Then the hag turned away from her, and Christine could breathe again, and she became aware, once more, of the scaring pain in her leg.
Spivey stopped in front of Charlie and stared down at him.
She's purposefully ignoring Joey, Christine thought. He's the reason she has come all this way and has risked being shot, the reason she has struggled into these mountains through two blizzards, and now she's ignoring him just to savor the moment, relish the triumph.
Christine had nurtured a black hatred for Spivey; but now it was blacker than black. It pushed everything else out of her heart; for just a few seconds it drove out even her love for Joey and became all-fulfilling, consuming.
Then the madwoman turned toward Joey, and the hatred in Christine receded as conflicting waves of love, terror, remorse.
and horror swept through her.
Something else swept through her, as welclass="underline" the resurging feeling that there was still something that could be done to bring Spivey and the giant to their knees, if only she could think clearly.
At last Grace came face to face with the boy.
She became aware of the dark aura that surrounded him and radiated from him, and she was much afraid, for she might be too late. Perhaps the power of the Antichrist had grown too strong, and perhaps the child was now invulnerable.
There were tears on his face. He was still pretending to be only an ordinary six-year-old, small and scared and defenseless.
Did he really think that she would be deceived by his act, that he had any chance at all of instilling doubt in her at this late hour? She had had moments of doubt before, as in that motel in Soleded, but those periods of weakness had been short-lived and were all behind her now.
She took a few steps toward him.
He tried to squeeze farther back into the corner, but he was already jammed so tightly into the junction of the rock walls that he almost seemed to be a boy-shaped extrusion of them.
She stopped when she was only six or eight feet from him, and she said,
"You will not inherit the earth. Not for a thousand years and not even for one minute. I have come to stop you."
The child didn't answer.
She sensed that his powers had not yet grown too strong for her, and her confidence soared. He was still afraid of her. She had reached him in time.
She smiled." Did you really think you could run away from me?"
His gaze strayed past her, and she knew he was looking at the battered dog.
"Your heilhound won't help you now," she said.
He began to shake, and he worked his mouth in an effort to speak, and she could see him form the word "Mommy," but he was unable to make even the slightest sound.
From a sheath attached to her belt, she withdrew a long-bladed hunting knife. It was sharply pointed and had been stropped until it was as keen as a razor.
Christine saw the knife and tried to bolt up from the floor, but the savage pain in her leg thwarted her, and she collapsed back onto the stone even as the giant was bringing the muzzle of the rifle around to cover her.
Speaking to Joey, Spivey said, "I was chosen for this task because of the way I dedicated myself to Albert all those years, because I knew how to give myself completely, unstintingly.
That's how I've dedicated myself to this holy mission-without reservation or hesitation, with every ounce of my strength and will power. There was never any chance you would escape from me.,$
Desperately trying to reach Spivey, trying to touch her on an emotional level, Christine said, "Please, listen, please, you're wrong, all wrong.
He's just a little boy, my little boy, and I love him, and he loves me."
She was babbling, suddenly inarticulate, and she was furious with herself for being unable to find words that would convince." Oh God, if you could only see how sweet and loving he is, you'd know you're all confused about him. You can't take him away from me. It would be so. wrong. "
Ignoring Christine, talking to Joey, Spivey held the knife out and said,
"I've spent many hours praying over this blade. And one night I saw the spirit of one of Almighty God's angels come down from the heavens and through the window of my bedroom, and that spirit still resides here, within this consecrated instrumepit, and when it cuts into you, it will be not just the blade rending your flesh but the angelic spirit, as well."
The woman was stark raving mad, and Christine knew that an appeal to logic and reason would be as hopeless as an appeal to the emotions had been, but she had to try it, anyway. With growing desperation, she said, "Wait! Listen. You're wrong.
Don't you see? Even if Joey was what you say-which he isn't, that's just crazy-but even if he was, even if God wanted him dead, then why wouldn't God destroy him? If He wanted my little boy dead, why wouldn't He strike him with lightning or cancer or let him be hit by a car? God wouldn't need you to deal with the Antichrist."
Spivey answered Christine this time but didn't turn to face her; the old woman's gaze remained on Joey. She spoke with a fervency that was scary, her voice rising and falling like that of a tent revivalist, but with more energy than any Elmer Gantry, with a rabid excitement that turned some words into animalistic growls, and with a soaring exaltation that gave other phrases a lilting songlike quality. The effect was terrifying and hypnotic, and Christine imagined that this was the same mysterious, powerful effect that Hitler and Stalin had had on crowds:
"When evil appears to us, when we see it at work in this troubled, troubled world, we can't merely fall to our knees and beg God to deliver us from it. Evil and vile temptation are a test of our faith and virtue, a challenge that we must face every day of our lives, in order to prove ourselves worthy of salvation and ascendance into Heaven. We cannot expect God to remove the yoke from us, for it is a yoke that we put upon ourselves in the first place. It is our sacred responsibility to confront evil and triumph over it, on our own, with those resources that Almighty God has given us. That is how we earna place at His right hand, in the company of angels."
At last the old woman turned away from Joey and faced Christine, and her eyes were more disturbing than ever. She continued her harangue:
"And you reveal your own ignorance and your damning lack of faith when you attribute cancer and death and other afflictions to our Lord, God of Heaven and earth. It was not He who brought evil to the earth and afflicted mankind with ten thousand scourges. It was Satan, the abominable serpent, and it was Eve, in the blessed garden of peace, who brought the knowledge of sin and death and despair to the thousand generations that followed. We brought evil upon ourselves, and now that the ultimate evil walks the earth in this child's body, it is our responsibility to deal with it ourselves. It is the test of tests, and the hope of all mankind rests with our ability to meet it!"
The old woman's fury had left Christine speechless, devoid of hope.
Spivey turned to Joey again and said, "I smell your putrescent heart. I feel your radiant evil. It's a coldness that cuts right into my bones and vibrates there. Oh, I know you, all right. I know you. " Fighting off panic that threatened to leave her as emotionally and mentally incapacitated as she was physically helpless, Christine wracked her mind for a plan, an idea. She was willing to try anything, no matter how pointless it seemed, anything, but she could think of nothing.
She saw that, in spite of his condition, Charlie had pulled himself into a sitting position. Weak as he was, overwhelmed by pain, any movement must have been an ordeal for him. He wouldn't have pulled himself up without reason-would he?
Maybe he had thought of the course of action which continued to elude Christine. That's what she wanted to believe. That's what she hoped with all her heart.