Rushkin, for his part, seemed particularly intrigued by John’s presence. That puzzled Isabelle until she realized that, insofar as Rushkin knew, he’d already killed John.
“I have to admit that I am curious,” Rushkin said. “How did you survive?”
John shot Isabelle a quick warning glance before replying. Isabelle understood. Rushkin knew nothing of Barbara’s abilities and that was the way it should stay or Rushkin would turn to her next.
“It’s no real mystery,” John said. “We foresaw it coming to something like this, so we had Isabelle make a copy of her original painting, one that opened the gate only a crack—enough to give you a taste of the before, but no more.”
Rushkin regarded them with an admiration that made Isabelle want to crawl under a carpet, out of his sight.
“Now that was clever,” Rushkin said.
John acknowledged the comment with a nod, then lifted his hand to indicate the corpse hanging on the wall behind them. Rushkin’s index finger tightened slightly on the trigger of his revolver, relaxing when he realized the innocence of the gesture.
“When did you kill him?” John asked in a quiet voice.
“We disagreed on my existence—he had a conscience, you see.” The smile that touched his lips was as feral as Scara’s had been. “But it doesn’t really matter anymore, does it? It was too long ago to make any difference to us now.”
Isabelle shook her head. “How can you say it doesn’t make any cliff—”
“To all intents and purposes,” Rushkin broke in, “I am the only Rushkin now. The only one you have ever met.”
“I don’t believe you,” Isabelle said. “We know that numena can’t harm makers.”
“They can here,” Rushkin told her. “In dreamtime.”
That gave Isabelle pause. Of course. Why else had she and John come here to the coach-house studio?
“So you lured him here and then you just killed him,” she said.
She found it hard to put much conviction behind the accusation, since she herself was guilty of attempting to do the same. The only difference was that the Rushkin she’d come to kill wasn’t an innocent.
Rushkin shook his head. “No, I followed him here. A small point, I realize, considering that the end result was the same.”
“But all those paintings. I saw them being done right in front of me.” Anger flashed in Rushkin’s eyes.
“The talent belonged to me more than it ever did to him. I, at least, had the courage to use it.”
But not to show it, Isabelle thought. She’d give the creature this much: he did have talent. The work he had produced was stunning, but he hadn’t had the confidence to put it under the scrutiny of the academic art world where someone might have been able to debunk it. The only ones he had shared his work with were the hapless students such as herself who were too overawed by his presence to ever think of questioning him. And then there was the whole question of bringing across numena.
That gave her pause. A numena couldn’t bring others across, so who had painted Bitterweed’s gateway?
“You’re lying to us,” she said. “You couldn’t have brought Bitterweed across because numena can’t be makers.”
Rushkin laughed. “How would you know?”
“Because ..... Isabelle turned to John for help, but he was too intent on Rushkin to notice.
“You know only what I’ve chosen to tell you,” Rushkin said. “No more.”
“Then answer this for me,” John asked. “Our kind doesn’t change. We live forever as our makers brought us across unless our painting is destroyed or we are physically harmed.”
“What of it?”
“Why do you feed on us? Why does your appearance change?” Rushkin smiled. “I could tell you it’s only because I enjoy doing so.” Isabelle could feel the tension building in John. Don’t let him get to you, she wanted to tell him, but all she did was step closer to John.
“But the truth is,” Rushkin went on, “when I took my maker’s place, I lost my connection to the before. I have no choice now but to feed on what Isabelle here so quaintly calls numena.”
Isabelle bristled at the condescension in his voice. Remembering the advice she’d wanted to give to John, she made an effort to remain calm. Keep him talking, she told herself. Learn everything you can.
Doubtful as it seemed, something might prove useful.
“I don’t get it,” she said.
“But you do, don’t you?” Rushkin said, addressing John.
“I’m not sure ....”
“Numena don’t need to eat or dream,” Rushkin explained to Isabelle, “because their needs are fulfilled through their connection to the before. By taking my maker’s life for my own, I was cut off from my source painting and forced to seek such sustenance through surrogates.”
“But not ones you bring across yourself,” Isabelle said, understanding finally. “Because they require a piece of you to be brought across and you can’t feed on yourself.”
“Exactly.”
“Where is your source painting?” Isabelle asked.
Rushkin smiled. “It would do you no good, even if it still existed. The connection between us is severed and I am no longer bound to it for my survival.”
“No,” Isabelle said bitterly. “Instead you have to feed on others.”
“Everything has its price,” Rushkin told her. “When I am unable to feed for a time, I grow progressively weaker. It begins with my losing my ability to maintain my natural appearance.”
“And how does it end?” John asked.
Rushkin shrugged. “Happily it has never gone so far.”
“Until now,” Isabelle put in.
“Until now,” he agreed. “But I believe we will still be able to come to an understanding. My promises remain, Isabelle. See me through this difficult time and I will ask no more of you. I will even bring your friend back for you.”
When Isabelle shook her head, Rushkin sighed.
“My threats remain as well,” he said. “Would you have John die for you? Don’t doubt that all the cleverness in your world or outside of it can help him now.”
“You don’t get it, do you?” Isabelle said. “You can’t use John as a threat to make me do what you want. He won’t let me.”
Beside her, John merely nodded in agreement.
“And your other friends?” Rushkin asked. “Those of flesh and blood who are completely innocent except for the crime of knowing you?”
“You’re too late for any of this to work on me,” Isabelle told him.
“I am completely serious,” Rushkin said. “The first to die will be your friend Alan.”
“I’m serious, too,” Isabelle said.
Rushkin shook his head. “You would make a poor cardplayer, Isabelle. I see the fear written all over your face.”
“Of course I’m scared, but it’s got nothing to do with you. I’m afraid of the unknown. Of what comes next. You think I’m sleeping in that tenement studio, dreaming this, don’t you? But I’m not. I took the utility knife you were so thoughtful to leave on the worktable with the rest of those art supplies and used it to cut my throat.”
Not even conscious of the action, she lifted a hand up under her chin as she spoke and loosely held her throat as though, for all that she was separated by who knew how much time and space, she might somehow be able to stem the blood, close the wound that was killing her in the world she’d left behind.
“This dreamtime’s going to last about as long as it takes me to die,” she finished.