Ross felt the tendons in his neck go taut with his rage. “Well, it feels as if they are my responsibility, and I’m the one who has to live with the consequences of their dying because of my efforts or lack thereof, and blaming it on the Word or fate or whatever is a whole lot of bullshit! Don’t try to tell me it isn’t something I should think about! Don’t try to tell me that! I do think about it! I think about it every day of my life. I see the faces of those children, dying in front of me. I see their eyes …”

He wheeled away, tears blurring his vision. He felt defeated. “I can’t do it anymore, and that’s all there is to it. You can’t make me do it, O’olish Amaneh No one can.”

He went silent, waiting for whatever was going to happen next, half believing this was the end for him and not caring if it was.

But the Indian did not move. He was so still he might have been carved from stone.

“The consequences of accepting responsibility for the lives of others are not always pleasant. But neither are the consequences of abdicating that same responsibility. What is certain is that you cannot pretend to be someone other than who you are. You made a choice, John Ross. Failure and pain are a part of the price of your choice, but you cannot change that by telling yourself the choice was not binding. It was. It is.”

The big man’s voice dropped to a whisper. “By behaving as you do, you present a danger to yourself. Your self-deception places you at great risk. Whatever you believe, you are a Knight of the Word. You cannot be otherwise. The creatures of the Void know this. They will come for you. They will steal your soul away. They will make you their own.”

Ross shook his head slowly. “No, they won’t. I won’t let them.”

“You won’t be able to stop it.”

Ross met his gaze. “If they make the attempt, I will resist. I will resist to the point of dying, if that’s what it takes. I may no longer be in service to the Word, but I will never serve the Void. I will never do that.”

O’olish Amaneh looked out the window into the snow-covered landscape, into the somnolent white. “The Void wants your magic at its service, and it will do what it takes to obtain it. Subverting you will take time and effort and will require great deception, but it will happen. You may not even realize it until it is too late. Think, John Ross. Do not lie to yourself.”

Ross held out the black staff. “If you take this from me now, the Void can do nothing. The solution is simple.”

The Indian made no move. He kept his gaze directed away, his body still. “Others have suffered a loss of faith. Others have tried to abandon their charges. Others like you. They have been warned. Some thought they were strong. They have all been lost. One way or the other, they have been lost.”