by C. E. Murphy
“You said I was too skinny.” I laughed at Morrison’s expression, then laughed again and put my hand over his. “Joking, I’m joking, Morrison. No, shapeshifting from this and last week took it out of me, and then that stunt with Petite, I just wiped myself out. I need fuel. Speaking of which, can I get one of those brownie sundae things, Tilly?” The waitress and I were good buddies by now. She got me a sundae, and when I finished it and indicated that I was perhaps done eating now, the whole diner broke into spontaneous applause. I stood up and took a bow, then sank back into the booth. “Oh my God, that was good.”
“That was disgusting.” Morrison looked torn between admiration and horror, but another voice said, “Nah, it was cool.”
I turned around to see Aidan a couple booths back. He looked older than he had been, and weirdly pale with the still-white hair. I wondered if it would grow back black, or if he’d been through so much it had left scars.
Ada, beside him, saw me noticing the changes and tried not to let herself look too worried. I wanted to hug her. Instead I smiled and waved them over. They came, and we scooted around our booth until we could all see each other over the mile-high stack of plates from my feast. “That,” Aidan said again, “was cool. I think you ate more than a whole football team.”
“I’ve never eaten a football team before, so I can’t compare the amount of food they would be to what I just ate.”
Aidan kicked me under the table, which made me yelp and laugh all at once. His mother gave him a scolding look that no one took very seriously. “How’re you doing?” I asked both of them, and they exchanged glances, then nodded.
“Okay,” Aidan said. “That all kind of sucked.”
I was in full agreement with that assessment. “You did a good job, though, Aidan. You were…” I spread my hands helplessly. “A hero. I mean, holy crap, kid. The ghosts. Holy crap.”
He got a little smile that looked like it was trying hard not to burst out all over the place. “That was good, huh? It was mostly the walking sticks. It’s a good thing you found yours, Joanne. Two wouldn’t have been enough.”
I actually smacked myself on the forehead. I hadn’t thought about it, but of course Renee had been drawing on my magic as well as her own. No wonder I’d been so utterly wiped out. I noticed the others peering at me and put my hand back down, trying to act like a grown-up. I didn’t feel much like one, really. I was feeling a little floaty and relieved, like everything was going to work out, but I thought I should try. “Glad to have been of help. But what even made you think of it? I mean, how could you possibly know there was any old magic in that valley to bring forward? Were you just working on a wing and a prayer?”
Aidan lifted one eyebrow. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, seriously! I recognized the valley after the fact, when the ghosts showed up, but you, you weren’t even there, Aidan. You got sucked off to the Ohio River Valley when we went back in time, so how could you even have any sense of what was there?”
The kid gave his mother an incredulous glance, as if she might be able to explain my astonishing stupidity, then looked back at me. “I’ve been going out there since I was eight, with the elders and the others who want to learn the old ways. We’ve been all over that valley. Don’t you know what’s on the north end?”
“Of course I don’t know what’s on the north end. How could I know what’s on the north end?” Maybe I hadn’t eaten enough, after all. My brain was still fuzzy.
Aidan kept giving me the bemused look for a while, then took a napkin and some crayons off the end of the table where the “keep kids entertained” material was mostly buried under my empty plates. A minute later he pushed a drawing across the table at me. I stared at it a moment, then turned red from my elbows to the top of my head.
It was a rough sketch of a pair of stick figures. A man and a woman, their bodies inverted triangles, their heads unattached to the shoulders. They were leaning back-to-back, their arms folded across their chests, and they were both looking out at the world.
One was wearing a short black jacket, and the other, a long white coat. I’d been proud of that touch, when I’d made the petroglyphs four hundred years ago: the rock had shaped itself under my will, bringing all the dark bits to Morrison’s jacket and all the sparkling white to my coat. I’d completely forgotten about the petroglyphs, and I was still blushing when I met Aidan’s eyes again.
“Everybody’s been wondering about those for like ever,” he announced. “Everybody goes up to check them out. They’re obviously old, ’cause they’re all soft and worn and stuff, but I didn’t figure out it was you until I saw you and him—” he nodded at Morrison “—there in the power circle, wearing those coats. And then I knew you had to have been in that valley a really long time ago, and if you were there that meant there was some kind of power I could reach back for. So I did, and the ghosts came.”
“Holy crap, Aidan. Wow. That’s amazing. I don’t think I could have done it myself.”
“Are you just saying that?”
“No. In the condition I was in yesterday, I definitely couldn’t have, and normally, well, maybe, but I don’t think I would’ve thought of it. No, you definitely kicked ass and took names. You gotta keep studying with Dad, Aidan. You’re going to be amazing.”
His grin cracked, after all, spreading wide across his face. “Know what?”
“What?”
“I think you might turn out okay, too.”
I laughed, but my heart filled up with relief so big it felt like it might pop out of my chest. “Thanks. Thank you, Aidan. That means a lot.”
“Y’welcome.” He slid a glance between me and Morrison. “You guys gonna hang around a while?”
“I dunno. Maybe a few days?” I looked at Morrison, who tipped his head sideways in a noncommittal maybe-trending-toward-yes manner.
“That’d be cool.” Aidan hunched his shoulders. “Maybe you can tell me what happened to Lucas.”
I sighed and cast Ada an apologetic look, not knowing how to tell Aidan anything except the truth. “Dad would be able to tell you better. Lucas got caught in the Nothing, Aidan, and thrown into a battlefield. Dad went after him, but it was too late. He’d already been killed. Did you know him very well?” <
Aidan shook his head, eyes fixed on the table. “I met him when he and Sara would come back, but it wasn’t like he was my mom or dad. I didn’t want him to get killed, though.”
“Neither did I.”
“D’you think the ghost shaman was right? If you’d tried to rescue him do you think he woulda come back a sorcerer?”
“I don’t know, kiddo. I do know changing things, messing with the timeline, makes it possible for really bad things to get a foot in the door and kick it open.”
“But you woulda tried anyway, if Sara hadn’t said you shouldn’t.”
“Yeah.”
“Because that’s what good guys do.”
I smiled. “Yeah. Because that’s what good guys do. The right thing, even if it’s the dumb thing.”
Morrison snorted, reminding me he and Ada were there. “It’d be all right, Walker, if you did a little less dumb.”
“I’m working on it, Boss.”
He gave me a look and I smiled as sweetly as I could. Aidan wrinkled his nose and nudged his mother. “They’re bein’ gross, Mom.”
“Yes, they are.” Ada smiled at us, then nudged Aidan in return. “We should go finish breakfast, sweetheart.”
“Okay. Can I order one of everything like Joanne did?” They got up and Aidan ran back to their table. Ada touched my shoulder as she passed me, and my heart lightened a little more, like I’d received a benediction. I exhaled noisily and rubbed my hands over my face, then peeked through my fingers at Morrison.
“Good to be home?” he asked quietly.
I wobbled a shoulder up and down. “Good to get some things hammered out, anyway. Good to… It’ll be good to be leaving, and not running away. There’s still a lot of clean-up to do h
ere, and a lot of people are going to hate me.”
“You saved them.”
“Maybe. Maybe I just brought trouble down on their heads. So many people are dead.”
“A lot of them were tourists.” Morrison’s lip curled. “You know what I mean.”
“You mean the locals won’t hold those deaths against me. I’ll hold them against myself, though, and it doesn’t negate the fact that at least thirty residents did die. It might be better if I never came back.”
“Aidan and your father wouldn’t like that.”
“Aidan and my father could visit us in Seattle, if they wanted to.” But he was right, so I nodded. “It’s not something to worry about right now. I’d like to hang out a few days, if you can take the time off work. Drive back across the country leisurely.”
“Do you even know how to drive leisurely?”
I grinned. “You know what I mean.”
“You mean drive like a bat out of hell when you’re actually on the road, but pull over to see the sights and spend relaxed evenings in decent hotels on the way?”
“Yeah. Something like that.” My phone buzzed in my pocket, startling me, and I tugged it out, asking, “Did you call to ask where I was, yesterday?”
“No. Why?”
“Voice mail. I forgot to check it, but I thought it was probably you.” I answer.” I aed with a cheerful “Hello?”
“Joanie?”
I straightened up, shock spilling down my spine. “Gary? Are you okay?” My septuagenarian best friend never called me Joanie unless something was wrong. Usually something with me, but he couldn’t possibly know what had gone on the past few days. He was in Ireland, for heaven’s sake.
“I called yesterday. You didn’t call back. I’m in Seattle.”
His voice was older and shakier than I’d ever heard it. I got up, hands cold and stomach in knots. “I only saw the message a little while ago and hadn’t had a chance—Gary, what’s wrong? What’s going on? Why are you in Seattle?”
“It’s Annie, Jo. It’s my wife. She’s alive.”
*
to be concluded in
SHAMAN RISES
the final book of the Walker Papers
Acknowledgments
Mountain Echoes was written in a blitz, and I am particularly grateful to Kate Laity, who provided me with a spare bedroom and no distractions for a four-day writing retreat during which I wrote a full third of the novel.
I’m also especially grateful to Mikaela Lind, who is the Word Warrior most likely to show up and make me write in the mornings. I’m not sure I would’ve gotten it done in time without her regular appearances.
I’m quite certain I wouldn’t have gotten it done in time if my mom, Rosie Murphy, hadn’t babysat quite a lot, and equally certain that my husband Ted’s taking time off work and sending me on the writing retreat was invaluable. So thank you all most particularly. I couldn’t have done it without you.
(I swear, at some point I’m going to stop running so close to the line, but I don’t know when…)
I’d like to add shout-outs to Paul-Gabriel Wiener for giving me one word where five would do to describe a vehicular analogy, and to Zelerie Rogers for her help with local geography. A general apology is probably also due to Zel for the liberties I’ve taken with Cherokee Town and the Qualla. All changes and inconsistencies are born of my mind, and should not be laid at her feet!
Props are also, always, due to my editor, Mary-Theresa Hussey (who has gone above and beyond the call of duty for the Walker Papers this past year—check out the Gary-focused short story collection No Dominion to see what help she’s been!), to Harlequin’s art department for another stunning cover, and to my agent, Jennifer Jackson. Thank you all for being awesome.
FB2 document info
Document ID: 7e6dfbba-2d25-4498-a1e5-b000880cbef2
Document version: 1
Document creation date: 10.3.2013
Created using: calibre 0.8.53, FictionBook Editor Release 2.6 software
Document authors :
Bakoro
About
This file was generated by Lord KiRon’s FB2EPUB converter version 1.1.5.0.
(This book might contain copyrighted material, author of the converter bears no responsibility for it’s usage)
Этот файл создан при помощи конвертера FB2EPUB версии 1.1.5.0 написанного Lord KiRon.
(Эта книга может содержать материал который защищен авторским правом, автор конвертера не несет ответственности за его использование)
http://www.fb2epub.net
https://code.google.com/p/fb2epub/