"Well? Where's my sister?"
The Insect shaman shrugged almost apologetically. "Gone," he said simply.
"You can't bring her back." My voice sounded soulless in my own ears. "You never could, could you?"
The nondescript man shook his head. And then he turned his back on me and started to walk away.
I wanted to scream. I wanted to chase after him and smash his head to pulp. I wanted to pull out the pistol I was packing and empty the clip into his back. I wanted to turn that same pistol on my own head and pull the trigger. Instead, I said to him, honestly, "Thank you for coming alone."
He hesitated for a moment. He didn't look back, for which I'd be eternally grateful. Then he nodded once, and he walked on, westward, toward the sinking sun.
Everybody lies.
It was like I was back in the hospital. One moment I was sitting on a wooden bench, watching bug-boy walk away across the sand toward the setting sun. I blinked, and the sky was dark. Lights burned in the hotels along the curve of Waikiki Beach. Behind me, on the street, cars cruised by, their stereos playing Hawai'ian music.
A taxi stopped for a few moments a dozen yards away, its windows down, stereo blaring. I recognized the song- "Hawai'i, My Home." by that group Scott had played for me my first full day in the islands. Kam'-something. All dead, now. Appropriate, somehow.
I felt a presence beside me. I turned.
It was the elf. Quentin Harlech, or whatever his real name was. An arm's length away, he was staring out over the night black ocean.
"How long have you been here?" I asked. Then, "Skip it," I told him.
Hotel lights glinted off his teeth as he smiled. "Long enough," he answered the question I'd just canceled. Then he waited-to see if I'd speak again, to see if I'd try to geek him… I don't know which. I didn't do either; I just looked out toward the pink-tinged horizon.
Finally, I saw the silhouette of his head nod. "You don't know what you did, do you?" the elf asked quietly. "You don't know the importance, you don't know why it mattered. But you did it anyway."
I didn't look his way, but I could feel his eyes on me. I knew the question he was asking-the question he couldn't bring himself to voice. But I didn't know the answer. I shrugged.
"I thought so," he said, responding to the answer I hadn't given him. "I think I knew you before, Derek," he went on quietly a moment later. "Perhaps we fought alongside each other once before."
Now I turned to him. "Chummer," I said, "you're up the pole. I never set eyes on you before Puowaina."
"Not those eyes, no," he agreed… if it was agreement. "But I know you, Derek. You face overwhelming odds. And you vanquish them… merely because you don't know it to be impossible." He smiled-sadly, I thought suddenly. "You remind me of…" His voice trailed off, and he looked out to sea again. "Long ago," he whispered, almost inaudibly. Or maybe it wasn't him at all, but a breath of night breeze.
"Question." I said, after a long silence. "You were trying to close the gate, right?"
Quinn shrugged. "Rather, to prevent it from ever opening."
'Then why did the guardian spirits attack you?" My gaze fixed on his face. "Why, Harlech?"
To my utter shock and amazement the elf seemed unable to meet my gaze. "History," he said quietly. "I have…" He stopped and tried again. "I have… touched… this danger before," he went on. "The guardian spirits sense its taint on me." His lips quirked in a smile. "I wonder how they would react to you, Derek, should you go back there a second time?"
"No danger of that."
Quinn laughed softly. "I think I rather like you, Derek," he said. "Some of my contemporaries would laugh if they could hear me say this, but… I feel that you might just be a kindred spirit. Do you realize how rare that is?"
Now he did meet my gaze. I saw… something… in his eyes. If I hadn't known better, I'd have thought it was envy, or maybe even longing. Longing for something that had been lost, a long, long time ago. Stupid, of course.
I snorted, and I turned away. "Frag off, Harlech," I said. Then I yelled it, still not looking at him: "Frag off! Okay? Just get the fuck out of here."
I couldn't bring myself to turn around and look at him. I didn't dare-I was afraid of what I might see in his eyes.
I felt him stand up and hesitate a moment. Then I felt him stride away from me into the darkness.
"I don't need you!" I yelled after him without turning my head. "I don't need anybody!"
Everybody lies.
Even me.