Whatever power the Wellspring had given the others, it had not given them joy in companionship. Vah's refusal had not helped. Isecan tried to convince him for a while longer, and Selniel even accused Vah of being in league with Findel. At last, they grew too angry and Vah too exhausted. He lapsed into silence and refused to speak. Seeing they could get no further, the others returned to sit in relative isolation one from another, forming a loose circle around the Wellspring as they stared at its waters in silence. Though he stayed near Vah, even Isecan sat down.

Vah was left alone in the unnatural grove, his skin damp from the steam. He was tired, so he followed their example and sat, though he cared nothing for the Wellspring. One by one, the others closed their eyes. What they might be seeing in their souls, Vah could not guess. Perhaps they dreamed sitting up.

Silence was strange among their people, at least in the before times. Their people were not hunters, and unlike the monsters who had attacked them, the Vien did not eat the flesh of any living creature. They moved through the forests freely, singing and talking and telling tales as they ate the free gifts of the forest—the fruits and roots and wild vegetables. They scattered seed on churned earth so that when next they wandered that part of the forest, they might gather in greater abundance. Likewise, they buried the pits of the fruits they ate. In their wanderings, there was conviviality. Song, birdcall, and the soughing of the branches chased all silence away.

Now, in the strange sanctum Isecan and the others had created around the Wellspring, it was unnaturally quiet. The sound of the disturbed water felt more like a masking of other sounds than a noise of life. For months Vah's ears had been buffeted by wind. He could barely hear it, now. The warm air was fragrant with herbs that should never have grown in such a dim light.

"How did you make it warmer?" Vah asked. It was clearly not just the shelter the trees provided, nor the steam from the Wellspring.

Isecan opened his eyes and half turned to face him.

"The sun is weak here, compared to our home. Its warmth disperses up into the sky and is overtaken by cold winds from the north and the west. We can see this through the Wellspring. We simply. . . it is hard to describe, if you have not felt it."

"Try."

"We exerted our will, and directed the Current, and. . . we are holding down the warmth, keeping it from escaping while letting in the sunlight."

How could such a thing be possible? Yet Vah had to accept his brother's words, for he saw the result.

"Do you have to think of it constantly? Is that why you stare?"

"No. We. . . we grasp onto the Current, draw it into ourselves, and direct it with our wills."

"Is that not tiring? To always hold in the warmth?"

"Less tiring than re-growing our food as it dies from cold. Less tiring than trying to stay warm. There is so much power in the Current. We think we may be able to do the same for a much larger area. Maybe even the whole land, if we wanted. But we are wary. . ." Isecan glanced down at his hands. The skin of more than one of his fingers had turned rough and lichen-like up to the first knuckles.

"What does it mean?" Vah asked.

"I do not know. We aren't sure. But if we draw more of the Current into us, then it. . . grows faster. Changes us. When I drank the water, I felt it through my whole body."

Vah grimaced, wondering what that must have done to his brother's insides, if it had so marred his face. Isecan did not appear to be in any pain, though. Vah thought of the rest of their people, suffering the growing cold. Maybe Findel could do the same for them, to bring warmth.

"When you came to get me, you were worried about Findel. Can't you just. . . use that Wellspring, too? There are more of you."

"The two Wellsprings are the same, and yet different. The power has a different. . . taste. Color, maybe?" Isecan shook his head. "It is hard to explain. Before I drank of this water, I could touch that Current, but not like Findel could, and not like I can touch this." He motioned toward the nearby pool. "When I went back for you, I tried to grasp the other Current again, but it was harder than before. When I touched it, I sensed him and he me. My mind grew confused and weak. Findel has exerted great will over that Current. I could not challenge him so near his Wellspring. He is not perfect, though. As he tried to exert his will over me again, he also thought of you. He knew where you were going, and his thoughts betrayed him."

"But did you try to talk with him, or just fight him? You know how he is. He would never let someone else win a contest willingly."

"Vah, this is no game. He controlled us. He forced us to obey him. To mate."

Vah frowned, unable to contest the point.

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"He is our brother," he said.

"And I loved him, yet he still did this." Isecan's face twisted, and his throat quivered. "He knows it. Maybe he did not understand the first time, but he knows what the power has done to us. But not to you. You are not affected. You stayed free."

"I do not know how he could do such a thing," Vah said. "Maybe it is the Wellspring, itself. Maybe it has altered his will. Maybe he needs our help."

Isecan wiped away the tears that rolled down his face. All their lives, Findel and Isecan had been inseparable. "Or perhaps—" Isecan said, his voice much lower, almost a whisper "—we can't be good until we have the power to do evil. Then we find out who we are."

"And it is evil to take someone else's will?"

"It is," Isecan replied, raising his voice. His brother's fervor told Vah his trap would succeed.

"Then you will let me go, when I wish?"

Isecan flinched, and then sighed. At last, he answered:

"You will realize what you must do."

"You fear to go near Findel because you do not know what will happen, and so you wish to force me."

Isecan looked back to the bubbling pool.

"Yet I cannot force you," he said, more to himself than Vah, and then added more loudly: "You must decide if you will do what is necessary for our people."

"And I will what? Murder him? Shed the blood of my brother and bring down a curse upon myself?"

"He has brought a curse down upon himself. His deeds have spoken."

"Are you the Creator, to know all and to make things as you will?" Vah asked.

"It is for our people."

"I will not do this evil."

"Then our people will be like eloeme. Like—" Isecan clearly could not find a word that fit. Eloeme meant "prey," like the little muntjacs that fattened the panthers in the forests of their birth. Yet even muntjacs had the will to flee.

"Then all of you go together," Vah said. "You are more than he. Challenge him as one."

"And if we are all lost, and come again under his sway, will you put an end to him? Will you free us?"

"I will do nothing for those who would risk nothing."

Isecan did not reply to that, staring at the water. The dim light of the sanctum deepened into night, and at last Vah lay where he was and slept with his head upon the moss.

***

It was still dark when Vah awoke. Whether he'd made a decision as he fell asleep or some action of his secret will roused him before dawn, he did not know or remember. The sound of the disturbed water filled the sanctum. Rolling to his feet, he walked straight to the arched entrance and out into the copse beyond. He moved between the trees with the skill of one who had lived his whole life in the woods. It grew brighter ahead, and he could see open ground beyond the silhouettes of the tree trunks.

As he stepped into the open, something snorted to his right, and then the night was full of stirring and rustling. Vah saw a great beast rise from the tall grasses at the edge of the trees. Its two horns gleamed in the starlight, and its eyes glimmered on each side of is long head. Others rose around him, turning their entire bodies to face him with their horns.

"Clear night, friend," Vah said, trembling. "Clear night." He lifted the palms of his hands upward. The beast released a sharp breath through its nose and swatted its tail from side to side, leaning its weight to the left. His heart thumping, Vah took a slow step toward the beast. It lifted its head higher. Vah took two more steps, and the beast turned and trotted away, its hooves thudding dully on the sod.

"We control them with the Current."

Vah spun around. It was Isecan, leaning against a tree as if he had been there for some time, though Vah knew he hadn't.

"Then I will walk," Vah said, turning away.

"Wait." Isecan pushed off the tree and walked toward him. "Will you not stay longer? We could talk more. You might come to see—"

"There is nothing left to say."

Isecan sighed.

"Will you stop me?" Vah asked.

"No, brother." He took a few more steps and wrapped Vah in an embrace. At length, he let go and reached out his hand toward one of the beasts. It snorted and trotted over, swatting with its tail. "I will tell it to bear you back again, and stay by you when you rest." Isecan said. "But I do not know how well it will heed once it passes into Findel's Current."

Vah looked at the mighty creature and wondered that Isecan did not scruple to force the will of an animal. But he knew in his heart it wasn't the same, as distasteful as it was.

"Here," Isecan said, cupping two hands together to aid Vah. With his brother's help, Vah sprang atop the beast and took fistfuls of the long mane. "I hope you come back," Isecan said. "I miss my brothers."

Vah noted that he said "brothers" and not "brother." Yet he had asked Vah to do the unthinkable.

"I will try," Vah answered.

"Isecan!" another voice shouted. Vah looked up and saw Selniel striding out from the trees, a vision of beauty and anger in the starlight, her sun-hued hair glinting in the starlight. "You are aiding him to leave?"

"It is his decision, Selniel."

Selniel directed her response to Vah, and not Isecan:

"If you will not free our people, would you return to the place of prey, or live here among the free?" she asked.

"I will go and do what I might for our people. You do not even dare to speak with Findel. It may be he will listen to me."

"We cannot force him to stay," Isecan said, "or we are no better."

By her expression, Vah expected Selniel to argue, maybe even fight. Instead, she looked away. Maybe Isecan had secret mastery here, and the freedom of the others was a deception. Had these Wellsprings stolen even the most simple of trusts—that those around him were truly their own and not robbed of wills and souls?

Isecan turned back to Vah.

"Go," he said. "I believe that talking with Findel will fail. Knowing a person outside the Current is one thing, but in the Current? There is much beneath the surface."

Vah shrugged.

"Would that we had fled elsewhere, or never known this curse."

"It is not a curse," Isecan said. "It is only a strength to be used."

"Then it is we who are cursed."

Vah looked down at the beast. It had lowered its head and was cropping grass. Isecan understood and raised his hand. The beast wheeled and sprang away so quickly that Vah barely held his grasp of the mane. He gripped the beast's sides with his calves. Its hooves tore the turf, and yards fell away as power flowed beneath Vah—not the vile power of the Current, but strength of muscle and tendon and coursing lifeblood. Yet its will was not its own.

Cold wind struck Vah's face, whipping mane into his eyes. The horned-one lowered its head. The force of the cold blast made Vah gasp. They had left the protection willed by Isecan and the others, and now Vah rode not over green grass but across a faded and desolate plain.

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