That knowledge momentarily lessened her power, and he wondered: Was this what his mother had seen in him and given her life to fix? Surely even the pox wouldn't take a whole life to heal. No, more likely she'd recognized the enemy's tool and given her life to engineer one small flaw so that his adoration wouldn't be totally complete.

But if that were the case, it wasn't much of a flaw because the woman's joy rushed back to suffuse him.

"River!" roared Uncle Argoth. "Now!"

River rushed toward him. She moved with frightening speed. In an eyeblink she sped from across the chamber and leapt into a flying kick.

He'd fought with River. He knew, at this speed, her kick would carry the force to break bones.

The woman stepped back, and as she did, Talen realized River was not directing the attack at the woman. She was directing it at him. At his head. Her blow would crack his skull. At the very least it would snap his neck bones.

River's face was twisted with fury and grief.

Talen had no time to react.

But the blow did not land.

The monster rushed forward and, in a lightning strike, caught her ankle. River's foot stopped a breath away from his face.

The monster twisted her leg, and River fell to the ground.

"Another one," the hideous woman said. "It looks like we shall raise our army a bit faster than expected. Put her next to the male."

The monster moved to carry River next to Da.

"Wait!" Talen said. "Wait."

The woman turned. "Will you serve me?"

"Boy," said Uncle Argoth. He made a small movement with his hand indicating Talen should come close. In his hand, close to his leg, he held a stone.

Why did they want to kill him?

The answer came: they believed they couldn't fight this creature. They didn't have the power.

But he was something else. "A body," River had said, "can only accept so much Fire at once." He had poured forth Fire that would easily kill ten men. He could pour forth a flood. He had been bred to it. And he'd been given one tiny flaw.

No, they couldn't fight the woman. But perhaps he could.

Yes, he could. could. He didn't have much of a chance. But something was better than nothing at all. He didn't have much of a chance. But something was better than nothing at all.

Argoth beckoned. Talen looked again at the stone in his Uncle's hand. Even if he could get close to Argoth, the monster would be watching. It would foil Uncle Argoth as it had River.

He knew what they wanted-they wanted the woman's tool destroyed. But his plan could do that. He might not be a victor. But he could fight despite his limitations. And he would do it in a way that would put the woman on her heels.

The monster still held River's ankle as if she were some child's toy.

Talen stepped around them, toward the woman. "I choose to serve you."

Her pleasure rushed through him; it washed him from heel to crown, an ecstasy like he'd never experienced. His resolve faltered. He wanted so desperately to serve.

"You will have your heart's desires," the woman said. But he knew she lied. She wasn't going to save Da. She wasn't going to spare River. He'd seen her for what she was. Of course, part of him didn't care what she was. Most of him didn't care.

"No!" shouted Argoth. "No good can come from this. You cannot lie with sheep and sire men."

"Hunger," the woman commanded.

"Trust me," Talen said again. But he didn't know if he could trust himself.

He turned to his sister and saw her dismay. He looked into her lovely, grief-stricken eyes. "I love you, sister," he said. "I will see you in brightness."

Her face fell.

"No," said Uncle Argoth, but the heat was gone from his voice.

The living light about the woman reached out to him. "In the end," she said, "they will see your wisdom and thank you. Now we must hollow you so that we may repair what was done. Hunger, come."

The monster took River back to the wall and chained her with double the chains. It left her there and strode over to Talen.

Talen flexed his essence. River had told him to practice closing himself every moment he could. He had done this. He knew how to open and close himself. He only needed to fling himself wide at the right moment.

The Mother spoke into Hunger's mind. As soon as we have the master in our control, you will take the others and quicken your brethren As soon as we have the master in our control, you will take the others and quicken your brethren.

Yes, he said, and his heart fell. Hunger had done all she had commanded. He had kept his part of the bargain. But she had just lied to the boy. And if she lied to her overseer, why would she ever keep her word to him, a thing destined for the devouring?

But what could he do? He could not fight her.

In anger, he reached forward and took the boy by the throat.

Talen tensed. The monster's hands were rough with stone. But more unsettling still was the feeling of something probing along the seams of his being.

The monster readjusted its grip.

Talen prepared to fling himself wide.

Then he was lost, floating, in his body, but out of it.

Panic rose in him. He'd missed his chance.

"River," he called.

With a roar like rushing water, a door burst open within him and another one behind it. He could perceive the chaos of the monster outside that first door, and beyond it, behind the second door stood the woman.

Beauty. Power. Like nothing he could imagine. A being worthy of his every devotion. He longed to make her happy. But the truth sang in his bones. He knew she was an illusion. Knew her promises would turn to dust. However, it didn't matter now as much as it had only moments before. He just didn't care.

No, he said to himself. The link between them must be magnifying her effect. He focused on Da and River, on the monster.

"You please me," said the woman.

He basked in her gratitude and knew he was hanging by a finger. He was slipping, sliding, falling into a powerful river from which he knew he would never return.

He had to act quickly. He could not withstand this longing.

"Come!" he shouted into the roar of noise. "Come and take me!" He threw open the fabric of his being and poured himself forth.

The Fire coursed from him through the monster's arm.

Talen ripped himself wider, a massive rent. The Fire crashed around him like turgid rapids.

But the monster simply swallowed it up.

"Yes," the woman said. "That is good."

How much Fire did it take to break a man? How much did it take to break a monster? Talen had no idea, but what he was doing didn't seem to have any effect.

Talen opened himself as wide as he could.

Black spidery lines ran up the creature's arm, spreading down its side and along its chest. But the creature showed no sign of breaking.

Fear rose in him. This wasn't going to work. He'd been a fool! He should have run to Uncle Argoth.

He tried to pull away but could not.

But he didn't really want to anyway.

No, Talen thought. No! He searched for more to give, to release all that was in him. And then he felt something slip. He had been standing in the rush, watching it flow by. Now he knew he simply needed to let go, to flow with the Fire.

"What is he doing?" the woman asked in warning. "Stop it. Close him up."

Talen ripped the remanants of the wall that stood between him and the monster and let go. Pain shot through him, and instead of standing in the Fire and watching it flow away, the Fire picked him up, engulfed him, carried him like a piece of flotsam.

So much Fire.

The tips of the fingers of the monster lightened like ash. A wave of white passed up the creature's arm.

"It's too much," said the woman. "Close him!"

The boy's power was immense. His pool of Fire vast. Hunger had never felt such power in anything he'd ever eaten.

He hadn't felt it in the Mother.

Power rolled off the boy and filled the room. He was a storm, and Hunger was desperately trying to devour it all.

The amount of Fire roaring through Hunger to his stomachs was astounding. But what shocked him was that, Lords, he felt pain.

But no, it was the Mother's pain. How could that be?

The link, he realized. She used Hunger to wield powers she could not. And the link was exposing her to the heat of the raging Fire of the boy.

"It's too much!" she said.

An idea shot through Hunger. Hope sprang forth.

"No!" she said and tried to break her bond to him, but Hunger held her fast.

"Release me!" she commanded.

"Never!" Hunger cried, and instead of funneling the boy's raging might into his stomachs, he directed it all through his bond to the Mother.

Talen flowed forth. The Fire engulfed everything. His vision blurred. His body screamed.

The woman yelled but her voice was drowned out by the rushing of the Fire.

He felt her trying to close herself against him.

The monster's arm and chest were now as white as ash.

Talen no longer watched the Fire. He was the Fire. He was a furnace, an inferno, a roaring, molten sea.

The woman yelled, commanded the monster to let go.

The creature ignored her.

"Here," Talen said, "is my heart's desire." And he gave himself, every whit.

A patch on the monster's face turned ash gray. Then all flashed a blinding white.

There was a deafening roar.

The woman screamed.

A huge blast cracked Talen's world.