“It will come to you.”
We were almost to Abernathy’s when Malcolm’s phone buzzed again. I snatched it up. “The team returned from the Well,” I said, feeling unexpected relief for a handful of men and women I didn’t even know. “All of them. Lucia doesn’t know any more than that.”
“If they succeeded, the world will know soon.” Malcolm pulled into the rear parking lot and kissed me goodbye. “I’ll be back at six.”
I waved as the car drove away, then unlocked the back door and let myself in. Judy wasn’t back yet, so I went out front in time to accept a bundle of mail from the mail carrier. Standing at the counter, I sorted the letters, rejoicing in how much easier this was with two hands, even if one of them was still stiff. I wasn’t going to forget that injury for a long time.
Distantly, I heard the back door open and close. Soon Judy emerged from the stacks. “Did you hear about Baghdad?”
“Only that the team got out with no casualties. Why, what have you heard?”
“Just that. It’s exciting, don’t you think? The lost Wishing Well, recovered in time to help us defeat the invaders.”
“It would be a relief to me.” I gathered up the augury requests and slit the first one open. “But for now, I have work to do.”
But once I was inside the oracle, I paused, tapping the folded paper against my palm. “Did it work?” I asked. “Can the Well be recovered?”
The oracle’s attention shifted to me, then away again. The guardians fall, I thought. Four are gone, two remain. Seal the cracks.
That discouraged me. “I hoped it might make a difference. Them not dying, or whatever, inside the Well. Maybe that means the Well really is gone, if it doesn’t have the power to affect reality to the extent of killing people.” I walked down the aisles, looking for the augury. “And I don’t know how they’d…I don’t know. Purify it? If it was contaminated by its custodian’s body?”
Frozen. It stands still. Outside time.
“That’s an interesting concept, though I don’t understand how it would work. Do you mean the Well is in stasis?”
Stasis. Yes. Waiting outside time.
“Huh. I think I should tell Lucia. Though probably she already knows.”
I found the augury and set it on the counter, tucking the folded request between its pages. My phone rang as I was pulling it out to call Lucia. “There’s been an explosion,” Malcolm said. “In Baghdad. I’m sure you can guess where.”
My chest felt tight with fear. “The Well?”
“The news is calling it a terrorist attack,” Malcolm said. “We have had no contact with al-Hussein or the members of his team. For all we know, it was a terrorist attack, a horrible coincidence, and nothing to do with Wardens. But that seems unlikely.”
“But they got out safely. Why would it explode after and not while they were in there?”
“I have no idea. I have to go, but I thought you should know. I understand how much it would mean to you to regain a named Neutrality.”
“Thanks. I’m calling Lucia. The oracle told me something about the Well I think she should know.”
“Be prepared to wait for a response. She’s very busy.” He hung up.
I called Lucia and waited for her voice mail to pick up. Instead, I heard, “Davies? Do you know something I don’t?”
“Um…maybe? Were you waiting for this call?”
Lucia snorted. “We’re dealing with a named Neutrality that’s been corrupted for fifty years. If anyone’s going to know if that’s changed, it will be another custodian.”
“Oh. Well, the oracle told me—I don’t know if you already know this, but it said the Wishing Well was in stasis. Specifically, that it was ‘waiting outside time.’ Does that mean anything to you?”
Lucia was silent. Finally, she said, “It might. Al-Hussein’s team didn’t see any remnants of a body, not even scraps of cloth. While it’s true the Well has a history of consuming things thrown down it, that was always offerings, money or whatever. Until the murder, its custodians entered it often with no side effects. And no one except the Well’s custodians have known what goes on inside it. If it’s holding the body in stasis somewhere, that could explain the curses.”
“I don’t understand how that works in practical terms.”
“Neither do I, Davies. It’s a piece of information I’ll pass on to people who do. But it implies that the Well might be waiting for a new custodian.”
I sat on the metal stool behind the counter and shuffled the remaining augury requests. “Wouldn’t the Board have tried that before?”
“They didn’t at first because the fighting was so intense. Once the warring families were wiped out, the Board used the oracle to request the identity of the new custodian. The oracle refused to help. Or so I’ve heard. It was before my time. The Board interpreted that to mean the Well shouldn’t have a new custodian.” Lucia sighed. “Not the reaction I would have had, but that’s above my pay grade.”
“So maybe it’s time.”
“Assuming the Well hasn’t been destroyed, yes. Look, I’m sending Henry over later today, but I’ll let Campbell know when anything happens. You should be aware…he’s likely to have to go to Baghdad if the Well is intact. Al-Hussein sent a message, before we lost contact, that he needed some of the new steel magi for the second part of his plan. Not that he could be bothered to tell me what his plan was.”
A chill rushed through me. “I thought—”
“The Middle East isn’t deadly, just not always safe for American magi. Campbell will be fine.” Lucia sounded grumpy, which frightened me further; she always sounded grumpy when she had to lie. “Later, Davies.”
I put my phone away and closed my eyes. I wanted Malcolm to be safe, but even more I wanted the comfort of knowing a named Neutrality had been restored. I couldn’t keep him safe if it meant losing that.
I did a handful of auguries before ten o’clock. The Nicolliens kept me busy until almost noon, by which time I was hungry from having eaten breakfast before 5:30 and tired from having woken half an hour before that. When the last Nicollien was gone, I said, “I forgot to bring lunch.”
“I’ll run to the market,” Judy said. “Do you want anything in particular?”
“Something substantial. A roast beef sandwich. And a pickle. And more Diet Coke. It’s going to be—”
I felt dizziness pass over me. They fall, the oracle said. Its voice reverberated through me.
“Another attack,” I managed. My tongue felt thick and choked my words. “I need to go.” I turned and ran for the oracle. If the Sanctuary was under attack, I needed to be close to the oracle even if it was capable of communicating from anywhere.
The dizziness passed the moment I stepped into the oracle’s space. “Who is it?” I demanded. “Is it the Sanctuary?”
He falls. It is gone. Danger. Seal the cracks.
I pulled out my phone, remembered there were no bars in the oracle, and shoved it back into my pocket. “Can we save Samudra the way we did Claude?”
Gone. He falls. See, the oracle said—
—and instantly I was elsewhere. The air was frigid and smelled of dust that made me sneeze. Tremors shook the earth, not little shivers but full-on quakes, and after the second one I fell to the ground, which was hard stone and not the cream linoleum of Abernathy’s. Screams filled the air, the ground tilted, and I was falling, flailing to stop myself and not catching hold of anything. Through the dust, I saw other falling figures. I rotated helplessly in the air, saw the ground rushing toward me at a frightening speed—
I blinked. I was back in Abernathy’s, on my knees and leaning against a bookcase for support. My throat felt as raw as if I’d screamed, but the air was clear of dust and smelled like raspberries. I sucked in air desperately until my heart rate slowed. “Was that…was I there?” I asked.
He falls. Helena falls. Five are gone, one remains.
I pressed my face against the smooth yellow wood of the bookcase a
nd wept.
26
Eventually my tears ran dry, and I dragged myself to my feet, then clung to the bookcase to keep myself upright. My knees wobbled and I ached as if I’d been pummeled by the rocks in my vision, if that’s what it was. I couldn’t stop seeing the ground accelerating toward me at a terrifying rate. It made me wonder if I’d been in Samudra’s head, right up until just before the end. The thought sickened me, and I clenched my teeth hard and swallowed to keep from vomiting.
When my legs felt less like cooked pasta, I walked slowly through the aisles until I emerged from the oracle’s space. Judy waited there, her eyes wide and her phone in her hand. “What happened?”
“The Sanctuary is gone,” I said, and found I was trying to shed more tears. “I think they…I don’t know. It was physically destroyed, like by a bomb or something. They fell…fell off the side of the mountain. I saw it at the end.”
Judy closed her eyes and bowed her head. Then she looked at me with the bleakest expression I’d ever seen on her. “And now it’s just Abernathy’s,” she said. “What are we going to do? The invaders keep getting cleverer.”
“I don’t know. If they can restore the Well—”
“Mike texted me about the explosion. How likely is restoring it now?”
“I don’t know,” I repeated. “Judy, I’ve never felt this discouraged in my life.”
Judy let out a deep breath. “I’m getting lunch,” she said. “We need food before we face whatever disaster strikes next. Go get a Diet Coke and sit for a while. It’s already been a long day.”
I nodded. “Thanks.”
When Judy was gone, I did as she’d suggested and went to the break room for a drink. I sat at the little table and sipped my Diet Coke and let my mind wander. Positive things: Viv was alive and looked likely to stay that way. The magi had gone into the Well and come back out unharmed. Claude hadn’t been killed. I clung to those thoughts and refused to dwell on anything else.
My phone rang. It was Lucia. “What happened to the Sanctuary?” I asked before she could speak.
“Don’t know yet,” Lucia said. She didn’t sound fazed by my abruptness. “That is, we know the outcropping it was built on cracked and fell off the mountain. No survivors—unless you pulled off another miracle?”
“No.” I wiped my eyes. “Not this time.”
“At any rate, we don’t know how the invaders got past the wards, but my theory is that they tunneled through the outcropping outside the wards and let gravity do the rest. Which is a sickening thought, and I’ve got stone magi reevaluating Abernathy’s wards so it doesn’t collapse into a sinkhole.”
That frightened me, but in a distant way, something I was already too overwhelmed to worry about. “So the Sanctuary is gone.”
“Sort of. Reports from Chowdhury say the node is still there, but it’s hovering about a mile off the ground and is no use to anyone. But the invaders may have drained it by the time Chowdhury can get a team in place. So I’m not counting on that.”
It was like the universe was conspiring against me. One piece of bad news after another. “Please tell me everything is all right with Khalil al-Hussein’s team?”
Lucia sighed. “Still no word, but I’m not worried. Al-Hussein is the independent type who’s likely not to call until he knows every last detail of the solution to his problem. Look, are you going to be all right? This is a lot to take in.”
“I’m not all right, but I refuse to be afraid. I’m sure the oracle will warn me if anything else happens.”
“That sounds like bravado, but I’ll take it.” Lucia sighed again. “Don’t hesitate to call if something else comes up. Henry left here about five minutes ago, so expect him soon.”
I said goodbye and hung up. The bells over the front door jingled, and shortly Judy appeared with a plastic bag. “Roast beef, pickle, and a slab of carrot cake,” she said. “Not as good as homemade, but it smelled good enough, and you could use the carbs.”
“I’m not sure that’s true, but thanks.” I took a bite of my sandwich and inhaled deeply the mingled scents of rich meat, sharp pickle, and sweet and tangy cream cheese frosting.
Judy divided her attention between her pastrami sandwich and her phone. “Mike again,” she said. “We’re making plans for when I move in tonight. I don’t have any furniture except that cabinet in the bathroom, so it won’t take long. Unless…would you mind if I took the dishes? You paid for them, after all.”
“I don’t mind. I’d rather someone used them.” I took a bite of my pickle, which was crisp and sour and delicious. “I’m a little sad thinking of Silas’s apartment not being occupied anymore. It’s so beautiful.”
“Life goes on. Besides, if I’m wrong and Mike and I can’t make this work, I’ll move back in.”
“Oh, I hope it works.”
“Me too.” Judy smiled at something she read on her phone, an unexpectedly tender expression that made me feel odd about having seen it. Judy was so private, it felt like an invasion.
We ate in silence, Judy tapping out messages, me letting my thoughts wander again. I didn’t feel like cooking, so maybe Malcolm and I could go out to dinner to celebrate anything I could think of. Unless he had to go to Baghdad, which was a less pleasant thought. On the other hand, if he could make a difference there…that was a positive thought that almost outweighed my fear for him.
My phone buzzed with an incoming text. I swallowed a bite of cake—Judy was right, it wasn’t bad—and checked the display. HEARD FROM AL-HUSSEIN, Malcolm wrote. THEY FOUGHT OFF INVADERS. WELL INTACT.
Relief flooded through me, making my joints weak again. “The Well is still there,” I said.
Judy looked up. “That’s wonderful news! What happened with the explosion?”
“I guess that was an invader tactic, because Malcolm said they fought them off.” I tapped out BUT IS THE WELL ACTIVE?
It took a minute for the reply to come. NOT YET. TALKING TO AL-HUSSEIN NOW.
I took another bite of cake to calm myself. “More news soon,” I said when I’d swallowed. “I could really use some good news.”
“Yeah. Like that the Wishing Well has been purified, and it’s giving out invader-fighting weapons that predict where they’ll strike next.” Judy swiped across her display. “Looks like Mike is coming over at six to help me load up my things. He says if Malcolm goes to Baghdad, their team won’t be hunting tonight.”
“That’s true.” I’d forgotten, for the moment, what Lucia had said about only the new steel magi being needed for the next stage of al-Hussein’s plan. Impatiently I checked my phone, though I knew no new messages had come through. I threw away my trash and gathered up the phone. “I feel better now.”
“No more low blood sugar,” Judy said.
“I’ll see if I can finish the mail-in auguries before two.” I left Judy tapping rapidly and took my time passing through the stacks to the front of the store. I did feel better. Maybe it was just the effects of a good meal, but I felt more positive than I had since witnessing Samudra’s death.
I did a few more mail-in auguries with no communication from the oracle. That was fine by me, given that all its recent communications had been of disasters. As grateful as I was to have warning of the invaders’ attacks, those warnings wore on me. “It would be nice if, just once, your communication was of something positive,” I said as I searched for the fourth augury. “Like…telling me that Mike and Judy are going to work out. Or giving me a winning lottery number. I mean, not the last one, because I don’t need to win the lottery, but that’s the sort of thing that makes people cheerful.”
I will end. Helena will end.
I stopped mid-step. “See, that’s the exact opposite of what I asked for,” I said. The day’s events had left me too numb to be distraught over the now-familiar warning. “Do you not understand human desires? You must understand, because you gave me my honeymoon.” Another thought struck me. “You can’t possibly mean that our ending is a positive thing?
”
No. I will end. Helena will end. There was a pause that felt like the oracle was searching for words. Life is. The enemy falls. We fall. Life is.
“I have no idea what that means.” I continued searching for the augury. “But life seems like a very positive thing. So…thank you, I guess.”
Seal the cracks.
That one, I didn’t understand either. We’d had our chance to seal the cracks and lost it. “I don’t know how to do that, but maybe it will become obvious sometime,” I said.
The augury was a paperback titled I am the Messenger, its cover disfigured by a dirty boot print. I brushed at it to no effect. Well, condition didn’t matter to the oracle.
When I emerged, Dave Henry was leaning against the counter, his familiar aluminum briefcase beside him. “Four requests,” he said by way of replying to my greeting. “How are you holding up?”
“Fine, I guess.” I waved at him with my left hand. “I have two hands again, so I feel more positive.”
“I heard they worked a miracle. Congratulations.”
“I’m grateful.” I accepted the first slip—What is wrong with the Well?—and disappeared into the stacks.
The oracle’s attention was instantly on me, pressing down like a soft but inexorable weight. “I guess it’s not so strange that you’d care about this one,” I said. I found the augury, a fat little paperback called The Tin Roof Blowdown, and examined it for a minute before remembering I wasn’t allowed. “I hope this works. Though I don’t know why people didn’t try to figure this out fifty years ago, or any time in the years since. Maybe they did, and I just don’t know about it. I guess it doesn’t matter, so long as they’re trying now.”
I handed Dave the paperback. “$4000. That’s good. Usually it means there’s a lot of information in the augury.”
“I hope you’re right.”
I filled the rest of the augury requests—How do we defend the Well against invaders? Where will the invaders strike next? and Where is the custodian’s body?—with the oracle essentially breathing down my neck. I’d expected it to refuse to answer the question about where the invaders would attack next, because it had refused so many others along those lines, but the light never changed. Well, Lucia was in a position to get the augury immediately and act on it right away, so maybe that made a difference.
The Book of Destiny Page 29