There was a sharp pain in my heart. Rook couldn’t be dead.
Voices swirled around me. I lit myself on fire and looked about. Now inside the monster, I could dimly see that it was a great funnel of a cloud, not solid fog all the way through. Forcing myself to be calm, I constructed another column of wind.
I rose higher and higher, my fire illuminating the undersides of tentacles. All the while, faces appeared and disappeared within the shadowy folds of the monster, mournful, pale faces that morphed in and out of existence. There was a man with a gray beard, who cried and vanished. Here was a young woman, weeping and wailing. Charley sobbed until her image was pulled back into the shadow. The higher I climbed, the more I could hear the whimpers and the cries of those who had been absorbed. If my ward failed, I would join them.
Master Agrippa appeared before me in the blackness.
“Henrietta, why did you let it take me?” he groaned.
He reached out to me with two perfect hands. This was a trick, one of Korozoth’s illusions. Still, seeing his image brought tears to my eyes.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, and continued on. Mr. Colegrind came out of the darkness, trying to touch me with spidery fingers.
“How dare you escape me?” he hissed. I passed him. Mickelmas appeared this time, swirling his coat and pulling at his beard.
“You made a bad choice,” I called to Korozoth, my voice almost lost in the torrent of wind. “He doesn’t frighten me.” As if acknowledging the mistake, Mickelmas disappeared and was replaced by Aunt Agnes. I knew that long face, that pale brown hair, and those darkly accusing eyes the moment I saw them.
“You were a horrid child,” she said, her voice a hollow whisper. “That’s why I sent you away. No one in their right mind could love you.” It felt like a hot needle pierced straight into my heart.
“That’s not true,” I whispered, inching backward in fear. “I have friends.”
“The magician who lied to you? The sorcerer who wanted you dead? The boy who saw you only as a plaything?” I felt myself weaken as I was sucked deeper into the black cloud. She stretched out her hands to touch me…and why not? Wasn’t she correct?
No. Hargrove had helped me, Magnus had come back for me, and there was Rook. There had always been Rook.
“You’re a liar!” I shouted. I scanned my surroundings, searching for the perfect opportunity to put my plan into action. How strange that this hadn’t been more difficult. No tentacles attempted to grab me. It felt almost as if Korozoth were granting me safe passage. I found that unsettling as I flew higher and higher….
I stood in a blindingly white room. There were no windows, no furniture. Where in God’s name was I? I was no longer inside Korozoth. When I turned around, I came face to face with R’hlem the Skinless Man.
He was as hideous as he had been in my dreams, the pulsing blue veins and arteries strung along his arms, the taut stretches of bloodied muscle that bunched or released with his movement, and that burning, ugly yellow eye at the center of his forehead. I shied away, pressing my back against the wall. The monster moved toward me.
“My dear child,” R’hlem said, his voice disturbingly human, “how tired you must be of all this fighting.” He stroked his bloody chin with his raw fingers.
“Where am I?” I whispered.
“My faithful Korozoth’s finest illusion, stronger than any dream. It gives us space to talk.” He reached out a hand and stroked my cheek. Retching, I pulled away from him and wiped at my face. “I want you to come with me, my dear. Your abilities are interesting, particularly the fire. Where did you learn such a skill?”
“I won’t go anywhere with you.” I touched the walls, pressed against them. R’hlem laughed at me.
“You’ve a fine inner strength. Falling out of that window to escape me was impressive. You show far greater resilience than the last girl the sorcerers honored. She gave in to my dreams so quickly. Embarrassing, really.” I stopped and stared at him. Gwen. He’d destroyed her body and her soul, and now he dared to be contemptuous of her. “I’d hoped she’d be a trophy for me, but in the end I unloaded her onto Korozoth. But you.”
“Stay away from me.”
“After careful evaluation, I’ve decided to offer you a place by my side. I want to assign you to my elite service of Familiars.” His voice was soothing, despite his hideous appearance. “I want to train you for great power.”
They said R’hlem kept only a few personal servants. They also said he tore off their skin to make them like him.
“No.” I tried to run, but he blocked me.
“You must accept. You won’t survive this without agreeing to my offer.” He reached out that bloody hand to me.
“Nothing could compel me to join you.” He herded me into a corner of the room. I was trapped.
“The ward has shattered.” He smiled, a particularly hideous sight. “Korozoth has you now, secure inside himself. He can take you back to me this instant. He can leave your city in peace. If you surrender, he will go. If you do not, he will level every building, every home. He will devour as many people as he can stomach, and his appetite is tremendous. His Familiars shall decimate the sorcerers. If you do not surrender, everyone you know will die.” He took me by the neck and choked me. I gasped, tried to pull his arm away. He studied me with his great, lidless eye. “Does that compel you?”
“No.” I got some pleasure out of the look of irritation that crossed his face.
“The city will be gone by morning.”
“They won’t let that happen.” I barely got the words out, wincing as his grip tightened.
“Your sorcerers? A collection of boys playing with wind and rain?” He saw that I wouldn’t give in. “What’s your name, child? Before I end your life, I’d like to know.” He squeezed tighter and tighter, and dark spots exploded in my vision.
I was going to die. Part of me wanted to give in to him, to let it end quickly.
The logical part noted that if R’hlem could touch and harm me, perhaps I could do the same to him.
“What is your name?” he said again. I motioned that I could not speak. He loosened his hold.
I drew a ragged breath and said, “Henrietta Howel.” With a thought, Porridge sprouted a blade. “Goodbye.”
I struck for his heart, but I hit empty air. I was back inside Korozoth, and falling. Screaming, I grabbed for Porridge with both hands. There was an instant where I could feel the stave hurtling just out of my grasp, which would end with my death on the ground. But I snatched Porridge, and the wind returned, buoying me upward.
Why had R’hlem let me go? Perhaps he couldn’t truly kill me in an illusion and had returned me abruptly to Korozoth to let me fall to my death.
Never mind. It was time to put my plan into action. I hung in the void, my breath coming fast. What if this didn’t work?
All I could think of was Rook, Rook striking Magnus when he thought I’d been insulted. Rook sitting with me on the moor, the wind blowing his fair hair, a smile on his face to be out of Brimthorn. Rook leaning toward me in the kitchen, our lips almost touching. Rook lying there, dead. If I failed, his sacrifice would be for nothing.
Moving fast, I un-warded the protective shield about myself. With a sob, I exploded into flame, catching the fog around me on fire. Flames rippled on my skin, whirled about me, and turned scarlet. As I moved within Korozoth, up and down, the fire spread. The beast roared as it transformed into a flaming vortex. I could hear the groaning and whirling of a great wind, and realized with horror that we must be taking off.