Unclean

EPILOGUE

2 Flamerule, the Year of Risen Elfkin

Night after night, the bats ranged this way and that, attacking scaly little kobolds, shaggy mountain sheep, and whatever other prey they could find. Gradually, the blood replenished their strength.

The one direction they didn't want to fly was north. They couldn't remember precisely why, but they had a sense that if they traveled in that direction, something fundamental would change and existence would become abhorrent.

Yet over time, they did drift north. They simply couldn't help it.

At last they reached the wide round shaft plunging deep into the earth. They realized they'd seen it before, and the entity floating above the rim of the well also. He looked like a huge, malformed fetus, and impossible as it seemed, he was even more grotesque than formerly. His eyes were more ill-matched, with one approximately human and the other globular and white.

The same was true of his hands. One remained a puny, rotting thing, but its mate was now enormous, ink black, and possessed of long talons. A ring of sutures revealed that someone had stitched it on.

The bats made one final effort to flee but only in their thoughts. Their will was so thoroughly constrained that even as they struggled, they swooped to the rim of the well, swirled together, and became a single being.

With unity came memory, and Tammith realized who and what she was. Anguish rose inside her.

"Daughter!" Xingax crowed. "This is wonderful! I was certain I'd lost you, but then I felt you returning to me."

She yearned to attack him, yearned, too, to put an end to herself and knew she could do neither.

"You must tell me," said Xingax, "how did you survive?"

"He cut me apart," she said dully. Bareris had, her love, and had been right to do it. "It was horrible, but it didn't kill me, and somehow I turned the pieces into bats and flew inside a house. I made it just before the sunlight came."

Xingax smiled. "I told you you're special."

"I'm vile!" she spat. "You changed me to fight in an army, and we lost. The other creatures died. Let me die too."

He pouted. "I'd hoped that by now you would have put such foolish notions behind you. Our master didn't lose his whole army, just a fraction of it, and of course you'll continue to serve with the host that remains. I predict that in time you'll rise to be one of its greatest champions. Now come below. You can have your pick of the slaves, and that will make you feel better."