Faces of Deception

CHAPTER 14

Atreus sat alone at the rough-hewn table, sipping buttered tea from a wooden mug while Seema cleaned the iron breakfast pot He would have helped, but her cooking area was more an apothecary than a kitchen, and no one was permitted to invade that spicy-smelling realm of earthenware jars and stoppered vials. Yago and Rishi were clumping around upstairs, gathering bedrolls and extra cloaks in preparation for an overnight foray. Having found no sign of the Fountain of Infinite Grace in the basin, Atreus had prevailed upon them to begin exploring the main valley.

"There is no need to be envious," said Seema. "We will be joining your friends soon. Your leg is growing stronger every day."

Atreus nodded slowly. "That's just what I was thinking," he said, "and soon after that I'll be well enough to leave."

"Perhaps not so soon. The Sannyasi will not ask you to go until you are strong enough to cross the High Yehimals without help, and by then the weather may well have turned." Seema feigned a look of pity and added, "I am sorry to tell you this, but it is possible you will still be here next spring."

"I can think of worse fates," Atreus said, half grinning. This place has a way of growing on you."

Seema pouted and asked, "And what of the company?"

"I liked the company from the start. The company is what I'll miss most when I go." Atreus paused, then asked, "I will have to go, won't I?"

"I am afraid Yago has nothing to worry about," Seema said, referring to the ogre's obvious eagerness to be on his way home. Any place that frowned on head-bashing and banned hunting was hardly a Shield-breaker's idea of paradise. "The Sannyasi has never allowed an outsider to remain in Langdarma. When it is safe for you to leave, he will insist that you do."

Atreus could only nod. Having fallen under the spell of what little of Langdarma he had seen, he would gladly have traded all his wealth back in Erlkazar for a simple stone hut on the Sisters' verdant slopes.

Seema's brown eyes grew sad, and she began to coat her iron pot with flower oil.

"Today, shall we walk down to the play yard and see the children again? I think they would like that."

"So would I," he said. When Atreus had limped by the day before, several little girls had surprised him by bringing him a garland of wildflowers to help him heal. "Do you know, that's the first time a child ever ran toward me?"

Seema laughed. "Yes, I could see that. You were so surprised, I thought you would run."

"I would have, if my leg had been stronger."

Atreus smiled and took a drink from his wooden mug. The brew tasted more like a salty bouillon than tea. It was thick and greasy and probably the one thing he did not really love about Langdarma.

From the street outside came the thump-thump of running feet. A dark streak raced past the open window, and the door banged open. An adolescent boy rushed inside, panting for breath and filling the hut with the smell of sweat.

"There has been a rockslide!" He gulped down a breath, then continued, "My father needs help."

Seema grabbed a woolen satchel off the wall and began to stuff it with herbs and vials. "I will do what I can Timin, but you know the Sannyasi has taken away my-"

"Oh no, not your help!" interrupted Timin. "Kumara is already there, but the rocks are very large and we need the orange man to move them."

Seema let her satchel drop, her face falling as though she had been slapped. "Of course," she said.

Atreus limped to the stairs and hollered, "Yago!"

"Yeah?"

"Come quick!"

The ceiling shook as the ogre pounded across the floor above.

Seema handed Timin the last of Atreus's buttered tea. "Drink," she told him. "You will need strength for the run back. Where is your father trapped?"

"Beneath the Caves of Blue."

The youth began to gulp down the greasy tea.

"The Caves of Blue?" Seema frowned. "What was he doing there?"

Timin lowered the mug and passed it back to Atreus. "Searching for my sister," he said.

Atreus and Seema exchanged alarmed glances. Before they could ask any more questions, Yago squeezed down the stairs, his orange fangs bared in alarm.

"What is it?"

"Come quickly!" Paying no attention to Yago's expression, Timin grasped the ogre by the wrist and tugged him toward the door, saying, "You are needed."

Yago scowled and glanced toward Atreus.

Atreus nodded and said, "Do as he asks."

The ogre shrugged, then ducked through the door behind Timin. Atreus glanced at Rishi, who was coming down the stairs to investigate the uproar.

"Go with them," Atreus said to the Mar, pointing out the door. "Hurry… and keep an eye out for Tarch."

Rishi paled. "Tarch? I thought there was no way-"

"There isn't," said Seema, and Atreus finished for her,

"But this is a strange coincidence."

"And if it is more than a coincidence?" Rishi demanded. "What do you expect me to do about it?"

"The same thing you did at the icefall," Atreus said as he shoved the little Mar out the door. "We'll be along as fast as I can run."

"Run?" Seema asked, shaking her head. "You are not even ready to walk, and the Caves of Blue are at the far end of the basin, very high up the slope."

Atreus started out the door after his friends. "I'll crawl if I have to," he promised.

In the end, Seema borrowed a yak and led the way toward the Caves of Blue. Had Atreus's thoughts not been consumed by visions of Tarch abducting the beautiful girls of the valley, the journey would have been an enchanting one. The trails were lined with soaring birch and fir, many so large that even Yago could not have closed his long arms around the trunks. The ground itself was blanketed with a bounteous undergrowth of blossoming rhododendron that arched out over the trail sprinkling pink petals on their heads as they passed. Every now and then, they would come to a golden stream snaking its way down to the big river in the center of the basin, or cross an open meadow of long green grass where a small herd of yaks grazed contentedly.

After a time, they reached the terraced slopes surrounding a small hamlet similar to the one where Seema lived. Here, they were besieged by distressed women who began to fill in the troubling details of the rockslide. Timin's father had awakened that morning to discover his eldest daughter, a young woman of seventeen, missing. Discovering two set of footprints leading away from his hut, he had set off at once to catch the pair. Not long afterward, the rumble of a nearby landslide had shaken the hamlet. Timin had followed the dust plume to a slope of talus-a jumbled scarp of loose rock-beneath the Caves of Blue. There he found his father trapped under a huge boulder. There was no sign of his sister or the mysterious man with whom she had left

Atreus was astonished by the utter innocence of the villagers. Had a similar event occurred in Erlkazar, the father would have assumed the worst and set off with a company of armed men to hunt down the abductor. Here, the girl's disappearance seemed more confusing than alarming, as though they could not imagine why she would leave without saying good-bye.

By the time they reached the other side of the hamlet Atreus was convinced that Tarch had found his way into the valley. He said nothing to Seema, thinking it wiser to let her decide this for herself. In many ways, they were growing closer every day, but there remained between them a certain uneasiness he did not want to aggravate by pushing her to a conclusion she would soon reach for herself. With-out exception, the women of Langdarma were as beautiful as Seema was, and it could hardly be a coincidence that two of them had disappeared since she had escaped Tarch.

As they traveled along the terraced vegetable slopes, Atreus soon found himself looking out over the edge of the basin, to where it dropped away into greater Langdarma The valley was even more vast than he remembered, so wide that the other side was obscured in haze, and so deep that he could see no bottom, only the far wall plunging ever downward. The impossibility of finding the Fountain of infinite Grace in such an immense place struck him heavily. Yago and Rishi had spent nearly a ten-day searching just the upper basin, and it could not have been a thousandth the size of the main valley.

Clearly, he would need Seema's help to find the fountain, but he did not dare ask. The secret loomed over their relationship as heavy and foreboding as the ice-blue sky, an unspoken conflict they both feared to address. Atreus had asked many times whether there was not some way to change his external appearance, and Seema had always sidestepped the question, invariably changing the subject to his perception of himself. He could feel her holding back, trying desperately to avoid lying to him as she had lied about Langdarma, yet determined to keep from him some confidence she held even more dear than the valley's existence. As for Atreus, he felt burdened with guilt, like a thief who insinuates himself into a rich man's house in order to rob him blind. He did not see how Langdarma would be harmed by taking a single vial of water from the Fountain of Infinite Grace, yet he did not dare broach the subject for fear that the mere asking would somehow make his task impossible.

The trail entered the woods again and continued forward over the brink of the basin, but Seema turned up a side path and began to lead them uphill. The slope grew steadily steeper as they went. Soon, they were zigzagging up a series of switchbacks, creeping across craggy outcroppings and stealing glimpses down into the main valley. In many ways, it was a larger version of the upper basin, with a little less forest, a lot more barley field, and a broad blue river snaking down the center. At the far end, the valley gradually narrowed to a shadowy black gorge and disappeared into a wall of ice-capped mountains.

They had just reached the steepest part of the hillside when they began to hear voices chattering ahead. Seema broke from a fast walk into a run, tugging Atreus's yak along behind her. From somewhere ahead came a loud crash, followed by the clatter of tumbling stone.

Atreus and Seema emerged from the forest onto a steep, jumbled talus slope. Twenty paces below, a circle of men were gathered around Yago's stooped form. Above the ogre stood an old man in a scarlet tabard, issuing commands in a thickly accented voice that Yago probably could not understand. By the woolen herb satchel hanging over the old man's shoulder, Atreus guessed that this was Kumara, the healer Timin had mentioned.

Seema tied the yak's lead to a bush. Atreus dismounted and followed her down to the crowd. They arrived to find the head and shoulders of a glassy-eyed man protruding from beneath a wagon-sized slab of granite. The poor fellow was lying on a blood-smeared boulder, babbling incoherently about yetis and devils. Yago stood over him, struggling alongside several villagers to keep the huge slab from dropping on his chest. Timin was kneeling next to the victim, presumably his father, stroking his hair and speaking gently while two other men pulled his arms. A third man had crawled under the stone so far that only the soles of his boots remained visible.

The victim shrieked in pain, and a muffled voice under the slab cried out, "Now!"

The men holding the victim's arms stepped back, pulling him from beneath the boulder. As his legs came free, one ankle began to spurt long arcs of blood. The other merely oozed from a smashed stump. Kumara instantly jumped down beside the injured man and pressed one hand to the spurting ankle, fishing through his woolen satchel with the other.

The brave man under the slab began to inch out, but Yago was having trouble holding the heavy stone. He groaned deeply, and gasped, "Fingers… slipping!"

The villagers frowned and began to jabber in confusion, and Atreus realized they had not understood the ogre's warning. He shouldered his way into the crowd, grabbed the ankles of the man under the stone, and jerked him out backward.

"In the name of the Five Kingdoms, take care!" the hero cried, twisting around to glare up at his handler.

"Rishi?" Atreus gasped, surprised to find himself staring down at his sly guide. "What are you getting out of this?"

"Nothing," Rishi, flushed with embarrassment, answered. "I am as surprised as you are, but no one else believed Yago could hold the stone."

At that instant, Yago cried out in alarm and jumped back. The granite slab crashed down, shaking the whole talus slope, and Atreus thought for an instant that the rockslide would begin again.

Rishi's eyes widened at the near miss, and he spun to glare at Yago. The ogre merely shrugged and turned away, stooping over the other onlookers to peer down at Timin's father.

"Is he gonna live?"

The father's glassy eyes grew round, then he began to shake his head in fear.

"Yeti devil!"

Yago's heavy brow rose. "Me?"

The man tried to push himself away. "Thief of daughters!" He scraped his fingers across the rock, searching for something to throw, crying, "Where is my Lakya?"

Atreus stooped over the man. "Is that what happened to your daughter?" he asked. "Did a devil steal her?"

When the man's gaze shifted to Atreus, he screamed in terror and cried, "Devils everywhere!"

He struggled to escape, flailing around so hard that the old healer could no longer hold him.

"You must step away," ordered Kumara. His glower slid from Atreus to Yago. "Both of you."

Yago scowled. "You guys are the ones that asked me-"

"Please, my father means no offense," said Timin, moving to block the injured man's view of Yago. "He is delirious."

Atreus nodded and pulled the ogre away, but even that did not calm Timin's father.

"Return my Lakya!" the man screamed. "Give her back!"

Kumara reached into his satchel and removed a small, clear vial. The liquid inside looked remarkably like water, save that it seemed to catch the light like a fine diamond and cast it back in a sparkling aura of radiance. When Atreus made the mistake of gasping, Kumara frowned and shifted around to hide the vial from view. There was a small popping noise, then the sound of liquid being poured. A silvery halo rose around both the healer and his patient, and Timin's father grew instantly quiet.

This time, it was the villagers who gasped.

Atreus's heart began to pound faster. He leaned over to Seema and, as casually as he could manage, whispered, "What was that?"

Seema hesitated, then said, "Water."

Atreus risked a doubtful frown. "Water?" he asked. "No water I've ever seen-"

"It comes from a special place!" Seema hissed. "Only healers may go there, and now you must ask no more."

"Why?"

Seema scowled at him. "Because it is the Sannyasi's wish, that is why!" She moved away, kneeled down beside Kumara, and said, "Is there anything I can do to help, Old Uncle?"

The old man gave her a glare that could have melted granite. "Have you not done enough already?" he asked.

Seema recoiled as though struck.

"What do you mean?"

Kumara nodded toward Atreus and Yago. "It is you who brought this evil on us." He ground a leaf between his fingers, then pushed the dust into the spurting wound on his patient's ankle and added, "You angered Fate by trying to cheat her, and now we must all pay."

Atreus could not stand the sight of the tears that welled in Seema's eyes. He squatted down across from Kumara, his misshapen face taut with anger.

"Speak how you wish about my friends and me, but Seema is not responsible for this," he said, gesturing at Timin's wounded father. "Nor is she responsible for the missing daughters. Only a coward would blame a woman for a devil's doing."

Kumara returned the threat with a black-eyed glare, then hissed three times. An invisible force as soft and powerful as the wind struck Atreus in the chest, knocking him to his haunches and leaving him gasping for breath.

The old healer narrowed his eyes. "In this place, you are a devil." He glanced at Seema and added, "Women who consort with devils are witches."

Seema gasped in outrage, then met Kumara's eyes and locked gazes. Atreus sensed that some contest neither he nor the villagers could quite perceive, much less understand, was taking place. The two healers glared at each other for what seemed an eternity, neither blinking nor seeming to breathe, until Seema finally began to tremble.

Kumara sneered, then raised his chin. "Do you hear it, Seema?" he asked.

Atreus heard nothing, but Seema's eyes darted toward the head of the basin.

"You see?" Kumara sneered. "Even Jalil's ghost knows what you are."

Seema's eyes flashed with fury, but she seemed unable to keep from turning her gaze in the direction of her own hamlet. She cocked her head as though listening. Her shoulders slumped and tears began to spill down her cheeks. She spun away and bounded up the boulder field, leaving Kumara to smirk at her back.

Atreus glared down at the old healer and said, "If Seema did bring evil to Langdarma, she is not the first There is enough wickedness in your heart for ten devils."

Kumara did not even look up. He simply hissed, and Atreus felt an invisible hand pushing him away. Yago scowled and started to step toward the healer, drawing an alarmed murmur from the crowd of villagers. Atreus quickly raised his hand.

"Seema wouldn't want that."

He motioned Yago and Rishi to his side and led the way a short distance up the talus pile. He spent the next several minutes glaring down the slope while Kumara tended to Timin's father, until he finally felt calm enough to speak.

"That old terror is right about one thing," he said. "Tarch followed us."

Yago's eyes grew round with fear, though it would have shamed the ogre to admit this, and Rishi shook his head.

"Such a thing is impossible," the Mar insisted. "You were not conscious, so you do not know…"

"I know that two girls have disappeared since we've been here," Atreus said. "It was no coincidence that Timin's father was babbling about devils. He must have seen Tarch before the landslide."

Rishi closed his eyes and said, "And you want to capture him."

Atreus shook his head. "No, we've tried that," he said. "I want you two to track him down. We'll let the Sannyasi take care of the rest"

"Us two?" Yago could not quite suppress a knowing smirk as he added, "You going after the girl?"

Atreus nodded. "I'd only slow you down… and besides, you're not to get into a fight." He started to limp off, then paused. "Be back by dark, even if you find nothing. We promised Seema no killing, and I suppose that includes you two."

"The good sir is most generous," said Rishi. "I am certain he will reward us well for this danger."

Atreus smiled, then waved his hand around the valley. "You're seeing Langdarma," he said. "What more do you want?"

By the time Atreus hobbled up the slope to his yak, Seema had disappeared down the trail. He untied the lead and started after her, expecting to find her waiting a few switchbacks below.

When he reached the main trail without seeing any sign of her, he began to worry. Though he was no scout, he dismounted and sorted through the muddy tracks until he convinced himself that Seema had indeed turned toward home. This hope was confirmed as he passed through the hamlet, where the worried villagers stopped him to ask why she had seemed so troubled. Atreus assured them it had nothing to do with the condition of Timin's father, who would no doubt be returning soon under Kumara's care. He urged his yak toward Seema's hut

He arrived to find the door wide open and Seema kneeling beside a wooden chest, holding a small yak hair cloak. Her eyes were red and swollen from crying, and she was still huffing from her long run. Atreus stopped just inside the door, reluctant to intrude, happy just to find her uninjured and at home.

Seema set the cloak aside, then removed a pair of brown trousers and a striped tunic. Finally, she withdrew a round hat of black felt and held it before her, running her finger along the brim. Though Atreus had not realized she knew he was there, after a time she placed the hat with the other clothes and turned to face him.

"I heard Jalil," she said. "He was crying and calling for me, but I was gone Outside. I did not answer, and then he just stopped calling."

Atreus limped into the room and kneeled across from her, picking up the hat. It was small, only a little larger than his fist. "Jalil was yours?" he asked. "Your son?"

"He was eight."

She took the cloak in her hands, rubbing the material as though she could bring the boy back by stroking his clothes.

"Kumara warned me not to go. He said I could bring Jalil nothing but pain by trying to cheat Fate. And now look. I have brought evil to the whole valley."

"You were trying to save your child. How can that be wrong?"

Atreus wanted to take her in his arms, but he could not quite bring himself to reach out, to believe that she, or anyone, would be comforted by his embrace. "If there was any evil in that, it was only that you had to go instead of Kumara," he offered.

Seema looked up from her son's cloak and said, "You don't understand. life in Langdarma brings with it sacred duties, even greater than that of a mother's love for her child."

Atreus thought of the terrible sacrifice his own mother had made to save his life and shook his head. "There is no duty greater than that of a mother to protect her child," he said.

"In Langdarma, there is. Langdarma is the birth home to Serene Abhirati, Mother of Peace and Beauty."

Atreus frowned, not seeing the connection. "And?"

"And Abhirati has been gone wandering the heavens for a hundred centuries. She left us to watch over her valley, and the Sannyasi to watch over us, so that all would be the same when she returned." Seema lowered her gaze, her hands crumpling the hem of her son's cloak, and said, "Kumara is right to be angry with me. My selfishness has brought evil into her home."

"Kumara is a fool," Atreus said, taking Seema's hands and gently smoothing Jalil's cloak. "If Abhirati is truly the Mother of Peace and Beauty, then she will understand… as one mother to another."

Seema looked up. "Do you think so?"

"I know so," Atreus said. "Would Abhirati have left the Sannyasi to protect you if she were not a good mother? If she is a good mother, how can she condemn you for doing all you could to save Jalil?"

Seema considered this, then said, "That does not change the evil I have brought on the valley. If you are right about Tarch being here, it is because of me."

Atreus shook his head. "If anyone is to blame for that," he told her, "it is Kumara."

Seema frowned and asked, "How can you say that?"

"No slaver wants old men like Kumara," said Atreus. "Had Kumara gone after the yellow man's beard instead of you, Tarch would not have bothered to kidnap him."

Atreus did not add that Kumara might also have returned in time to save Jalil's life, but he saw by Seema's furrowed brow that this had also occurred to her.

After a moment, she shook her head.

"This game makes no sense. We can say "what if this' and 'what if that' all day long, and it changes nothing."

"Aren't you the one who said no mortal can understand the Wheel of Life? Perhaps Tarch has been fated to come here since the beginning of time, or maybe it was Kumara who cheated fate by refusing to help save Jalil. I don't know." Atreus squeezed Seema's hands more tightly and said, "The only thing I do know is that no matter what Kumara says, you aren't to blame. You did what you did out of love, and that is never wrong."

Seema considered this, then said, "Thank you for saying these things." She closed her eyes and embraced him. "Even if they are not the truth."

"They are." Atreus kissed her forehead without really realizing he had, adding, "You can trust me."

"I already do."

Seema looked up, and Atreus was instantly lost in her brown eyes. He pressed his lips lightly to hers, then pulled away.

"I'm sorry," he said as he tried to disengage himself. "I don't mean to take advantage…"

"Do not apologize." Seema pressed a finger to his lips, refusing to let go, and said, "You are not taking advantage. I trust you, and you are a comfort to me."

Seema kissed him again, this time harder, and he could feel her need drawing him closer. She pressed her body against his. He wrapped her in his arms, felt the softness of her breasts against his hard chest, the heat of her belly warming his, the smooth curve of her hip beneath his fingers. She melted to the floor beneath him, drawing him down on top of her, holding him so close that it seemed she was trying to make him part of herself. He wanted to become part of her, to feel their bodies join as he had felt their spirits unite earlier, when she told him not to apologize-and then Atreus realized he was deceiving himself. Worse, he was deceiving Seema. He did not deserve the trust she had granted so freely, not while the secret of the fountain remained between them. Now that he had seen the sparkling waters in Kumara's hand, he knew Sune's quest was a literal one. He was to find the Fountain of Infinite Grace and return with a vial of its waters. He also knew that this was forbidden, that when he did as his goddess bade and filled his vial, he would betray Seema's trust in the cruelest manner.

Atreus's embraces grew weak and his kisses guilty. He began to feel the ungainliness of his body and recall his hideous looks. His desire for Seema became a sick, shameful thing that even his body would not abide. He drew his face away from hers, then could not bear the beauty of her brown eyes and looked away.

Seema continued to hold him. "Atreus?" she whispered. "Did you hurt yourself?"

"No. No, I'm fine." He could barely choke out the answer.

"Then why did you stop? Is love-making not a Devotion to your goddess?"

"Yes, it is," Atreus answered as he rolled off Seema, but stayed beside her and continued to hold her in his arm. Even that felt like a lie. He could not tell her about the fountain any more than she could take him to it. "I'm feeling uneasy."

Seema propped herself on an elbow. "You are wondering about Jalil's father?"

Atreus nodded, breathing a silent sigh of relief, and even that made him feel guilty.

"There is no need to think of him," Seema said. "He is only a friend now, and I seldom see him."

"He doesn't live nearby?" Atreus asked.

"No, he is a healer down in the valley. No more needs to be said about him."

Seema pushed herself up and began to fold Jalil's cloak.

"Now I am a little bit sad again," she said. "I hope you will forgive me."

"There is no need," Atreus said, picking up the boy's hat. "I fear it's you who must forgive me."

Atreus waited alone on the balcony until well after dark, when Rishi and Yago returned exhausted and famished. They had spent most of the day scouring the area around the rockslide and found nothing, not even a footprint they could identify as Tarch's. The Mar had been ready to declare the hunt over and report to Atreus that he was mistaken, but Yago, knowing first hand the comforts of a good deep grotto, had insisted upon investigating the Caves of Blue.

The task had proven more difficult than they could imagine. The mouths of more than a thousand different caverns dotted the face of the Turquoise Cliff, some located nearly a mile above ground. After a cursory examination of some of the ground level caverns, many of which they happened across only after catching a whiff of musty air from behind a bush, they had given up and returned to Seema's for the night.

At Atreus's insistence, they abandoned the search for the Fountain of Infinite Grace in favor of investigating the Caves of Blue. No more girls turned up missing, and Atreus was at first inclined to attribute the basin's good fortune to the vigilance of his friends. When they found no signs of Tarch after seven days, even Atreus began to think he had been wrong about the slave master following them into Langdarma. Yago and Rishi returned to looking for the fountain, though they often made a point of passing through Timin's village to inquire about signs of the devil.

It was after one such stop that Rishi returned with news of the fountain. Grateful for his father's life, Timin had finally responded to the Mar's discreet questioning. According to rumor, the twinkling water came from an ancient temple somewhere in the main valley. The news had, at first, disheartened Atreus, but Rishi had quickly hit on the idea of searching for the temple from above. They would simply climb the canyon walls and scan the valley floor, looking for any likely buildings or streams that sparkled more than they should.

By the third day, Yago and Rishi had spotted a likely looking building not far down the valley. Atreus decided to go along, telling Seema that he was going to start hiking with his friends to strengthen his leg. To his dismay, she insisted on coming, greatly adding to the already heavy pall of guilt weighing him down. They started at dawn, intending to pass through Timin's village and start the descent into the main valley before mid-morning.

An hour into the journey, they stopped to drink from one of Langdarma's pristine streams. As Atreus kneeled on the mossy bank, the water grew cloudy and pink. He cried out and jerked his hands back, wondering if the valley somehow knew of his plan and was passing judgment on his deception.

Atreus's companions gathered along the bank behind him, staring and gasping as the water grew murkier and darker. Yago kneeled and brought a palmful to his mouth.

"Vaprak's veins!" he cursed. "Blood!"

"Blood?" Seema gasped.

Atreus stood and looked up through the thick undergrowth, searching for any sign of a predatory beast The rhododendrons remained as still as stones. The water continued to grow darker and redder. To lose that much blood, an animal would have to be the size of a dragon, and even in this dense forest a predator animal large enough to down a dragon could hardly be missed.

"Seema, what's at the top of this stream?" Atreus asked.

She glanced up at the ice-blue sky, somehow estimating their position from its mottled surface. "A herder's shed."

"Please do not tell us this herder has a daughter," said Rishi.

Seema's face grew fearful. "I am afraid he does," she said. "Two of them."

Yago studied his companions, then said, "Can't be what you're thinking. Too much blood."

"I don't think it's blood," said Atreus, "at least not the way you think."

He pointed down the creek to where it was joined by a small rivulet from a side gully. The red stain was spreading up the side gulch.

"Think we found Tarch?" Yago asked.

Atreus's only response was to start up the stream bank.

They crept through the rhododendrons, moving as quietly and rapidly as four people could through such thick undergrowth. The water continued to grow redder and thicker until the stream took on the appearance of a vein filled with dark, clotty blood. A nauseating, copper-like stench began to hang in the air, and alarming little noises began to rise from Seema's throat. When they finally reached the terraces beneath the herder's shed, it grew apparent that there was no need for stealth. The grassy pastures were strewn with slaughtered yaks, and an old woman was up near the shed, wailing and cradling her husband's smashed head.

"Seema, you'd better go first," said Atreus, recalling how Timin's delirious father had initially reacted to him and Yago. "We'll follow after you cover her eyes."

Seema nodded, then clambered over the terraces. She kneeled beside the old woman and spoke to her softly, covering her head with a shawl. By the time Atreus and his companions arrived, Seema had the story.

"She said a sharp-eared devil came for her daughters and killed her husband when he tried to save them. The beast left five minutes ago." Seema's face was hard and angry, almost ugly. She pointed into the shed. There are axes and scythes inside."

Rishi's jaw fell and he asked, "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

Seema glanced at the destruction surrounding her and said, "Do what you must I want him stopped."

Atreus raised his brow. "We'll try," he said, "but it wouldn't hurt to call the Sannyasi."

Seema nodded, and Rishi rushed off to fetch the weapons. Yago glanced at Atreus. Though the ogre had managed to force a smile onto his jaw, Atreus could read the doubt in his friend's eyes. Shield-breaker or not, Yago was afraid. As far as he was concerned, Tarch could not be stopped.

Atreus clamped the ogre on his huge forearm and said, "We'll manage."

"Don't we always?" Yago answered. "But if I get-"

"I know… don't let the crows get your eyes," said Atreus.

Yago's behest was a standard Shield-breaker request They believed crows to be spies of Skiggaret, the fear-loving god of their bugbear enemies. Though the reminder betrayed Yago's fear at facing Tarch again, Atreus said nothing to reassure his friend. Among ogres, acknowledging another's fear was the worst kind of insult.

"You have nothing to worry about, Yago," said Seema. "There are no crows in Langdarma."

The ogre forced a smile and said, "So this is paradise."

Rishi returned with an armload of tools. He had a rope and the scythe for Yago, an iron kettle lid and a double-bladed tree axe for Atreus, and a pair of skinning knives and a net for himself. As he accepted the kettle lid, Atreus frowned in confusion.

"For the flames," Rishi explained, smiling. "I am always thinking of the good sir's safety, am I not?"

"What you're thinking is that I'll go in first," Atreus replied, "and you're right."

He started off at a trot and they had no trouble following Tarch's trail. The devil was tearing a broad swath through the rhododendrons, angling up the slope toward the cliffs at the mouth of the basin. The slave master appeared to be carrying one daughter under each arm, as the stalkers never saw any tracks but his. Even so, he was moving so rapidly they never seemed to catch a glimpse of him.

After a quarter hour of running, they climbed out of the forest, emerging onto one of the talus fields that tumbled down from the basin walls. Tarch was nowhere in sight. It was impossible to follow his trail across the field of jumbled boulders, but there was no question about where he was going. A mile ahead loomed the Turquoise Cliff, its face pocked by the dark mouths of the Caves of Blue.

"Got to catch him before he gets into them caves again," huffed Yago.

The ogre bounded up the talus field at an ungainly sprint, quickly drawing away from his companions. Atreus followed as best he could. His weak leg began to ache from the exertion, but he clenched his teeth and hobbled up the mountain, inspired by his friend's example. Yago soon vanished behind a jumbled crest of stone. Tarch's silhouette appeared farther up the hill, running along a flat boulder with a beautiful Langdarma girl tucked under each arm.

For the next few minutes, the chase continued with Yago and Tarch vanishing and reappearing at odd intervals, the ogre steadily closing the distance as the devil drew nearer to the Caves of Blue. Rishi hung back for a while, then finally cursed Langdarma for rubbing off on him and danced up the hill ahead of Atreus. Atreus tried to match the Mar's pace, but found it impossible and resigned himself to watching the first part of the battle from below.

Yago was still twenty paces behind when Tarch reached the Turquoise Cliff and, tucking both girls under one arm, began to scurry up the rocky face as easily as a spider. Yago grabbed a melon-sized rock and hurled it on the run.

The stone caught Tarch square between the shoulder blades. The devil grunted loudly, let his captives tumble free, and pushed off the cliff. He spun around in mid-air and landed facing his attacker. The battle was on, with Atreus still a hundred paces down the slope.

The fury of Yago's assault belied his dread of facing Tarch again. The ogre stepped in swinging, bringing the scythe around in a two-handed sweep that caught the devil in his midsection and launched him across the slope. Tarch landed a half dozen paces away, clattered down between the boulders, and disappeared. For one long moment, Atreus dared to hope Yago had ended the battle with a single bloody stroke.

As the ogre stomped over to finish what he had started, a goat-sized boulder came flying up at him. He raised his scythe to block. The rock smashed through the wooden handle and caught him full in the chest, bowling him over backward. He came down hard, a sharp crack echoing off the cliff as his head struck the flat of a stone.

Tarch clambered into view and staggered toward his groaning foe, a flap of scaly hide dangling from the gruesome wound in his side. Rishi was a dozen paces behind the devil, creeping across the boulder pile as silently as a cloud. Atreus wanted to shout at him to hurry but did not dare. The Mar's only advantage was surprise.

Tarch stopped a pace shy of the groaning ogre and lifted a hand, preparing to incinerate him. Atreus opened his* mouth to shout. In the same instant Rishi braced himself and flung his net, wrapping the devil's arm in a mesh of coarse rope.

Rishi gave the draw line a terrific jerk and leaped down behind a boulder. Tarch was spun around, his hand spraying a crescent of flame across the talus field.

"Filthy Mar!" The devil shook his arm free of the net's charred remains, then started toward Rishi's hiding place. "That's the last time you skrag me!"

"Then it's…" Yago paused, drawing in a breath so deep Atreus heard it fifteen paces away,"… my turn!"

The ogre sat up, heaving the boulder on his chest toward Tarch. The devil brought his arm up and spun around, but the stone's momentum blasted through the block and sent him tumbling headfirst down into the talus.

Yago was up in an instant, flinging himself across the jumbled stones with scythe in hand. A scaly hand emerged from between the boulders. The ogre stopped short, twisting aside just as a long gout of orange flame shot past.

Then Atreus was there, climbing over the talus from the opposite side, holding the kettle lid in front of him like a shield. Tarch lay down in a hollow between three boulders, one leg trapped under the heavy stone he and Yago had been hurling back and forth, struggling to twist around so he could bring his crackling flames to bear on the ogre. Though his side lay flayed open from sternum to spine, his scaly face betrayed nothing but anger. Atreus leaped down, turning the iron lid flat and lowering it over the devil's hand.

The flame stream reversed itself and roared back into the hollow and billowed up in a huge, orange halo. The acrid smell of scorched leather filled the air. Tarch howled in anguish. Atreus dropped the lid and leaped away, one arm raised to protect his face from the searing heat.

The roar died as abruptly as it had begun, as Tarch started to rise from his fiery grave.

Atreus jumped down to meet him, wielding his axe with both hands. Tarch, now a withered and blackened thing that seemed nothing but scorched claw and charred fang, lashed out with both claws. Atreus slipped the first attack and caught the second on his axe head, then brought the sharp blade around and buried it deep in the devil's shoulder.

Tarch bellowed and brought his uninjured arm up to unleash another of his conflagrations. Yago's scythe arced down from above, severing the scaly hand at the wrist. A gummy syrup of fire oozed from the stump, rolling back down the devil's arm and engulfing it in flame.

Tarch's blazing arm went limp and fell back toward his scorched chest. Atreus and Yago were on him with their flashing blades, hewing and chopping and slicing until the battered devil finally stopped struggling and lay in his hole charred and bleeding, barely conscious and clinging to life only by the thinnest strand of wicked will.

Atreus stepped over next to Tarch's mangled head and raised his axe, preparing to finish the battle. The devil glared up at him out of one blood-shot eye, his vicious stare expressing the hatred his tongue was too weak to speak. Atreus bent his knees, gathering the strength he would need to chop through the tough sinews and thick bone of Tarch's neck. Then a pair of small voices gasped from the edge of the hollow.

He looked up to see Tarch's kidnap victims standing on a boulder above him, staring down at him with two pairs of horrified brown eyes. They were as beautiful as all the children of Langdarma, and in their puzzled expressions he saw both the innocence and the peaceful repose that had first attracted him to Seema.

Rishi rushed up from behind the two girls. "What are you doing?" he said. "This is not for the eyes of little girls."

The Mar pulled the girls back from the edge of the hollow, but Atreus could not bring the axe down. Instead, he motioned Yago to his side.

"The Sannyasi should be here soon." Atreus handed the axe to the ogre. "Until then, you're in charge."

The ogre frowned, then glanced in the direction of the retreating girls and seemed to understand. He hefted the axe over Tarch's throat, sneering down at his prisoner.

"I doubt you can move," he said. "But just so you know, I'd enjoy taking your head off if you try."