Gall’s corpse turned to look at Elswyth with glassy eyes.“You people… so caught up in your love, your attachments… Don’t you realize that they too will die? That the fate of flesh, no matter how soft and lovely, is to rot? What they offer you is an illusion, a string of ephemeral pleasures, meaningless in the end. I can offer you eternity.”
Elswyth retreated, still brandishing her knife. A vine shot from beneath Gall’s suit, ensnaring her wrist. She slashed at it, severing the stalk, but two more reached out, wrapping around both wrists, and her blade clattered to the floor.
They began to pull Elswyth forward, toward Gall. His limp body dangled in a nest of vines, and more crept from beneath his suit.“You will join me, Elswyth,”he said.“You will join me beyond the constraints of your mortality. I will show you truths known only to those who see with eyes unclouded by flesh. We will be one, as all things are one, eventually, in the perfection of death.”
Elswyth reached into the vines around her wrists, finding the light within. Shepulled, draining them, feeling their vitæ fill her and the fog of Gall’s poison fade. The vines thinned, and then withered, and then fell away into dust.
“Your dim mak cannot harm me. You barely know how to use it. But I can show you. Don’t you want to know what really happened to your mother? Where that scar comes from and what it means? I could tell you, Elswyth.”
Gall’s body began to twitch. Vines tunneled beneath the skin of his neck, forcing his head upright. Tendrils wormed over his glassy eyes. A vine crept out from Gall’s chest and wrapped around theamberheart, lifting it as if to show her. It gleamed in the half-light of the lantern like it held its own flame.
“The amberheart has shown me all of this and more. Secrets beyond secrets. Knowledge from eldren days. But all of those secrets could be yours.”
“What do you—”
Silver flashed in her vision. Silas had gotten hold of a short saber. He hacked once and then twice, slicing through the vine that held him. He dropped to the floor, gasping for air.
“Silas!” Elswyth shouted.
More vines shot at him, impaling themselves in the dirt near his head. He rolled, lashing out with his saber and severing another stalk, then grabbing his pistol from where it lay on the floor.
Another vine jumped at him, but he severed it with a deft stroke. Then he aimed the pistol and fired twice.
The bullets impaled Gall—one in the chest, one in the side. Instead of blood, black ichor spilled from the wounds.
“Elswyth, take the baby and Mrs. Rose! Get out of here!” Silas shouted.
Elswyth snapped to attention, running to where Mrs. Rose lay strapped to the table. Her fingers shook as she unbuckled the straps.
Gall began to chuckle, a deep, uneasy sound that echoed in the catacombs.“Bullets, Silas, really? You should know by now that you cannot kill me.”
“Won’t stop me from trying,” Silas said. Then he grabbed the gas lantern sitting on the table next to him and threw it at Dr. Gall.
A vine swatted it down at the last moment. It exploded on the floor, sending a wash of flame across the stone. Gall backed up, vines carrying him away from the flames.
Silas took the opening. He spun the chamber of the revolverand fired again and again, this time hitting Gall in the neck—a hole the size of an apple appeared there, sending a spray of viscera behind him. Green tendrils quickly filled the void, crawling over one another like nesting snakes.
Elswyth hurried with Mrs. Rose’s restraints, trying to ignore the explosions behind her. Mrs. Rose stirred, still unconscious but slowly waking. Elswyth undid the last strap and shook her. “Mrs. Rose? Mrs. Rose!”
Mrs. Rose mumbled something unintelligible, eyes fluttering.
“I’m truly sorry about this,” Elswyth said. She brought her fingers to Mrs. Rose’s nose and rubbed them together. She fabricated white powder there—cocaextract.
Mrs. Rose breathed in. Then she rocketed upright, screaming as if she’d been attacked. “Oh! Oh!”
Elswyth steadied her, tucking hair out of her face. “Mrs. Rose? Mrs. Rose, are you all right?”
“What? Where are we? I had the most terrible…”
She looked over Elswyth’s shoulder, at where Silas battled Dr. Gall. Then she began to scream. Elswyth tried to calm her. “Mrs. Rose,” Elswyth said.
She continued to scream.
“Mrs. Rose,” Elswyth said again.
More screaming. Elswyth slapped her twice, first with her palm and then with the back of her hand.
Mrs. Rose paused. She cleared her throat.
