Iome paused, shaken.
Gaborn said, “Erden Geboren is describing the Darkling Glory, isn’t he?”
Even mentioning the monster made Iome shiver. “Perhaps,” Iome said. “Or maybe we’re mistaken. Maybe these aren’t the same creatures.” She read on.
“ ‘The bars to its cage were of blackened iron. Glowing violet runes encircled the base of it, and a roof covered the crown.
“ ‘As I drew near, I felt entranced by the creature. I peered hard to view it, drawing closer and closer. Yet the nearer I got, the more the darkness about it thickened, obscuring my view.
“ ‘It was not until I was nearly upon it that I became dimly aware that the Bright Ones were speaking to me: nay, shouting to me. But I could not hear them. Their voices were dull, as if they called from miles and miles away. Instead, all I could hear was the creature, urging me, “Come! Come to me.”
“ ‘I saw a door on the cage. I could see no...’” Iome paused. “I think the word must be ‘lock.’” She began again. “ ‘It looked as if the door would sway open with a touch of the finger, yet the dark servant could not open it.
“ ‘As I drew near, the creature made no move. Its wings quit beating so wildly against the cage, and it regarded me almost as if it were made of stone.
“ ‘ “Open the door,” I could hear it whisper. “Open it.” Distantly I could hear the Bright Ones shouting, but their words.’ ”—Iome struggled to make sense of the statement by context—“ ‘had no intelligence,’ it says. But I think he means, ‘conveyed no understanding.’
“ ‘I did not intend to open the door. I only thought to experiment, to touch the gate.
“ ‘I was about to do so when Daylan grabbed me from behind. He shouted in my ear, but I could make no sense of his words.
“ ‘He pulled me back from the cage and threw me on the ground, then stood over me gibbering.
“ ‘The locus raged at me with a sound of thunder, and it seemed that all of the heavens roared with it. “I see you, King of the Shadow World! I shall sift your world as wheat, and cast off the chaff thereof.” I could feel the hatred of the servant, could smell it in the air, as palpable as the stink of dead men.
“ ‘At some length, I was able to make out the words of Daylan. “Didn’t you hear us?” Daylan cried. “Can’t you hear me?” His face was red with worry, and tears of’—I think the word must be ‘frustration’—‘filled his eyes.
“ ‘ “I heard you not,” said I, coming to my senses.
“ ‘Then the voice of the Fael did pierce me, that I heard it clearly. “Beware Asgaroth. He is a most subtle child of the mother of all loci, the One True Master of Evil.“ ‘ ”
Gaborn yelped as he slammed a rock against his hand. The green light of his opal pin shone down as he turned toward Iome. But it was not the pain of the wound that had made him cry out.
“The One True Master—” he said, “I thought she was the One True Master of All Reavers, or something like that, not...”
“Of Evil,” Iome offered.
Gaborn felt as if his head were spinning. The creature he was going to face was an enemy that even the Bright Ones and Glories feared. No wonder they had come to fight beside Erden Geboren. Iome continued to read.
“ ‘Many words did the Fael speak unto me, words that were understood in the heart. I realized that if I had touched that door, tried to open it, strength would have failed me. The door was bound with runes so powerful that a common man like me could not have broken it. Yet if I had tried, I would have succeeded in opening another door: a door into my heart.
“ ’ “Asgaroth could have filled you,” the Fael told me. “Its evil desires could have become your desires. It could have filled you, as blackness fills the hollows of the earth.”
“ ‘An unnamable fear seized me. So shaken was I that I could not stand.
“ ‘ “The locus is not the creature that you see before you,” the Fael said. “The Darkling Glory can age and die, but the shadow hiding within it is immortal. When the Darkling Glory dies, its essence will move on, seeking a new host. Thus we have sought to imprison Asgaroth, rather than destroy him. Many Glories were destroyed trying to bring him here. A thousand times a thousand shadow worlds Asgaroth has helped to seize.“ ‘” Iome faltered for a moment, and said, “Erden Geboren doesn’t like the word ‘seize.’ He has crossed it out once, suggested ‘destroy’ or ‘sway’ or ‘capture.’” She read on, “ ‘“But so long as we hold him, he can do little harm.” ’ ”
Iome closed the book, and sat for a moment. Sweat poured down her face, and her clothes clung to her like rags. “Do you think that Raj Ahten’s sorcerer is the one who set the Darkling Glory free?”
Gaborn wiped some sweat from his own brow with his sleeve. The running, the growing heat, had left him feeling oily and gritty. He wished for a bath. He had seen the sorcerer enter the fiery gate at Twynhaven, and seen him come back out only moments later. Had the sorcerer had time to break into the cage? Or had he only met the monster there, after some accomplice freed him on the other side?
Asgaroth was its name. Could the monster that Erden Geboren described two thousand years ago be the one that had stalked Iome at Castle Sylvarresta only a week past?
He felt sure that it was. It had come in a cloud of darkness and swirling wind, sucking all light from the sky, wrapping night around it as if it were a robe. Thunder had boomed at its approach, while lightning snarled. It had spoken “as if with a sound of thunder.”
“Well,” Gaborn said. “It seems as if you have found yourself a worthy adversary.”
“I didn’t pick a fight,” Iome said. “It came hunting for me.”
Gaborn grinned, hoping to allay her concerns.
“Wait,” she whispered. “It didn’t come hunting for me. It came for our son, the child that I carry in my womb.”
“Why?” Gaborn asked. A fear struck him, and a certainty. The Darkling Glory had come for his son, and as Gaborn stretched out his senses, he felt danger stalking the child.
“It isn’t just killing a child that the Darkling Glory enjoys,” Iome said as if to herself. “The clubfooted boy was with me, and the Darkling Glory didn’t seek his life. Wait—” Iome’s face fell and she clutched her womb, then let out a gasp. “Wait!”
“What is it?” Gaborn asked.
“The Darkling Glory—” she said. “Or the locus within it, it didn’t want to kill the child. It merely asked for him. It demanded him.”
“What do you mean?” Gaborn asked.
“I think it wanted to possess the babe,” Iome said, “as a hiding place!”
“Of course,” Gaborn said. “The Darkling Glory has fled the netherworld. It might even be worried that its enemies will come looking for it. So it needs a place to hide. And what better place than in a mother’s womb?”
By voicing Iome’s concerns, perhaps Gaborn gave them weight and heft. Iome began to sob. She covered her womb protectively with Erden Geboren’s manuscript.
“I, too, worry about where it has gone,” Gaborn said. “But with my Earth Sight I can see the child’s spirit. There is no darkness in you. The child in you is like any other, alive, but as yet unformed. I sense no malice, no evil intent.”