by Terry Brooks
They stood together without speaking over the graves of her family, flakes of snow swirling about them in gusts of wind, the dark distant tree trunks and pale flat headstones fading into a deepening white curtain.
“A lot of snow will fall tonight,” Two Bears said in his deep, soft voice. His black eyes fixed her. “Might be a good time to think about the journeys you have taken in your life. Might be a good time to think back over the roads you have traveled down.”
She did not want to ask him why he was suggesting this. She did not think she wanted to know. She did not believe he would tell her anyway.
“Good-bye, little bird’s Nest,” he said, backing off a step into the white. “Hurry home.”
“Good-bye, O’olish Amaneh,” she replied. She started away, then turned back. “I’ll see you later.”
He did not respond. He simply walked into the thickly falling snow and disappeared.
From the concealing shelter of a thick stand of spruce, Findo Gask watched Nest Freemark converse with the big Indian. He watched them through the steadily deepening curtain of new snow until Nest began walking back toward the park, and then he turned to an impatient Penny Dreadful.
“Let’s go get her,” Penny suggested eagerly.
Findo Gask thought a moment, then shook his head. “I don’t think so. Not just yet.”
Penny looked at him as if he were newly arrived from Mars. Her red hair corkscrewed out from her head in a fresh gust of wind. “Gramps, are you going soft on me? Don’t you want to hurt her after the way she talked to you?”
He smiled indulgently. “I want to hurt her so badly she will never be well again. But the direct approach isn’t necessarily the best way to accomplish this.”
She made a face. “I’m sick and tired of playing around with Little Miss Olympics, you know that? I don’t get the point of these mind games you love so much. If you want to play games, let’s try a few that involve cutting off body parts. That’s the way to hurt someone so they won’t forget.”
Findo Gask watched Nest Freemark begin to fade into the white haze of falling snow. “If we kill her now, John Ross will take the morph and go to ground, and we might not find him again. He is the more dangerous of the two. But he relies on her. She has something he needs. I want to know what it is.”
He signaled into the trees behind him where Twitch and the ur’droch were waiting. Then he began walking, Penny right on his heels.
“We’re going after the Indian instead,” he told her.
She quickened her pace to get close to him. “The Indian? Really?” She looked excited.
He slid through the spruce, shadowy in his dark clothing, his eyes scanning the snow-flecked land ahead. He had heard stories of an Indian who was connected in some way to the Word, either as a messenger or prophet, a powerful presence in the Word’s pantheon of magics. He would be the most powerful of Nest Freemark’s allies, so it made sense to eliminate him first. It was his plan to strip away Nest Freemark’s friends one by one. He wasn’t doing this just to weaken her and thereby gain possession of the morph. He wasn’t even doing it because he was afraid that killing her outright would scare off John Ross. He was doing it because there was something about her that disturbed him. He couldn’t identify it, but it had revealed itself in the way she stood up to him, so confident, so determined. She knew he was dangerous, but she didn’t seem to care. Before he killed her, he wanted to find out why. He wanted to break down her defenses, strip away her confidence and determination, and have a close look at what lay beneath.
He would have the morph, of course. It didn’t matter what Nest Freemark or John Ross tried to do to stop him. He would have the morph, and their names in his book, before the week was out.
And in the process, he would have their souls as well.
The big Indian was already out of sight, disappeared into the white curtain of blowing snow. But Findo Gask did not need to see the Indian to find him. There were other senses he could call upon besides his sight. There were other ways to find what was hidden.
He glanced left and right, catching just a glimpse of Twitch and the ur’droch to either side. Penny stalked next to him, eyes darting this way and that, pale face intense. She was whispering, “Here, Tonto. Here, big fella. Come to Penny.”
Wind gusted and died away, snow swirled and drifted, and Riverside Cemetery was a surreal jungle of dark trunks and ice-capped markers. They were closing on the bluffs overlooking the bayou, where the cemetery ended at a chain-link fence set just back from the cliffs. There was still no sign of the Indian, but Findo Gask could sense him, not far ahead, still moving, but seemingly in no great hurry. The demon’s mind was working swiftly. He might lose one or two of his allies in this effort, but demons were replaceable.
All but him, of course.
There was no one else like him.
They came out of the blowing snow on a tree-sheltered flat, close back against the edge of the bluffs, and the Indian was waiting.
Nest made her way out of the maze of tombstones to the cemetery road and followed it back toward the park. The wind was gusting heavily and the snow blowing so hard it was impossible to see much more than a dozen yards. Banks of storm clouds rolled across the sky, and the light had dimmed to an iron gray that turned the landscape hazy and colorless.
“O’olish Amaneh,” she whispered to herself.
A dark shadow whizzed by her head, and she flinched from it automatically, dropping to a guarded crouch. The shadow was gone a moment and then it was back again, appearing out of the whirling snow in a rush of darkness. It was an owl, winging low across the tombstones and monuments, flattened out like a big kite. Without a sound, it flew right at her. At the last minute it banked away, and Pick dropped onto her shoulder with a grunt.
“Criminy, I can’t see a thing!” he grumbled, latching on to her collar and pulling himself into the warmth of its folds. “Cold up there, too. I might be made of twigs and leaves, but I’m frozen all the way through!”
“What are you doing?” she asked, coming back to her feet, looking at the white space where the owl had been a moment before.
“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m patrolling the park!”
“In this weather?” She exhaled sharply. “What is that supposed to accomplish?”
“You mean, besides possibly saving your life?” he snapped irritably. “Oh, right, I forgot. That was yesterday, wasn’t it? Guess I’m just wasting my time out here today.”
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry.” She hadn’t seen him since last night’s incident and had forgotten that she hadn’t thanked him. “What can I say? I’m an ingrate. You did save my life. All of our lives, for that matter.”
She could feel him puff up. “You are entirely welcome.”
“I mean it. It’s belated, I know, but thanks.”
“It’s okay.”
“I’m just a little distracted.”
He gestured impatiently. “Start walking. It’s freezing out here, and I have to see you safely home before I can take cover myself. Mr. Gask is still out here, and he has a couple of his demon cronies with him. They were watching you talk with the Indian.”
“With Two Bears?” She glanced around quickly.
“Don’t worry, they didn’t follow you. I was watching to make sure. Come on, keep moving, don’t be looking around like you didn’t know the way. I’ll keep watch for the both of us.”
She made her way to the fence and squeezed through the gap to the other side. Ahead, the park was a white blur. The residences to her left and the bayou and railroad tracks to her right had disappeared completely. But even in weather conditions as bad as this, she could find her way, the park as familiar to her as her own bedroom in darkest night. Head lowered against the stinging gusts of frozen snow and bitter wind, she moved down the road past the Indian mounds.
“Tell me what you know about last night,” she suggested, striding steadily forward.
“Not much to tell.” Pick wa
s so light she could barely tell he was there. “I was patrolling the park on Jonathan, just like I always do when there’s trouble about. After what you’d told me about Mr. Gask, I knew he’d be back. Sure enough, I found him down by the ice, hiding in the trees. He didn’t seem to be doing anything, so I took Jonathan high up and out of sight. You went down the toboggan slide once or twice, and Mr. Gask watched. Then someone flashed a light up top by the loading platform, and our demon friend went down to the ice and touched it with his hand. When I saw the cracks start out toward the center, I could see where things were heading. You were already coming down, so I flew out to warn you.”
“Good thing,” she told him.
He grunted. “There’s the understatement of the month. That was a pretty wicked magic he concocted. Lethal stuff. It missed you, but it got that park guy.”
“Ray Childress. I know. It makes me sick.”
Pick was silent for a time. “You better watch out, Nest,” he said finally. “There are bad demons and there are worse-than-bad demons. I think Findo Gask is in a class by himself. He won’t give up. He’ll keep coming after you until he has what he wants.” He paused. “Maybe you ought to just give it to him.”
Nest shook her head. “I won’t do that. I already told him so.”
Pick sighed. “Well, no surprises there. Is John Ross with you on this?”
“Right to the bitter end.”
“Good choice of words. That’s likely how it will turn out.” Pick squirmed on her shoulder to get more comfortable. “Wish this was happening in the summer, when it was warmer. It would make my job a lot easier.”
She glanced down at him. “You be careful yourself, Pick.”
He snorted. “Hah! You don’t have to worry about me. I’ve got eyes in the back of my head, and Jonathan’s got them in his wing tips. We’ll be safe enough. You just keep your own instincts sharp.”
She swallowed against the cold, moistening her lips. Some Chap Stick was definitely in order. “How come you call him Jonathan? And before that, it was Benjamin and Daniel. What kind of names are those for owls? Can’t you come up with something … I don’t know, not so common?”
He straightened, twiggy hands tightening in her collar. “Those names are only common to you, not to me. I’m a sylvan, remember? We don’t use names like Daniel and Benjamin and Jonathan in the normal course of things. Cripes! Try to remember, we’re not like you!”
“Okay, already.”
“Sometimes, you appall me.”
“All right!”
“Well, criminy!”
She trudged on into the snowy gloom, following the dark ribbon of the road as the snow slowly began to hide it away.
Findo Gask was surprised. The Indian was just standing there, watching them. He must have known they were following him, and yet he hadn’t tried to escape or hide. Why was that?
“Looky, looky, Gramps,” Penny teased. “Someone wants to play.”
Gask ignored her, slowing his approach to study his adversary. The Indian was bigger than he had looked earlier, his copper skin dark, his black hair damp and shiny, his eyes hard-edged and penetrating. He had dropped the bedroll and rucksack in the snow, as if anticipating the need to keep his hands free.
“Are you looking for me?” he rumbled softly.
Findo Gask stopped six yards away, close enough that he could see the other’s eyes, not so close that he was within reach of those big hands. The Indian did not look at Penny. He did not look to either side, where Twitch and the ur’droch had melted into the trees.
“Hey, Tonto,” Penny called out to him. “Remember me?”
Gask let his eyes shift momentarily. She was standing closer to the Indian than he was. She had knives in both hands, their metal blades glinting as she moved them in small circular motions.
The Indian glanced at her, then dismissed her with a shrug. “What is there worth remembering? You are a demon. I have seen many like you before.”
“Not like me,” she hissed at him.
The Indian looked back at Findo Gask. “Why do you waste my time? What do you want with me?”
Gask brought the leather book in front of him, gripping it with both hands. “What is your name?” he asked.
The Indian was as still as carved stone. “O’olish Amaneh, in the language of my people, the Sinnissippi. Two Bears, in the language of the English. But should you choose to speak my name, it will sear your tongue and scorch your throat all the way down to where your heart has turned to coal.”
Findo Gask gave him a considering look. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Twitch sliding along the fenceline behind the Indian, his movements smooth and silent in the snowfall, his big form barely visible. He could not see the ur’droch, concealed somewhere back in that spruce grove, but he knew it was there. Penny was giggling with anticipation. She was unpredictable, apt to do almost anything in a given situation, this one especially, and it made her useful.
Two Bears seemed oblivious of them. “You are a demon who prides himself on his understanding of humans,” he said, studying Gask. “But what you understand is limited by what you feel. Demons feel so little. They lack empathy. They lack the kinder emotions. In the end, this will be your undoing.”
Findo Gask smiled without warmth. “I don’t think my undoing is the issue at hand, do you?”
“Isn’t it?” The Indian’s weathered face stayed expressionless. “You would do well not to misjudge your enemies, demon. I think maybe in this case, you have done so.”
Gask held the other’s dark gaze. “I make it a point never to misjudge my enemies. I think it is you who have misjudged in this instance. You’ve made a big mistake taking sides in this dispute with Miss Freemark. It is a mistake I intend to correct.”
Twitch was behind the Indian now, less than ten paces away. Gask knew the ur’droch would be on his other side. Two Bears was hemmed in, with no place to go. Snow blew in a steady slant out of the northwest. The storm clouds seemed to have dropped all the way down to the treetops, and the light had gone cloudy and gray.
Two Bears shifted his weight slightly, his big shoulders swinging toward Gask. “How would you make this correction, Mr. Demon?”
Findo Gask cocked his head. “I would remove you from this place. I would make you go away so that you could never come back.”
Now it was the Indian who smiled. “What makes you think I was ever really here?”
Twitch rushed across the space that separated them and launched himself at the Indian. A flurry of shadowy movement marked the ur’droch’s attack from the other side. Penny screamed in glee, dropping into a crouch, right arm cocked for throwing, her knives catching the light.
But in the same instant, snow funneled all about Two Bears, blown straight up out of the earth on which he stood, a cloud of white particles that filled the air. The wind whipped and tore about him, and for a split second everything disappeared.
When the snow settled and the winter air cleared, Two Bears was gone. His rucksack and bedroll lay on the ground, but the Indian had vanished. Big head swiveling left and right, Twitch crouched in the space the Indian had just occupied. The ur’droch was a dark stain sliding back and forth across the rutted snow, searching futilely for its quarry.
Penny hissed in rage as the knives disappeared back into her clothing. “Is this some sort of trick? Where is he?”
Findo Gask stood without moving for a moment, testing the air, casting all about for some indication. “I don’t know,” he admitted finally.
“Did we kill him or not?” Penny shrieked.
Gask searched some more, but nothing revealed itself, not a trace, not a whisper. The Indian had simply vaporized. His last words whispered in the demon’s mind. What makes you think I was ever really here? But, no, he had been here in some sense. He had been more than just an image.
Ignoring Penny’s rantings, Findo Gask opened the leather-bound book and read the last entry burned onto its weathered pages.
; There was nothing after the name of Ray Childress.
He closed the book slowly. A pang of disappointment tweaked his pride. The Indian would have been a nice addition.
“Gone is gone,” he said. “A neat trick, but you don’t come back for a while after executing it. He’s removed himself from the picture, wherever he is.” He shrugged dismissively, and his weathered face creased in a slow smile. “Let’s go to work on the others.”
Chapter 18
John Ross was standing at the living-room window, keeping watch for her, when Nest emerged from the whirling snowfall. She appeared as a dark smudge out of the curtain of white, pushing through the skeletal branches of the hedgerow and trudging across the backyard toward the house. He could tell by the set of her shoulders and length of her stride she was infused with determination and her encounter with Findo Gask had not dampened her resolve. Whether she’d changed her mind regarding her insistence on protecting the gypsy morph remained to be seen. He was inclined to think not.
He limped toward the back door as she came through. Bennett and Harper were already decorating the tree, which had been placed in its stand in the corner across the room from the fireplace. Ross had helped with that and with carrying in the boxes of ornaments, then stood back. Little John had resumed his place on the couch, staring out into the park.
“Whew, it’s bad out there now,” Nest declared as he came up to her. She stamped her boots on the entry rug and brushed the snow from her coat. “You can hardly see in front of your nose. How’s everyone here?”
“Fine.” He shifted to let her walk past and followed her down the hall. “They’re decorating the tree.”
She glanced over her shoulder in surprise. “Little John, too?”
“Well, no.” He gave a little shrug. “Me either, actually.”
“What’s your excuse?”
“I guess I don’t have one.”
She gave him a look. “That’s what I thought. Try to remember, John, it’s Christmas. Come on.”