No.
Another trick, then, taking advantage of the pieces already on the board. Dust, thrown out. Illusions. One for the hounds, to make it seem like they were more. One for the rust spirit, to narrow its focus to Canfield alone, and one for the companion, the bogeyman familiar. Another illusion for Courtney herself.
Canfield rotated the handle of the toy box, and the lid sprang open, a clown bouncing out of it.
Everything resumed moving.
The circle was complete, and the illusion did nothing to break it. The hounds landed and stopped. The rust spirit halted.
Canfield was reaching for a whip. Something to facilitate turning summonings back on the one who had sent them?
“Father!” the familiar screamed. Courtney’s voice.
Canfield turned, then went white.
The familiar held the skin of the manservant’s face dangling from one hand. Courtney’s face was the one that it wore, his body matching hers.
Canfield turned to look, and he saw Courtney in the window, slumped down, her flayed face having left a smear where it had dragged against the window.
It was an opening. The familiar strode forward and broke the circle. Canfield blocked the knife before it could strike home.
Joseph allowed himself a moment to try and shift position, so he wouldn’t have to struggle so much to access his own collection of tools.
The movement of his knee momentarily blinded him.
It was the mistake that would decide the engagement.
When he could see again, Canfield had turned the tables. Canfield had a scrap of white cloth in hand, and he had company.
A man in a white jacket, with a thick handlebar mustache.
The Lord of Toronto.
The illusions had faded, Courtney was fine, as was the familiar.
“You will die soon, Canfield,” the Lord spoke. “It will be a suffering death if and when it happens. It is not my place or my way to stop that from coming to pass.”
Canfield nodded. He wasn’t able to stand straight.
“Hey!” Joseph shouted.
“I prefer subjugation over death. I surrender my self,” Canfield said. “It’s my understanding that an incarnation needs to root itself in humanity from time to time, to stay relevant and rooted in the doings of man.”
“Yes.”
“All I ask is that my daughter is taken care of.”
“You’ll have it.”
With that, the Incarnation stepped forward until it intersected Canfield.
For an instant, Canfield was the one wearing white.
Then, a moment later, the one wearing white had a trace of Canfield’s features.
Those features were soon swallowed up in a greater ocean.
The Incarnation brushed at a few traces of blood at its stomach.
“I asked permission to attack,” Joseph said.
“You did,” the Incarnation said. “You were just. Not right, but just.”
Joseph grunted as he tried to raise his head. “If you allow me to walk away, I’ll look after her. I can guarantee that she will be taken care of, so you can meet your obligation to Canfield.”
“You will marry her,” the Incarnation said.
Joseph nodded. Hope soared.
“You will not walk away,” the Incarnation said.
Joseph’s eyes widened.
“I name you forsworn, Joseph Attwell. You did not see the girl’s father meet the end you promised. You cannot.”
“I…”
“If you would argue your own defense, then do so. Name the actions you would undertake, and I will grant my assistance in allowing this to come to pass.”
Joseph hung his head. “I spoke while drunk with pain, and love.”
“Pain is something I know well. I assure you this is no defense. Love is something I’m not familiar with, but it is no defense either. Would you make another defense?”
Joseph shook his head.
“Then I bind you by that which you swore by. I bind you by name, by your entirety. I bind you by your blood, to bind all of your kin that follow after you. I bind you by your word, to claim your obedience for myself. I offer you a second chance to gainsay me.”
“I can’t,” Joseph said.
“With my claim, I offer you the protections you would forfeit. It is your choice, whether to accept or refuse.
To be at the mercy of anything and everything, all of the vulnerabilities of mortal and Other both, or to be in Conquest’s service?
“I’ll obey you to the best of my ability,” Joseph said. And he knew he was, in a way, swearing fealty to Canfield.
“You and yours,” Conquest said. “All the ones that come after. You won’t need your familiar.”
He felt his bogeyman slip from his grasp.
“Your children and children’s children, all down the line, are mine, from the moment they learn the practice. You will not bar them from it, after they’ve come of age.”
Somewhere in the haze that followed, Joseph heard Courtney’s voice.
“I didn’t ask for your help.”
It was then that he knew he was lost.
■
A hard shove sent the boy sprawling into a chair.
He looked up to see his father glaring down at him.
“What are you going to do about it?” the man asked.
The boy clenched his fists.
“You have no tricks. You have no power. I have magic, you don’t,” the man said. He kicked, and the boy scrambled out of the way. The man kicked a chair instead, and the boy yelped as the chair tipped over, striking him. “You’re weak!”
“You want to learn this?” the man asked. “You want my power?”
A sweep of the arms sent dishes flying off the dining room table, crashing to the floor.
“I have never been more disappointed than I was when I first set eyes on you,” the man said. “That disappointment, that shame? It eats at me. Get out of my fucking sight!”
The boy scrambled away.
The man made his way to the kitchen. His wife stared at him, accusing, holding a child to her shoulder.
“Not a word,” he said.
There was only disgust on her expression as she set a beer bottle down on the counter in front of him.
He swiped at it, grabbing it, and found his seat in his sitting room.
One beer bottle became two, then four. His nightly routine.
The click wasn’t routine.
He opened his eyes.
It was the boy. Gun raised, held in both hands. There were tears in the boy’s eyes.
“You hate me,” the man said.
The boy nodded.
“Then pull the trigger. Your mother will clean up the mess. She hates me too. She’ll be glad to have me dead. Or are you a coward?”
“You’re the most horrible person I’ve ever met,” the boy said. His voice was hoarse, his words a whisper.
“If you want me to be scared, you’re in for a sore disappointment, boy. I haven’t been less scared in a long, long time. And you know I’m telling the truth, don’t you?”
“I could shoot you, right here, right now.”
“Why are you talking to me, you little fool? You’ll never work up the courage, doing that. I’ll even tell you how to do it. Think back to everything I’ve done to you.”
He could see the boy’s hands shaking.
“I did other things you don’t even know about. I laughed when I buried Red.”
He’d never shared that tidbit. He could see the reaction. The tension that took hold of his son’s whole body.
“God, the way I treated your mother? I’d shoot me. And you don’t know the half of that.”