The Talisman

Sloat pushes the buttons on a small safe, revealing a key that fits a toy soldier. He threw the toy away but kept the key. He dropped the key an hour before Jerry Bledsoe’s death, and it escaped the electrical fire that killed Jerry unscathed. Sloat says he’s coming for Jack.

Wolf says that his cattle belong to the Queen. When Jack asks if they are safe from him, Wolf says that he goes somewhere safe when he experiences the change of the moon. Wolfs are damned if they eat from their herd. He says Sloat stole one of his sisters and took her to the other world.

They hear a sudden sound like ripping cloth. A patch of air is rippling and opening nearby. Jack runs as the herd panics and rushes into the river. Jack sees the rest area through the tear, and he hears Sloat’s voice. He sees that he has a key around his neck, which functions as a lightning rod. Sloat—now acting as Orris—shoots electricity at them and explodes the cattle as Jack tries to escape. As he shouts, Sloat keeps referring to Jack as Jason. Jack grabs Wolf and drinks from the bottle. They reenter Jack’s realm near a turnpike, and Wolf is screaming in terror.

Wolf is terrified by vehicles. His overalls are now the OSHKOSH brand, and he is wearing round glasses, which allow him to see better than he ever has. Two long days later, they reach Muncie, Indiana. Jack has a fever, and every step of the journey is difficult. Wolf hates everything about Jack’s world, but especially the odors and the unfamiliar noises. Once, when a man tries to pick them up on the road, Wolf growls at him and refuses to get in the car. He tells Jack that the man was dying. He could smell what people in the Territories call the “Black Disease” (290).

Wolf begs Jack not to leave him, then puts him on his back and runs for two hours. Hoping for a quiet place to rest, Jack takes Wolf to a movie theater that is screening the animated Lord of The Rings. Wolf screams when the flames appear on screen. Jack tells everyone Wolf has epilepsy and they leave. After traveling for a while, they sleep in an empty house near a town called Cammack. In the morning, Jack sees hair on Wolf’s palms.

They camp in the ruins of a house. Wolf gathers herbs in the forest nearby and makes medicine for Jack. Wolf begins watching the moon constantly. Jack drinks the medicine and as reality begins to waver, he thinks he is returning to the Territories. He stabilizes and instantly feels better.

Wolf scares him that night as he paces and howls. Jack buys a padlock at a store to and finds an empty farmhouse with a root cellar. When Jack returns, Wolf is changing. He says Jack is the herd and must go into the shed during Wolf’s change, as dictated by the rules in what Wolf calls The Book of Good Farming.

Over the three days of the change, Jacks says that Wolf can’t kill people. Wolf agrees. He locks Jack in and leaves. Jack paces inside the shed before falling asleep. In the morning, there is a skinned rabbit stuffed into the shed through the crack beneath the door. When Wolf returns, he brings Jack water. He is wearing a college sweatshirt from a clothesline.