'Hello,' Sarah said. 'You must be Mael Mag Och. I've heard all about you but I don't think we've been properly introduced.'
The voice that roared its reply into Sarah's head held a trace of regret. Or maybe she was just imagining it.If I had come to you in my own shape you would have run away from me. I pretended to be Jack because I knew it was a name to conjure with, lass. Does it really matter so much? I still gave you your gift.
'Why?' she asked. 'Why did you do that? Why did you do any of this? Did I really need another parent who was just going to disappear on me at the worst possible moment?'
It was Nilla's notion, to be honest. The blonde lass you saw vanish out yonder.
'I've never heard of her.'
Ah,Mael Mag Och said,and yet she's heard all about you. The daughter of the lost hero, turned out in a foreign land to be raised by warriors, made strong and fierce. Her heart went out to you, lass, and where Nilla's involved, my heart goes there too.
'I refuse to believe you did anything out of the goodness of your own heart. You planned this'all of this. I half believe you got Ayaan captured just so I would come chasing after her and end up right here.'
All too true,he admitted.Yet incomplete. The entire world does not revolve around you, Sarah. I had plans for the others as well. Ayaan was supposed to assassinate the Tsarevich for me. She was the perfect candidate, I thought. Once he was dead I could take over his empire, seeing that I was the only one capable of controlling his undead army. That didn't work out. You were supposed to crash this particular party. It is supposed to be me who mounts that scaffolding, not his Majesty the undying deformity. Didn't I tell you to bring an army? Instead you bring a handful of mummies and one twisted freak.
'My freak seems to be doing alright for himself,' Sarah said, turning around to watch Gary plow through a line of ghouls. His bony frame had grown considerably while she spoke with the brain until he resembled nothing so more as a giant white spider with a tiny human skull perched atop its carapace.
The werewolf came at him, claws on hands and feet flashing through the air. Gary stabbed downwards with a bony tail like a scorpion's sting that penetrated deep into the earth. Erasmus rolled to the side and came back up to slash at one of Gary's tree-trunk legs. Gary knelt forward under the pressure and Erasmus tried to scamper up onto his back, his clawed feet digging into Gary's flesh to find purchase.
A toothy mouth opened in Gary's side. Lips studded with bony spikes grabbed at Erasmus' left arm and the teeth sheared it clean off. Erasmus howled in agony as his furry body pinwheeled down to the carpet of bones while the giant mouth chewed the werewolf's limb into pulp. A dozen thin spines lanced down from Gary's body to impale the werewolf in as many places. Erasmus didn't get back up.
'See? Look at that,' Sarah crowed, excited.
Ah,the druid said,our Gary. He's a scrapper, I'll allow you that much. Yett the only thing he believes in is the integrity of his own skin. He'd never take on this fight if he was in any danger. And unless I miss my guess, your Ayaan is about ready to strike.
'What are you talking about?' Sarah demanded. The mummy holding the brain inclined her head and Sarah pivoted around to look where she indicated. She just had time to see Ayaan crest a pile of boulders high up on the ridge wall to the south. Sarah looked closer and saw her father on the other side of the pile. He was sitting calmly, his eyes closed, his arms outstretched, the palms of his skeletal hands pointed at Gary.
'No,' Sarah said, the syllable meaningless in her mouth. 'No, that's not right.'
It's a hard world, lass,Mael Mag Och told her.It has been for twelve years.