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“Probably. But-”
“You’re right,” Pe
“In this light, dressed like a girl, you look a lot like your sister.”
“Belinda… she wouldn’t… she…”
“You talked to her?” Belinda hadn’t ever mentioned Pe
“She wouldn’t see me.” Pe
“I tried to see him, too. They wouldn’t let me, though.”
Prodding gently, I got Pe
Unsubtly. Bullying adherents and committing arson. The weak of faith converted. The stronger fled or died. In time, only A-Lat remained, and her empire consisted entirely of the mother temple. “Then they came for us.”
“And you got away.”
“My mother sent me away. She made me bring the Luck to TunFaire. In disguise. She told me to find my father. So I came. And I can’t get to him.”
Pe
A skilled cynic keeps his mind open to all the darker possibilities, though.
Pe
“You really want to see Chodo?”
Frightened little-girl nod.
“Does he know who you are? Would he recognize you?”
Another nod, but not entirely confident.
A scheme began to stir in the shadowed rat’s nest of my mind.
“I can take you there.”
She seemed honestly excited-till she realized that I must want to take her home. Her pallor returned. She looked ready to bolt.
How carefully had she studied us before she swooped down on Dean?
“When did you come to the city?” I asked.
“Uh… months and months ago. Right after the war was over.”
She was a kid. Kids don’t pay attention to anything that don’t have them at its center. Which I say based on personal experience. I used to be a kid. “So A-Laf’s people arrived after you did. They came looking for you?”
“No. They didn’t know about me. They thought the Luck had been destroyed. They wouldn’t have found out, either, if I didn’t get caught spying on them.”
“Is it me you’re afraid of? Or my partner?” I asked after she began to relax, thinking she’d changed the subject.
Ti
Her suspicions abide in a realm distinct from mine. She thinks any female within stone’s throw will fall under my spell.
Yeah. Right.
I hear tell a rich fantasy life is a good thing.
Again, yeah, right. “Ti
That earned me an evil glare from my honeycomb.
“It’s not you. I learned how to handle men in the temple.”
“That’s good to hear.” Ti
Ti
I considered telling her the Dead Man wouldn’t get into her head uninvited. But he’d tried already. “What secrets can a girl your age have that would embarrass a four-hundred-fifty-year-old Loghyr? What do you have to lose? If it has to do with those weird cats, he already knows.” If he did, though, he hadn’t told me.
“Uh… no. It’s just too personal. It’d be like rape.”
I’ve never felt that way. Most people don’t. Still, some might.
“Your father is at my house. It isn’t likely he’ll leave soon.”
You could see her emotions warring. Cynical old Garrett wondered if she was acting. Cynical old Garrett suspected that Pe
Block and Relway wouldn’t let the cultists resume their wicked ways-particularly now they were known to be part of a criminal enterprise.
I told Ti
“About?”
“Having a chat with my sidekick. Colonel Block and Director Relway will need all the ammunition they can get when friends of the Tersizes intercede for them and their immigrant pals.”
The Tersizes had high co
Ti
“Don’t tell her too many lies about me.” I eased round the bed. I could raid the kitchen during my exile.
Ti
Rose would be Ti
I slid into the hallway, commenced to amuse myself working heavy math problems. Two times two is four. Four times four is… uh… sixteen! Sixteen times sixteen is… uh… well, enough of that stuff.
Later, hovering at the brink of some huge intellectual breakthrough, I got porlocked. Ti
“You sure? You up to it?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, boy. Let me get my fingers loosened up and I’ll help.”
“Back in the hall, daydreamer. Pe
I went back out. I tried to remember what my great breakthrough would’ve been, worried about Ti
69
I went in first, delivered Ti
The Dead Man agreed. He granted every wish. Even before Ti
Chodo had supplanted the deacon as favored loafing place for the cat population. He had about two dozen splashed all over him. And seemed pleased. Unlike the deacon, he smiled. Sort of. His eyes tracked. His mind was active. He managed enough expression to approve my choice in women when Ti
“Made any headway?” I asked the Dead Man.
Some. But a saber-tooth never stops being a tiger.
“The deacon seems subdued.”
He is in an induced coma. He is strong and stubborn. He refuses to accept defeat. He fights on despite no longer having anything to protect.
“So what great secrets did you ferret out?”
Chodo watched me move around. He watched Ti
Little of direct use. His compatriots mean to conquer the world, purportedly for the greater glory of their god, but in reality because they like being rulers instead of the ruled. He was a dastard and a crook before he converted. He remains a dastard and a crook. He was, in fact, one of Mr. Contague’s significant associates inside A-Laf’s cult. Today, either would happily sell the other’s soul to get out of this house.