“Thegns can’t be killed as such, but they can be sent Beneath, never to rise again.”
“Beneath?”
“Beneath.”
“And it won’t come back?”
“Providing we get the amulet it has, no, it won’t come back.”
“What about your mortality?” she asks. “Will you get it back if we send the Thegn to the Beneath?”
“That I don’t know.” I gaze into her eyes, gently stroking my hand through her hair. “But if it is in the Beneath, it is no threat to you, and that is all which matters.”
HAZEL
I’m about to tell Warden he needs to be sure he gets his mortality back. It’s the most important thing, and it’s what brought us to this point in the first place, when there is a low rumble of thunder which shakes the ground beneath us, grains of sand shivering from their positions all around us.
“The Thegn?”
Warden shakes his head. The rumble turns into a deep, terrifying moan.
“Long Meg.”
The moan turns into a name.
“Warden.”
He pushes himself up. I grab at him.
“Wait! We ran from her before.”
“And we willingly returned. Now we have to pay our respects if we wish to battle the Thegn on her lands.”
He gets to his feet. For a moment, I consider whether or not to stay where I am but decide I probably don’t want to meet Long Meg with my face in the sand. So l clamber to my feet, brush down my dress, and check on Warden, who is staring out over the water.
When I look, there is still nothing. The entire place seems almost more empty than when we arrived, which simply isn’t possible. There was no one here when we arrived.
“Keep completely still,” Warden says out of the side of his mouth. “Long Meg is here.”
“Where?”
“Here.”
Out of the sand it rises, slowly, inexorably. Something ancient, something nightmare driven, something unstoppable. A great stone slab which blots out any light being cast onto Warden and me.
“This is Long Meg?” I say to Warden, who clenches his teeth. “A stone?”
“This is Long Meg, yes. And the Underhill is her domain,” he says pointedly.
“But it’s a stone. Other than fall on me, what is it going to do? Seriously, Warden, is this what we’ve been running from all this time?”
“She’s right, you know,” a soft female voice says.
The stone is gone. In its place is a rather sweet looking older woman, her face rounded, cheeks pinked by outdoor life and a set of stunningly beautiful blue eyes. Her hair is long, fine, and a mix of blond and ash. It tumbles over her shoulders in loose curls. She’s shorter than me, her body rounded comfortably, and she is happily set in her own skin.
I stare at her.
“Being a stone isn’t what it’s cracked up to be,” Long Meg says. “Cracked…” She looks between me and Warden. “Geddit? Cracked?”
