and began to point the lantern toward the cats while backing up next to Elli. Instantly the black spot disappeared, and Elli was again surrounded by the impenetrable duskiness of the OOeegaltabog, no longer able to see the Blackmouths, which nevertheless could fully see them. One of the unseen cats flew at the lantern, knocking it from Beatríz’s grip. “Ah!” screamed Beatríz.
As soon as the lamp struck the ground, another of the Blackmouths grabbed it, while Elli, on hearing the lamp fall, pulled her knife and began waving it wildly all about at the creatures, which were now nearly next to her but not visible in the fog.
“Elli! The lamp!”
“I know, Beatríz—I think they’ve got it!” Not even able to see her knife that she was yet swiping at the thick gases swirling from the agitation of the hidden beasts creeping ever nearer and about to attack, Elli yelled, “In the will of the Good!” Elli couldn’t, in that moment, recall if she had ever used the one opportunity she had, according to Hannah, to invoke the special dispensation and powers of the Good’s will while brandishing her knife in battle, but she had nothing to lose—and hoped the Good would look favorably on her appeal, regardless.
The Blackmouths continued to growl and yelp stridently, but made no further advances toward the girls.
“Elli!” screeched Beatríz, “the lamp! We’ve got to get the lamp!”
“I know, Beatríz! I know! I’m trying to get it!” Elli heard the lamp being dragged along the ground, moving away from them off to her left. “Quiet, Beatríz!” Elli ordered, but barely audibly so. She clamped down on the hilt of the knife with the pressure of a vice grips and dove to the ground where she thought the noise of the lantern scuffing against the peat was coming from, striking hard at a place just beyond the lantern, and piercing what she assumed was the skull of a Blackmouth; the creature wailed and let go of the lamp—which Elli then frantically felt for and grabbed with her free hand before scrambling back next to Beatríz.
While still slicing through the fog with her knife, Elli pressed the lantern back into Beatríz’s hand. “Here, Beatríz! Turn around—and quickly! Find the black spot again!” But Beatríz had already started to turn as soon as she felt the lantern in her hand, and had found the dark circle behind her eyelids by the time Elli had finished giving her orders.
The wide globe of light cast by the lantern returned at once, encircling the girls and fully illuminating the Blackmouths—that yelled and yowled more ferociously, while nevertheless skulking backwards beyond the reach of the lamp’s beam. Within several seconds that felt to the girls like several minutes, Elli and Beatríz had returned to the place by the black water where the lantern had wanted, and still wanted, them to cross—to a large moor that was far too far away to get to by jumping. The Blackmouths continued to follow them, but remained at the edge of darkness.
“The Blackmouths are still close, aren’t they, Elli?” Beatríz asked with a nervous weariness in her voice.
“They’re still around, Beatríz, but I can’t see them—they seem to be staying with us, but taking great care to stay out of the light.”
“How far across did you say it was, Elli?”
“Eight—maybe ten—feet now; but like the other one back there, this one also seems to have moved a bit further away—and,” she added, glancing across the black seam, and sounding the alarm, “it’s still moving away, I think!”
“What do we do, then, Elli?” said Beatríz, disconsolately. “We know we have to cross—the lantern seems to be insisting that we cross—but how are we to do that?” Elli, thinking hard, was glancing back and forth between the crossing and the edge of darkness where the Blackmouths were lurking. “You struck the Blackmouth who had the lantern, didn’t you? I can hardly imagine you thought about doing that, Elli, much less doing it.”
Still focused on the challenge at hand, Elli answered Beatríz, sounding like one just emerging from a dream, “If I had thought about it, Beatríz, I’m sure I would never have done it . . . but somehow I was prepared to do it.”
In the silence that ensued, the girls heard the stewing of the liquid near their feet and the panting of the Blackmouths.
“But Elli!” Beatríz said, breaking the silence. Both girls noted the heightened degree of excitement emanating from the area occupied by the now-restive cats, signaling perhaps a decision on their part to attack, notwithstanding the light. As there was no answer seemingly forthcoming from Elli, Beatríz said again, “Elli?” Beatríz waited just a second or so for her friend to acknowledge her. “Elli?” she now yelled.
“Beatríz, I heard you . . . but, I think we have to wait before we cross.”
“Wait for what?” asked Beatríz, impatiently.
“For something, Beatríz—something, anything, anything at all that will show us how to get to the other side—or something to send the lantern in a different direction—unless, of course, the Blackmouths come after us; then we’ll have no choice but to head into the water.”
The air was warm, but the density of the dampness, together with their soaked clothing and relative inactivity, caused the girls to shiver, Beatríz uncontrollably so. Beatríz then heard a somewhat different set of noises issuing from the darkness, remarking her detection to Elli. Elli looked and saw, as she had earlier, no bodies of the cats; but she did see the disembodied feet of a number of Blackmouths visible just inside the furthest reach of the lantern’s light, stealthily shuffling toward the girls, Elli noting an odd look about them. There were no eyes or black mouths at all visible—only “dismembered” feet!
“Elli, what’s happening?”
“They’re coming toward us again, Beatríz, but, but . . . even though it’s hard to tell for sure . . . it seems . . . yes! It seems that they’re backing in toward us, Beatríz, to avoid looking at the light. I don’t know if they intend to come the whole way, but they’re most definitely coming—slowly, but surely!”
“Elli, what are we going to do?”
Elli watched, transfixed, as the black paws advanced backwards toward them. Seeing nothing that would indicate the Blackmouths were going to stop before reaching the two of them, Elli said, “There’s only one thing we can do, Beatríz,” Elli said, as she glanced at her friend, “and that is to try to cross the water; I don’t know what we’re going to find in that stuff, but it’s hard to imagine it could be any worse than facing the Blackmouths.”
Elli flashed another look at the black paws still approaching with measured stealth and soon upon them, and said, “Okay, Beatríz, let’s go! Into the water! Grab my wrist—I’ll grab yours—and let’s get across as fast as we can! Try to stay upright!”
Before Beatríz could reply, Elli took two steps into the knee-deep liquid and then drew Beatríz in. The puree of turbulent, black mud impeded smooth and steady movements, and the soft, tacky bottom of the seam, thick as clay, sucked at Beatríz’s boots, nearly pulling them off, and causing her to tumble forward, nearly submerged in the putrid muck. She struggled to keep the lantern above the waterline, but wasn’t able with only the other hand to push herself back up out of the oily liquid. Elli leaned back on her heels and yanked with both hands on Beatríz’s free wrist holding the lantern. Beatríz rose from the water, and then her boots popped from the muck, one right after the other, sending her stumbling forward again, but this time—fortunately—into the arms of Elli, who hauled Beatríz to shore. The two collapsed next to each other, and Beatríz began to scream.
“Elli!
