“Amen,” she said.
As he went to put her down, she clung to him for a moment. Ah, that was nice! And his aging, battered heart had not begun to pound. She would hear it, wouldn’t she, with a doctor’s ear? No, he stood hale and quiet, holding her against him, smelling her clean soft hair, and gazing down the polished hall, past the great soaring white doorway, at the distant murals of the dining room, touched still by the afternoon sun. Home. Here. Now, as it has never, never been for either of us.
At last she slipped from him, landing on her feet. The tiniest frown came to her forehead. “Oh, it’s nothing,” she said. “Only certain memories will die hard, you know. But then I think of Ash, and that is something to contemplate rather than all the sad things.”
He wanted to answer, he wanted to say something about his own love for Ash, and something else, something else that was almost torturing him. It would be better to leave it alone, that’s what others would advise, if ever he asked them. But he couldn’t. He looked into her eyes, opening his own very wide, perhaps wide enough to look angry when he didn’t mean to at all.
“Rowan, my love,” he said. “I know you could have stayed with him. I know you made a choice.”
“You’re my man,” she said with a soft explosion of breath, “my man, Michael.”
Nice to carry her up the stairs, but he’d never make it, not all twenty-nine steps, and where were the young ladies, and Granny, the resurrected one? No, they could not shut themselves away now, unless by some luck the entire tribe had gone out for an early dinner.
Closing his eyes, he kissed her again. Nobody could stop him from doing that at least a dozen times. Kiss. And when he looked up again, he saw the red-haired beauty at the end of the hall, two in fact, one very, very tall, and that mischievous Mary Jane, blond braids on top of her head again, three of the most gorgeous necks in the universe, young girls like that are swans. But who was this new beauty who stood incredibly tall, and looked, why, she looked exactly like Mona!
Rowan turned, staring back down the hall.
The Three Graces, they were, against the dining room door, and Mona’s face seemed to occupy two different places. This wasn’t resemblance, it was duplication, and why did they stand so still, all of them in their cotton dresses, merely staring as if from a painting?
He heard Rowan gasp. He saw Mona break into a run, and then rush towards him across the polished floor.
“No, you can’t do anything. You can’t. You have to listen.”
“Dear God,” Rowan said, her weight falling heavily against him, her body shaking.
“She’s my child,” Mona said. “My child and Michael’s, and you won’t hurt her.”
Suddenly it struck him, as things often do, in a rush of different stages, all clattering together to take his breath away. The baby is this young woman. The giant helix produced this. This is a Taltos as surely as Ash is a Taltos, as surely as those two under the tree are Taltos. Rowan is going to faint, she is going to go down, and the pain in my chest is killing me.
He clutched for the newel post.
“Tell me now, neither of you will hurt her.”
“Hurt her? How could I do that?” Michael said.
And then Rowan began to cry, blubbering hopelessly against her clasped hands. “Oh God.”
The tall girl had taken a shaky step and then another. And now would that helpless voice come out, the child voice he’d heard from the other before the shot was fired? He felt dizzy. The sun was dying as if on cue, the house returning to its natural darkness.
“Michael, sit down, sit down there on the step,” said Mona.
“Dear God, he’s sick,” said Mary Jane. And Rowan, snapping to, wrapped her long wet fingers around his neck.
And the tall one said:
“Well, I know this is a dreadful shock for you both, and Mother and Mary Jane have worried for days, but I myself am relieved to see you at last, and force a decision as to whether I can remain beneath this roof, as they say, your child as well as Mona’s child. As you can see here, she has placed the emerald around my neck, but I bow to your decision.”
Rowan was speechless. So was he. It would have been Mona’s voice except it sounded older, and a little less strong, as though chastened already by the world.
He looked up to see her standing there, big spill of vivid red locks, woman’s breasts and long curved legs, and her eyes, her eyes like green fire.
“Father,” she whispered, dropping to her knees. Her long fingers shot out and clasped his face.
He closed his eyes.
“Rowan,” she said. “Love me, please, and then maybe he will.”
Rowan cried, her fingers tightening on his neck. His heart was thudding in his ears, thudding as if it were growing bigger and bigger.
“Morrigan is my name,” she said.
“She’s mine, my child,” Mona said, “and yours, Michael.”
“And I think it’s time that you let me speak,” said Morrigan, “that I take the burden of decision from both of you.”
“Honey, slow down,” he said. He blinked his eyes slowly, trying to clear his vision.
But something had disturbed this long nymph. Something had made her draw back her hands and then sniff at her fingers. Her eyes flashed to Rowan and then to him. She rose, rushing close to Rowan, before Rowan could possibly move away, sniffing at Rowan’s cheeks, and then standing back.
“What is that scent?” she said. “What is it! I know that scent!”
“Listen to me,” Rowan said. “We’ll talk. That’s what you said. Now come.” She moved forward, releasing him to die of a heart attack entirely by himself, and she put her arms around the girl’s waist, the girl staring down at her with comically frightened eyes.
“The scent’s all over you.”
“What do you think it is?” Mona asked. “What could it be?”
“A male,” the girl whispered. “They’ve been with him, these two.”
“No, he’s dead,” said Mona, “you’re picking it up again from the floorboards, from the walls.”
“Oh no,” she whispered. “This is a living male.” Suddenly she grabbed Rowan by the shoulders. Mona and Mary Jane sped to her side, gently tugging her arms away. Michael was on his feet. God, the creature was the same height as he was. Mona’s face, but not Mona, no, not Mona at all.
“The smell is driving me mad,” she whispered. “You keep this secret from me? Why?”
“Give them time to explain,” Mona pleaded. “Morrigan, stop it, listen to me.” And then she had the girl’s hands in hers, holding them tight. And Mary Jane was standing on tiptoe.
“Now just you simmer down, long tall Sally, and let them tell us the scoop.”
“You don’t understand,” Morrigan said, voice suddenly thick and tears gathering in her huge green eyes, as she looked again to Michael, to Rowan. “There’s a male, don’t you see? There’s a male of me! Mother, you can smell the scent. Mother, tell the truth!” It was a scream. “Mother, please, I can’t stand it!” And her sobs came like something tumbling downstairs, her face clenched in pain, her tall angular body wobbling, and bending gently as she let the other two embrace her and keep her from falling.
“Let us take her now,” said Mary Jane.
“Just don’t do anything, you have to swear,” Mona pleaded.
“And we’ll meet and we’ll talk, and we’ll …”
“Tell me,” the stricken girl whispered. “Tell me, where is he?”
Rowan pushed Michael towards the elevator, pulling open the old wooden door. “Get in.”
And the last thing he saw, as he leaned against the back wall of the elevator, was those pretty cotton dresses, as the three of them fled up the stairs together.
He lay on the bed.
“Now, don’t think of it now. Don’t think,” Rowan said.