the dim light of the lantern lying by itself on the ground providing no assistance.
“I can’t see anything, Beatríz!” said Elli, as she began to claw away at the mud on one of Beatríz’s thighs, feeling one—and then another—of something clinging fast to Beatríz. Once she had cleared away much of the mud, Elli felt two distinct creatures attached, as if riveted, to Beatríz’s upper leg; they were about eight inches long and three inches wide, and as thin as cardboard. With dozens of rings of armor coiling each body from end to end, the creatures resembled squashed Slinkies.
“Elli! Elli! They’re biting me!” Beatríz screamed again. “I can’t get them off! Help me! Please!”
Holding their breaths and grimacing, the girls were together trying to dig their nails from all four hands underneath one of the attackers from the black world, but were making no progress when Elli yelled, “Hold up the lantern, Beatríz, and point it so I can see better!”
“Quickly, Elli! Get them off! They’re hurting me so!” Beatríz wailed, as she grabbed hold of the lantern with a flailing hand and swung the lamp wildly to find the dark circle behind her eyelids that would provide Elli light in front of hers.
“There! There! In that direction, Beatríz!”
“Elliiiii!”
“I’m trying, Beatríz! I’m trying! I need more light—keep moving the lantern and try to be steady! I’m going to try my knife—hold still!” Beatríz felt like she was going to go crazy, but managed nevertheless to keep her legs quite still while twisting her torso to get the lantern pointing correctly.
“There! Right there! Stop! Stop, Beatríz!”
In the increasing light Elli was probing desperately to find a spot between one of the creatures and Beatríz’s skin where she could insert the knife and hope either to kill the crustacean-like animal or to at least pry it loose enough to be able to pull it off with her free hand—and, of course, do so without further injuring her friend, or hurting herself. However, as soon as the light fell fully on Beatríz’s legs, and before Elli had inserted her knife, the creatures released their grip and dropped to the sodden peat, where they curled into tight balls and rolled quickly back into the black liquid. Elli stabbed at one or two of them as they rolled away, but her blade bounced harmlessly off their armored backs.
Relieved of the assailants, Beatríz flopped on her stomach to the ground, one hand still holding on to the lantern—that, amazingly, was still holding on to the direction it wanted to take its followers. Elli sat bending over her friend, probing for wounds; carefully scraping away all the mud, she found nine places where the creatures’ mouths had penetrated Beatríz’s skin, in addition to each creature having left behind an injury in the shape of an oval that no doubt hundreds of tiny barbed legs had created. At one end of each oval was a single hole the size of a pea reflecting a deep perforation by something like a sharp tongue or stinger; blood had initially spurted from each of the holes as soon as the creatures had withdrawn themselves, but the wounds—for good or ill—fast sealed themselves against any further loss of blood.
“Beatríz! Are you okay—I mean, sort of? Enough to keep going?” Elli asked, apologetically, but with a tone of urgency, hearing now the padding of numerous feet hidden just beyond the edge of the darkness at light’s end, and on their side of the water!
“I’d really like to rest for a bit—for just a bit—Elli; but,” she added, in a tone of resignation, and without looking toward her friend, her head lying on its side, eyes closed, “I suppose we can’t, can we?”
“I’m sorry, Beatríz, but if you can, we should keep going—you can hear the frenzy, even better than I. I’ll walk next to you and help keep you going.”
“More Blackmouths, aren’t there?” said Beatríz, exhaling, as she allowed Elli to help her to her feet. So dazed were the girls as they shuffled on behind the lantern, that Beatríz required all her focus and energy, and both hands, simply to keep it held aloft, and Elli was too weary to dispute the light’s wisdom.
On they trudged, their feet dragging along the ground as if chained to stones. They hiked on in this fashion for what would have been the equivalent in Millerton of several hours, or so thought Elli, the trek reminding Beatríz of their climb into The Mountains, so endlessly the same did the challenging terrain feel beneath her boots. The sound of Blackmouth feet remained with the girls the entire time, becoming a noise they scarcely noticed any longer in its hiddenness and constancy. Only occasionally, when there was a random yelp or a rare growl, did the girls remember to their horror that they were being followed; but at no time did one of the cats emerge—even slightly—into the light that encircled Elli and Beatríz and cradled them with the protection promised by Aneht. At times there was a flashing of eyes or black teeth behind the curtain of darkness that caught the lantern’s rays, but even these soon went unnoticed by the girls in their frequency.
At one point, well beyond the incident with what Elli came to think must have been leeches, Elli was startled by the sound of snarling right behind her—where she had forgotten to look for quite some time. “Agh!” she yelped, and stopped.
“What’s the matter, Elli?” said Beatríz, who was startled more by Elli’s cry than by the snarling of something else.
“A Blackmouth, Beatríz! Right behind me! But . . . but the good thing is that, even though it was only a few feet away from us, it was probably following us backwards—and then, when it decided to turn into the light, and I heard it wail, it ran off back into the darkness.” Elli sighed loudly. “I don’t think they can hurt us, Beatríz, as long as we’re in the light—even if they get really close to us; let’s hope so anyway, huh?”
“Yeah, let’s hope so,” said Beatríz, in a voice that, to Elli, seemed languid.
“Are you okay, Beatríz? Just really tired?” said Elli, grabbing Beatríz’s shoulders and staring into her wide open eyes. Beatríz, swaying like a tall, thin tree in a stiff, variable breeze, and gazing into the circle of gloom where the Blackmouths were prowling and pacing, made no answer, as if she hadn’t heard Elli or wasn’t aware of her presence—or even her touch. And having turned around as soon as Elli cried out, and now facing opposite the direction in which the lantern was leading them, the light was already dimming markedly. A foggy darkness was creeping toward them from the now-fuzzy line of separation between the circle of light and the blackness beyond, the Blackmouths stirring impatiently.
“Beatríz?” Again she said, “Beatríz?”
“I . . . I’m sorry, Elli . . . I don’t know what’s happening,” Beatríz said, her words running together and her legs beginning to buckle. She sank to the ground, sitting on her knees, eyes large and round, reminding Elli of her first sight of Hannah.
“Beatríz! Beatríz!”
Suddenly, as if coming from the Blackmouths who were lurking close by, Elli and Beatríz were surrounded by laughter, shrill and sinister. “Hoo! Hoo! Hoo! . . . Hoo! Hoo! Hoo! . . . Hoo! Hoo! Hoo! . . . Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!”
Elli, who had lowered herself to the black turf alongside Beatríz, abruptly stood and started to spin around, pulling her knife and thrusting it threateningly.
“Hoo! Hoo! Hoo! . . . Hoo! Hoo! Hoo! . . . Hoo! Hoo! Hoo! . . . Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!”
“Beatríz! Beatríz! Hold up the lantern! The light’s going away!” she yelled down to her friend. But Beatríz had let go of the lamp—and she was now crawling away. Elli dove at Beatríz’s
