[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
The thing that she d seen in his eyes that made her wary vanished instantly,
and instantly, he was Eric s loyal deputy on the job again. It seems like
such a ridiculous thing to me, he said. Even the idea of magic, but the idea
that magic could turn around and destroy a world and not even the world it was
used on. A stupid, silly thing. I think of magic, and I think of a white
rabbit pulled out of a black hat; of some girl in sequins climbing out of a
box after I just saw the man in the tuxedo saw her in half; of cheesy card
tricks and silk handkerchiefs and doves flying over my head and me hoping they
don t shit on me when they go over. I don t think of touching a dying man and
seeing the holes in his chest just close up. And I sure as hell don t think of
a million dead and millions more to die. Of our world burned up to ashes
because someone somewhere said, Abracadabra the wrong way. His eyes then
were bleak and old and haunted.
It wasn t what I expected, Lauren agreed. Hell, when I came back here, I
didn t even remember any of it.
No?
She shook her head. I almost fell through the damned mirror that first time.
Page 133
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Almost like Alice through the looking glass, but then I didn t wake up. She
stared at the blinds pulled over the windows and carefully taped along the
edges to prevent any stray light in the house from leaking out and betraying
the presence of the Sentinels to the people who sought them. It s a
terrifying feeling to step through the looking glass and find out you re
already awake.
He laughed a small, dry, humorless sound. Shit. I m still hoping this is all
one big nightmare.
She smiled. When he talked to her alone, his easy Southern drawl fell away,
replaced by the sharper vowels and harder consonants used north of the
Mason-Dixon line. Touches of the South remained, but they were faint. Funny
thing, she said. I know you re a local boy, and when you re talking to
anyone else, I d think you d spent every day of your life around here. But
when it s just you and me& She tipped her head and studied him. & when it s
just you and me, I get the feeling you ve had a whole lot of the Southern
rubbed off and that if you wanted, you could make it just plain disappear.
She watched his eyes, caught the quick flicker of shock and wariness shuttered
over fast by gentle amusement. He didn t say anything. He just smiled.
But she knew what she d heard, and she knew what she d seen. She shrugged and
said, I m going into the kitchen to check on Jake and see if those people are
going to shoot us, or if they re going to teach us their secret handshake and
let us join their club. How bout you?
He kept smiling at her as she brushed past him, but she could feel his
thoughtful gaze fixed on her as she went through the foyer and around the
corner, out of sight.
We re going to have to set up our base of operations right in Oria, Eric was
saying. We don t dare stay here we ve already lost Granger to the plague, and
as long as we re here we stand the chance of contracting it and dying. And we
need every one of us if we re going to win against this thing.
It seems cowardly to run. Terry Mayhew looked both embarrassed and a little
angry.
It would be stupid to stay here and die, Eric said. If we die, everyone
else dies with us. We can t afford to stand bravely in the face of danger.
There aren t enough of us.
Then the question remains: What do we with do with them? Jimmy Norris asked.
His white-linen Mark Twain suit was rumpled and soiled, but his thick white
hair and white mustache had been carefully combed. The result was a sort of
down-at-the-heels elegance that Lauren found almost touching. Or would have,
if she hadn t wanted to punch the man.
I really don t like being referred to as them, as if we re inconvenient
baggage or some awful mistake, Lauren said stiffly. I m the only gateweaver
you have, since yours turned traitor. And Pete is with me. Without him, Eric
would have been dead a couple of times.
But you aren t Sentinels. That from Bethellen Tate, who never had liked
Lauren, and who hadn t bothered to hide that fact when Lauren was a child. She
didn t bother to hide it now, either.
You want to swear us in or whatever you do, that will be just fine, Lauren
snapped. In spite of what happened to my parents, I ll be a Sentinel. The
world is more important than any grudges I might be holding, no matter how
deserved those grudges are. She felt she was watching a bunch of bureaucrats
fiddle while the world burned, and her blood boiled for a fight. You want us
to say the magic words? Will that clear your consciences?
If you aren t Sentinels and you know about the Sentinels, you re supposed
to& ah, have your memories altered.
Been there, Lauren growled. Done that. I ll kill the person who tries it
again.
She and Pete, outsiders both, stared across the kitchen at the people who had
seated themselves around her kitchen table as if they owned the place. Jake
slept tucked into his nest of blankets, blissfully unaware of the tension and
Page 134
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
the anger and the distrust that crackled through the air around him.
I vouch for both of them, Eric said. I ve known Pete for years. I knew his
family, as did most of you. He s solid and dependable, he s one of ours, he s
a good ol boy like the rest of us. He follows orders, he listens, and he s a
reliable man to have at your back.
That seemed to Lauren to be only the surface of what she was beginning to see
in Pete, but pointing out that he looked like a lot more than just a good ol
boy from where she stood would have been tactically unwise. She kept her
mouth shut.
And what about her? Bethellen pushed. Her with her traitor parents, and her
gateweaver talents, when according to everyone, she didn t even have the
talent to walk a gate, much less create one? Are we supposed to trust her with
the secrets of the Sentinels, too?
June Bug Tate had gotten a funny, almost guilty look on her face at the
mention of Lauren s parents, and it didn t go away when she glanced quickly at
Lauren and then looked down at her hands. Now, studying her out of the corner
of her eye, Lauren realized June Bug had a secret. The old woman knew
something about Lauren s parents, or about Lauren something that she wasn t
telling the rest of her precious Sentinels.
Interesting. Lauren resolved to get June Bug alone at her earliest
opportunity.
In the meantime, she glared at Bethellen.
Eric said, Yes. You re supposed to trust her. I ll vouch for both of them. If
I vouch for them, you treat them as you would treat me. Unless you want to
take an extended vacation in Charlotte.
We voted you to lead us. That don t make you God. We can unvote you at any
time.
Yes, you can, he told her. All of them, really. You all want to do that?
He looked around the table, and no one was nodding yes.
Fine, goddammit. Let me lead.
They caved. They had to, Lauren knew. They had to have her, and they weren t
getting her without getting Pete. She was in, Pete was in, Eric still led, and
everyone was going to work from a base in Oria.
We have one other problem, aside from the big ones, June Bug said, and again
she was staring at her hands.
Lauren leaned forward, suddenly expectant though she didn t know why.
Eric looked at her without letting any expression leak across his face.
Problem?
Molly McColl. We left without her, but we re going to have to go back and get
her.
His face bleached white. She was there? She s alive, and she was there, and
you didn t tell me so that I could get her out, too?
Molly McColl, Lauren thought, oddly disappointed. The woman who d disappeared
right when she d moved to Cat Creek. Nothing to do with her after all.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]