Monster Planet(119)

Sarah bit her lip. 'They took it away from me when they captured me. It could be anywhere.'

Time was already stopped. It couldn't get any slower. But it tried.

'Oh.' Nilla squatted down next to Sarah. 'Oh.'

'I could look for it,' Sarah suggested.

Nilla shook her head. Her hair slid across her ears, her cheeks. 'No, sorry. Not unless you could find it in the next thirty, forty seconds. He's that close to dispersing the Source. I mean just maybe, like, against all odds you could find it in that time. But we can't really take the chance.'

'Oh,' Sarah said. 'I guess I failed. I guess we lose.'

Nilla shrugged. It was the most drawn-out, elaborate shrug that Sarah had ever seen. It involved the lich's whole back and it took her up onto tiptoes for a moment before it started falling back. 'Well,' Nilla said, finally.

She was winding up to something. 'What? What is it?' Sarah demanded.

'There's another way. But it sucks. For me at least, it really sucks.'

'Yeah?' Sarah thought she saw a sigh coming on. A long, extended sigh. 'Yeah?' she demanded. 'You killed the Tsarevich pretty easily. You could do the same to Mael Mag Och.'

'Well... sort of. Except... the Tsarevich was stuck in the one body. Mael isn't. His consciousness right now is kind of inside the Source. He's trying to end the world here'killing his body won't even annoy him.'

Sarah rolled her hands, trying to make Nilla get on with it. It didn't work. 'Yes, and?' she finally asked. 'What do you propose instead?'

'Breaking the circuit. I'm only able to get so close to the Source by making myself invisible. It cancels out my own aura so even the Source can't detect me. Otherwise I'd be burnt to a crisp by now.'

'What are you suggesting?' Sarah asked, though she knew perfectly well.

'I make myself visible. Poof, I go up in smoke. It probably won't even hurt that much. Without me to act as a conduit he'll be trapped in here. Unable to get back into a body. Unable to do anything. And that's it.'

'That's it?' Sarah asked. 'That's... that's pretty harsh.' She had wanted to say it was unacceptable. But the stakes were so high. 'I can't ask you to do that,' she lied, knowing she would beg for it if Nilla tried to refuse.

'You don't have to ask. You solved the riddle.' She smiled with a radiance like the sun on a good day. 'You won, kid. Listen, when you die, years and years from now I hope, come look me up, alright? We'll compare memories.'

Sarah tried to smile. She forcibly tried to make the muscles of her face move upward. It wouldn't work. Her facial muscles were single-handedly holding up the fate of the world. Nilla turned away'and then she was gone. As if she'd been cut out of existence altogether.

Time started up again. Ayaan turned to look at her. 'What are you up to, girl?' the older woman asked. Sarah was still trying to smile.





Monster Planet





Chapter Twenty


Banners of flame licked out of Mael Mag Och's mouth and eyesockets. The scaffolding beneath him hummed and whined as it began to shake itself to pieces. Sarah knew she was only seeing the outer edge of what was really happening. The main event was not for human eyes to observe.

'What did you do?' Ayaan demanded.

Sarah couldn't seem to get the words out. She could only point. Her finger stabbed out toward the mass of ghouls had been waiting patiently in perfect formation for the world to stop. Now they were moving, surging forward as a mass. They were headed for the armless body on the spikes. Were they going to try to pull it free? Sarah had no idea.

'What did you do?' Ayaan asked again. She grabbed Sarah by the arms and shook her.

Sarah looked up into her mentor's face. 'I answered a riddle,' she said.

Ayaan released her.

The ghouls attacked the scaffolding with their sharpened bones, with their feet, even with their teeth. It was fruitless. Mael Mag Och's abdominal cavity popped open under pressure from within and showered the dead men in flaming entrails.

'You stopped him, I take it,' Ayaan said, very quietly. 'That... that's good,' she said.

Mael Mag Och's spine arched wildly, twisting his body around on the spikes. His flesh tore as his bones tried to wrap themselves in knots. His head burst with a hiss of steam, a flap of skin popping back and waving tremulously as his brains ejected in a spray of grey liquid.