by Lee Roland
“Yes. He seemed to accept everything without concern.”
Later, filled with Abby’s tea, toast, cheese, and fruit, I walked out to the woods and sat on the grass beside the spring. I smoothed my hand over the spot of fresh earth that marked Nefertiti’s grave. Last night’s rain left everything fresh and green. Maybe the heat wave had broken.
“Are you here?” I spoke to the air.
“Were you worried?” The Mother stood across the spring in the woods. Sunlight sparkled in her hair, blond as Michael’s this morning. I could have sworn it was much darker last night.
“No. I guess you can take care of yourself. Why haven’t you shown yourself to me like this before?”
“There was no need. I don’t want my . . . people . . . to depend on me too much.” She gave me a radiant smile. All the birds in the garden suddenly broke into song.
“I hate you,” I said, but I spoke without any real passion.
“That is your right. Do you still wish to serve me?”
“What else would I do? What about Abby? She needs her power back.”
“She never lost it. Her power comes from the earth, but not directly from me. When she could no longer sense my presence, she’d lost faith in herself.”
“And Dacardi calls me a bitch.”
“It’s a term of endearment—for him. You’re a bit more honest with me.” She tilted her head and the birds sang. “What do you think of him? Your Warlord.”
“My Warlord? He’s made of better stuff than I thought.” I leaned back and stretched out my legs. “Did you have Selene kidnapped?”
“No. Once it happened, I saw the possibilities.”
“Such as having Richard in the same place so I could use Dacardi.”
“I whispered in a few ears.” The Mother laughed again and I’d swear the garden, the trees, the grass and flowers stood straighter and taller. “It is complex. And truly, it did not end as I had planned. I trusted you, Huntress, to know and do what was right. Even if it cost your life.”
“You manipulated, is what you did. Playing chess with us. With our lives. With children’s lives.” I knew she didn’t understand.
“I gave you Flynn. Do you really want to know the details?”
“No. It’s done—for now.” I had one thing I desperately wanted to know. “My vision when the Darkness spoke through Hammer. It happened in the Barrows, but—”
“I have access to your memories, Cassandra.”
“Did I throw my daughter, my child, in the fire? Was that really another life, or a demon’s trick to weaken me?”
“I never asked for sacrifice.” Anger rose in her voice and the garden grew colder. She sighed and things went back to normal. “Huntress, my power—and it is great power—lies in the land. I will not control any human. Free will is paramount, a directive from the Great Master. Abby, you and all the others must choose to serve me. That allows me to guide my power to them. I cannot compel you.”
She drifted across the spring and onto the grass. Her bare feet made only the slightest impression on the blades. Innana, the Darkness had called her. She sat beside me, her body moving with inhuman grace. As the breeze lifted, I caught the scent of flowers, sweeter and cleaner than any I’d ever smelled in Abby’s garden.
“When you were dying in that alley, I saw my grand scheme collapsing. As I healed you, I realized you could do what I could not: go into the Barrows. And I could go with you, and not break my own word.”
“So you stayed in me. And Aiakós—what’s he to you? Your lover?”
“That’s not your business, Huntress. Don’t you have enough male problems of your own? Will you choose between them? The son of a demigod and the son of humanity? You’re my daughter and I’d not think ill of you if you took them both.”
Now what did I have to say to that? I laughed and felt better than I had in weeks. “There is no choice. I love Flynn. I care for Michael, but I don’t love him. You were in me when I made love to Flynn, here in the garden?”
She smiled. “Yes. He is a fine man. One of my better children. Perhaps I can yet do something for Michael.”
“He’d be safer if you left him alone.”
“He does not seek safety, any more than you do. You have given me a gift, Huntress. I saw the world through your eyes. Things will be different now. I will”—she laughed—“make arrangements.”
“That’s pretty scary. Why are you telling me all of this?”
“You have the right to know. You, my Huntress, through the ages, thousands of years, have been constant. Every life you have ever lived, you have served me. Others have served me through one life and tried to destroy me in the next. You are the only human I could have entered as I did.” She held out her hand. “I have a gift for you. This is what really happened. Be still. Watch. Believe this is the truth.”
I felt the Mother’s presence enter my mind, taking me back in time.
The fire looms before me again. The dancing with the drums and flutes, and Astra clings to me, laughing. The priests motion me forward and reach to take my baby, to give her to the Mother. I’ve been a priestess to the Mother; it is my duty to serve. I gaze into Astra’s smiling face, her beautiful dark eyes, the trust and love there. Agony fills me. So close to the fire. Will it hurt her? This is not right, to kill my child. I cannot. I will not. I whirl and run. If I weren’t carrying Astra, I could escape . . .
An arrow tears into my back. I stumble and twist as I fall. A second arrow punches through Astra and into my heart. When darkness comes, I know our bodies will go on the fire, but we will already be gone.
I cried out as I came back to myself.
“I’m not in charge of souls,” the Mother said. “I simply take what’s given to me. I use and often reuse it, and I will, until this ground beneath my feet is dust swirling again among the stars. I say again, you have every right to hate me. Some of my other servants do. They see a far darker image than you. It will change nothing.” She disappeared.
Abby came running into the garden. She’d heard my cry.
She dropped to her knees beside me. “What’s wrong?”
I shook my head. I couldn’t speak.
“Why are you crying?”
I wiped my eyes. “I’m fine. Abby, go make some potions for me to take home.”
Abby shook her head. “I don’t know if I—”
“Yes, you can. The wicked witch of the dirt is back. And your spells damn well better work.” I shouted that last sentence into the fragrant air. The leaves and shrubs around me shook with laughter—or maybe it was only the wind.
Abby and I sat in her kitchen and mourned Nefertiti a little longer. We both cried again. I called my mother and father, maybe wanting to touch people I loved. Both were glad to hear from me, and I promised to get home for the equinox celebration. I told them of my engagement to Flynn, and Mom was so joyful, it almost made me feel guilty about not getting married before.
“What are you going to do next, love?” Abby asked.
“I’m going to get my PI license back and go to work. I still have my contacts in the Barrows, and I’m tired of poverty.” I was also an honorary member of the Slum Devils, at least as long as that dirty bastard Snag could beat off the competition and stay Big Devil. In the back of my mind I’d always wondered if I couldn’t do something to control them and lessen the impact of their evil.
“But not in the sewers.” Abby’s eyes squinted in strain. “Promise me you’ll stay out of the sewers. And the gun, you—”
“Gun’s gone, Abby. I lost it last night. And the last thing I want to do is go underground again. Especially now.”
I grabbed Horus and Nirah and headed home. I went to the Archangel first.
Dacardi called as I pulled into the parking lot. “My boy keeps bugging me about the cop’s sister. Wants to go see her. What do you think I should do?”
“Let him see her. You stay away, and it should be okay.”
“Yeah. Don’t want my boy to be .
. .”
“Be what? Like you? Or like me?”
“Bitch, don’t want him like either of us. Wouldn’t mind him being like your cop. Man’s got balls. Me and the pretty boy hadn’t gone with him, he’d have gone back after you alone. Bet he keeps his word. He’s gonna try to nail me uptown. Should be interesting.”
“Well, Flynn’s one thing you and I can agree on. Thanks for helping those kids. And taking in those without parents.”
“My boy wouldn’t let me do anything else, damn it. Called his mama and got her to come home. Shit and double shit!” He didn’t really sound displeased. Dacardi and his wife had managed to raise a good son, so I guess the foster kids could do worse. “You know, that Abby, that witch, she understands . . . Ah, what’s the word I’m looking for?”
“Expediency. She’s practical and does what needs to be done.”
“Yeah, that’s it. I like her.”
I laughed. “Okay, but don’t cross her.”
“I know better than that, bitch.”
“Any trouble about the dock explosion thing?”
“You kidding? Truckload of trouble. The suits say not to sweat it, so I don’t. I cover my ass pretty good. Lot of experience. You and me talk later.” He hung up.
Yes, Carlos Dacardi would survive, and even prosper in the coming years. And I doubted he’d stay out of my life. He hadn’t mentioned the Earth Mother. He saw her as he saw Aiakós. Wonder what he thought of her. We’d have to talk again, Dacardi and I.
The previous night’s rain had broken the heat wave, but it was still summer, so when I arrived at the Archangel I tucked Nirah under my collar and carried Horus with me. I wouldn’t leave him in the car. The door guard started to object to a cat, but Horus snarled and swiped his claws at him and he wisely let us pass.
When I entered Michael’s office, I set Horus on the floor. Michael wrapped me in his arms. I let him, but there was no passion there, at least for me, but there was understanding and a little love. Michael had risked his life for me. I don’t forget things like that.
Nirah peeked out from under my collar.
“I don’t have any caviar,” Michael said.
“It’s okay. No point in spoiling her.”
“I called Flynn,” he said. “I gave him the locations of two more arms caches I found this morning. Self-preservation. I’d rather the Bastinados not accidentally come across a load of antitank missiles.”
No wonder Flynn had suddenly become so important.
“Vic must have stolen millions from you,” I said.
Michael’s mouth twisted in a wry smile. “It’ll take me years to recover it. The arms he bought didn’t take a third of what’s missing. I’m trying to find the rest, but I doubt I will. Its location probably died with Vic.”
“What did he think he was going to do? If he’d made it, if everything happened like it was supposed to, the government wouldn’t let something like that take over a city.”
“Victor was really very intelligent. A wonderful big brother. He watched over me and I loved him. Life was good when it was me, him. When Nurse Kathy rescued me, she accepted him and did a good job of raising us, considering our parentage. After mother came home that one time, Victor lost all sense of proportion and common sense. He told me once, ‘She stopped loving me when you were born.’ ”
“One thing bothers me,” I said. “He didn’t do it alone. Theron was involved, and such things generally have a functioning network of people, banks, communication. You think there are others with the missing money?”
“I don’t know—yet. Let’s speak of other things. What are you going to do now?”
“Getting chased by monsters isn’t as much fun as it used to be. I’ll hunt kids. I’ll do things a bit differently, though.”
I didn’t want him to fall to the Darkness, to his father’s world, either, and I’d do my best to prevent it.
“Flynn asked me to marry him. I said I would. With a long engagement.”
“Why not now? You love him.”
“Yeah, but I’m afraid it won’t work. He needs to think about it. Flynn’s smart, educated, has a degree in criminal justice. All I am is a farm girl and—”
“You think you’re not worthy of him?” Michael sounded both delighted and incredulous. “That he’s too good for you?”
I shrugged. “Not exactly. I think he’s going places. He has an aura of importance he didn’t have a few days ago. I’d slow him down. He needs a woman to look good and stand behind him, not some scruffy monster chaser.” Even as I spoke such noble words, I hated them. I was lying to myself. I’d do anything I could to keep Flynn.
“If that’s his choice, then he’s not as intelligent as I think.” Michael laughed.
Nirah stuck her head out from under my collar again.
“I like her.” He brushed her head with his finger.
“She likes you. You give the name snake charmer a whole new meaning.”
“Obviously I’m not popular with both your pets.” Michael’s voice hardened. “Your cat has pissed on a fivethousand-dollar leather couch.”
“Damn!” I whirled around. Sure enough, Horus stood beside a wet streak running down the leather. I went and grabbed him. He didn’t protest, but didn’t feel apologetic at all. What did I expect from a cat?
“Get it cleaned,” I said. “I’ll pay for it.”
Michael smiled. “No, I’ll get a new one.”
I guess five thousand dollars wouldn’t mean much to him, in spite of his losses to Victor’s scheming.
I laughed. “Michael, my friend. I do so wish you love and happiness.” I hugged him again.
Michael was still smiling when he walked me downstairs. In fact, the smile he gave his early-afternoon followers was real this time, not the fake royal beneficence he usually bestowed on them. One woman fainted.
Michael once compared himself to me, hinting that our humanity stood on the same level. We both had supernatural or, as the case may be, abnormal gifts. I realized that, other than his ability to weave a godlike spell over some people, he’d shown me little of himself. He was the son of the Darkness, a demigod who now resided in a physical form a couple of miles from the Archangel—there had to be more to him than a pretty man mesmerizing adoring crowds. I hadn’t asked about Elise, but I was sure he’d quietly buried her and would mourn her in the years to come.
Horus hit the ground and disappeared when we arrived at the apartment house parking lot. I trudged upstairs, wondering if I could put off what was probably some heavy-duty housekeeping.
When I opened the fridge to throw out any leftovers that growled at me, I found five thick bundles of hundred-dollar bills wrapped in plastic wrap. From Dacardi? He’d promised me money. I opened one bundle, counted out a thousand dollars, and stuffed the rest in a plastic bag. I wouldn’t take the life savings of a hotel maid barely above poverty, like Maxie Fountain’s mother. But whoever gave this didn’t have a cash flow problem.
Like Abby, I also knew the meaning of expediency. Nefertiti’s glass aquarium sat on the coffee table, and Nirah had forsaken her own and crawled inside. I dug in the bedding of wood shavings at one end of the aquarium, stuffed the bag of money in, and covered it up.
I’d no more than finished when a knock came at the door.
“FedEx,” a male voice called. I opened it and signed for a package with River Street as its return address.
I sat at the kitchen table and tore it open. Inside was my gun, carefully cleaned and oiled and covered in bubble wrap. A note card fell out, too.
Come and see me, Huntress, it said. I realize now that I saw this world through the flawed eyes of my servants. Victor’s plan would never have worked. I have banished the creatures under the streets. You may walk freely in the Barrows.
Written in a flowing cursive script, I smiled at the beauty of it. Maybe I should go, I thought. Then I jerked. What was I thinking?
I ran to the kitchen sink and dropped the card. As I did, it burst into fl
ames. I turned on the faucet. The flames didn’t die under the steady stream of water until they’d consumed the entire thing. As it disappeared, the sound of laughter—beautiful, seductive laughter—rang in my ears. Tomorrow, I’d have to take the gun to Abby and be sure no spell lay on it. She wouldn’t like it, but I wasn’t prepared to give it up yet.
Aiakós had apparently found Vic’s network, or it had found him. He now had human servants to do his bidding, teach him the ways of this world, including how to send packages by FedEx. To use an old cliché, he’d hit the pavement running. Did he also know where Victor had hidden most of Michael’s money? I hoped not.
The heating grate popped up and Horus appeared. He had a single twitching mouse by the tail. A scratching noise came from behind him and a small, furred animal came skittering out of the duct.
“Who’s this, Horus?” Horus ignored me and carried the mouse to the aquarium for Nirah. At the sound of my voice, the little creature raced my way, locked onto my jeans, clawed its way up, and tried to bury itself in my shirt. I cupped it in my hand and held it close to my heart. It settled against me, twitching a little, but no longer frantic.
Its little head peeked out from my hand. A ferret? Covered with mink-soft, buff-colored fur with a dark tan ring around its neck, it seemed like one, but I had no way to be sure. When it squirmed, it became obviously male.
“So who are you?” I asked.
A name popped into my mind: Tau. Then came the image of a lion. “You’d better grow a lot if you’re going to fit that name,” I told him. He chattered again and scrambled up to my shoulder. I found a can of tuna and fed Tau and Horus. I’d go to the pet emporium tomorrow. Ah, caviar. Now that I had some money, I could treat them occasionally. For Tau, we’d start with a ferret diet and go from there.
I relaxed for the rest of the day. Flynn came in later and we walked up the street to the deli for supper. He held my hand. How wonderful to be comfortable doing ordinary things, speaking of ordinary things with him. I could deal with ordinary for a while.
“You’re not mad because I want my PI license back so I can go to work?” I asked.