“Right now, with the possibility that something could kick the door in and come after us? I think we should get ready. Help me help you,” she said.
I didn’t respond.
“There’s as many holes in the ‘be patient’ plan as there are in this one,” Rose said.
“I suspect that comes perilously close to being a lie,” I said.
“I said it, I stand by it. I’m asking for this, Blake.”
“Alright,” I said. “You two handle it on your own. Better if I’m not directly involved, since I swore not to use any magic for the duration of this contest.”
“Alright!” Maggie said.
“Do whatever you’re doing quickly. If Fell thinks the others need backup, let’s not delay too much.”
“Quickly then. Now, my dear mirror-dweller-”
“Rose.”
“Yeah. Let’s talk methodology. Can you follow me over this way? We’ll need open space.”
“Yeah.”
“The idea is simple. If you’ve got a mad dog, you want to minimize contact with it. Keep it in a cage until you need someone mauled.”
“Like you stored the paper goblins, and the goblin in the instrument.”
“Exactly.”
I watched them make their exit, Rose shifting between the various reflections in the windows looking from the office to the garage.
“I need fresh air,” I said. “Or… whatever we have in this version of Toronto.”
“Alone?” Tiff asked. She looked fidgety.
I glanced at Maggie and Rose’s retreating forms, then shook my head a little. “No.”
When I was sure Maggie and Rose weren’t looking, I grabbed the bag with the book and the sword, carrying both.
Tiff, Evan and I made our way outside.
“Why are you bringing the sword?” Evan asked.
“Because I feel like I should,” I said.
“That doesn’t make a lot of sense,” he said.
“Would make less sense if I felt like I should and I didn’t.”
“Yeah, but it would make more sense if you had a good reason,” Evan said.
The street was dark. It was technically nighttime, but time passed in a funny way here. The sky overhead was dark, hard to make out with the falling snow. The only light from the sky came from above Conquest’s tower. Pale light, as if the moon were only feet above the tower, hidden by the clouds. It made the contours of the clouds stand out, and it illuminated the tower, as if it were declaring Conquest the ruler of the city.
There was other light. Red-orange flames, elsewhere in the city. The Eye was doing what it could to root us out.
How did the regular people see it? How had they interpreted the Eye’s activity when he’d caused the crash? A freak accident? A slick patch of road and driver reactions causing a three-car pileup? Ugly happenstance leading to the explosion thereafter?
When fires started up across the city, did they invent an excuse to keep it convenient? People could convince themselves of extreme things when threatened with dissonance; reality challenging their fundamental understanding of the world.
It bothered me a little that people were going to those extremes, twisting their minds around things to sell the idea that there was a flaw in the power grid or an arsonist at work. That they’d sleep a little less easy at night because of what was happening tonight.
It bothered me a lot that people had died. That Conquest had let the Eye loose specifically because of my challenge, and I hadn’t been able to save those people.
Alexis was naturally heroic. I wasn’t. I wanted to be a good person, but being a hero wasn’t really in my makeup. At the end of the day, I was more focused on just trying to repay the debts I owed and make sure that I left the world better than it was when I’d come into it.
Even before the whole magic thing had come up, that had been my philosophy. Nothing grandiose, but if everyone could keep to that idea, then maybe we’d all be in a better spot.
I could, if I listened to the wind, hear the explosion and the screams. I couldn’t say if it was because of the way this spirit world worked, carrying impressions more easily, or if it was just in my head.
Flames, low in the car, not even merciful enough to burn away the oxygen before it burned the person, as was more common in house fires and the like.
I blinked hard as a snowflake flew into my eye, with enough force to sting.
“I thought you were going to give the sword to Maggie,” Evan said. “Didn’t Fell say something like that? She’s a goblin wizard or something?”
“We were,” I told him. “Fell did suggest that, and yeah, Maggie is the sort of practitioner who deals with goblins, and who, if she were very good, would deal with goblins like the Hyena.”
“But you’re not giving her the sword?”
“No,” I said. “I’m suspicious that may be a bad idea.”
“Why?” Tiff breathed the question, as if afraid to ask it. “You asked her to be one of your champions, but you don’t trust her?”
I had to double check to make sure Maggie wasn’t in earshot. “I trusted her about as much as you can trust a relative stranger, facing a situation like I was.”
“You just used the past tense,” Tiff said.
I nodded.
“Why? What changed?”
“She did,” I said. “Maggie did. Something’s happened since I left Jacob’s Bell.”
“But you’re letting them go ahead with it?” Tiff asked.
I looked in the direction of Rose and Maggie.
“Right now, I’m focusing on preserving my relationship with Rose,” I answered. “I don’t think she’d forgive me if I shot her down now.”
“I know I shouldn’t say stuff like this, but that’s really not a very good reason,” Tiff said.
“It really isn’t,” I agreed.
■
Fell came to get us, not running into a soul on the way from Alexis’ hideout to the garage. On the way back, however, we did run into problems.
The Sisters had mobilized, making a play. In retrospect, we maybe should have moved earlier, before they had time to prepare.
They’d built an army.
Dolls, lifesize models, and a variety of mannequins, staggered through the streets. Some had faces, others were blank. Many were undressed. Ten or so were gathered around Fell’s car en-masse, hugging it, standing on it, or steadily bashing it with hard plastic hands.
Each one had a rune inscribed on their forehead.
Our cover was poor at best – a short fence around a patio for some place called ‘Miss Panda’s’, but the things were largely blind to us. Ones without line of sight moved as steadily toward us as the ones who should have been able to spot us.
“Vessels,” Fell said, with a note of annoyance. “This isn’t my specialty.”
“I thought you said that direct attacks like the Eye’s weren’t your specialty,” Rose said.
“Those either, if I’m on the defensive.”
They were breaking away, spreading out a bit. Mostly in our direction.
“I’ve seen something like this,” I murmured. “Dead bodies, infused with those who’d died to the elements.”