“I don’t deny that they’re fucked up. But grandmother lived. She hit the ripe old age of eighty-five, and I doubt you do that while messing with stuff like this if you’re dumb. Besides, dumb people aren’t the type to spend the kind of power it takes to make a sapient being, only to throw it away like you’re talking about.”
That actually seemed to help. Not that she looked happy, but maybe the way didn’t look so dark.
“There isn’t a book we can read to figure out why I was created,” Rose said. Her eyes were still downcast. “I looked at the earliest diary entries, and the most recent.”
“Anything useful in the most recent?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No. Nothing. The early ones… I sort of skipped past the earliest diaries, because a child’s writing is hard to read in big doses. Some stuff on the relationships between the different groups here. But if you’re looking for tips on where to focus our studies, we may have to look a bit further.”
“Relationships,” I said.
“It wasn’t all friendly or peaceful, though it sounds like there was more of an equilibrium a while back.”
“Like Laird said,” I thought aloud, “It’s starting to change. If the house sells, Jacob’s Bell grows past a threshold. It’s thrown things a bit out of balance.”
“You’ve got the two big circles joining in marriage, maybe rebuilding that balance.”
“Status quo for the Duchamp family, it sounds like,” I said. Which was a reminder of the matter at hand. “Listen, The council meeting starts in three and a half hours. I wanted to check you were up for it.”
“I’m up for it,” she said. She met my eyes, but that only made it clearer how worn out she was.
“Be careful,” I said. “If you lie-”
“I know,” she said. Nervously, she started fiddling with her hair, trying to get it sorted out. “I might lose my powers, or be forsworn. And I don’t want to lose any protections I might have, if things like Padraic can reach in here to get me. Not that I have much else to lose.”
I nodded.
“Don’t worry about me if you’re not going to worry about yourself,” Rose said. “You look as tired as I feel, and since you’re the one making the big decisions, like when to go out and-”
“Woah,” I said. “Woah, woah. You’re talking about this?”
“About going out with Laird.”
“I thought we weren’t fighting.”
I could see her expression change. Barely restrained frustration, slowly but surely being covered up, hidden behind a mask. “We’re not. Nevermind. I got carried away. I’ll meet you downstairs in a bit, and then we’ll go?”
A big part of me wanted to argue. To press the issue. To air grievances and get things on a more even keel. To convince her that I didn’t want her as a slave or a servant.
Except we had more pressing matters. Better to find a way to show it to her rather than tell her.
“Sure,” I said.
■
The spirits parted. I knew when it was time, because of the way the surroundings changed. A moment of rest, where the snow wasn’t so hard, the spirits were settled, and an entire area was almost clear, in magical terms. In regular terms, the snowstorm let up a touch. It was dark, but that was more to do with cloud cover than time of day.
I was on the move the moment the coast was clear, but I didn’t go to the meeting.
I headed for the downtown area, backpack empty, pockets full. Everything I could think I might need on hand.
Fireplaces and stoves. No. Dollar store? No. An old-school ice-cream shop complete with the benches and the tall glasses for fondues and ice cream floats.
I settled on a general mens store.
Knives were on sale, but I didn’t like the idea of using them. Too short a reach, against the sorts of things I would be fighting.
I did like the look of the ice picks and hatchets. Prices on the picks hit the hundreds, while I could manage a hatchet for as little as forty.
Wooden baseball bat, a touch less expensive.
I added the weight of a loop of chain to the cart as well.
Then I stepped into the corner of the shop where they handled bicycle stuff.
Cheap side-mirrors were about four dollars for a pair, round mirrors about six inches across. I checked that I could see Rose inside and grabbed twenty.
I think she might have actually smiled, when I glimpsed her.
I did another circuit of the store. There were rifles and guns, but those started at a hundred and fifty dollars, and I had little doubt they’d stop working in a pinch. Many Others would be immune or too hard to kill with a regular gun. In terms of cost benefit, I’d rather have more mirrors.
If I couldn’t get a gun at this point, the bow and arrow set stood out as a tempting alternative. It helped that there were Others who were vulnerable to wood and not metal. There were problems in terms of cost, though. At ninety dollars minimum, it was just outside of the range I was willing to pay.
And, when I thought about it, it would be hell to practice if my movements were limited to the interior of Hillsglade House. It would take too long to learn.
I had basic weapons for self defense, plus a few tools, which would have to tide me over until I got further in my studies over the magic stuff.
When I approached the counter to pay, I got stares. It made me wonder if the process of awakening had changed anything about me. Or if they were enemies.
I made my way to the next store. A general catch-all bargain shop, a little better than the dollar store I had passed. Expanding beyond the one pair of jeans would go a long way for my sanity. So would having decent soap and shampoo. Even different laundry detergent would help. I grabbed all of the toiletries, a few spare t-shirts, a sweatshirt and added a thirty dollar pair of jeans, just so I had something besides underwear to wear in a pinch.
It made me feel better, knowing I had the stuff, feeling the weight of it in the shopping basket. It left me roughly twenty bucks to get food, but I could stretch a little money a long way on that front. I was happier having permanent things, new things. Even if they were cheap shirts for 75% off. If I had more money in general, I would be a shopaholic or a hoarder.
When I headed to the front of the store, a young boy got in my way. Just past the brink of entering adolescence, pale and brown haired.
My first thought was Other. The memories of the things that had attacked the fake delivery man were fresh in my mind. It wasn’t. Very much human.
“You’re Blake, aren’t you?”
I nodded.
“Do you recognize me?”
I nodded again. Molly’s younger brother.