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"I suppose the sun is high enough," said the Dog "We will not be bothered for a few hours yet Though ityou," 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 rite here Do not speak it unless you must, for even the naht 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 es for nonical topics

The letters she wrote spelled out a single word

ORANNIS

"Whoor whatis this thing?" asked Lirael when she’d silently read the na 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’tdidn’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 ht the Seven in the Beginning, when the Charter was"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 forever She felt a nervous desire to laugh or screa She looked at Sa his lip, unconscious of the fact that he had really bitten it and blood was trickling down his chin

The Dog did not say anythingat the letters

ORANNIS

"How can we defeat so like that?" burst out Lirael "I’m not even a proper Abhorsen yet!"

Saation or agree it, and she realized it was si had told the 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 h in yourself," explained the Dog "You did not knoho you are Now you do, and you are ready to know fully e face Besides, I was not sure et 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

"Thethe hemispheres to Ancelstierre Once they are across the Wall, I do not knohat is possible Perhaps theserods of Nick’s will enable the Destroyer to join the hemispheres and beco is doomed, on both sides of the Wall"

"It was always the et "It must have worked out that the only place It could coether was somewhere It had never existed And then soed upon a world beyond our own, for the Destroyer was bound long before the Wall was made Clever, clever!"

"You sound like you adht attitude for a servant of the Abhorsens, Mogget"

"Oh, I do adue licking the corners of his white-toothed mouth "But only fro ainst the Seven when It gathered Its host all those long-lost drea "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 helpedthe middle road, for I’ve lost oes on, there are fish in the river, and the Destroyer heads for Ancelstierre and freedom I a"

"I’m not sure I have one," replied Lirael Her brain was saturated with danger She couldn’t even begin to comprehend the threat the Destroyer posed That left roo for her hts "I think I have to get clean and eat so Only I do have one question first Or two questions, I guess

"First of all, if the Destroyer does join Itself back together in Ancelstierre, can It do anything? I ic don’t work on the other side of the Wall, do they?"

"Magic fades," answered Saic at school, thirty miles south of the Wall, but none at all in Corvere It also depends on whether the wind blows from the north or not"

"In any case, the Destroyer is a source of Free Magic in Itself," said the Dog, her brorinkled in thought "Should It becoh I do not knoould dom The Wall alone could not stop It, for the stones carry the power of only two of the Seven, and it took all of theo"

"That leads to my next question," said Lirael wearily "Do either of you know--or remember--exactly hoas split in two by the Seven and bound into the hemispheres?"

"I was already bound, like so et "Besides, I ao, let alone what I was in the Beginning"

"In a way I was present," said the Dog after a long pause "But I, too, am only a shadohat I once was, and my clear memories all stem from a later tiht of a particular passage in The Book of Rehed She had heard the ter froh I don’t knohether I’ll be able to do it But first of all I have to wash before this h my clothes!"