Faces of Deception

CHAPTER 17

Atreus stood with his companions at the temple exit, staring down the granite stairs into the cloudy brilliance below. The Dweller was still down there, calmly sloshing through the Pool of Gems with its long tentacles. Though the dam had obviously survived Yago's flood, there was no telling what the monster had made of the change in flow or if it had noticed at all. Atreus suspected it had. As alien as the creature was, it struck him as anything but stupid.

"Are you worried the Dweller will sense your guilty conscience?" Seema asked.

"My conscience is clear," Atreus replied. "I have taken nothing but water."

"Today, but what of tomorrow?" Seema said as she stepped around Atreus and started down the stairs. "The Dweller knows me. I will go down first and watch how it behaves."

When Atreus made no move to stop her, Rishi cried, "Are you mad? She will run and sound the alarm and perhaps leave us trapped in here with the Dweller!"

Atreus caught Seema's shoulder and asked, "Is he right?"

"Why should that matter?" Seema asked. "If you are taking nothing but water, no one will try to stop you."

"Maybe I'll go first."

Atreus pulled her gently back up the stairs, then descended into the aura. The sloshing sounds ceased, and a few steps later he saw the monster's amorphous bulk silhouetted in the brilliance below. It swung its head in his direction, fixing its trio of red eyes on him and clacking its beak. Atreus averted his gaze and continued down the stairs, his heart hammering in his chest.

When he reached the edge of the pond, one of the scaly tentacles, swollen and lumpy with gems, rose to flit over his body. He waited and allowed it to inspect him. The finger-tendrils squeezed the pocket containing the vial, apparently trying to make out the shape of the container beneath his cloak. Atreus remained as still as a statue until he felt the tiny mouth nibbling at the cloth.

"Hold on!"

Very gently, he removed the vial and unwrapped it, displaying the shimmering contents within. The finger-tendrils danced over the glass briefly. Then the monster seemed to lose interest and returned to searching for its gems. Atreus finally exhaled and went to stand by the marble bench where they had left their empty pebble buckets.

"It's okay to come down," Atreus called, returning the vial to his pocket, "but don't be surprised if it inspects you."

As Seema descended the stairs, Atreus stood across from the Dweller, trying to keep an eye on the monster without meeting its gaze. Of them all she seemed the least likely to be attacked, but he did not want to take any chances with her safety. Even without getting her injured or killed, he felt vile enough. He still did not know what he would do if the water's sparkle faded, and he hated himself for being such a weak and wicked person.

The Dweller let Seema pass with only a cursory examination. She came to stand near Atreus on the dam, just out of arm's reach. He did not try to apologize or speak to her. There was nothing he could say she did not know already.

Yago and Rishi came next, the ogre clasping the Mar's shoulder and carefully sidestepping to fit his huge feet on the wet stairs. As they neared the bottom, the Dweller swung a tentacle over to inspect the pair as it had Atreus.

Rishi stared wide-eyed at the approaching appendage and forgot to watch his footing, missed a step, and tumbled screeching into the pool. Yago tripped over the fallen Mar and splashed down on top of him.

Atreus's first thought was of the Dweller. He snatched a bucket off the bench and raised his arm to throw, but the monster remained on its side of the pool, tentacles hovering above the frothing water as Yago and Rishi struggled to untangle themselves. Rishi seemed particularly confused, clutching at the ogre's heavy cloak while at the same time pushing him off. Yago simply tried not to crush his panicked companion, holding himself up over the Mar on splayed limbs.

Atreus stepped into the pond to help. The water was only waist deep, but the loose bottom made moving difficult. Though the distance was a mere two paces, it took several moments to catch the Mar's arm and haul him out from under Yago.

As soon as Rishi's head cleared the water, he cried, "A thousand blessings on you!" He glanced back at Yago's sprawled form. "Had you not rescued me, I would certainly have drowned beneath that great buffoon."

"Hardly," Atreus said, dragging Rishi toward the edge of the pool. "All you had to do was stop panicking."

Atreus demonstrated by standing the Mar on his feet.

As soon as his boots touched bottom, Rishi's face flushed with embarrassment.

"Oh, what an ox I am!" He turned to the ogre and said, "My apologies, as profuse as the luxuries that once filled this palace. First I trip you, and then I blame you for my own clumsiness."

As the Mar spoke, Seema's jaw dropped. "Yago!" she cried. "Watch your-"

A wet slap sounded behind Atreus, then Yago bellowed in pain and splashed into the water.

So astonished was Atreus that he did not instantly comprehend that the ogre was being attacked. By the time he spun around, the Dweller had turned the surface of the pool into a churning mass of froth, and he could see nothing but flailing arms and lashing tentacles. Rishi was already wading into battle, one hand thrust down under the water, struggling to pull something from his boot.

Atreus stepped toward the fight, demanding of no one in particular, "What happened?"

Yago bellowed and screamed, pummeling the Dweller's head with his boot heels. One arm was wedged down inside the tentacle, but the other was clutching the tip of the scaly appendage, struggling to keep its waving finger-tendrils away from his face.

Rishi's hand came up holding a long, thin knife. The Mar hurled himself into the attack, stabbing madly at the black coil wrapped around Yago's chest. On the third try, the blade finally slipped between two scales. A whistle trilled from the monster's beak, and the tentacle loosened. Atreus wrapped his arms around the appendage and began to pull, half blinded by the dazzling gleam of splashing water.

A second tentacle came up beneath the Mar, heaving him out of the pool. Rishi cried out and arced away over the dam, releasing his hold on the knife. There was a dull thud as he struck the wall, another as he fell to the floor, and after that only silence.

At last, Atreus opened enough space for Yago to free his trapped arm. The ogre lunged for shore, releasing his grasp on the tentacle to grab the marble bench. The scaly tip shot toward his face, its powerful finger-tendrils digging his eye from the socket. Yago howled in pain, but snatched the bench off the dam and smashed the edge down on the Dweller's head. The tentacle slackened, and Atreus stumbled backward, pulling the coils open as he moved. The ogre took advantage of the opening to twist around and slam his makeshift club into the Dweller's face.

The bench cracked in two, and the tentacle went limp. Atreus fell, landing up to his chin in water. The Dweller's body seemed to sag and spread, and for a moment the monster appeared unconscious. Yago dropped his broken weapon and raised a hand to his mangled eye, roaring in pain.

"No! You must not touch it," cried Seema. To Atreus's surprise, she was in the water beside him, reaching out to take the ogre's arm and guide him to the bank.

Then the Dweller lurched forward, heaving its bulk onto the dam and thrusting its head completely into the pool. The resulting wave washed over Atreus's face, filling his eyes with dazzling sparkles of silver light. He heard Yago bellow, then there came a tremendous splash and another surge of water. Atreus stood and reached toward the sound. Through his spotty vision, he could barely make out the ogre stretched across the water, surrounded by lashing tentacles, flailing his long arms in a mad attempt to keep his head above the surface.

Atreus wiped the water from his eyes and the image grew a little clearer. He saw that two of the monster's tentacles lay over Yago's shoulders, trying to pull him down under the water. A third tentacle lay floating just beneath the surface, the handle of Rishi's knife protruding from its flesh. The rest of the appendages, about half a dozen, were sticking up out of the water, ringing the ogre's wailing figure.

Seema dodged forward and grabbed Yago's head, holding it up so the ogre could breathe. A tentacle wrapped itself around her waist and tossed her against the dam. Atreus slipped forward and grabbed Rishi's knife, plucking it from its scaly sheath and unleashing a gush of brown blood. The murky syrup turned instantly to silver and dropped out of sight in the magic water.

A tentacle slithered around Atreus's waist He hauled it out of the water and brought the knife down. Though hardly as powerful as Yago, he was much stronger than Rishi, and the blade shattered the thick scale, sinking deep into the Dweller's flesh. The monster flailed its other tentacles, but slipped one around Atreus's waist, and began to lift

He brought the knife down again, burying it to the hilt. When the Dweller still did not release him, he twisted the blade, working it back and forth, slashing muscle and severing tendons. The tentacle fell limp, and Atreus stepped to Yago's side, grabbing another appendage and driving his weapon through the six inches of scale and sinew. The Dweller beat the water again and drew its bulk off the dam, pulling both Yago and its own head out of the shining pool.

What Atreus saw made him wish the monster had stayed in the water. The thing had caught Yago's leg in its beak and was frantically snapping its way up his thigh. Long sections of bone lay exposed to the open air, and the ogre's blood was pouring into the pool and sinking to the bottom in a steady cascade of golden nuggets. Atreus grabbed a handful of Yago's cloak, then swung around and slashed at one of the monster's red eyes.

The orb exploded in a gout of frothing bronze blood. Yago screamed as the beak clamped down on his leg. Atreus reached over to slash another eye, when a thick tentacle slapped his neck and began to tighten around his throat, fluttering its finger-tendrils before his eyes and pulling him away from the Dweller's face. Atreus lashed out at the monster's head but felt no telling cascade of hot blood.

He glimpsed Seema stepping in beneath him with a bucket of shining water. He tried to call her off but could not force the words past his throat. His vision began to darken, and the last thing he saw was Seema flinging the bucket at the monster's eyes.

"Strike, Atreus!" Seema's voice sounded tinny and weak, as though she were calling from a great distance. "Strike!"

Atreus swung blindly. The knife bounced off the Dweller's scaly face, and he struck again.

The blow never landed.

He felt himself arcing through the air until his legs slammed into an alabaster pillar. The impact whirled him around, and he hit the floor spinning like a top. Both knees erupted into aching pain. He clenched his teeth and scrambled to his feet. His head was reeling and the knife was still in his hand, but when he finally collected his bearings and found the pool, his heart sank.

It was already retreating through the alabaster forest, belly scales clattering on the floor and Yago screaming in its beak.

"No! Stop!"

Of course, the Dweller did not obey. Atreus lurched after the monster at his best sprint, but even without aching knees, he was no match for the thing's speed. The creature pulled steadily away, growing fainter and fainter until it finally disappeared into the murk.

"Atreus, wait!" called Seema. "The Dweller does not need light, but we do."

Atreus turned to find Seema approaching with two buckets, a small aura of silver radiance hovering above each. He took one and set off through the alabaster maze, following the Dweller's wet slime trail to the mouth of one of its dark tunnels. Yago's voice was echoing up from somewhere below, alternately cursing the beast and screaming in anguished incoherence.

Atreus turned to Seema and said, "You don't have to come. In fact, I'd rather you didn't."

Seema raised her brow. "Why?" she asked. "If you are thinking that you will slay the Dweller…"

"Not exactly, but I've caused you enough trouble without getting you killed."

"Getting me killed would be the least of the troubles you have caused me," Seema said. "Besides, if I do not come, who will rescue you?"

Atreus nodded, more in thanks than consent, then stepped over a small rim of loose rock into the tunnel. The passage sloped down at a steep angle, with rough-hewn sides and a vaguely circular profile just large enough for the Dweller. Innumerable passes of the monster's slimy body had coated the walls in a chalky white powder that glistened brightly in the watery light and enclosed Atreus and Seema in a small bubble of glimmering radiance. Yago's screams continued to grow increasingly faint as his captor carried him deeper into its lair, and it was not long before the tunnel split into two branches.

"I hope you have a good ear for echoes," said Seema.

"We'll have other hints." Atreus stooped down and traced a line in the wet slime on the floor.

The tunnel became a warren of tunnels, then a maze, and still the Dweller continued its descent. Yago's screams grew sporadic and weak, but the slime trail remained fresh. They had little trouble following their quarry. Atreus lost all track of time and direction, and eventually the ogre's cries vanished altogether. Seema said nothing, but Atreus knew she was wondering the same thing he was. Had Yago finally died, or had the monster simply carried him beyond their hearing?

They followed the slime trail down into a tunnel so steep they had to sit on their haunches and kick their heels into the floor to keep from sliding. About halfway down, Atreus heard a low moan coming from a side passage.

"Yago?"

More groans, then came the pained answer: "No." It was the ogre's voice, weak and languid with delirium. "Go 'way-"

A terrifying, incoherent scream followed, and Atreus's first thought was that his friend was trying to warn him of an ambush, but if that were so, Yago would have said something simple like, "Watch out for the ambush." Atreus slipped into the side passage, trying not to gag on the awful, bloody smell of the place, then advanced with Seema at his back. Yago continued to groan, but it was impossible to say whether he knew of their presence.

They passed yet another side passage angling down into the mountain. Low animal sounds began to fill the tunnel, then Atreus saw a pair of red eyes reflecting the light from his bucket.

He stopped and whispered, "It's the Dweller. Stay back."

This time, Seema did not argue. She ducked into the side passage and watched around the corner as Atreus crept forward, his eyes averted to avoid locking gazes with the monster. He had advanced only a few steps when the glow from his bucket illuminated Yago's mangled form.

The ogre was lying in a pool of blood, holding one hand over his good eye. His mangled eye was dangling out on his cheek, and his wounded leg lay stripped to the bone from the hip down. The Dweller was holding him down with two tentacles and shuffling through his cloak with four more. Able to stand the sight no longer, Atreus raised his knife and started forward.

The Dweller raised its head. Atreus braced himself for its attack, preparing a slash-and-dodge defense, but the monster simply opened its beak. There was a great whooshing of air, so powerful that a breeze cooled the back of his neck, then the beast raised all six of its uninjured tentacles.

Atreus dropped his bucket and fled, flinging himself into the side passage just as a tremendous whumpf rolled down the tunnel behind him. A terrific impact spun him half around, and his entire flank erupted into stinging pain. He bounced off the wall and began to roll down the chalky floor.

A few revolutions later, Seema caught his arm and hauled him to a stop. "Atreus!" she cried. "How badly are you hurt?"

He glanced down and discovered that his whole flank had turned wet and red from his ribcage to his knee. He found Rishi's knife and cut away the tattered remains of his cloak, revealing a mass of raw and bloody flesh pocked with dozens of tiny punctures. From the bottom of many holes shined the colorful reflections of small gemstones.

"The Dweller must be frightened of you indeed," Gasped Seema. "To sacrifice its jewels-"

"I'd rather it had kept them," said Atreus.

He allowed himself a moment to test the strength of his savaged flank, then scrambled back into the main passage and advanced by the weak light of his overturned bucket. The Dweller was again snuffling through Yago's cloak, but it stopped and raised its head as he drew near. Atreus lifted his dagger and charged, determined to engage the monster before it had time to hurl some other surprise at him.

Instead, the Dweller let out a long, plaintive whistle and retreated, halting a few paces beyond tentacle range. Atreus stopped, astonished, and cautiously kneeled at Yago's side. The ogre's chest continued to rise and fall, but he seemed unaware that anyone was with him. Atreus took his hand.

"Yago?"

The ogre turned his head slightly, but continued to hold his palm over his good eye, protecting it from the Dweller. His orange skin had paled to a sickly ivory.

"Atreus… don't look." His voice was a bare whisper. "Don't want you to… to see what I let happen."

"Okay, I won't look."

"Good." Yago squeezed his hand. "Atreus… it got… got one of my eyes."

"No, it didn't."

"The eye is here, on your cheek," Seema said. She kneeled beside Atreus, then gently laid the eye back in its swollen socket. "It just fell out."

The ogre sighed in relief, then seemed to realize that something was amiss. "Hey, how you'd know?" He uncovered his good eye and raised his head, scowling. "You cheated!"

Atreus nodded.

"You see? I ain't so dumb after all," the ogre said, letting his head drop back to the floor. "And Atreus, I… I didn't really forget your mom's name."

"I know."

"It was…" The ogre winced. "She told me not to tell… no one. But I didn't know if she meant you."

"It doesn't matter," Atreus said. "You kept her secret."

"Yeah… I did."

Yago smiled, then his hand opened and fell away.

"Yago?"

Atreus pressed his ear to the ogre's chest and heard nothing-no heartbeat, no breath, no final groan.

The strength left Atreus in a rush. He slumped forward and stretched his arms across Yago's massive torso, embracing him in death as he had never done in life. It was not the ogre way of grieving, but there were no handy trees to mangle or walls to smash down. Besides, Atreus was a man, and there was no ogre name for what Yago had been to him-less than a father, but so much more than a bodyguard: Protector, drill-master, dutiful servant, loyal comrade, only friend.

Tears began to well up in Atreus's eyes. Yago would have ridiculed crying as a mark of weakness, but even growing up among the Shield-breakers had not made Atreus enough of an ogre to keep from weeping. He sat up and wiped his eyes, determined not to dampen Yago's body with tears the ogre would have scorned.

" Till them mountains crumble," Atreus whispered.

It was the last line of the Shield-breaker requiem, spoken only in honor of faithful warriors whose memories the tribe promised to keep alive. Atreus ran his hand over Yago's face and closed the ogre's one good eye. He was overcome by such a profound sense of guilt that he broke into a sweat and had to turn away.

"I am so sorry, my friend," Atreus said grasping the ogre's cold arm. He could not look at the ogre.

"I should never have brought you here. This is my fault."

"I am not so certain," said Seema.

She kneeled next to Atreus and began to go through Yago's cloak. The Dweller let out a warning whistle and slithered closer, but she ignored the monster and continued her search.

"What are you doing?" Atreus asked.

"Was the Dweller not looking for something?" She pulled a handful of small stones from Yago's pocket, and her face fell in disappointment. "Gems," she said. "This is the reason he was attacked. But why did Yago not listen to me? I warned you all not to touch the Dweller's jewels."

"Yago did listen to you. He didn't steal those," Atreus said. He took the gems and tossed them in the Dweller's direction. "Back in Rivenshield, we have chests filled with jewels."

Seema frowned, confused. "How come the stones were in his pocket?" She had hardly asked the question before her jaw dropped. "Rishi!"

Atreus nodded and rolled Yago onto his face-a Shield-breaker custom to protect the eyes of the dead from crows-then stood and started back up the passage at a hobbling trot

Seema grabbed her bucket and followed close behind. "You don't think…"

"I do," Atreus said. "Rishi set this up so he could steal the

Fountain of Infinite Grace… and everything else." "I saw him hit the wall," Seema said, her voice far from confident "He did not even groan. He had to be dead or unconscious." "Or a good actor," Atreus added. "And Rishi is a very good actor."