Lock her in a closet and play songs about living under the sea?
You do not know of what you speak, said the voice under the pier. She would have perished and now she will live. This is your final warning. Go face your fate. Leave
Lena to enjoy hers.
I'm not going anywhere, Kendra said resolutely. Bring
Lena back. You can't do anything to me if I stay away from the water.
Oh, no? said the voice under the pier.
Kendra did not like the knowing tone of the speaker.
Too much confidence. She had to be bluffing. If naiads left the water, they became mortal. Still, Kendra looked around, worried that somebody might be sneaking up on her to push her into the water. She saw nobody.
Hello? Kendra said. Hello?
Silence. She felt certain they could hear her.263 Don't say we didn't warn you, one of the earlier voicessang.
Kendra crouched, trying to be ready for anything. Were the naiads going to throw something at her? Maybe they could collapse the pier? The night remained quiet and still.
A hand reached up out of the water at the end of the pier. Kendra jumped back, her heart in her throat. A
wooden hand. Little golden hooks served as joints. Mendigo scrambled out of the dark water and crawled onto the pier.
Kendra backed away as Mendigo stood, the wooden limberjack
Muriel had changed into a fearsome servant. The overgrown primitive puppet had been pulled into the water by the naiads the year before. It had not crossed Kendra's mind that they might release him. Or even that he would still be functional. Muriel had been imprisoned. She was locked up with Bahumat deep beneath a verdant hill.
Apparently nobody had told Mendigo.
The wooden figure rushed at Kendra. Although she had grown since she last saw the limberjack, he was still an inch or two taller. Kendra turned and ran along the pier back to the boardwalk. She could hear him gaining, wooden feet clacking against wooden planks.
He caught up to her at the bottom of the gazebo stairs.
Kendra whirled and tried to grab at him, hoping to catch hold of a limb and unhinge it. He nimbly evaded her grasp and caught hold of her around the waist, flipping her upside down. She struggled and he changed his grip, pinning her arms to her sides.264 Kendra was caught in a helpless position-facing awayfrom him, upside down, arms immobilized. She tried to wriggle and flail, but Mendigo was alarmingly strong. As the oversized puppet trotted away from the pond, it became apparent she was going wherever he wanted.265Reunion
Seth stripped off another piece of the spongy wall and placed it in his mouth. The texture reminded him of citrus pulp. He chewed until he was left with a small amount of tough, tasteless matter, which he swallowed. Puckering his lips, Seth pressed his mouth against the wall of the cocoon.
The harder he kissed the wall, the more moisture flowed into his mouth. Water with a hint of honeydew.
Olloch roared again, and the cocoon shuddered. Seth flopped around as the cocoon lurched from side to side. By the time he braced himself, the movement stopped. Seth was growing accustomed to the roars and the flurries of motion, although the thought that he was listening to a roar from inside a cocoon inside the belly of a demon remained
Peculiar.266 Seth had tried to sleep. When he had first started dozing,the roars had awakened him every time. Eventually; with the help of his mounting fatigue, he had managed a few fitful stretches of slumber.
Time was becoming meaningless in the endless blackness.
Only the growls and motion of the demon interrupted the monotony. That and snacking on fragments of the padded walls. How long had he been inside of Olloch? A
day? Two days? Three?
At least Seth remained reasonably comfortable inside his womblike enclosure. It fit him rather snugly. There was just enough room to move his arms when he wanted to pick at the walls. Even when he was flung around, he never got injured, because the walls were soft, and there was not enough room for him to get shaken into dangerous positions.
With so little space, it seemed the air would run out in a matter of minutes, but his breathing remained unstrained.
Being swallowed by Olloch had made no difference-the air remained fresh. The closeness of the cocoon made him a little claustrophobic, but in the darkness, when he lay still, he could pretend the enclosure was spacious.
Olloch gave a particularly ferocious roar. The cocoon quaked. The demon emitted a couple of prolonged growls followed by the loudest roar Seth had yet heard. Seth wondered if the demon was in a fight. The snarls and roars continued. It felt oddly like the cocoon was being squeezed, first by his head, then near his shoulders, then at his waist, then at his knees and feet. The vicious growls continued unabated.267 The cocoon was jostled one final time and silence followed.Seth lay in stillness, waiting for the turbulence to resume. He waited for several minutes, expecting more roaring at any moment. The growls had been almost desperate.
Now all was eerily calm. Could Olloch have been killed? Or perhaps the demon had won a battle and then collapsed in exhaustion. It was easily the longest interval of motionless silence Seth had experienced since being swallowed.
Uneventful minutes accumulated until Seth felt his eyelids drooping. He slipped into a deep slumber.
* * * *
Mendigo dumped Kendra onto the ground. A thick carpet of wildflowers cushioned her landing. The air smelled of blossoms and fruit. As disoriented as the dash through the woods had left her, Kendra knew where they were: at the site where the Forgotten Chapel once stood. The last order from
Muriel to Mendigo must have been to bring Kendra to the chapel.
During the entire run through the woods, Kendra had wriggled and twisted and squirmed. She had kicked Mendigo in the head and tried to unhinge his limbs. But the oversized puppet had just shifted his grip and continued doggedly onward. She had been carried upside down, over his shoulder, and curled up in a ball. No matter how vigorously she struggled, Mendigo had adjusted.
Kendra lay sprawled on a bed of wildflowers beneath a starless sky, the dim night pungent and mild. Mendigo crouched and started digging, clawing at the soil with268 wooden fingers, tossing stones aside when he encounteredthem. Somewhere under the hill, Muriel was buried, imprisoned with Bahumat. Apparently the order had not merely been to bring Kendra to the chapel but to bring Kendra to
Muriel.
Kendra sprang to her feet and bolted down the hillside.
She had not traveled six steps before Mendigo slammed into her from behind, tackling her near the trunk of a peach tree.
They rolled and she wrenched her back. Kendra shrieked as
Mendigo clung to her with unnatural strength, wrapping her up with his arms and legs.
At least if he was clinging to her, he wasn't digging.