* * * * *
"I don't understand this."
Madeline's face dripped tears. I'd brought in her husband's body, his skin pale and without wounds. The corpse lay behind the cabin now, buried in the snow. I'd kept silent, as I'd promised; but Annith had not. She enjoyed teasing them with the truth. She'd told them what she was and what she'd done; and I saw that not a one of them believed her, except perhaps the boy. The world outside the cabin was white and still and cold, like Tom Jeffers. The mortals inside only awaited Annith's pleasure before they joined him in the snow. Day after day the cold lingered, and no one made any effort to leave, until the very thought of leaving seemed as remote as a dream. Over and over again, I heard Madeline make the same lament.
"You poisoned my husband!" she accused, ready to believe anything but the truth. Her eyes were wild and her hands tore at her hair as if she didn't know what they did. She could sense that she and her son were trapped, Sister Angelica too, but she couldn't truly comprehend why or how. "Don't bother with your crazy lies about the Lord of Darkness—"
"Stop it!" Annith warned with a hiss. Like a snake, she rose from her seat, swaying over the miserable woman. "Don't say His name!"
"If you don't want them to say his name, why have you told them about him?" I asked, weary of this needless torment, weary of the cabin, weary of Annith, weary of myself. "Are you really that foolish?"
She turned on me, green eyes bright, movements quick and lively. Yes, she'd fed well on Tom Jeffers.
"I was lonely, Nate Lee. You're no company to me, with your oath and your sighing after a corpse. No doubt you can't understand, but sometimes the part of me that's human gets lonely. I have to show myself sometimes, or the burden gets too heavy, and none of these mortals ever will tell."
"I don't understand," Sister Angelica said, rising to try to soothe Madeline, as always. She took the other woman's hand, although Madeline didn't seem to notice her. "Why is it so important not to speak your father's name."
"Because I forbid it! Nate Lee is right. I've told you too much already. You will not speak His name."
"I'll say whatever I want," Madeline said, her voice shrill and frightened. "I've had enough of you, enough of this place. I'm not going to tolerate any more of your fantasy about the Lord—"
"No! Be silent!"
Annith raised her hand, and I did not stop her. Sick with fear, she silenced the woman. Annith closed Madeline's mouth, she closed her face. I watched as Madeline's flesh grew together, leaving no opening for that dread Name to escape in summons. In terror, Annith crouched on the rough floor of the cabin, burying her face in her hands. Almost, I could pity her, but I pitied Madeline more as her body arched in spasms while she tried to breathe through the mask of her own flesh. Sister Angelica stared in helpless horror, as Madeline clawed bloody furrows where her nose and mouth had been. But soon she was still, limp in the little nun's arms.
Annith would have run if she could, tried to hide, but she knew there was no safety in flight, not from the Lord of Darkness and Delight. I smelled the stink of her loosened bowels, and I heard the keening, wail that came from her throat.
"Has He heard, Nate Lee? Answer me!" Her hands covered her face, and she rocked back and forth in her terror.
"Yes," I said, not moving from my corner by the fire, "He always hears"
"But did He listen? Has this foolish Madeline summoned Him?," Annith demanded. "Oh, I never should have kept these people so long.
"I will kill them," she promised Him wailing. "I will do as you have taught me, Father, only let me live." She sobbed, and her terror was like an offering to Him. "Let me live," she begged Him, "let me live."
At last, with sweet words Sister Angelica spoke to her.
"Get up. Dry your tears. There's no need to fear anyone as much as this."
Annith raised her head, and Sister Angelica's black skirts brushed her cheek. I marveled that the little nun could offer comfort in the face of such horror. Most mortals would be screaming now, as Madeline had tried to scream, or curled in a ball in the corner like young Thomas Junior.
"There is good reason to fear my Father," Annith said, trembling. Her hands clutched the dark wool habit as if clutching at a last hope. "That fool Madeline would have called Him here."
Sister Angelica sighed. Was there pity in that sigh? For whom? For Madeline? For Annith? For herself? Perhaps for all of us.
"The poor woman won't call anyone now," Sister Angelica said.
Annith looked away from the dense black of Sister Angelica's skirts. Yes, there was Madeline, sprawled nearby. On her hands and knees, Annith crawled to where Madeline lay. She pushed Madeline's hair away from where her face had been. Annith saw how, in her terror, she had sealed Madeline's lips, and her eyes, and her every orifice so that the poor bitch had suffocated under her own skin. Madeline was dead, and Annith was still hungry and still afraid.
"What have you done to her? How did you do that to poor Madeline? How could you do it!" Sister Angelica asked.
"I changed her," Annith said turning away, indifferent to the empty corpse. She couldn't feed on the dead.
"Changed?"
"Changed. It's what I do. I told you that. I can change things, and I can feed. That's all I do."
"Did you feed on Madeline?"
"Of course not. You can see that she's dead." Annith licked her lips. "But I fed on Thomas Jeffers."
"But how?"
Annith looked at her in surprise.
"Life, I take life."
"But how?" Sister Angelica repeated.
Did she think that by understanding Annith, she could avoid her fate? I wondered. Annith would keep her for a while, but hunger always returned, sooner or later.
"How do you eat?" Annith countered, growing impatient with the questions. "Can you tell me how bread and cheese becomes Sister Angelica?"
The nun was silent, thinking. It made no difference.
"My Father takes in life as he breathes, all life except my mother's," Annith said. "But I, I had to be taught. I wasn't born knowing how to use my gift, but once I found it, it set me apart forever.
"I take all their years, their days, their hours, and the time is mine—mine forever. The taste of their time is sweet, and they give me much power."
"Sister Darkness, you steal their souls!"
Annith smiled. For the first time, Sister Angelica was truly afraid of her.