Andy shrugged. “I can’t and won’t take the deal.”
“Okay,” Rose said. “But the offer’s out there.”
Andy didn’t respond.
The remaining fifteen minutes of our slow and not-so-steady walk over snow and ice were undertaken in blissful silence.
We made our way to the neighborhood, the dark structure of Hillsglade House looming against the pale evening sky. The light from the moon and city lights was reflected off of white snow, cast onto the overcast sky above, making it seem almost as bright as it was during the day.
I heard a jostling, and turned to see Andy hurrying to catch up. My hand flew to my weapon.
“I’m not a threat,” he said. He wasn’t really out of breath. Was he more fit than he looked? Simply uncoordinated?
“You keep saying that, as if saying it over and over makes it true.”
“It is. And it doesn’t matter. You’re home.”
We’d nearly reached the block the house was on. My eyes flew over the premises, then went back to Andy.
“This feels like a trap,” I said.
“It is and it isn’t,” he said. “It wasn’t really explained to me, so I don’t really know. My focus is supposed to be on you.”
“Why?” I asked, glancing away to look back at the house.
“To pass on word to Laird,” he responded.
There was an eerie conviction in his gaze. An intensity that I hadn’t sensed moments ago.
“Blake,” Rose said, “This is going nowhere. Let’s get you back in the house and resting. We still need to plan and do some reading.”
“Doesn’t it feel wrong?” I asked. “Why not send Fargo here to kill us? He’s only here to gather info and take it back to Laird. Why?”
“It’s trivial,” Rose said. “Our priority is getting you in fighting shape, and I wouldn’t mind that servant. There’s a thousand things we could dwell on, outside of the head games the witch hunter is playing with us. No offense, Andy.”
“None taken.”
“Come on, Rose,” I said, my eyes fixed on Andy. “You and I aren’t so different. Reach deep, dig for those instincts, and tell me you don’t feel this is something serious.”
There was a pause. “I can’t tell if it’s because you’ve psyched me out or if you’re right.”
“I’m right,” I said. “Laird’s pulled something.”
There was a pause.
“The something?” Rose asked, quiet. Her question was partly a statement.
My head snapped around, looking over the house.
The ritual?
No.
A kind of horror settled in me.
No, no, no.
Where was it? The symbols I’d seen drawn on the floor… they would have covered a certain area, here in the real world.
My leg stung where the boot was rubbing it as I strode around, moving closer to the gate.
A circle, like the one I’d seen as part of the diagram, barely perceptible. The spirits on and above it were brighter.
I could hear the tick and tock sounds I’d heard in the room, now. I wasn’t sure if it was real or imagination.
“We stopped the ritual,” I said.
“You did,” Andy responded. “You called the police, and both Laird and Sandra were carted off, I hear. But sending Sandra with Laird was a mistake. I doubt they even made it to the police station before she was able to get the leverage she needed.”
“Just like that,” I said, absently.
“When dealing with people without defenses, enchantment is incredibly potent, and Sandra is very good at what she does. People are like playing pieces on the board for her, to be moved as she pulls the right strings, puts power in the right connections. The two of them would have stopped at the station only to get the incriminating evidence and start to piece together what happened and the approach you used.”
“But… they finished already?”
“I expect he started right away, as soon as he got back,” Andy said, “And you’ve been walking for a while. You might have earned yourself a reduced effect, but I’m not sure what that amounts to.”
Now that I knew what to look for, I could see signs of the circle stretching around the house.
No, not a circle. A ring.
“What does it do?” Rose asked.
“It makes accessing and using your resources in Hillsglade House so inconvenient it’s pointless,” Andy answered. “The unawakened might notice something when they walk down this sidewalk, but nobody does, do they? Surely you’ve noticed how the locals avoid the property. Mail doesn’t come here, restaurants won’t deliver food to this address. You’re isolated. They can’t target the house, as it was once a demesne, so they target the space around it.”
“To do what?” I asked.
“Waste your time,” he answered. “Something you already have in short supply.”
I reached into my pocket and found a quarter. I flicked it over the circle.
It slowed as it flipped over the line, growing slower with every passing second.
It looked like it would take minutes to hit the ground.
I looked at Andy, trying to read his expression. It was as placid as ever.
“I’m not sure what you’re seeing, Blake,” Rose said.
I looked, and I saw the quarter in the air, spinning in slow motion. When I looked without the benefit of the sight, I saw it on the ground. Different views for the awakened versus the unawakened. Different effects.
The Duchamps had been a part of the ritual. Had it been more than targeting it at this particular neighborhood?
“Slowing time,” I said. “The quarter is still in the air, to my eyes.”
“The long driveway,” Rose said. “How long do you think that walk would take?”
“Weeks?” I asked, quiet. “A month?”
“Meaning we’d miss council meetings,” Rose said.
“Yeah. The wedding would go ahead, and so would the plans for establishing a Lord for the city, while we make the excruciatingly slow walk up to the house. Tying us up until some time when Laird’s ready to deal with us,” I said.
“And that,” Andy said, “Mostly wraps up my end of things.”
I snapped my head around. “Your end of things?”
“This is what he wanted a report on,” Andy said. “A description of your face and actions as you realized, making sure you got the full message. He hired me to observe, to make sure he wouldn’t have to wait months for you to come after him. Assuming you might only realize when the season changes. He’d like you to know that for now, he’s hands off, until you give him an excuse.”
“And the rest?” Rose asked.
“Remains to be seen. I know there’s a bounty on your head, a prize of three favors to any Other that catches you. That might take a few days to revoke, if they decide to go that route. If an Other kills you, though, and the new heir heads for the house, they’ll lose a great deal of time, and they’ll find a trap waiting for them when they next leave the property. It’s done.”
“He won,” I said.
“Oh, you did win,” Andy told me. “You embarrassed him, you counted coup, you probably cost the Behaims more than you know, when you damaged those books, and it would have cost Sandra to tidy up that mess. But…”