2.02
I could see the looks on their faces. The adults had damn good poker masks, but even they were showing that my words had had an effect. A woman in the Behaim circle reached for her husband’s hand, without taking her eyes off me, as though she thought she were the only one reaching for a measure of security. Except almost everyone had a little clue like that. The kids most of all.
I’d give three groups safe passage. Somehow, with the how of it to be negotiated when I’d done more research.
It was interesting, to see how they all reacted to that tidbit. I tried to take it in, taking note of who’d reacted the most. Who was most insecure? Who was more secure? The responses they offered and the scale of those responses told me a lot.
The Duchamps were good at hiding their emotions. Even down to the eight or ten year old girls sitting beside their mothers, they showed less of a reaction than many of the Behaim adults did on the other side of the aisle.
Johannes was still smiling, and the girl Maggie was leaning forward now, clearly interested.
The girl Laird had referred to as a terrorist and the guy I wasn’t supposed to interact with under any circumstances.
“Hey, that sort of sounds like a threat,” a girl said.
I turned my head to see the witch hunter. She held a gun.
“No, Eva,” the boy said. “It wasn’t.”
She pointed the gun at me. I was so focused on the forces arrayed on the benches and around the edges of the room that it took me a moment to process what that meant. A slight pull on the trigger, and I was gone.
Fuck, she had her finger on the trigger.
“Someone say the word,” Eva said. “Threatening people, could be out of control. Say the word, tell me he’s too dangerous to leave alive.”
“No,” Laird cut in. “Not with the things Rose might have put in place. If there are special measures at work, we can’t act.”
Eva dropped the gun to point it at the floor. She smiled at me when I looked up at her face.
“Are you assuming he’s telling us the truth,” the Duchamp family’s leader said. The blonde woman I’d seen talking to Laird. She looked like the sort of person who would be the queen bitch at PTA meetings.
“I can’t lie,” I said.
“That doesn’t mean you’re telling us the truth,” she said.
“I’m pretty sure that’s what it means,” I said.
“What you’re saying and what you’re telling us are very different things,” she said. “Why are you focused on your seat? You left something behind.”
Right. Enchantress. She could see the connections between things.
“I have help,” I said. “Help my grandmother left me.”
I could see her eyes studying me. Roving over my body, my clothes, and very pointed locations around me.
“Yes. A companion.”
“A vestige,” Laird said.
Vestige?
“Of Rose?” the North End Sorcerer asked, his eyebrows raised.
“Yes,” Padraic spoke out loud, at the same Laird said, “I don’t think so.”
I could see a few glances being exchanged at that discrepancy.
“There is something else out there,” she said. “Back in the house. It’s not cooperating with him at this point in time.”
Damn.
“That’s not reassuring,” Johannes said. “Just the opposite. A mad dog running rampant is often scarier than a dog on a leash being set on targets.”
“It depends on who’s holding the leash, doesn’t it?” I asked.
The Sorcerer dipped his head in a single nod, “It does. Which is why I said often. At this point, from the sense I have of you, I would be more concerned about an unleashed dog than an attack dog at your control.”
I was very, very aware of all the eyes on me. Many of which were inhuman. One small disparaging remark, but there were a lot of ears to hear it.
“I’ve said most of what I needed to say…” I told them, trailing off as I tried to collect my thoughts. I thought of what I’d seen in the visions. The way Laird had talked about sitting back, there being no need to act. In the end, it had been someone else that had set those bird-skull things on me.
They were cooperating. Taking turns, negotiating with each other.
I needed to put a stop to that. Or throw a wrench into it. And I had to think of Molly.
“…I’m making one more offer. An altered version of the deal I just gave you. I’m willing to do what I can to protect you against any of my grandmother’s demons that happen to run rampant, and I’d still give you free reign to come after me. I’ll protect an enemy, if my condition is met. Identify the person responsible for my cousin’s death. This deal, obviously, is off the table if you did it.”
Cops in cop shows liked to do the whole thing where they’d put two perps in different rooms and let them sweat over whether the other guy would turn them in.
Maybe I was disarming myself, on a level, but I still didn’t want to use the devils. If I could ratchet up the paranoia or turn them against one another, it was worth it.
I took in the crowd. Now that the alarm was fading, my chance to see any more tells was gone. I could only lose out by standing up there any longer.
I walked down the aisle, and I took my seat on the pew.
Laird took his position at the front. He was still wearing the longer coat, hands in his pocket as he half-sat on the stage or chancel or altar or whatever it was supposed to be called.
“Well,” he said. “Let’s get this out of the way. Who’s interested in taking the deal?”
Wait. What?
“Not seeing any raised hands,” Laird said. “It’ll be good if we get this out of the way, before it gets messy.”
Negotiating here? Now? I’d hoped for more backstabbing, a little more chaos.
“Maggie, was it? You perked up when he made the offer.”
“I sort of am,” she called out, from beside me. She glanced at me, but she looked a little concerned. “I’ve seen how things go bad, if you let them. And that was only goblins, I think. So how bad are these things?”
“They’re very bad,” Laird said. “There have been cases where small towns disappeared after one got loose. Outsiders were called in, the offending Others were dealt with, and the areas were written off. One big symbol was drawn out in each area, to drive away the surviving locals and any visitors. They made some efforts to erase the areas from the books, and they became the towns you pass by on road trips, but never visit. Presentable when seen from a distance. When this happens in bigger cities, well, you can erase a great deal of evidence with a large enough fire or a natural disaster.”
That was a little more serious than anything I’d read about.
“I’ve seen something like that happen before,” Maggie said. “But it wasn’t… whatever you’re talking about. Small spot, bit of a disaster, everything cleared out. Now there’s an entire area of town people avoid.”