sIs the hunger and the demonic cunning of the Pig. It o s is the malevolence of the old kingdoms, the beast- time, before the sacraments: The invisibles get their power from our animal selves, our oldest ancestors. You mustn't let them ally with the Pig in you.'
'Caity.' Carl took her hands in his and held her milky gaze with his leveled stare. 'These are not spirits 'I'm talking about. They're not faeries. They're aliens.'
'Aliens. Spirits. Faeries. What does it matter what we call them?' Her grip of his hands was cold. 'You say
you' want to share your blessings with us, but you've only frightened us, Carl. And that beast that followed you here from hell could have killed us. What was that, if not a demon? it would have been better if you'd kept your money and left us alone. Look at yourself. You've got their mark on you. And unless you give up their way, you're doomed. For eternity'
Carl's eyebrows shrugged, and he let her hands go. 'I guess I'm doomed, then.' He sat down, dispirited. 'I've brought nothing but trouble with me', all for some pig crap. Amazing. I think I'll just go back to the mountains until it's time for me to leave.'
'You can't leave, Carl,' Caitlin grumbled. 'You'll lose your soul.'
'Worse than that,' Sheelagh spoke up. Her face was boisterous with emotion. 'The world will lose you. We need you here. You have powers no one else does. There's so much you could accomplish.'
'Listen to her, Carl,' Caitlin said. 'You belong here.' She turned to Zeke. 'What do you think, Zeke? Are we wrong?'
Zeke looked up at her from the sofa A where he had plopped down. 'You want the opinion of a madman?' He was still humming with the light from his last surge at Cornelius. The polychrome faces looking at him were friendly but stiff as masks.
'I don' t believe you're really mad,' Caitlin answered. 'You're cursed with Carl. I don't know how the Lord lost you two boys.
That book you wrote is a devilwork. How could you know what was happening to Carl at the end of time unless you were possessed by demonic powers?'
'What makes you think the power is demonic?' Zeke asked, his arms crossed behind his head.
'What good has it done?' Caitlin riposted. 'So far you're just a freak.'
'Zeke the freak.' He laughed gustily. 'Sheelagh and Caitlin are right, Squirm. We've been too selfish.'
'Selfish?' Carl rose up in his leather chair, amazed.
'You've been in an insane asylum until an hour ago.'
'Because I was selfish,' Zeke explained, sitting up from the sofa. His eyes buzzed, and he spoke like a machine gun: 'I had incredible knowledge there-the hyperaware vantage of my surges-but I never used that knowledge. I wanted the knowledge to act on me-to save me. Just as you've surrendered to your armor and let it think and even act for you. We've been slaves to ourselves. We have to free the restraints of our fate and act creatively'
'What are you saying?' Sheelagh asked.
'That we should combine our resources and apply them toward a noble goal,' he responded in a burning. voice.
'That's comic-book philosophy, buddy,' Carl interjected.
'Besides, I already have my goal. I'm going back to the Werld and freeing Evoe.'
'And what about us?' Sheelagh cried, the mica of tears flashing in her eyes. 'You can't deprive the whole world of the wonders you've been given just for one woman.'
'I'm going back,' Carl said strongly. 'I only looked you up to share my fortune for a time. Don't make me sorry I know you.'
'Hey, look,' Zeke interceded. 'We all have to compromise a little to get some good out of this unexpected life. Sheelagh, Caitlin-we can't ask him to stay here with us forever. This isn't even his earth. But, Carl, while you're here, you must use the power you have to make a positive difference in the world.'
'I'm not a , crusader, ZeeZee. ' Carl was feeling harried. He had expected gratitude from his friends, not demands.
'We're not asking you to quell our riots for us,' Zeke clarified. 'But with your imp card, you could defuse the riots at their source. You could fill in the economic gaps that have frustrated millions.'
'Yeah, and I'll probably wind up destabilizing the whole world market,' Carl added.
'Don't play God, Carl,' Caitlin warned. 'You're right to know that no good can come of that.'
'Let the scientists see your lance and your card, Sheelagh suggested. 'They could learn about stuff they never thought existed.'
'Nah,' Zeke objected. ':Too many cooks and we'll lose our soup. We have to work secretly.'
'Satan works in secrecy,' Caitlin admonished.
Carl got up and went to the window to stare across at the riverlit cliffs: His friends continued their debate behind his back.
Their voices sloshed around him abstractly, for he was listening to them the way a Foke would, hearing English voices as boiling sounds, meaningless. Outdoors, the burning zero of the sun hung over the boxes where people lived in this world. The narrowness of those boxes and the sharp heat from the blinding pan of light in the sky choked him with strangeness.
He wanted to go home.
