On top of him, she could feel the life leaving his body. His eyes grew dull.

The boat lurched violently, rolling Sarah away. The floor of the pilot house wasn't level anymore.

She crawled over to Ingram. Blood pumped from his stomach in horrifying amounts. It was hard to tell where his body ended and the floor began, so much blood covered everything.

Weakly, he said, "Sarah, you've got to... got to... get the sword."

Too much. Too much had happened, and all she felt was grief. All she saw was death.

She stared at him, unblinking.

"No time. The boat's hit something. You have to get... have to get Franny and yourself off the boat."

She sat, unmoving.

"Sarah! Goddamnit!"

"Bull, Franny's dead," she said with a dull voice. She didn't care whether she lived or died now either.

"No. Not gonna-" He coughed a huge gout of blood. "Not gonna let that happen. Get the sword."

"What? Why get the sword?"

"Get the-" He took short, shallow breaths now, his chest rising and falling quickly.

He swallowed. "Get the... Get the goddamned sword!"

Sarah jumped at his words. She frantically searched the floor around his body. Under the lip of the pilot's wheel, the sword had come to a rest as Ingram fell. She grabbed its sticky hilt and drew it to her.

She turned and knelt over Ingram, holding the sword in both hands.

"Good... good. I don't have long." He tapped his chest, on the sternum. "Right here. Put the point right here."

"Bull, I... I can't. We'll get you a doctor. Just hang in there."

"No, no. I'm dead. But I've got... I've got one last thing I can do."

"No, we'll get a doctor. He can- " Her tears disappeared into the pool of his blood.

"Sarah. Sarah. Remember the book. The book. You have to take out my heart. Cut it out."

She shook her head. Closing her eyes as tightly as she could, she shook her head and denied it.

"The... the Quanoon, Sarah. Cut out my heart and put it in Franny. Do it."

"No, Bull, you'll die before it even-"

"No, I won't. Take it out. I give it to you freely. To her. Save her."

Tears burned her eyes.

"I give it to you. It's mine to give, and by giving it, it will-"

Finally, she nodded once, understanding.

"Do we need to say anything?"

He closed his eyes and didn't open them for a long while.

"Just goodbye. And-"

She leaned forward and kissed him.

"Mithras," Ingram said.

His face went white. His eyes snapped open and grew to the size of half-dollars. His pupils darkened to black.

Then, every cord, every sinew, every ounce of Lewis Ingram's body thrummed, filling with light. Blinding white light.

Ingram's eyes-enormous and swimming in light-turned on her, and he spoke to her with the voice of a god.

"Now, Sarah. Do it now."

With all her strength, she drove the sword into Ingram's chest, splitting his sternum. Light streamed from the wound instead of blood. His flesh tore with a ripping sound. All the way to his pelvis, she worked the blade. She screamed as she pulled, closing her eyes to the brightness.

She threw the sword to the side and stuck her hands in the gash, gripping the edges of his ribcage. With a great heave, she opened his chest. It split with a crack.

Nova. A bright explosion of light.

And then Ingram's body dimmed, the god's eyes went vacant, and in her hands was a pulsing, living heart made of light.

She rose on trembling legs, turned, and went to Franny's body, horribly maimed and broken.

She set the heart in Franny's chest.

Epilogue.

They watched the children from the shore.

Lenora and Fisk danced around the shallows, splashing each other. Franny sat on the beach, observing their water fight. Fisk ran in circles, high stepping in the shallows, chanting, "I'm a preacher man, I'm a preacher man! Gonna baptize you!"

Franny smiled wanly at his antics, and Lenora came and sat down by her. She took Franny's hand in hers and put it to her cheek. They sat like that for a long time, Lenora holding Franny's hand to her face, watching Fisk dance around. After a while, he noticed and joined them, sitting to the side.

Sarah tried to hear what the children said, but the lapping of the water blanketed any sound. A buzz grew in the air. A flat-bottom passed their vantage, two men with fishing rods heading south, into the cypress. They waved, and the children waved back. Eventually, the wake reached where the children sat, casting miniature breakers onto the muddy beach.

"Do you think she can remember any of it?" Alice asked, pouring a cup of coffee from a thermos.

New leaves wreathed the shore of Old River Lake, and the water had a film of pollen on the surface. As the children sat, the water stilled, the yellow film creeping back in like a noose tightening.

"Yes. She remembers everything." Sarah took the cup Alice offered. "At the end, Momma..."

She stopped, rubbed the bridge of her nose, blinked back tears. "At the end, Momma said that they war over us because there's no such thing as a soul. That this is all there is."

Alice snorted. "She always was a damned fool, your mother, with no sense of place. The evil bitch."

"I have to wonder if it is true."

"No, goddamnit, it ain't."

Sarah watched the children. She stayed very still and did not move.

"How are you so sure?"

"I feel it. Here." Alice tapped her chest. A strange echo of her mother's gesture. "And your proof is right there, in front of you."

"What do you mean?"

"Franny came back. She was gone, but now she's back. How could that happen if there wasn't no such thing as a soul?"

"I don't know."

"Shee-it. I can't imagine what that must be like for her."

Sarah remained quiet, thinking. She had an idea of what it must be like.

"Sometimes..." Sarah couldn't cry anymore. Word had come the day before that Jim had died of asphyxiation. He'd choked on his vomit. Sarah planned on leaving Franny with Alice and the kids to attend the funeral.

"Sometimes, I almost wish I hadn't... I hadn't brought her back."

Alice gasped. "Shut your mouth. Never say that. Never."

"No, Alice. She remembers it all. Every bit of it. The rape. The murder. Beyond maybe, I don't know. How can you live after that?"

"Just like she's doing. One day at a time. She's just a little sad, maybe. Shocked, like them war vets. Like Bull was."

"No." Sarah sipped at the coffee. "But she does smile occasionally, with the kids. Never to me. I can't say I blame her."

"You brought her back. You brought her back from the..." She trailed off, uncomfortable speaking of it.

"Yes. But I didn't keep her safe to begin with. And she knows it."

"That's a load of horseshit. You was fighting with... gods. Gods, goddamnit. How can you contend with that?"

"I'm her mother. I'm supposed to protect her."

"Shit."

Fisk jumped up and ran back in the water. He splashed for a while, then turned and dove into deeper water.

"Fisk! Stay close to shore now, you hear me?"

He dove underwater and disappeared. When he resurfaced, he had two hands full of mud. He put them on top of his head, and Lenora squealed with laughter. Franny hugged her knees and smiled.

"Boy, don't you got no sense?" Alice yelled. She stood up and went to the car, retrieving a large picnic basket. Her breath whooshed out as she sat back down on the blanket.

"Kids, it's lunch time. We got meatloaf sandwiches!"

Fisk jumped up and raced over to the blanket. Lenora stood and, taking Franny's hand, pulled her to a standing position. A faint seam ran from the hollow of Franny's throat down her chest, disappearing into her bikini bottoms.

When she sat down, Franny put her hand on Sarah's leg, gave a little squeeze, and leaned into her mother.

Sarah swallowed, put an arm around her daughter, and ran her fingers through white hair.

The black thing came out of the forest wearing the shape of a man. It stood in the clearing nearest the dark wood, behind the old peafowl house.

Franny rose from her bed and went to the window. She cocked her head and looked at the creature.

I can make you powerful.

She put her hand on the window.

"I'm already powerful. I don't need your promises."

I will make you wise and strong beyond imagining.

The girl shrugged, making the hem of her nightgown swing.

The black thing didn't move, but she could feel its anger growing.

I will rip down this house. I will devour everything and everyone you love.

She snorted. Her shoulders shook with silent laughter.

"I am the doorway now. You cannot pass. He cannot pass. You can't do anything to me that hasn't already been done. So go away, and leave us alone."

She watched it disappear into the wood. Then Franny smiled, turned, and climbed back into bed with her mother.