“So where is he?” asked Sam. “And what... what are we going to do now?”
“He’s almost certainly on the barges Hedge is using to transport the hemispheres,” replied Lirael. “To Ancelstierre.”
“Ancelstierre!” exclaimed Sam, his surprise echoed by Mogget, who emerged from Sam’s pack. The little cat took several steps towards Lirael; then his nose wrinkled and he backed away.
“Yes,” said Lirael heavily, ignoring Mogget’s reaction. “Apparently Hedge – or the Destroyer itself, I suppose – knows some way to get across the Wall. They’re taking the hemispheres by barge as close as they can. Then they’ll cross the Wall and go to a place called Forwin Mill, where Nick will use a thousand lightning rods to funnel the entire power of a storm into the hemispheres. This will somehow help them come together, and then, I imagine, whatever it is will be whole again, and unbound. Charter knows what will happen then.”
“Total destruction,” said the Dog bleakly. “The end of all Life.”
Silence greeted her words. The Dog looked up to see Sam and Lirael staring at her. Only Mogget was unmoved, choosing that moment to clean his paws.
“I suppose it is time to tell you exactly what we face,” said the Dog. “But we should find somewhere defensible first. All the Dead that Hedge used to dig the pit are still about, and those strong enough to face the day will be hungry for life.”
“There’s an island at the mouth of the stream,” said Sam slowly. “It’s not much, but it would be better than nothing.”
“Lead on,” said Lirael wearily. She wanted to collapse on the spot and block her ears from whatever the Dog was going to tell them. But this wouldn’t help. They had to know.
The island was a tumbled patch of rocks and stunted trees. It had once been a low hillock on the edge of the lake, with the stream on one side, but centuries ago the lake had risen or the stream bed split. Now the island stood in the broad mouth of the stream, surrounded by swift water to the north, south and east, and the deep waters of the lake to the west.
They waded across, Mogget clinging to Sam’s shoulder and the Dog swimming in the middle. Unlike most dogs, Lirael noticed, her friend actually stuck her whole head underwater, ears and all. And whatever power fast-moving water had over the Dead and some Free Magic creatures clearly didn’t apply to the Disreputable Dog.
“How come you like to swim but hate baths?” asked Lirael curiously as they reached dry ground and found a sandy patch between the rocks to set up a makeshift camp.
“Swimming is swimming and the smells stay the same,” said the Dog. “Baths involve soap.”
“Soap! I would love some soap!” exclaimed Lirael. Some of the mud and reed pollen had come off in the stream, but not enough. She felt so filthy that she couldn’t think straight. But she knew from long experience that any delay would only encourage the Dog to avoid telling them anything. She sat down on her pack and looked expectantly at the Dog. Sam sat down too, and Mogget leapt down and stretched for a moment before settling comfortably into the warm sand.
“Tell us,” ordered Lirael. “What is the thing bound in the hemispheres?”
“I suppose the sun is high enough,” said the Dog. “We will not be bothered for a few hours yet. Though it might perhaps—”
“Tell us!”
“I am telling you,” protested the Dog with great dignity. “It’s just finding the best words. The Destroyer was known by many names, but the most common is one that I will write here. Do not speak it unless you must, for even the name has power, now that the silver hemispheres have been brought out under the sky.”
The Dog flexed her paw and a single sharp claw popped out. She scratched seven letters in the sand, using the modern version of the alphabet favoured by Charter Mages for nonmagical communication about magical topics.
The letters she wrote spelled out a single word.
ORANNIS.
“Who... or what... is this thing?” asked Lirael when she’d silently read the name. She already had a feeling that it would be worse than she expected. There was a great but subtle tension in the way Mogget was crouched, his green eyes fixed on the letters, and the Dog wouldn’t meet her eyes.
The Dog didn’t answer at first but shuffled her paws and coughed.
“Please,” said Lirael gently. “We have to know.”
“It is the Ninth Bright Shiner, the most powerful Free Magic being of them all, the one who fought the Seven in the Beginning, when the Charter was made,” said the Dog. “It is the Destroyer of worlds, whose nature is to oppose creation with annihilation. Long ago, beyond counting in years, It was defeated. Broken in two, each half bound within a silver hemisphere, and those hemispheres secured with seven bonds and buried deep beneath the earth. Never to be released, or so it was thought.”
Lirael nervously tugged at her hair, wishing she could disappear behind it for ever. She felt a nervous desire to laugh or scream or fall to the ground weeping. She looked at Sam, who was biting his lip, unconscious of the fact that he had really bitten it and blood was trickling down his chin.
The Dog did not say anything more, and Mogget just kept staring at the letters.
ORANNIS.
“How can we defeat something like that?” burst out Lirael. “I’m not even a proper Abhorsen yet!”
Sam shook his head as she spoke, but whether it was in negation or agreement, Lirael couldn’t tell. He kept on shaking it, and she realised it was simply that he couldn’t fully grasp what the Dog had told them.
“It is still bound,” said the Dog gently, giving Lirael an encouraging lick to her hand. “While the hemispheres are separate, the Destroyer can use only a small portion of Its power, and none of Its most destructive attributes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this before!”
“Because you were not strong enough in yourself,” explained the Dog. “You did not know who you are. Now you do and you are ready to know fully what we face. Besides, I was not sure myself until I saw the lightning storm.”
“I knew,” said Mogget. He stood up and stretched out to a surprising length before sitting back and inspecting his right paw. “Ages ago.”
The Dog wrinkled her nose in obvious disbelief and kept talking.
“The most disturbing aspect of this is that Hedge is taking the hemispheres to Ancelstierre. Once they are across the Wall, I do not know what is possible. Perhaps these massed lightning rods of Nick’s will enable the Destroyer to join the hemispheres and become whole. If It does, then everyone... and everything is doomed, on both sides of the Wall.”
“It was always the most powerful and cunning of the Nine,” mused Mogget. “It must have worked out that the only place It could come back together was somewhere It had never existed. And then somehow It must have learnt that we infringed upon a world beyond our own, for the Destroyer was bound long before the Wall was made. Clever, clever!”
“You sound like you admire It,” said Sam somewhat bitterly. “Which is not the right attitude for a servant of the Abhorsens, Mogget.”
“Oh, I do admire the Destroyer,” replied Mogget dreamily, his pink tongue licking the corners of his white-toothed mouth. “But only from a distance. It would have no qualms about annihilating me, you know – since I refused to ally with It against the Seven when It gathered Its host all those long-lost dreams ago.”
“Only sensible thing you ever did,” growled the Dog. “Though not as sensible as you could have been.”
“Neither for nor against,” said Mogget. “I would have lost myself either way. Not that it helped me any in the end, choosing the middle road, for I’ve lost most of myself anyway. Well, lackaday. Life goes on, there are fish in the river, and the Destroyer heads for Ancelstierre and freedom. I am curious to hear your next plan, Mistress Abhorsen-in-Waiting.”