wondered if the others did as well. He strained to reach beyond himself, grasping at knowledge and bringing back only disconnected fragments. It drained him more than a full day of traveling. She also sensed that he was as discontented with his fragmentary answers as the others were.
'We will be as we once were. The memories you cannot understand, the dreams that frighten, come from that time. When they come to you, do not chase them away. Ponder them. Pursue them into the open and share them.' He paused, and when he spoke again, it was more slowly and with less certainty. 'We are long past due to change, so long past due that I fear something has gone terribly wrong. Someone will remember for us. Others will come to protect us and guide us. We will know them. They will know us.'
'The silver provider,' Sessurea asked quietly. 'We followed, but she knew us not.'
Sylic twined uneasily through the heart of the resting tangle. 'Silver. Silver-gray,' he hissed. 'Do you remember, Kelaro? Xecres found the great silver-gray creature and called us to follow it.'
'I do not recall that,' Kelaro trumpeted softly. He opened and closed his huge silver eyes. They spun with shifting color. 'Except, perhaps, as a dream. A bad dream.'
'It attacked us when we gathered close around it. It threw long teeth at us.' Sylic turned a slow knot through his length, pausing when he came to a scar gouged deep. The scales that had grown over it were thick and uneven. 'It bit me here,' the scarlet whispered hoarsely. 'It bit me but it did not devour me.' He turned to look deep into Kelaro's eyes, as if seeking confirmation. 'You tore its tooth from my flesh for me. It had pierced me and it stayed in me, festering.'
Kelaro lidded his gaze. 'I do not recall,' he replied regretfully.
A rippling ran the length of Maulkin's body. His false-eyes shone brighter than they had in a very long time. 'The silver being attacked you?' he asked incredulously. 'He attacked you!' Anger was a rip tide in his voice. 'How could it be that one who gives off the smell of memories turns on those who come to him for help?' He lashed his great head back and forth, his mane coming erect with toxins. 'I do not understand!' he suddenly bellowed out. 'There are no memories of this, not even the taste of a memory! How can it be that these things happen? Where is She Who Remembers?'
'Perhaps they forgot,' Tellur said with black humor. The slender green minstrel had not gained much strength since he had recalled his own name. The effort of maintaining his identity seemed to consume all his energy. How he had been before he had forgotten himself, no one could say. Now he was a dour-humored, sharp- tongued whip. Despite recalling who he had been, he could seldom bring himself to sing.
Maulkin whipped about suddenly to face him. His mane was full standing, his colors rippling. 'They forgot?' he roared in outraged astonishment. 'Have you seen this in a memory or dream? Do you recall a song that speaks of a time when all forget?'
Tellur sleeked his mane to his throat, making himself smaller and less significant. 'It was a jest, great one. An evil jest from a sour minstrel. I beg pardon for it.'
'A jest with perhaps a grain of truth in it. Many of us have forgotten. Could the ones who remember, the memory keepers of us all, have likewise failed in their tasks?'
A despondent silence greeted his question. If it was so, it meant they were abandoned. They had no future save to wander, until one by one their minds failed and grew dark. The serpents gripped one another tighter, holding fast to what little future might remain to them. Maulkin abruptly tugged free of them all. He turned an immense circle and then began a series of slow looping turns. 'Think with me!' he invited them all. 'Let us consider if this could be true. It could account for much. Sessurea, Shreever and I saw a silver being, one that smelled like She Who Remembers. She ignored us. Kelaro and Sylic saw a silver-gray creature. When Xecres, the leader of their tangle, sought memories of him, he attacked them.' He whipped his body about suddenly to confront the others. 'Is that so different from how you all behaved, as you lost your memories? Did not you ignore one another, not replying to my questions? Did not you even attack your fellows as you vied for food?' He arched backwards, revealing his white underbelly as he flashed past them. 'It is so clear!' he trumpeted. 'The minstrel has seen through to the heart of it. They have forgotten! We must force them to remember us!'
The tangle was silent, awe-stricken. Even the mindless serpents who gathered in random tangles of their own at rest times had disengaged to watch Maulkin's jubilant dance. The wonder that shone in so many eyes shamed Shreever, but her doubt was too strong. She voiced it. 'How? How can we make them recall us?'
Maulkin suddenly darted at her. He looped her, wrapped her, and drew her forth from the tangle to join in his sensual weaving. She tasted his toxins as she moved beside him. They were besotted with joy, intoxicatingly free. 'Just as we have re-awakened the others. We shall seek one, confront one, and demand that that one name its name.'
As she had danced with him, entwined and intoxicated, it had been so easy to believe it was possible. They would seek out one of the silver creatures who smelled like memories, force it to remember its purpose and to share its memories with them. And then… then they would all be saved. Somehow.
Now, as she looked up at the shape passing between them and the light, she wondered. They had been days seeking a silver. Once they had caught the scent of one, Maulkin had allowed them only brief pauses for rest. Their purposeful pursuit had near exhausted some of them. Slender Tellur had lost color and bulk. Many of the feral serpents had dropped behind as Maulkin sustained the pace. Perhaps they would catch up with them later; perhaps they would never see them again. For now, Shreever had thoughts only for the bulky creature that moved purposefully above them.
The tangle ghosted along in his shadow. Now that they had actually caught up with him, even Maulkin seemed daunted by their task. In bulk, the silver creature far surpassed any of the serpents. In length, he was the equal of even Kelaro.
'What will we do now?' Tellur asked bluntly. 'We cannot wrap such a creature and drag it down. It would be like wrestling a whale!'
'Actually, that would not be an impossible task,' Kelaro observed with the confidence of his size. He brought his mane up aggressively. 'It would be a battle, but there are many of us. We would prevail.'
'We shall not begin with force,' Maulkin informed him. Shreever watched him gather his strength. Sometimes it seemed to her that the spark of his vitality burned as brightly as ever, but that his physical being dwindled as it burned. She wished she could convince him to conserve himself, but that unending argument was best not begun. The prophet-seer stretched himself to his full length. A swift ripple undulated his whole body, waking his false-eyes to bright gold. Slowly his ruff blossomed about his throat, until every spine of his mane stood stiff and welling venom. His great copper eyes spun with purpose. 'Await my call,' he directed them.
They obeyed as he left them and swam up toward the great silver shape.
This one was not a provider. He had not the taint of old blood and waste to him that was the hallmark of the hulks who bestowed flesh upon them. This creature moved more swiftly, though he had neither fins nor flippers that Shreever could discern. He had a single flipper-like appendage at the back of his rounded belly, but he did not appear to use it to move. Rather he slid through the Plenty effortlessly, with his upper body basking in the Lack. Maulkin matched his pace. He did not seem to have gills, eyes or a mane, but Maulkin hailed him anyway. 'Maulkin's tangle gives you greeting. We have traveled far, in search of One Who Remembers. Are not you such a one?'
He gave no sign of hearing Maulkin. His speed did not slow nor vary. His scent did not change. It was as if he were completely unaware of the serpent. For a time, Maulkin kept pace with him, waiting patiently. He hailed him again, but again there was no response. He suddenly lashed himself to greater speed, to place himself ahead of the silver one. Then, with a shuddering shake of his mane, he released a stunning cloud of toxin.
The creature passed through it without even slowing. He seemed unfazed by the toxins. It was only after he had passed that Shreever sensed something from him; a thin shivering from the silvery body, a faint scent of uneasiness. It was so slight a reaction, scarcely a response at all, but still she took courage from it. He might pretend to ignore them, but he was aware of them all the same.
Maulkin felt the same, for he suddenly whipped his body in front of the creature, where he must pause or collide with him. 'I am Maulkin of Maulkin's tangle! I do demand your name!'
He struck Maulkin. He ran him down as if he were kelp. But Maulkin was not kelp, to be brushed aside. 'I demand your name!' he bellowed. He flung his full length against the silver creature. His tangle followed him. They could not wrap the silver one, though they tried. They could nudge and bump him. Cobalt Kelaro even rammed him, striking a blow that near stunned the serpent, while Sessurea battered the creature's single flipper. Every member of the tangle released their most potent toxins, so that they passed through cloud after cloud of their own poisons. Their attack slowed and baffled the great creature. He hesitated in his course. Shreever heard shrill keening. Did he
