Sai barged through the door of the egg chamber. "COATL-OME!" he shouted. "YOU HAVE TO HELP ME!"

  The golden quezpal jumped, sending her tools and bits of a tematlatl flying about the room. "By the Nightmare, Wulfgar," she hissed. "I'm sitting right here. You don't need to shout."

  "WHAT?" Sai asked.

  "Oh," said Coatl-ome. "It's the echo, isn't it?"

  "SORRY," said Sai, "I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THIS STUPID ECHO!"

  Coatl-ome jabbed a claw into his chest. "Desist," she commanded.

  Sai recoiled, the psychic fire searing through his mind. "Ow!" he yelped, clapping his hands to his ears. "Wow, that stung." Then his jaw dropped and he lowered his hands. "Wait! I can hear again! What did you do?"

  "An old dragon trick to block irritating noises from your mind," Coatl-ome said. She bent to gather her things from the floor. "Now I take it that you have something for me?"

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  "Yeah, this echo in my pack," said Sai. He could feel the power of it still thrumming, even though the noise had stopped. "Kunago told me to bring it to you. I think that's what he said, at least. It was hard to hear anything at the time."

  Coatl-ome returned to her seat and went back to lacing the sling strings of the tematlatl. "You bear a token of the Sorrowful Bard," she said. "I can make you something more functional to contain it. It should let you channel a bit of Kunago's power as well."

  "Contain it?" Sai asked. "How?"

  "Kunago's most closely associated with music," said Coatl-ome. "So a bit of ear jewelry would work best, I believe."

  Sai frowned at her. "You want me to wear earrings?" he asked.

  Coatl-ome snorted. Smoke drifted from her nostrils. "I don't care what you wear," she said. "If you want something that will let you make use of that echo, bring me some precious metals and stones that you like and I'll make a focus for it. Or just live with an echoing pack. It's all the same to me."

  "How do you know how to do this?" Sai asked.

  The golden quezpal's hands went still. "Time passes strangely in the nightmare," she said. She turned her head to stare out the door to the balcony. "And there is no sun to track the passage of days. But I have lived in Somber Tune, listening to Kunago's song, for a very, very long time. I can work with the echo."

  "Okay," said Sai. "I guess. We haven't really been in here that long, though."

  Coatl-ome flicked her tongue. "Right," she said, returning to her work. "To each our own nightmare, I guess."