“Yes?”
“I think they’ll ditch their names the way Terrano did. He took centuries. They’ll take minutes. And what’s left won’t be Barrani anymore, in any way. It’ll be Shadow—but it’ll be the Adversary’s Shadow, unleashed.”
“The Tower shouldn’t allow that,” Terrano began.
“The Tower isbroken. The only reason it’s putting up with you—and the cohort—is because of the Consort. And Spike. Spike promised that we—collective we—would help the Tower to perform its duties. He’s part of that, but I’m not sure whether or not he’ll be able to contain a collection of Arcanists, because whatthey’redoing, in theory—until they succeed—doesn’tusethe magic the Tower was built to suppress.” She started to say more, stopped and closed her eyes. “You’re right. Go do what you have to do, and please, please, please try not to get killed.”
Eyes closed, Kaylin began to look for words. Her own marks were visible, but it wasn’t her marks that were causing the problem. It was the True Names of eleven Ferals who were, according to Edelonne, scattered evenly throughout the cavern. This place—this red, wet, fleshy place—was the cavern. It wasn’t the cavern that the cohort could see, but she could imagine what it might look like if layers of actual rock had been laid over the fleshy protrusions. She could only do this with her eyes closed.
It wasn’t the cavern itself she wanted to see. She was now aware that the Tower of Test was also like Helen; the actual dimensions and architecture were impermanent and subject to change. But if the architecture had strata, she was in a place that was as close to its core as it would allow.
She’d been at the heart of a Tower before. At the heart of a Hallionne. And at the heart of Helen. This was nothing like any prior experience. The words she was looking for were not the words that gave the Tower both life and purpose. No, the words she wanted were smaller in every way.
Spike was speaking, but it was more sensation than communication; she was aware of his presence—he was like the higher, whinier version of a very loud heartbeat—but assumed he’d make himself understood if it was necessary. Or if he thought it was necessary, which might not be the same thing.
The first of the words emerged in the distance. Or rather, the closest. At this remove, Kaylin couldn’t see the Feral that contained it. But she had a direction now. She wondered if Teela could follow her. Wondered if Teela could even see her. Or if Teela saw some of the strata of this place simultaneously. The only thing that mattered was that Kaylin had something solid enough to walk across beneath her feet.
Or it was the only thing that mattered until she got closer.
Edelonne startled; Kaylin could feel the tremor of surprise—or shock—that words couldn’t contain. What Kaylin now approached was, by all accounts, one of Edelonne’s companions in transformation. It did not look like a Feral. It didn’t look like a Barrani, either. It was a pillar of Shadow with bits that seemed to be churning beneath its opaque surface. Sadly, those bits were things like eyes. Kaylin was familiar with the internal organs that lay beneath skin in most living things, but even if she hadn’t been, she’d’ve recognized them.
Edelonne was horrified. Ynpharion was not. Or if he was, he’d clamped down on his reaction enough that it wasn’t immediately obvious. Why this was worse than Feral forms, Kaylin didn’t know. Well, no, shedid, but considered it impractical. The name that the Ferals bore—the name that had brought them to life after birth—had been hovering between their pointy ears. This name was not. If the surface of the pillar made the entire thing appear to be some variety of marble from a distance, the name was beneath that surface—along with the churning body parts.
Kaylin so did not want to touch that name.
“What do they look like to you?” Kaylin asked Teela, describing what she could see.
Teela didn’t answer. Not with words. Kaylin could feel all her hair stand on end as Teela once again invoked the power ofKariannos. It was too much to be hoped thatKariannoswould somehow remain invisible or out of phase. Of course it was.
She hesitated for one long second, lifted her arm and felt a surge of pain—something like fire, but not persistent.
The pillar crumbled. The fleshy bits leaked out of the shadow pooling across the ground. Kaylin knew instantly, instinctively, that this was very bad—and not just for her. Spike almost screamed in alarm.
Chosen—tell her to stop! Tell her to stop now!
“Teela! Stop—you’re making it worse!” Kaylin said, straining to lift her voice. She didn’t open her eyes; she was already casting about the room for the next nearest name, angry at herself for her squeamishness.
But she heard Teela’s curse. It was Leontine. “This is why they’re here.”
Yes, Spike said.If the Adversary destroyed them, they would no longer be conduits through which he could send power. They are windows now; they are anchored here. Teela has broken the glass. She has not removed the window. There is nothing except the size of the window to contain what was trapped behind it. Shemust notkill them here. Not while they are attached to him.
“Why wouldn’t they be windows ifhekilled them?”
“They’re the raw material out of which those windows were made,” Teela said, voice grim. “Destroy the raw materials before the window is in place, and you have no window. You have wall. The Adversary couldn’t create those windows with only his own power. But the Ferals here? They have all passed the Test of Name. They are all Barrani. They are alive, and they have been rooted here. If he orders them to move—as he did with the three in the halls—the link is tenuous. Had we killed the Ferals there, it wouldn’t have been this disastrous.
“We’re meant to meet themhere. We’re meant to kill them here.” More cursing. More Leontine. Silence followed, and in that silence, Kaylin made her way to the next word, encased in a similar pillar. She wondered, briefly, if Teela saw what she saw now, or if, to Teela, they were large Shadow dogs with the requisite face full of fangs.
It didn’t matter. She told Teela to join the cohort—or tried.
Hope said no. Spike no longer seemed to be aware of Teela. “Be ready,” Hope said.
She was already bracing herself, because this pillar—which presumably looked like a Feral to some observers—was exactly like the one Teela had smashed. The name that she needed to touch was on the inside of a mess of moving—but otherwise undamaged—internal organs.
The eyes, however, alighted on her as she approached, and the currents that seemed to move body parts began to roil.
“Don’t kill it!” Kaylin shouted. “Just...stop it from killing me.”
Kaylin had no idea what the rest of the cohort—or the rest of her companions—were doing. She could have asked any of the name-bound, but didn’t.
