
to do,” he said. “Kastel Drakhaon is in ruins. Will you work with me to rebuild it?”
It was not until he left the shrine to walk across the monastery courtyard with Semyon and Askold at his
side that he heard again the far-distant echo of the Drakhaoul’s dying voice, each word etched in fire on
his mind:
“Why do you betray me? Divide us and you’ll go insane. …”
The old fisherman Kuzko and his wife found him lying on the seashore, so battered by the waves and the
rocks that his clothes were torn to shreds. For days he wandered between life and death—and when he
returned to himself, he no longer knew who he was. The sea had stolen his memories from him. The only
distinguishing feature was a signet ring on his broken right hand… but the device had been worn so
smooth by the sea and the rocks that it was impossible to tell with any certainty what it had been.
So they called him Tikhon after their own lost son, drowned years before in another night of terrible
storms, and they nursed him slowly back to health. Many weeks later, when he could walk again, he
began to help with a task or two: mending nets, carrying wood for the fire.
Everything had to be relearned, even speech; he was like a great child, limping slowly after Kuzko,
speaking awkwardly, as if his tongue would not obey his brain. Yet he seemed cheerful enough in spite of
his deficiencies—although sometimes he was suddenly overcome with a terrible wordless raging that
could not be assuaged.
Tikhon was helping old Kuzko mend the boat, caulking a leak in the storm-battered hull with a stinking
mess of oakum and pitch that Kuzko had boiled up over a driftwood fire. The wind blew keen and raw
across the bleak island shore. There was nothing to be seen here for miles but sea and rocks. The sky
was pale with scudding clouds. Until Kuzko noticed one cloud blowing toward them, darker than the
rest, moving faster than the others.
“Storm coming,” he shouted to Tikhon. “Best find shelter till it passes.” He gazed up into the sky. This
was no ordinary stormcloud; it was moving too fast, its course erratic and unpredictable. And as it
tumbled nearer, the light began to fade from the sky and the shoreline turned black as night.
Tikhon stumbled after his adoptive father—but his damaged body betrayed him and, with a gargling cry,
he fell on his face on the pebbled beach.
The old fisherman started back toward him. “Come on, lad!”
The dark cloud hovered overhead. Lightning crackled—and Kuzko dropped back, covering his eyes.
Tikhon let out another cry of terror as he cowered in the lightning’s beam.
Kuzko watched, helpless, as with a sudden, sinuous movement, the cloud wrapped itself like a dark
shroud around Tikhon. The lad convulsed, his body wracked by violent shudders, twisting this way and
that as though struggling with some invisible shadow-creature.
And then the struggle ceased. The darkness had disappeared—and the sun’s pale winter light pierced the
scudding clouds.
Kuzko slowly picked himself up. “T-Tikhon,” he stammered. The lad lay unmoving. Tears welled in his
eyes. He had seen his son taken from him once—was he to have to endure it all again?
“Tikhon?” he said, extending a shaking hand to touch the boy’s shoulder.