“It’s fine. Really.”
Maggie chimed in, “How long have you been together?”
“I really should go-”
“It’s fine, Joanna,” Duncan commented, from the direction of the garage.
Duncan entered the living room.
I stood from the couch. “Hi, Duncan.”
“Mr. Thorburn. I can’t say how surprised I am to see you here.”
“I’m here all the same,” I said. “Enjoying Joanna’s hospitality.”
I saw him frown a little. “You offered them something to eat or drink?”
“I did.”
A light smile touched my face as I met Duncan’s eyes. He was frowning just a little as he heard that.
Hospitality.
Few sins were as egregious as a breach of genuine hospitality. To harm a guest in one’s own home, or for the guest to harm the host.
“Can I ask you to go upstairs, Joanna?” Duncan asked.
“I want to know what’s going on, first.”
Duncan met my eyes.
“You have my permission to tell her,” I said.
He started to open his mouth.
“-But I’d reserve the right to tell her about you in return,” I said.
His mouth closed.
“Duncan?”
“Go upstairs, Joanna.”
She didn’t move.
“I want to see Laird,” I said. “Call him. This can be resolved neatly. No mess, no collateral damage.”
His hand moved over to his gun.
His other hand toward his pocket.
“Duncan?” Joanna asked.
“As far as I’m concerned,” I said, “We’re even. You want to spoil that, draw that gun, I’m going to have to balance the scales again.”
He didn’t budge.
I continued, “I’m not even with Laird. Not with my cousin’s blood on his hands.”
I could see Joanna react to that, visibly paling over the seconds the silence stretched on.
He lowered his hand to his gun.
“Stop,” Maggie said, before he could draw it. She stepped out from behind me, holding a gun in her right hand, already raised and pointed at Duncan. Fell’s gun.
I wondered if Joanna would say anything about the gauntlet, but I supposed the gun had her attention.
“Oh god,” she said.
“Two fingers, draw it, place it on the ground,” Maggie told Duncan.
Duncan placed his handgun on the floor.
“I don’t suppose you want this gun, Blake?”
“I don’t know how to use it,” I said. “He does. I’d rather not give him the chance to use the thing against me.”
“Whatever. Kick it toward me, Dunc.”
Duncan did.
Maggie kicked the gun under an armchair.
I spoke, “Duncan, we have more firepower, right this moment, right here, than you do. You can make the first move, break this tentative truce we’re both benefiting from, and I’m betting we’ll still beat you. I’m offering to let you balance the scales. Call in help. Call Laird out of hiding. Call your backup.”
“This was a damn shitty way to handle this,” Duncan said. “Involving my fiancee?”
“She’s not involved yet,” I said. “Not in that particular sense.”
“I’d say I’m pretty involved,” Joanna said, her eyes fixated on the barrel.
“Exactly my point. You don’t have a damn clue what’s going on, do you?” I asked.
“Barely.”
“If that,” I said. “Duncan… I’m trying to be civil. I’m trying to be fair. I did Joanna a favor, she invited me in. Maggie didn’t threaten anyone until you touched your gun. If you play ball, call Laird, and stay out of things, I won’t touch you or your fiancee. You walk away from this, you can concoct some misdirection to reassure her…”
I could see her expression change.
“You know it’s not that simple,” Duncan told me.
“It isn’t,” I said. “It’s your choice.”
He bowed his head a little, staring down at the ground. Maggie’s gun didn’t even seem to concern him.
“Okay.”
“Good man,” I said.
“I’ll need to step into the kitchen.”
I nodded.
He rounded the corner to head to the kitchen, a cramped space with dark wood cabinets and clocks above each door, each clock a painted plate with clockwork built into it. I followed to keep him in my line of sight.
I was watching. I didn’t miss it.
The egg timer disappeared as he walked past it. A little sleight of hand magic to go along with the practice.
A part of me wondered if he’d used that same sleight of hand to slip a potential criminal something more incriminating.
I wasn’t concerned. We all had our roles to play here.
“Use the egg timer,” I said. “Why don’t you pull the same trick Laird did to slip out of the circle we had him in? Can’t you stop time?”
He glared at me.
But he didn’t stop time.
“Why, Duncan?” I asked, my voice low. “That kind of magic only affects you. It’s far from doing something negative to me and breaching hospitality, if you slip away. Joanna isn’t watching. You could grab her and get her to safety…”
“Shut up, Thorburn,” he said.
“Tell me it’s because you’re forsworn, even.”
“I think you and I both know it isn’t that,” he said.
“Ah,” I said. “Then get rid of the timer and make the call.”
He did, tossing the egg timer into the sink. He dialed. “Uncle?”
I waited. Duncan gave directions.
“Blake, Maggie,” Duncan added, in the midst of the stream of instructions, “Plus the mirror and-”
I hung up the phone, jabbing the button on the receiver to hang up the corresponding cordless phone.
“Back to the living room,” I said.
The gradual compression of the city was more intense than I’d imagined. Laird made good time.
Good enough time that I was left with doubts, even after the near-confirmation from Duncan.
This was it. Two big steps to walk away from all of this in essentially one piece. Step one.
Laird.
The man arrived in the neighborhood, and he brought the cavalry.
No sooner had he arrived than a dozen dolls did too. Each squad with a Behaim kid at the helm. I watched out the window, staying close to the curtain so I wasn’t visible. Seventeen or eighteen individuals in all, nearly impossible to make out in the heavy snow.
“If you promise to stay out of this and do me no harm, I’ll let you and Joanna go,” I said.
“If you have to hold on to us, it’s harder for you.”
“Your call,” I said.
He pursed his lips.
“Come on, Duncan.”
“Can you let Joanna and only Joanna go? She can go upstairs, out of harm’s way.”
I glanced at Joanna. She sat on the arm of the armchair, both hands around her mug. She looked up and nodded.
I couldn’t trust ordinary humans.
Then again, she liked Duncan, of all people. How normal could she be?
But it was a kindness, and I was starting to think I needed to be more kind, especially after my last visit with Mrs. Lewis.
“Go, Joanna.”
She fled, running up the stairs.
Laird was approaching.
First Laird, then Conquest.
The dolls were a complication.
Here we went. Laird was drawing closer-
And in the moment my attention was on the world outside the window, Duncan moved.