"Damn it!" she said, sobbing into his muscular shoulder. "Goddamn it!" Through the tears, through her grief, she could feel the joker go still and silent. Sniffing, she pulled back. When Hannah glanced at Quasiman, she saw that he'd slipped into a fugue. She put her arms around him again, watching as the sun rose over Jerusalem, as the last call to morning prayer echoed from the towers of the city's mosques, as the city awakened from night.
She wished she could wake herself. She should have left the city days ago. She wanted to. But something held her, made her stop each time she'd started to make the arrangements.
The sun slid over the shoulder of Temple Mount, casting fingered shadows of Jerusalem's churches and temples that cupped the dark wound in the ancient city's heart. The emptiness there mocked her. "I wanted to love you," she whispered into its accusing silence. "It was my failure, not yours. All the rhetoric, all the talk and denial, but I couldn't love you the way I did, once. I couldn't even say it."
"Who?" Quasiman stirred. "Hannah? Have I forgotten again?"
"Just someone I knew once," she answered, still watching the city, watching the slow light touch the lip of the crater.
"If you loved him, then he was a good person," Quasiman said. His hand touched her cheek. "And at least ..."
"At least?" she asked.
"At least you can always remember," Quasiman told her. "If you can do that, you can always keep him alive." He tapped his temple with a forefinger. "Up here."
Hannah took his hand, cradled it against her face and kissed the palm without answering. In the city, the ruined, tumbled stones were in full daylight now, and Hannah turned away from the reminder. She sighed holding Quasiman's hand.
"Let's go home," she said.
CLOSING CREDITS
STARRING
CREATED AND WRITTEN BY
Gregg HartMann
Stephen Leigh
Jay (Popinjay) Ackroyd
George R.R. Martin
Mark (Cap'n Trips) Meadows
Victor Milan
Billy (Carnifex) Ray
John J. Miller
Zoe Harris
Sage Walker
CO-STARRING
CREATED BY
Quasiman
Arthur Byron Cover
Jerry (Mr. Nobody) Strauss
Walton Simons
Dr. Bradley Finn
Melinda M. Snodgrass
Hannah Davis
Stephen Leigh
April Harvest
John J. Miller
Croyd (the Sleeper) Crenson
Roger Zelazny
J. Robert (the Mechanic) Belew
Victor Milan
Needles, Jan, and Owl
Sage Walker
FEATURING
CREATED BY
Pan Rudo
Roger Zelazny
General MacArthur Johnson
Bob Wayne
O. K. Casaday
Victor Milan
Peter Pann
George R.R. Martin
Sascha Starfin
John J. Miller
Melissa (Topper) Blackwood
George R. R. Martin
Brigadier Sir Kenneth Foxworthy,
aka Captain Flint
Kevin Andrew Murphy
The Black Dog
George R.R. Martin
Bobby Joe (Crypt Kicker) Puckett
Royce Wideman
John (the Highwayman) Bruckner
George R.R. Martin
Brandon van Renssaeler
Laura J. Mixon
Dr. Carter Jarnavon
Victor Milan
Balthazar Delacourt
Sage Walker
WITH
CREATED BY
Ditmar and Layton
Victor Milan
The Reflector (Snotman)
Walter Jon Williams
Charles Dutton
Walton Simons
Nur al-Allah
Stephen Leigh
President Leo Barnett
Arthur Byron Cover
Gary Bushorn
Stephen Leigh
Mick and Rick
John J. Miller
The Oddity
Stephen Leigh
Nephi (Straight Arrow) Callendar
Walter Jon Williams
Charon
Stephen Leigh
Lord Tung
George R.R. Martin
Eric Fleming
Laura J. Mixon
Lou (Osprey) Inmon
Victor Milan
Table of Contents
WILD CARDS
EIGHT
SEVEN
SIX
FIVE
FOUR
THREE
TWO
ONE
ZERO
EPILOGUE
CLOSING CREDITS