We waited. Pondo started making a comeback and kept counting his money, which irritated the djinn. Self had to calm them all down before a fight broke out. It went on like that for a couple of hours, with the television blaring, the dice clicking, and coins ringing.
There was a knock at the door.
I turned to answer and stopped in my tracks.
A boy of nine stood inside the room. The skin on his face was puckered, disfigured, and discolored, and he had no hair on his head. His lips were gone and what little remained of his mouth didn't work all that well. There was only a tiny hole in the middle of all the seared flesh.
It took him a while to get anything out, but eventually he whispered, 'The fireman is coming.'
The child climbed onto the bed and crawled beneath the sheets, fading as he did so until only his outline was left in the blankets. The knocking grew more insistent.
Self said,
He tapped his foot in time with the beating of our hearts, waiting it out, his claws clacking together in a steady rhythm. He seemed puzzled, his brow furrowed, as if he were seeing me for the first time in his life. Then he shook his head in disappointment, looking so much like my father that his expression made me suck wind. Perhaps he'd taken so much from me that he finally just wanted to give some of it back.
Another knock, much louder. I went to answer.
I opened the door.
Giant, dim Herod, who had greater power than even Jebediah had ever imagined, stood there ten years dead.
'How're you doin'?' he asked. 'How've you been?'
'Herod,' I whispered.
'You feeling okay?'
He'd lumbered around the covine tree that final morning, knowing how to laugh and love his enemies. He'd told us all that the invocations would go wrong. He'd wept on Danielle's shoulder, afraid to continue but unwilling to disappoint his friends. For ten years I'd been wondering why I hadn't listened to him.
'You been getting out of the room?' he asked. 'You been seeing the sights?'
Herod, the fourth to die, with his eyes bleeding as he was swept backward with open arms, grinning a little while he plunged onto a limb of the covine tree and was run through. His heart had been pierced and dark blood spewed from his nose and mouth across his robes. He'd still held out on the hope of meeting God and being forgiven for all the sins his parents had beaten into him.
'That Pondo over there? Hey, Pondo, long time no see, man. You making some cash? You think you can float me a fifty until payday?'
Herod had been chained in a fruit cellar until he was fifteen years old. He'd learned about life from rats, roaches, and spiders in that time. He'd believed the insane screams of his mother when she branded the devil from him. He was saved by the ministering spirit Reschith Hajalalim and the angel Masleh as his father tried to fight them off with a fireplace poker. I could still see the soldering iron scars on Herod's throat.
He nodded once to me, as if he'd just run out for a six-pack and had returned to watch a ball game. He pawed his sweaty neck and said, 'Ah, feel that, fucking amazing, you've got air-conditioning. Mind if I come in?'
I stepped out of his way. Pondo crapped out and stamped his feet.
Herod shrugged with a sidelong glance. 'You're wondering about the change, I see.
Well, don't. I can tell you things now that I couldn't then.'
He not only teemed with intelligence but he was smooth now, a real schemer. He spoke in the rapid-fire cadence of a used car salesman making a pitch.
'Who are you?' I asked.
'Hey, you know me, c'mon now, what kind of question is that? Listen, you've got to listen to me, I've been meaning to tell you something for a long time but I couldn't before. You'll be grateful for this, really. You know who I am.'
Maybe I did.
Herod moved with his usual awkward gait, lumbering about as if he might fall at any second. When he got in front of the air conditioner he stood there letting the streams of cold air wash over him. 'You're going to cause more trouble, aren't you? Yeah, you are. You might be one of the kings of the earth but you're still a goddamn sap.
'Sounds like you've got issues.'
'A few, I suppose. Some things you never get over.'
'I'd agree with that.'
'Of course you would. But that doesn't matter now. Listen, listen, don't take this wrong, but I think you're going to die here in the dust.'
I couldn't yet tell who wore the mask of Herod's flesh. I kept my hands low at my sides and scrawled protective sigils of Machon, Raquie, Sachiel, and Caffiel against my legs.
Jebediah enjoyed playing games with the dead. My father's return, the threat and promise of Danielle being raised, and this whole ludicrous notion of resurrecting Christ proved how much fun he had toying with souls. I tried to get Self's attention but he ignored me.
'I can make sure you come out on top this time,' Herod said, beginning to show irritation. He couldn't quite catch his breath as he continued to sweat. Veins pulsed in his neck, making the scar tissue throb. 'There's no need for you to keep being anybody's whipping boy.'
'Who in particular?'
'It's all right,' he said, fuming. His frenzy came across in full blossom now as he swayed on his feet. The words erupted in bitter bites and he gagged on them. 'I'm not mad at you anymore.' His eyes bulged, straining free of the sockets. 'You did what you had to do. That's completely understandable. Really. Don't worry about it. Listen, listen, I forgive you.'
'For what?'
'I can help you.' He showed his unbalance in a rictus smile. Sweat poured off his face, droplets catching in those thick eyelashes. A mop of sopping hair stuck against his wet forehead. He was generating serious heat. 'This is gonna sound a little out there, but listen, listen. Hey, I … I love you!'
Sparks and ribbons of bile suddenly ran from his lips. His teeth started to break apart. His clothes began to crawl. Coat and trousers distended and ballooned, full and creeping. Ebony motion rippled and peered out from his cuffs, between his shirt buttons, now dropping to the floor.
Salamanders.
They swung their tails, already spraying neurotoxins from their poison glands as he began to ignite and plumes of smoke rose from him in a hundred places. Black and yellow striped creatures swarmed from him.
Griffin. It was Griffin.
