

She held her hand up. “Give me a second,” she said.

They didn’t have a second. Talen was sure the monster was going to walk into the chamber at any moment.

The Creek Widow cried out in delight. “It’s quickened,” she said and held the crown aloft.

Da gritted his teeth. His face was red with strain. “Now,” he commanded, and Sugar withdrew the tooth.

Still kneeling, Da ripped the collar from his neck. His face was sweating with strain. Blood shone in a thin line around his neck.

“Quickly,” he said and motioned to the Creek Widow.

She, Uncle Argoth, and Ke encircled him.

“But it’s gold,” Talen said. Not the black of powerful magic. “Are you sure it’s going to work?”

“I told you,” the Creek Widow said. “It operates on different principles, and it’s very much alive. Long ago, perhaps in a different age, three years of life were poured into it. The power of three years of life-you can feel it pulsating. It requires three now to waken it.”

Da stood and struggled with his chains, but could not remove them from the wall as Ke had done.

“Put it on me,” said Da.

The Creek Widow strapped the crown to Da’s head.

“It looks so flimsy,” said Talen. “What if it comes off?”

“Once the crown and your father are joined,” said the Creek Widow, “no power can separate them.”

Ke, the Creek Widow, and Uncle Argoth formed their odd circle again, turning sideways to the center of the circle, placing their left hands on the neck of the person in front of them, stretching their right arms out to the center of the circle to rest on Da’s head and touch the medallion. This time, Da spoke the strange words, followed in unison by the other three.

Sugar, her tooth in hand, stood in the center of the chamber like a guard dog.

“We need to get this off me,” River said. “The three of them will be useless once the bond fully forms.”

Talen returned his attention to his sister. “Are you ready?”

She nodded. Her eyes shone with determination.

He held her chin still with one hand and pricked the collar again. It immediately twisted and writhed.

River’s face screwed up in pain. She breathed in measured pants.

Talen pulled the tooth back so that the sharp head was barely in the collar.

But tears still formed in the corners of River’s eyes.

“Do you want me to take it out?” he asked.

She panted, shook her head. But moments later she sagged to one side, and Talen had to quickly remove the tooth or risk stabbing her.

In spots the coloring of the collar had turned ash gray. Yet he could see other parts were still very much alive, undulating as if it were taking long, slow breaths.

Talen saw specks of light. He blinked and looked down at the hag’s tooth. Had it affected his vision? He rubbed his eyes with his free hand and looked again.

A handful of shining flecks were floating in the chamber. They looked like dust motes, except they shone with their own light. What’s more, they seemed to be floating lazily toward Da.

“My eyes,” he said.

“Not your eyes,” said River. “The crown.”

There were more sparks now. Talen couldn’t tell where they were coming from.

The Creek Widow, Uncle Argoth, and Ke stepped back.

“The crown bestows its wearer great strength,” said the Creek Widow, “but it also calls forth a mantle of incredible might. It is said that the Creators seeded the world with power to be given to those of their choosing. And to those who respond to their call, the powers distill upon them as freely as the dews of heaven. Until then, the powers remain locked up within the earth and sea. It is almost finished. A few minutes more.”

This didn’t make complete sense to Talen. Didn’t the Divines wield great powers as well? And this monster was not something to be ignored. Obviously, all the power wasn’t locked up.