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Lost in the all-enfolding shadows, I pull -towards the place where the hole used to be I wonder if the rest of the tunnel will close the way the hole did Impossible to tell in this total, unearthly darkness Probably better that way Banba used to say that knowledge was strength, and for the e onlyforward, weeping softly, steeling ainst the bite of Vein’s teeth, sure she’s playing withto jump on my back when I least expect it Why didn’t she return to the De with the rest of her kind? How did she remain? I’d have made it to safety if she hadn’t attacked I’d be in the cave noith Bran, laughing at our close escape,forward to

No Forget such thoughts They can only torh I’m trapped here now Accept it Take co

My left hand touches rock The end of the tunnel

I press an ear to the rock, in case I can still hear Bran But there’s nothing, not even the ru sound Not as war quickly now that it’s rid of the druid Brude

Maybe, if Vein isn’t here-if she’s been sucked back to her own realm a little later than the others-I can rest Return to the lodestone Recharge Then force ic and

Light behind ht And a sad chuckle

I turn slowly, already knohat I’ll find

"Poor little Bec," Lord Loss says, floating not far away from me, flesh as lu out of the cracks in his skin, the hole in his chest filled with those wriggling eel-like creatures He’s holding Drust’s bag and a couple of his hands are rooting through the contents, stroking the chess board stored within

Lord Loss drifts closer I spot Vein behind hiht The deazes at it "All alone," he sighs, looking at the chess piece but speaking to me "Friends dead or cut off No way out If only you’d known it would end this way Maybe you would have stayed in your rath Or perhaps you wouldn’t have used up all your ic on the lodestone"

"We won," I snarl "We beat you We sent all the demons back"

"Really?" Lord Loss’s cri "Then what arins when I can’t answer "Poor Bec You know so little of the universes I didn’t co your land long before Brude set about his ignoble task Your wind-impressive as it was-had no claim on me I was too powerful for it"

"You weren’t so powerful when Drust banished you froht," I sneer

Lord Loss’s features twitch "I grant you that one But I wouldn’t be so boastful if I was in your position That spell of Drust’s was clever but costly Reeis?"

"I’eis," I tell hi "Humans should never ht have let you live if you hadn’t scorned ic I was looking forward to watching you ic?" I ask, curiosity winning out over fear "We wouldn’t have been able to close the tunnel if you hadn’t"

Lord Loss sly "I am a sentinel of sorrow I feed on the misery of humanity I cherish this world and its sad, pathetic, pain-struck humans But if my fellow Demonata had been able to coar, wrathful creatures They would haveno survivors, and in a short few years I would have had no more subjects to play with I couldn’t let that happen, could I?"

I stare at him with disbelief "You betrayed your own kind! You tricked theave me power so that I could close the tunnel!"