“I’ll figure out for myself where to go next—”
“You came for the truth, not for direction.”
Something in the tone of her voice stills me and I turn around. In a bitter voice, I toss back, “I know my truth, it’s advice I need—”
“The villagers were not killed for purification.”
I throw up my hands. “I saw the symbols, drawn in the blood of the innocent, all around the ruins of where I have lived my life. Donottry to argue with the carnage I just walked through—”
“And what did that symbol look like.”
The fact that the Sooth remains so calm infuriates me further. That she asks such a stupid rhetorical question makes me positively volcanic.
“It’s the joining ofSandP.Salvatore ute Protecficitrae,” I snap at her. “In the old tongue, Salvation and Protection. Now, if you’ll excuse me—”
“That is not the meaning of that symbol,” the Sooth says evenly. “And you have come here to find out its truth.”
“I know the truth.”
“No, you do not. Nowsitdown, and receive what you seek.”
NinetyThe Symbol that Changes All.
As I slowly lower myself back onto the bench, the little bell rings again. It’s as the tinkling sound drifts into silence that I focus on the screen as if my stare could burn away its delicate weave… so that I could look properly on the Sooth, who, I suddenly fear, holds an answer that I do not want.
“What does it mean,” I breathe.
“TheSstands forShadwe, thePforPossesstrix. Possessed of the Shadow One.”
“I—I… don’t understand.”
“You do not wish to understand.” The head shifts position, angling down. Then it relevels. “This is the symbol.”
A piece of parchment is put to the screen, and through the mesh, the drawing I’m shown is the symbol that I saw. All over my village. At the settlement we spent our first night in. TheSandPtogether in a swirl.
“That which bears this mark has been claimed by the Dark King.”
“No…” Except my protest is weak. “How is this possible?”
“Agents of the Dark King went forth to your village and took the souls that resided therein for him. The fire comes when he accepts the victim’s essences. After it is finished, the demons mark their new territory with that symbol and move on to the next. They’re collecting the souls so that the evil’s power may grow and he may emerge from his prison within the Fulcrum. For so long, he has been interred there, but it is in the nature of all things to grow. Plants, animals, humans… good and evil as well.”
I can’t breathe, and put my hand to my throat. “I don’t understand… why did I not know…”
“Your mind would not let you see. It supplied an alternate, logical explanation because you could not live with the truth and also because your time had not come yet.”
“The cow bodies.” I look to the screen again. “What of them.”
“The demons have been watching in these woods for weeks now, counting the take, planning the attack. These sentries of the Dark King may pass through the Fulcrum when he cannot. His force remains trapped, but he has bred these subordinations for the job he needs them to do, which is to harvest souls for his consumption. The black bands are not how the demons get out, but rather evidence of the evil’s increasing strength.”
I picture the Fulcrum as I last saw it, black from base to top. In a strangled voice, I ask, “If the Sooths knew all this was happening, why did you not say?”
“We did. We warned your mayor repeatedly. He came just days previous with his sons, looking for placations and potions. He did not want the truth. He felt as you do now, facing what he cannot live with and fighting the inevitable.”
“What is the inevitable,” I breathe.
“The Dark King will triumph if a leader does not rise up, a leader… who has courage within them and the power to wield it against that which frightens them most.”
“The Queen who sees no one.”
