“Got shot,” I said. ; “Nothing too bad, don’t think. ; What held you up?”
“Trap. ; Got Maggie. ; I tried to help her out, but I’m not as good at helping her as you.”
I nodded.
“Felt you call,” he continued, “I decided to come. ; I tried to find help,” he said. ; “She’s all I could find.”
“Well,” I replied. ; “I think that’s our help, then.”
We looked at the scene.
‘Gargler had managed to reverse back into the fence, and was in the midst of switching gears and preparing for another forward rush.
Ainsley had another candle out, no doubt working on one of the goblins.
The other two had disappeared inside as Screwloose had appeared. ; Under the protection of Uncle Laird.
Screwloose was lurking under a vehicle. ; I had no idea what he was doing.
Utter chaos.
“I can’t help you,” Evan said. ; “I could before but I can’t now.”
“I know,” I said. ; “You couldn’t find the others?”
“There was Maggie, and Fell’s busy in front of the police station.”
Busy? ; With what?
I didn’t want to know. ; Saying he was ‘busy’ was enough.
“Rose is inside, and I think her monsters are too. ; She can’t get out.”
What the fuck was going on?
Did I miss something?
“Evan,” I said, my eyes on the ground. ; “We need backup.”
“Backup?”
“Either the imp or the sword. ; Fell has both?”
“They’re in the car, and he’s close to the car.”
I nodded.
“You want the imp, then?” Evan asked, with a note of hope.
“The imp… it’s dangerous. ; It’s a bad precedent.”
“You want the Hyena,” he said, with a note of disappointment.
Disappointment in me?
“Yeah, Evan.”
“Do we really have to?”
“People might die if we don’t.”
“People might die if we do.”
“No,” I said. ; “No, I don’t think so. ; Not if we’re careful.”
“You can’t be careful with something like that.”
“We can try,” I said. ; “Listen. ; Find the sword. ; Tell it… fuck me, I’m guessing again. ; But it bound itself as much as I bound it. ; It surrendered to my will, and you’re an extension of my will. ; Tell it that it’s free for ten minutes, provided it accepts the conditions and it agrees to be thoroughly and equally bound after those ten minutes are up, no matter what happens to me or to it. ; ; Tell it that it can’t hurt anyone or anything without our express permission. ; Tell it that it has to do everything I- no, everything you say.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, Evan. ; Does that make you feel any better?”
“Not much.”
I nodded.
“What else?”
“Tell it that if it accepts, then it gets a chance at sanctioned bloodshed-”
“Sanctioned?”
“It gets a chance to draw blood that it wouldn’t get otherwise. ; It gets a chance to be scary, to be something other than a sword. ; Maybe that’s enough. ; Come back to me if it isn’t.”
“Okay,” Evan said. ; I detected a slight tremor in his voice.
“Will you remember all that?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Will you forgive me, Evan?”
“Yes,” he said, decisively. ; “Because your heart’s in the right place, even if this is stupid.”
Then Evan took off.
The car’s wheels were spinning, but it wasn’t moving. ; More of an effort than simple wheels on slick pavement.
Ainsley had four needles in her second candle, but the wax was melting in streams and rivulets that were running down to her elbow, inside and outside her sleeve. ; It was apparently hot and intense enough that she was flinching, even as she fought to recite her words and stick more needles into it.
It had already melted enough that there was no twenty-first line to stick her needle into.
The door to the station fell into roughly five pieces, little more than rust filigree at this point.
Laird, followed by the two younger kids. ; My sense of the connection had been accurate.
He glanced over the situation.
He drew and fired his gun into the door of the police car with spinning wheels.
The acceleration stopped.
Laird helped Owen -Sunglasses- open the hood, and he dragged the boy back, until his back was to the wall of the station.
I heard murmured words, thought I maybe saw a nod from Owen.
Laird stood straight. ; His eyes fell briefly on me, then he approached the car, reaching in through the shattered windshield to turn the wheel. ; He nodded at Ainslee.
She broke the binding, and the car rolled forward. ; The wheels were still spinning, so it was a little faster than five miles an hour.
It bumped into the pile-up of cars on the one side of the parking lot.
“There’s a gremlin under the car!” Ainsley called out.
Laird looked.
I saw the gremlin scamper away.
Afraid of the stranger, maybe somehow recognizing that Laird wasn’t a novice practitioner.
Laird strode forward, approaching me.
Something tripped, and a device launched out from under the car. ; Like a hockey puck, it skidded out beneath Laird’s outstretched foot.
Laird stopped, foot suspended in mid-step.
He moved it out of the way, bent down, and carefully picked up the object.
It looked like some sort of small bear trap.
“Maggie, I presume,” Laird said.
I nodded.
“Your other friends are occupied or caught in traps by Duncan and his sons, Rose is bound indoors, and I’ve broken most of the available and useful reflective surfaces in the spirit world. ; Things are going to find an excuse to break in the real world in the coming days and weeks, but we can cross that bridge when it comes.”
“Sounds like bad karma,” I said. ; “Giving the universe a lot of menial work to do to keep everything coordinated.”
“Well,” Laird said, “I’m hoping to make it up to the universe.”
“Borrowing against the future for the sake of the present?” I asked.
“I would say it’s just the opposite,” Laird said. ; His eye roved, searching for the gremlin.
“I seem to have a gap in my memory,” I said.
Laird smiled. ; “Your, uh, Rose? ; She does too, it seems.”
“What did you do?”
“I’m particularly fond of the saying, what is it? ; ‘Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it? ; It’s very useful when we can use the same tricks a second time around without you being any the wiser.”
“I’m asking what you did.”
“You can ask. ; I’m not saying anything more on the subject.”
“You’re far from being my favorite person in the world, you know that?”
“I do. ; I’ll live, basking in the irony that I’m really doing you a service.”
“A service.”
“Most of the others want to see you dead. ; I want to see you live, ideally as a non-threat, for at least a little while longer.”
“As a withered, helpless old man?”
“Better than being dead, considering where you’re going.”
He stopped in front of me.
He was imposing, especially when I was hunkered down on the ground, shivering and bent, while he was standing tall above me, with his heavy jacket, barrel chest, and square jaw, glaring.
Not exactly my mental image of a practitioner.
“Conquest is coming,” Laird said. ; “He’s smart enough to stay out of the thick of things until the opposing king is in check.”
“How nice for him,” I said.
“I may be your biggest ally here,” Laird said. ; “Conquest wants you dead, I want you bound. ; The sooner you offer your surrender, the better off we all are.”
“You’re lying,” I said.
“Some consider that kind of accusation a grave insult,” he said.
“Good,” I said. ; “Add ‘fuck you sideways‘ to the insults you’re due. ; You’re not my biggest ally. ;He is.”