“Thanks,” I said.
“I’ll bring it to you like this, but I’m not going to empty it when it’s full. So gross.”
I nodded. “Fill it with water?”
She nodded. I waited while she filled it with soap and water from the sink.
Laird was looking around, one hand raised to block the light from the window as he took in the apartment.
“Your apartment?” Laird asked.
It was a vacant room in another building Joel managed, a space he rented out to students, but I didn’t need to tell Laird that.
I shrugged.
“Do you remember our first conversation?” Laird asked.
“Comparing the residents of Jacob’s Bell to countries? Yeah.”
“I compared my family to America, if you remember.”
I nodded.
“What happens when an American dignitary is kidnapped? When any offense is made against the American people or American soil?”
“Overreaction,” Maggie said, from the kitchen. She arrived with the little bucket of soapy water and a wad of paper towels. “An excess of force.”
“Overreaction. Well put,” Laird said. “You know that this won’t end well for you, don’t you?”
“I’m holding out hope,” I said. I was careful not to block Fell’s line of sight as I stepped over the lines, carefully planting each foot so I wouldn’t scuff the marks in chalk.
Standing in the midst of the circle, I set down the little bucket of soapy water, reached back, took the paper towel, and set it down too. Aspirin, a garbage bag and a glass of water followed.
Laird carefully arranged each item so he still had room to sit. His attention seemed to linger on the circle.
“Pizza,” I said.
“Hm?” Laird asked.
Maggie handed me the pizza box. Only a few slices remained.
I handed it to Laird.
“And some more water,” I said.
“One sec,” Maggie said.
“Pizza will keep for a little while, and it’s edible cold. We don’t plan to leave you here so long that you’ll run out of water or face an overflowing chamber pot.”
“I see,” Laird mused, leaning back to get a better view of Maggie filling a vase with water – there apparently weren’t any pitchers in the cupboards. “I’m staying here for a while, then?”
I nodded.
“Could I ask for a book or two, then?”
“No,” I said. “Don’t have any, and I’m not sure you couldn’t use it to pull something.”
“A chair? Something I could use to sleep?”
“You have the plastic bag with the coat for a pillow. The apartment isn’t cold,” I said. “I want you fed and healthy. Nothing more.”
I handed over the water pitcher.
He grabbed it, but he didn’t take it from me. It left me suspended in place, waiting for him to grab it.
He used the opportunity to stare up at me from his kneeling position, speaking in a low voice. “When America is attacked, retribution tends to be brutal. Not necessarily swift, but they hold grudges. Pearl Harbor, Nine-Eleven…”
“I would argue that America’s living a lie,” I said. “They spend a great deal of time deluding themselves about just how powerful they are, a lot of time deluding others, and a lot of time abusing the power that does exist. Not that Canada’s a whole lot better.”
Laird took the water jug.
“Deluded, hm?” he asked, as he set the jug down. He took a second organizing everything.
“Yeah,” I said. “About how many friends they have, or the reality of the ongoing war, so to speak…”
I trailed off.
When Laird didn’t answer right away, I started to make my way back out of the diagram. Maggie offered a hand to help keep me steady.
“I’m getting more eager to hear the answer to this particular riddle,” Laird said, tapping the floor next to the circle. He’d placed the bucket behind him, and was busy removing his coat.
“Soon,” I said.
He folded the coat and stowed it in the garbage bag, squeezed the air out, pointing the opening at us, then knotted it firmly.
I pulled up a chair, sitting facing him.
He took his time getting organized, shifted position, sitting on the floor, and looked at me.
“The circle will break up incoming connections, and should serve as a barrier to anything going out. You’ll have trouble practicing,” I said. I indicated Rose. “Rose’s work.”
“I’ve seen similar,” Laird said. “But there’s a little too much detail and not quite enough substance, if I may say so myself. The outer circle may be stronger, but you passed it easily enough.”
“That’s intentional,” I said.
“Do tell.”
“I’d rather show,” I said.
I reached over to the table, grabbed a book, and then leaned forward, placing it in between the first and second circles.
Black Lamb’s Blood.
“Hm,” Laird said.
I laid a piece of paper down on the book. It was bound with a sticker, the only thing we’d had readily available, and marked with a script.
“Pauz,” I said. “Should you accept the compact written on that paper, I release you.”
The bindings of cord came undone. The book opened, pages flipping around, and Pauz unfolded in the process. There was a brief fuzz of black around him, like insects, feathers or coarse clumps of hair scattered into the wind, a spray of blood.
He flexed, turning to stare at me, then looked down at the diagram that surrounded him.
I watched carefully, the words to call him back on the tip of my tongue, as he made his way around the circle. Caught between the first and second of the three circles, Pauz did a full circuit before deciding that there wasn’t a weakness he could capitalize on.
“A watchdog,” Laird said.
“I asked myself what you cherish,” I said. “Then I asked myself how I could use that against you. You’re arrogant, you want to be in charge, to be Lord, to have power. Pauz can take all that away.
“You made the circle weak on purpose.”
“Yes,” I said. A fragile magic circle inside a stronger magic circle inside an even stronger magic circle.
“What are the terms you gave the imp?”
“They’re written in the envelope. Rose’s research, again. Careful wording.”
Laird glanced at Rose. I did too- she was standing there, her arms folded.
When I spoke, it was in a low voice. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t spiteful. Dealing with those kids back there? That was fucked up on a number of levels, Laird.”
“They knew what they were doing.”
I stabbed my finger in his direction. “You used them, you’ve brainwashed them with the Behaim-centric, anti-Thorburn thinking. I had to fight to keep them alive, and as far as I can tell, that’s more than you did. Your child, your nieces and nephews. As far as I’m concerned, you’re toxic. You’re dangerous. If you’re miserable for the next couple of days, I’m not going to complain.”
“Days?” Laird asked. I thought I detected a note of surprise and emotion, a hint that I’d broken through the facade.
“You’re not short. You might have trouble sleeping, if you can’t stretch out all the way. Breach the line of that circle, and Pauz can come in and join you. He shouldn’t cause any physical damage that can’t be reversed, but if the roles were reversed, I wouldn’t want to test Pauz’s ability to bend those rules.”