“Malta!” he called again, far louder. His voice, which once would have rung in this chamber, was swallowed and damped by the wet earth.

“Did you find her?” Selden called anxiously from the door.

“Not yet. But I will.”

Dread was in the boy's voice as he called out, “There's water coming. From under the wall. It will run down the steps soon.”

Earth might press, but water devoured. With an angry roar, Reyn charged at the log of silent wood. He slammed his hands flat onto it. “Where is she?” he demanded. “Where is she?”

The dragon laughed. Her laughter boomed through his mind, slamming him with familiar pain. She was back, back in his head. He was sickened by what he had done, but knew he had had no choice.

“Where is Malta?”

“Not here.” Insufferable smugness.

“I know that, damn you. Where is she? I know you are linked with her, I know that you know.”

She gave him a faint waft of Malta, like waving a bit of meat above a dog's nose. He sensed her through the dragon. He felt her exhaustion, and knew the leaden ache of her sleep.

“This city cannot stand much longer. It is going to collapse. If you don't help me find her and get her out, she'll die.”

“How excited you are about that! Yet it never seemed to bother you that that was my eventual fate.”

“That's not true. Damn you, dragon, you know that is not true. I have agonized over your fate; I have begged and pleaded with my kind to help you. Through the years of my youth, I near worshipped you. There was not a day I did not come to you. I did not try to escape you until you turned against me.”

“Yet you were never willing to surrender to me. A pity. You could have learned all the secrets of the city in a single night. As Malta did.”

His heart stood still in him. “You drowned her,” he said flatly. “You drowned her in the city's memories.”

"She dove into them, most willingly. From the moment she entered the city, she was far more open to it than any other I have encountered. She dove and she swam. And she tried to save me. For your sake and the sake of her father.

You were the price I was to pay, Reyn. I was to leave you in peace forever in exchange for her freeing me. A pity for you that she did not succeed."

“The water is coming faster, Reyn!” The boy's shrill voice broke into the dialogue in his mind. Reyn turned to look at him. The candle illuminated his small gray face. He stood on the steps, just inside the door. The water flowed past his feet in a sheet and cascaded silently down the broad shallow stairs. It reflected the light of the boy's candle with an eerie beauty. Death gleamed in the darkness.

He smiled sickly at the little boy. “It will be all right,” he lied ruthlessly. “Come here, Selden. There is a last thing for us to do, you and I. Then we'll be finished here.”

He took the boy's gritty hand in his. Wherever Malta slept in the city, she slept her last sleep. The sheeting water told him all. It would all be over far more swiftly than he had ever feared.

He turned his back on the wizardwood log. He led Selden to the first panel on the wall. He fixed the candle to the wall with a bit of wax, then smiled at the boy in the darkness. “There's a great big door here. All we have to do, you and I, is open it. A lot of dirt will come down with it, as it opens. Don't be afraid. Once we get these cranks to turn, we just have to keep turning them. No matter what. Can you do that?”

“I guess so,” the boy replied dubiously. He could not seem to take his eyes off the water.

“Let me try this one first. I'll let you have whichever one is easier to turn.”

Reyn set his hands to the crank. He bore down on it with all his weight. It did not move. Remorselessly, he took a claw tool from his belt. He struck the main shaft of the crank mechanism several times, then tried his strength against it again. It resisted for a moment, then slowly the wheel turned, grating past some coarseness in its works. It would turn, but it would be hard work for the boy. Reyn took a pry bar from his belt and shoved it through the spokes of the crank. “You work it like this. Stick it through a spoke, brace it against this thing and then pull down. Try it.”

Selden was able to move the wheel a notch. Reyn heard the thud of the counterweight inside the wall. He smiled with satisfaction. “Good. Now move the bar to the next spoke and get a fresh bight on it. That's right.”

When he was content that the boy had the knack of it, he left him there and moved to the other panel. He worked quickly to clear more of the soil away from the workings. He refused to think about the results of what he was doing. He focused instead on how he would accomplish it.