Part 39 (2/2)
Nettle first tried to make Talen talk. When that failed, he began with slapping, pinching, and poking. But Talen didn't care. He just wanted to close his eyes.
The next moment a searing pain ran up Talen's arm. He cracked an eye and saw Nettle standing there with a stick from the fire. ”Are you trying to roast me!”
”Aha,” said Nettle. ”It's fire that will keep him awake.”
But he was wrong. Talen's eyes drooped close again.
Nettle burned his other arm.
”Aagh!” Talen said and almost came out of the tub.
”You can't sleep,” Nettle said.
”Put your tortures away,” said Talen.
”No,” Nettle said and poked him with the burning stick again.
”Goh,” Talen said. ”You and that sleth girl can perform your depredations after I've rested.”
But then River finished braiding Da's hair and tied what she'd been weaving to Talen's arm precisely where Da had tied that G.o.dsweed charm.
”I'll give it a few minutes,” she said. It sounded like she was trying to rea.s.sure herself.
”There's no virtue in hair,” said Talen.
”There isn't?” asked River.
”I've never heard of it,” said Talen.
”What about Atra's hair?”
”She's given me up,” said Talen.
River made him relate the whole story of what happened at the gla.s.s master's until Talen realized all she was doing was trying to keep him talking so he'd stay awake.
”I'm going to sleep,” he said. ”Burn me if you like. I don't care.”
River put her hand to his chest again. She looked desperate. She took him by the head then, her two hands clasping the back of his skull. ”You need to help me,” she said.
”I can't get up,” he said. ”You'll have to kill her yourself.”
”Talen,” said River. ”I can't stop the flow. You're bleeding Fire. Your days are rolling off you like smoke. You must help me.”
”Fire?” asked Talen.
River glanced at Nettle and Sugar then faced Talen. She'd decided something. He could see that by the set of her brow.
”You've been multiplied,” she said. ”Da began your awakening, but it's all gone wrong. You need to close it off.”
That made no sense to Talen. Only dreadmen and Divines could do that. Then through the fog of his mind he began to feel at the edges of a horrible idea.
”You're going to feel an intrusion,” said River. ”Fight it. Push with all your might. You're leaking through a thousand holes. You've got to close every last one of them.”
Suddenly he felt something enter him. It was crus.h.i.+ng, and he gasped.
Pus.h.!.+ A voice in his mind said.
He'd been caught once in a tumble of earth, and this was what it had felt like. A panic began to rise in him.
He could feel her. He could feel River in him. The weight of her presence began to bear down, and it terrified him.
Talen tried to flee, but she was everywhere. A crush of sand.
Fight me, you fool.
He struggled against her.
Fight!
”I don't know how!” he shouted.
All about him the sand of her presence pushed at him, coming in through his ears, his nose, his mouth. She stole the very air he breathed.
Talen lashed out, and in one part he felt her recede.
Was it his imagination?
He tried to push her again, but whatever he'd done fell to pieces and River's presence swallowed him. He was trapped, pinned, a man drowning under a ton of grain.
His panic rose to a pitch, then he did something-he couldn't explain it-he pushed, and he found he could breathe again. He pushed again. And she moved further.
That's it! Fight!
River rushed at him with renewed force, but he held his s.p.a.ce and withstood her. He did not know how long he struggled, managing only to keep her far enough away to breathe. Then he closed a small rent in his fabric.
Another, she said.
But there were so many.
Close another!
Talen was so tired, but he fought. He fought and lost track of time. It was only him and the suffocating sand of his sister.
After what seemed like hours he found himself facing the last hole, one rent in his fabric that separated him from the rest of creation. It was like trying to stop a river with his hand. Talen fought to no effect.
”I can't do it,” he said and did not know if he'd spoken this aloud or just in his mind.
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