"So it was that when Crooked at last came down from the great mountain Xandos and ran toward the house of Stone Man, swift Tricker had run before him. Crooked had no surprise to help him, so when he reached the great gates of Stone

Man's house he found them locked and barred and guarded by many soldiers. This didn't stop Crooked. He stole around them on the roads only he and his great-grandmother knew, until he found himself outside the chamber of Stone Man himself. Tricker had warned his father and was just sneaking away, but Crooked caught him and they fought. Crooked grabbed him around the throat and wouldn't let go. Tricker changed himself into a bull, a snake, a falcon, and even a living flame, but still Crooked wouldn't let go. At last Tricker gave up and resumed his natural shape, a-begging for his life.

" 'I tried to save your mother,' Tricker whined. 'I tried to help her escape. And I have always been your friend! When all the others were against you, I spoke for you. When they cast you out, did I not take you in and give you wine?'

"Crooked laughed. 'You wanted my mother for yourself and would have had her if she had not escaped. You did not speak for me, you took no side-that is always your way, so that you can ally yourself with whoever wins. And you took me in and gave me wine to make me drunk, so that you would learn from me how to make the magical things I gave to Sky Man and the others, but my ivory hand protected me by breaking the cup, and so you failed.' He lifted Tricker up by the neck and carried him into Stone Man's chamber. Crooked was still afraid of the lord of the dark earth, but he knew that one way or another the end was coming.

"Stone Man Kernios trusted no one, so he had not drunk the potion Crooked's mother had prepared for him. He stood ready now in his frightsome gray armor, his awful spear Earthstar in his hand. He was in the greatness of his strength and in his own palace. But he had one other weapon, too, and when Crooked entered by the roads of Emptiness, appearing from the air in front of him, Stone Man showed that weapon to him.