"When at last he found Water Man asleep in his chamber, drunken and senseless with the potion that Moon had given him, Crooked paused, a strange mood come upon him. Water Man had not joined in the torture of Crooked like the other two brothers, and Crooked did not feel the same hatred for him that he felt for Sky Man and Stone Man. Still, Water Man had made war on Crooked's family and helped to make Crooked's mother a widow, and then joined his brothers in banishing the rest of Crooked's clan into the sky. Also, while he lived on the earth the line of the Moisture clan, Crooked's enemies, would survive. Showing a kind of mercy, Crooked did not wake Water Man up to learn his fate, but instead opened a door into a part of the lands of Emptiness where no one had ever gone, a secret place even his great-grandmother had forgotten, and pushed Water Man through as he slept. Then, when Erivor the Water Man was gone from the world, Crooked closed the door again.

"He passed out of the undersea house again through his secret paths, wondering whether to go next to confront Sky Man or Stone Man. Of the three brothers, Sky Man was the strongest and cruelest, and had made himself lord of all the gods. He ruled them from his palace atop the mountain called Xandos-the Staff-and the godly court protected him more completely than any walls. His sons Huntsman, Horseman, and Shieldbearer were almost as powerful as their father, and his daughters Wisdom and Forest could also best almost any warrior, let alone a cripple like Crooked. It would make sense to wait until last to attack Sky Man in his great fortress.

"But the truth was that cold, silent Stone Man, not his raging brother, was the one that frightened Crooked most.

"So he traveled to the Staff on the paths of Emptiness, and all the clan of Moisture felt his passing but could not see or hear or smell him.