I didn't want to believe in the thing, but people and dwarves were dropping like flies. We were playing morCartha down here on the ground. I was caught in it, like it or not. Somebody wanted me to join the flies.
Dean brought beer and a stern look I asked, "Where's Carla Lindo?"
"Guest room. Worrying." He assumed his human roadblock stance. "She doesn't need comforting. She needs help."
"Yeah. Sure So do I You don't see me getting any. Hell. I'm done waiting for it to come to me. I'll go round it up." I drained another mug of courage, checked my portable arsenal, headed for the door. Dean trotted along behind grinning like an old death's-head.
His romantic notions would be the death of me yet.
I'm immune to romantic notions, of course I'm a block of heavy metal unshakably planted at the center of a plain of common sense, illuminated by the sun of reason.
Right Look up. See the swarms of pigs flying south for the winter9
I hadn't been inside, isolated from the city ambience, for long, but something had changed. Some new level of tension had been reached. There were fewer people out. Those who were seemed nervous. I could see no real reason.
I visited Morley's place but found no Morley. I went away puzzled, headed for Saucerhead's shabby den.
Tharpe was out, too. Not one of his mouse-size lady friends was there to clue me where he'd gone, either. ‘Twas a puzzlement
I went away frowning. Something had to be going on. Especially with Morley. He faded from sight sometimes, but I'd never known him to take his whole crew with him. There'd always been some way to get in touch.
I headed for home.
I got the news from a neighbor moments before I reached the house.
"Big roughhouse in the Cantard, Old Bones," I told the Dead Man. "Word's just in All mixed up Sounds like our troops and the Venageti caught up with Mooncalled at the same time, some place called Broken Back Canyon. No word how it came out yet, though." All the neighbor knew was that the battle had been all-time big. I assumed the northbound dispatches had been sent immediately on contact. The mere catching of Mooncalled was news of major importance.
1 suspected as much. To yield vibrational energies I can detect here... It must be the battle of battles and still going on I would not have expected Mooncalled to be capable of so violent a defense.
"Cornered rats But Mooncalled always did the unexpected.
Perhaps. Let us not concern ourselves overmuch before more coherent information arrives. I sense that you are troubled.
"What a genius. Amazing how you figure things out." I told him about my day, such as it was so far.
Go eat. Let me think.
I did that, without a squabble I was that down, feeling that inadequate.
"He's had an hour," I told Dean, who was thoroughly sick of me hanging around the kitchen. "That ought to be long enough for even a genius." Stomach full, now optimistic enough to have put aside thoughts of suicide, I hit the hallway.
Carla Lindo stepped out of the Dead Man's room. She carried a broom and dustpan. I stopped to gape. Behind me, Dean started apologizing "She wanted to do something, Mr. Garrett. And he doesn't bother her."
"Fine." No broom ever took my breath away. No. She'd Just turned my spine to jelly with a look that should have gotten the fire bells sounding all over town.
I grabbed myself by the collar and dragged me into the Dead Man's room before I soaked the carpet with drool.
She is attractive, is she not?
"Huh? You too." We lived in an age of wonders indeed. The millennium was at hand. He never said anything nice about persons of the opposite sex. But maybe Carla Lindo was opposite enough to touch even the dead.
You have something to report?
Report it may help you avoid hyperventilation.
"I already told you everything."
Oh.. So you did.
Somebody started pounding on the front door. The Dead Man didn't appear interested. I ignored it. Whoever might go away. It was time to uncomplicate my life.
I have been thinking, Garrett.
"Hey, that's great I'm glad to hear it. Especially since that's what you get paid for."
Garrett! Time is of the essence.
"So quit wasting it. I've only got maybe thirty years left.''
I have been mulling this Book of Dreams. it occurs to me that Chodo Contague must soon, if he has not already, discover the nature of the root of all this excitement. It occurs to me that, then, his interest will intensify, passing beyond professional revenge.
"Huh?" He does go on like that "You lost me." Not really, but he does like to feel smarter than the rest of us and the best way to keep him moving is to appeal to his ego.
The more / consider this Book of Shadows, the more sinister and seductive it seems.
I made appropriate noises indicating awed curiosity
We all play roles all the time, Garrett. We all develop multiple faces we don according to the situation and companion of the moment and, perhaps, according to the advantage we hope to acquire. How terribly convenient it would be to have the ability to become whatever we wanted, filling the role to perfection, whenever that suited our whim. He sounded wistful. Having a Carla Lindo around can do that to anybody. How very convenient if we happen to be afflicted with terrible handicaps.
like being dead, maybe? "I get you. But my inclination is Just to squat here till we see how the wind's blowing"
Unacceptable. There is a balance that must be rectified. Not to mention the fact that we have undertaken to aid Miss Ramada I must do some additional thinking on how best to proceed. While / do so, I suggest you cross the hall Dean has installed Mr. Tate in your office. He appears to need reassurances.
"Willard Tate? Here?"
The same.
"The old boy never leaves his compound. What the hell is he doing here?"
You might ask.
Nothing like a subtle hint. "Yeah. Right." I headed for the office.
Tate had taken the guest chair He didn't fit. Too small. Like a wispy. gray old gnome. Dean had settled him with a pitcher He was working on that and flirting with Eleanor. I said, "Three minutes more and you wouldn't have caught me home " Just to suggest that I was a busy man.
He glowered. "Tinnie's taken a bad turn, Garrett "He gestured reassuringly, though. "Won't kill her, they tell me. But it's enough to leave me an emotional wreck. I came here to find out if you've learned anything new"
"Not a lot." I told him about my day
He shook his head slowly, angrily, looked at Eleanor as though he was talking to her "I'm wasting my time and yours ! know that. But I couldn't work Couldn't sit still " As he spoke he changed, gaining an edge of steel "I want to meet this woman who calls herself the Serpent. I want to tell her a thing or two."
"She's a witch, Mr. Tate. And not any tealeaf reader, either Not easy to reach and big trouble if you do. Moreover, my partner has cautioned me that Chodo Contague should be developing a more than passing interest in her " I explained why.
Tate rose. He would have paced had there been room. "I don't like seeing Tinnie hurt, Garrett. Nor any Tate. Especially not for no reason. I won't endure it. Chodo isn't a problem. I have money. I have proven connections. I can buy myself a stormwarden if I care to."
"Sounds like the frying pan to the fire to me. Suppose you do buy you one. What happens when he figures out whatthe book is9"
"I don't much care
"You ought to. I do. We have obligations that transcend—"
"Crap."
"It's not quite law of the jungle and survival of the fittest out there, Mr. Tate. Not yet. And that's mainly because some of us do what's right. Listen to me. That book is evil incarnate. Even if every character recorded in it is as sweet and naive as Tinnie, the book is an instrument of darkness Its only use can be to do evil."