reformed the body. The Brute seemed surprised when Crow simply grew a new head.
This form is too clumsy. Set me free.
No. Crow knew there was too much danger in that.
Let me free and we will rule this world.
It was tempting.
A Traveler appeared. The demon recognized right away that this was the most dangerous of them all. Her personal magic was astounding, and her spirit was bound with a diagram of Power beyond anything ever created in the old world. Crow began to tell the demon what to do, but the demon shoved him aside. The human did not understand just how fearsome the Traveler really was. She was possibly his equal and obviously one of the rulers of this world.
Free me or she will destroy us. I do not want to return to the cold place.
She folded space, attacking over and over, moving from spot to spot quicker than their divided mind could follow. Crow fought the demon while the Traveler fought them both.
Faye was Traveling like mad. Crow was much faster than before, and even though he looked like a man, he was moving with unbelievable quickness. It was like there were walls of force around his hands, and when he swung, great big patches of ground were torn apart. Whole trees were sent flying into the air. He’d strike, so she’d move and stab him. They kept on repeating the little dance, and Faye couldn’t figure out why he’d not managed to kill her yet. It was like he was distracted or something.
The others had hit Crow with everything they had, and it hadn’t done a thing. The big sucking thing was getting closer. There was only about fifty yards of island left. They were shoving the boat into the river and trying to escape while Faye kept Crow occupied.
Faye had fought demons before. She’d helped beat the Bull King by finding its Summoner and blowing his brains out. Only, how could she kill a Summoner when he was inside his own demon? They’d already killed him before, and he’d just come right back. That didn’t hardly seem fair. She needed to kill his real body once and for all. That way he’d never come back again. She needed to kill his body good and dead-for George and for everybody else this awful man had hurt.
Ian sent his Summoned in on a suicide charge. Crow simply uppercut the creature. It flew a hundred yards through the air, plummeted down, and hit the river with a huge splash. Ian had been trying to help Fay, but he’d only gotten in the way. Ian cried out in pain as his Summoned was banished. Summoners definitely had a connection to their creatures-maybe Ian had helped in a different way: Crow had to have some kind of connection as well.
Faye checked her head map and pushed it out further than she ever had before. Her Power was burning so hot, and she was Traveling so fast, that she could easily do both things at once. Where would Crow be? For all she knew he could be hundreds of miles away. Yet he was connected to the demon somehow. When they’d killed him before, his spirit had figured out how to get back home. He hadn’t gotten lost. So Faye reasoned that there had to be some sort of link between the two; she just had to figure out how to find it.
When she’d brought Jake Sullivan back from the land where the dead went to dream, she’d followed his connection to the Power. Everybody had one, even the really faint ones that belonged to Normals from when the Power had tested them when they were young, but decided not to bond permanently. Her head map had spotted those before-she’d just had to adjust how she perceived the world. Would a Summoner’s trail be any different?
Faye pushed her head map even harder. She didn’t need to see further, she needed to see finer… Faye was stunned as her head map showed her what she was really fighting. If Crow knew what he’d brought here, he was an even bigger fool than she’d thought. It was vast. This was no regular Summoned. This was one of their gods.
She had to find the trail… Look beyond the terror of the monster. It had to be there somewhere. And sure enough, she found it. Through the noxious smoke were what looked like chains encircling the Summoned, and they pointed in a straight line to the east. Faye forced her map to follow the chains. Crow’s real body wasn’t very far away at all.
Crow screamed when he realized what she was doing, but it was too late. She was already gone.
Faye landed in the middle of a plain living room, still holding a Bowie knife that was dripping demon ink to burn black spots into the floor. The furniture was dusty. Dirty dishes sat rotting and forgotten in the sink. There were pictures on the wall. She recognized Crow in a few of them, only these were very old tintypes, and in some he was wearing an old-fashioned Army uniform. These had to be pictures of his father or something.
The apartment was small and quiet. It smelled like decay. Her head map told her the only other living thing here was in the bedroom. Faye wiped her knife off on the tablecloth, put it back in the sheath, and drew her. 45. Alert for danger, she turned the knob, and let the door creak open.
There was a shape in front of the window, sitting in a chair, staring off into space. Faye went to the lamp in the corner and turned it on. Crow’s back was to her, and it took Faye a moment to realize that he was sitting in a wheelchair.
Reaching out, Faye took one handle of the wheelchair and pulled it so that he faced her. She gasped in surprise. Crow was ancient. His real body was all shriveled up. His head was more of a skull than anything, and his paper-thin skin barely hid big purple veins. From the tiny diameter of his legs beneath his flannel pajamas, he had not walked in a long time. He smelled bad, and his gooey eyes were staring off into space.
Faye checked again. Sure enough, this was where the chains led. This was the mighty demon that she’d fought. This was the man who had killed or hurt her friends. His shirt was hanging open, and on his bony chest was carved an intricate spell. His ribs were slowly moving up and down as he breathed.
Crow blinked. Some of his consciousness had returned. “Please.. Don’t.” He raised one palsied hand. “Please. I’m begging you.”
“Why?” It was all she could ask.
“I’m scared of dying.” He touched the spell on his chest. “I want to live.”
She’d wondered how an Active could be so eager to enslave other Actives. Now she had her answer.
Faye lifted the 1911 and shot him in the chest. Crow jerked and spasmodically grabbed onto the wheels of his chair. Then she shot him again and again. She shot him until the magazine was empty and the slide locked back. Faye slowly lowered the smoking gun. Crow was already so dry and dead inside that hardly any blood came out of the holes.
Crow
Chapter 21
There comes a time in the life of every warrior when he must face a clearly superior foe. A proud warrior lives for such moments, for there is no shame in defeat and great glory in victory. I prefer to let such proud warriors lead the charge against these superior foes, and while that superior foe is distracted, I use that to my advantage to destroy them. Honor is defined by the winner.
Mason Island
They got the boat into the river in a hurry. Dan was yanking on the cord to get the motor started. Mason Island was almost completely gone.
Crow was standing on the edge of the shore, screaming incoherently at volumes unachievable to human lungs. Faye was gone. The rest of them had gotten aboard, but it wasn’t going to do them much good. If Crow came after them, they’d be swimming, and Sullivan didn’t think that any of them would be outswimming the black hole. Even as he thought that, the blackness reached the river and water began to thunder into it as if it were a waterfall.
He had no idea why Crow hadn’t gone after them. Faye had disappeared, and ever since then, Crow had just been twitching and yelling, but not chasing them. Whatever she was up to, it seemed to be working.
