He tried to still the twanging threads hurriedly. The idea was in his mind, of how to put his ideas to them, but between brain and fingers those thoughts became nothing but the moanings and gibberings of an idiot.

He hissed between the teeth they had given him, and tried again, blundering and fumbling, broadcasting nonsense. Then he saw a sudden shift from within and practically fell backward as a large spider rushed at him, raising its front four legs high in the air, brandishing its fangs like hooked daggers. He retreated hurriedly, feeling many eyes on him—the clean and gleaming orbs from the cave, and the pale, narrow regard of the humans.

“What was that?”Lief demanded. “Or is that just a really aggressive way of saying how’d you do?”

“I cannot speak.” Nth stared at his hands, feeling a trembling shock course through him. “I could not make the words.” His recent life had been a study in estrangement but now he felt it all again.

“Well, that’s just great,” Harathes spat. “So what good is he, then?”

“If that is the way forward,” Dion said grimly, “then that is the way we must take. If the denizens will not allow us passage, then we must show them they cannot obstruct the servants of the Light. It will be as it was in the forest. We will have to kill them until they learn to avoid us, as with any beasts.”

“No!” Nth got out. He remembered the forest all too well. Except, now he tried to picture it, he found himself within the circle of burning light watching his own people as they fled and burned. He could not imagine himself as one of the forest-dwellers. He felt his heart speed, panic running through him, and even that sensation was uniquely human, distinct from its spider equivalent. The very organs by which his body talked to him were wrong.

“Then speak to them again,” Dion told him, and not for the first time, from her exasperated tone.

“I can’t,” he said desperately. “This—body, these,” he held up his hands as though they were dead meat. “I—cannot talk anymore. You took it from me!”

Dion’s face darkened, and Nth was already quailing back from whatever verdict she would pass, when Penthos put in, “Well, I suppose I could just give him his shape back for a bit. Would that help?”

Everyone was staring at the wizard, Nth included.

“That… ,” Lief started. “That’s a thing you can do, is it?”

Penthos looked exasperated. “Am I not the grand master of the—”

“Power Elemental, yes, yes. But you can—”

“Do it,” Nth said. He had not realized, until he saw them staring at him, how forcefully he had spat the words out. “Do it. I will do whatever you wish.”

Dion nodded guardedly. “If it is safe.”