'And dancing,' DeeDee said. 'I'm a good dancer, Jon.'
Salvation shuddered. He looked like he might melt.
Mike continued to be amused. DeeDee's dancing probably involved a progressive movement toward her birthday suit.
I told Salvation, 'I had an idea the other day you might think about. Suppose you send your understudies out to put your plays on in other towns and cities? You could keep them going for years.'
He stared at me for a while, then said, 'I think Tinnie is going to work out. She's really dedicated. It's like she's trying to lose herself in something.' He glanced at Strafa, just downstairs after returning from the Hill. She shook her head at me.
She looked the girls over, never down her nose, which left me that much bigger a fan. She had no problem being around the kinds of people who can be found around me. I had to make an effort to get along with the kinds of people to be found around her.
This was going to be an unusual relationship.
Strafa asked Mike, 'You ready to go to my house?'
Mike nodded. 'Mr. Salvation. Are you sure it's all right for us to take the coach?'
'No problem. I'm used to walking. And I need to talk to Garrett.'
Yet another of Mike's secretive smiles.
She figured Salvation was taken with one of her charges.
She asked Strafa, 'Can we stop along the way? None of us have anything but what we left the house wearing.'
'Of course.'
DeeDee and Crush were not in their work clothes but DeeDee's taste tended toward flashy trash.
'Before we go,' Mike said. And dragged me back to the kitchen. Dean and Dollar Dan scrunched up and let us in, Dean automatically beginning to rattle teacups. He had gotten the window fixed already.
Mike pressed up against me tight. I said, 'I'm flattered but. .'
'You ought to be. That Salvation.'
'What about him?'
'Is he really as naive as he seems?'
'Oh, yeah. More so. He's good at faking being cool.'
'So he doesn't know about us?'
I understood. 'Actually, he does. He thinks it's all kind of romantic.'
She shook her head. She sneered a little. Part of me was proving not to be loyal to any one woman. 'You're alive after all.' She relented, stepped back. I was not as flustered as she had hoped. She asked, 'What's his interest? Guys his age, it's usually Crush. But he treats her like he doesn't know she's a girl.'
'He knows. I guarantee. But he doesn't want her to think that's what's on his mind. If he's interested in anybody that way, I figure it's you.' Which I said for the hell of it.
'Which is why his drool is all over DeeDee's shoulders, I suppose.'
'He's shy. He doesn't know how to interact with a refined lady.'
'Wiseass.'
'He's good people, Mike. Don't mess him up.'
'We never mess first. It's one of my rules.' She turned to the door but had a wicked thought. 'But I'll let me break it just this once.'
She stepped back against me, wiggled a little. 'You and the Windwalker split up, stop by.' Chuckling, she winked at Dean, pushed off, and left the kitchen.
Dean said, 'You don't want her, I'll take her.'
'You old villain.' I took half a minute to catch my breath and let the swelling subside, then headed up the hall to make my farewells.
103
Morley told me, 'I have to be in on this. I won't contribute, but. . It will be historic.'
This was next day. Mr. Mulclar had finished fixing the door but it remained open in honor of the man's special faculty. He has a digestive disorder. It doesn't improve if he eats gravel. His leave-behind here suggested a diet exclusively of fermented beans and thousand-day eggs.
Over the past twenty-plus hours the principals dealt with personal issues, political issues, squabbled over turf, and behaved like a pack of four-year-olds. The Director and General Block got heads together with some senior military people and talked them into staying out of the way unless there were disorders the Civil Guard could not manage.
The people inside the Knodical remained stubborn. Strafa's peers on the Hill made excuses for doing nothing, though they did agree to deal with any villains who came their way.
I was convinced that a witch hunt was a sure thing, but the peace held.
Block and Relway had every man helping keep the lid on.
Belinda was in the woodwork somewhere, licking her wounds, sulking, scheming bloody retribution-and helping keep the peace.
She had all her troops called up, too.
The battle at Fire and Ice had gone her way. Some good guys had survived. Everyone from the sporting house escaped. Belinda owed her own continued existence to the superhuman efforts of Joel, who had proven his love.
Joel was alive but not expected to stay that way.
I suffered mild episodes of grogginess and was unsure of the boundary between reality and fantasy. Still, I boarded a coach hired by the Guard and rode it down to the Landing. The Landing is called that because some old- time explorer first set foot in the city there. The city already existed, but was savage, pagan, and uncivilized. Its people neither spoke the explorer's language nor worshipped his god.
The neighborhood swarmed with Civil Guards and Outfit soldiers.
I told Singe, 'I don't think this is the smart thing to do.'
'Then call it off.'
'You're kidding. You think I'm in charge? Besides, it's too late.'
'You could stop this cold by presenting a reasoned argument for holding off till better evidence is collected.'
Me deliver a solid argument for restraint? Hopeless. Besides, a lot of people wanted to make something happen. It didn't have to be a good something so long as some fur flew.
Singe stayed close, on my left. So did Strafa, to my right. She snuggled up close enough to make me regret having left the house.Then she gave herself some space and became the Windwalker, Furious Tide of Light. The change was impressive.
General Block, Director Relway, and Belinda Contague all were in sight. Morley was close by, surrounded by his old crew. John Stretch had brought a dozen of his hardest men, three of who screened Singe and me. The rest were out sniffing, which was unnecessary. The air was still and heavy. I could smell it myself.
The Windwalker drifted upward. Singe and I caught up with General Block. He said, 'The guards have done a runner.'
'Think the villains have cleared out, too?'
Morley squeaked something from a few yards away. 'What's up?' I asked Sarge.
'He's remembering something.'
'The smell,' Dotes said. 'And that place straight ahead. Made with the odd color bricks. That was the place.'
The bricks in question were gray. Most bricks used in TunFaire are some shade of red.
The scouts agreed. The gray brick building was the place. The smell increased as we got closer. There was a taint of death in it overridden by the stenches of urine and feces.
