"Dammit!" He wasn't healing, and his pulse was even slower. Panic stirred at the sight of his paling features. Ashley yanked a knife free and smashed the arrowheads. They broke with the ease of brittle slate, and she made sure they were in too many pieces to be used as weapons again before putting the knife away.

Jonny still wasn't moving.

A trickle of a memory, a thought, moved through her head. Suddenly, she recalled standing in her bedroom, facing a creature that looked very much like an Other, except his eyes were green.

"I'm a friend," the green-eyed stranger said. "I'm the Original Watcher."

"I have no idea what that means," she snapped. "What're you doing in my room?"

"I came to deliver a message."

She frowned, glaring at him.

"When the time is right, you will remember me and what I'm about to tell you."

"What is that supposed to mean?" she asked.

"You'll understand at a later time."

Ashley gripped her knife more tightly.

"The Others could not kill the gods, but they had a means to control or weaken them. Weapons made of the bones of Oracles. The blood of an Oracle once enslaved the Grey God, Darian. The bones of ancient Oracles can do the same to the Black God - render them vulnerable enough for a godslayer to kill him," said the creature. "These bones, kept in hiding by Others, have been found by the enemies of the Black God."

"Um, why in the hell do I care what happens to Jonny?" she retorted.

"There has not been balance since the Schism. The current Black God is the lesser of two evils, the only chance there is for peace and balance in any scenario we Watchers can see."

"And why are you telling me this?"

"Because you must break the weapons to break their power. All of them. They're linked."

Ashley blinked out of the memory she hadn't recalled that was now vividly playing through her thoughts. "Break all the weapons," she murmured and looked around. She saw no more near the Black God but caught the glint of something a short distance away, closer to the front of the burnt down lodge. "Hang in there, Jonny!" She touched his face, worry filling her with charged energy, and then ran.

Five more of the bone-tipped arrows were scattered in the yard. Ashley crushed them under her heel and started back to check on Jonny when she felt it. The weird energy cloud of Valon's, the one that left her senses confused.

Not now, she willed him. Valon was strong enough to pose an issue when she wasn't fully on her feet.




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