Midday Dreams, where she battled the ghost for seven days. But the more she fought, the stronger he became.
I thought about my hallucinations earlier this morning, how I had attacked Lena without recognizing her. Midday Dreams, indeed. I had come close to losing myself in Detroit, drowning in my own magic. That was when the devourer had struck.
“What will happen to Bi Wei?” I asked.
“She spent five hundred years adrift in the river of magic. That river flows through her now. It gives her tremendous power, but the first time she loses control, the ghosts will pull her down.” She stomped one foot on the floor. “August Harrison dismissed the dangers as ‘ignorant fears born of Oriental folklore and superstition.’ He and his dryad will turn our ancestors into vessels for the Army of Ghosts.”
Lena went rigid. “His dryad?”
“Wei pulled a single acorn from the book before Isaac destroyed it.” Guan Feng’s mouth tugged into a grim smile. “August was furious when Wei told him what you had done. He started swearing and talking about what he planned to do to punish you. But he had the acorn, and Bi Wei helped it to grow. The dryad was born hours after the attack on your archive, near St. Ignace. He named her Deifilia.”
Deifilia, meaning daughter of God. How egotistical could Harrison get?
Nidhi took Lena’s hand. “Do the others know what Harrison and the Army of Ghosts have done to Bi Wei?”
“They know, but they don’t believe. Some agree with Harrison.” Her nose wrinkled and her lips tightened, as if the words soured her mouth. “The Army of Ghosts is little more than a legend, but Gutenberg and the Porters are real. We remember what the Porters did to our ancestors. Every time we read their books, we relive their fear as they watched Gutenberg’s ambition grow. They see Bi Wei’s power. She lived for years as a woman, but spent five centuries as a creature of magic. Her rebirth blended both lives. The others believe Harrison has given us the chance to not only restore our ancestors, but to fight back against the Porters.”
“What does August get in return?” Nidhi asked.
“His son. He believes Victor can be restored as Bi Wei was.”
From the way Nidhi stared, she obviously hadn’t expected that answer any more than I had.
Jeff was the first to speak. “How’s he expect to pull that off? Victor didn’t have one of those old books.”
“He hacked our network.” I spoke slowly, giving myself a chance to piece together what we knew. “He has Victor’s notes and reports. Magic was Victor’s life.”
“Would that be enough to bring him back?” asked Lena.
“Not by any magic we understand,” said Guan Feng. “The books must be printed and bound using the same materials, the same techniques. The individual’s words are encased by Bi Sheng’s magic. Computer files would not work. We’ve explained this to him, but he refuses to accept that his son is gone.” She looked at the floor. “And… we allowed him to hold on to that hope.”
“If he thinks there’s a chance, he’ll keep helping you,” Nidhi said.
“Yes.”
“I don’t get it,” I said. “August and Victor hated each other.”
“The dynamics of abuse are complicated and ugly.” Nidhi paced behind us. “August Harrison did unforgivable things to his wife and son, but there were moments of kindness as well. He taught Victor how to work with machines, how to build and repair circuit boards. Victor described moments of pride, even warmth and love. I imagine those were the moments Victor clung to when he sent the cicada to his father. But by the time August arrived, he was too late to save his son. He might see that as his ultimate failure as a father.”
What would happen when he realized he couldn’t restore his son, that Bi Sheng’s magic couldn’t affect a collection of computer files any more than I could reach into…
“What?” asked Jeff.
I was already making a phone call. I browbeat the boy who answered into running out to make sure Jeneta was okay. If August Harrison had read my work, he knew Jeneta was his best option at turning electronic files into magic. I twitched impatiently until the boy confirmed Jeneta was out canoeing with the rest of the girls from her cabin.
“Great,” I said. “Tell her—” Dammit, her e-reader was destroyed, and I hadn’t had time to get her a new one. But she could work magic with her phone, too. “Tell her that poems can protect you from nightmares, and to make sure she has some ready.”
“You want me to give her a message about poetry?”
“It’s a librarian thing. She’ll understand.” I hung up and called Nicola Pallas next. “We need a Porter at Camp Aazhawigiizhigokwe. August might be going after Jeneta next.”
Pallas rarely wasted time on idle chitchat or pointless questions. “I can have a field agent there in twenty minutes. I believe Myron Worster is closest.”
“Thank you. If anything happens, have Myron get her out of there. Don’t try to fight.” I covered the mouthpiece and asked Guan Feng, “Are they still in St. Ignace?”
“We left the fort as soon as you destroyed the dryad’s book. I snuck away after we stopped for the night. I don’t know where Harrison meant to take Deifilia.”
I relayed that to Pallas, and promised to fill her in on the rest when she and Gutenberg arrived.
Guan Feng was twisting her hands into her pants. “I’ll tell you anything you want, but please give me back Bi Wei’s book. She struggles to hold on. Let me help her.”
“We will.” I rummaged through my own books. “Has Harrison been creating more wendigos?”
“Yes. He took two people from the fort yesterday, and talked of collecting others.”
“He killed a Porter,” I said. “He knows Gutenberg will be coming in force.” I donned my jacket and pulled another shock-gun from
The smell of burning dust rose from my shoulder. Smudge was watching the door, and waves of orange rippled over his thorax, dangerously close to my hair.
Nidhi saw it too. “Feng, is there any way you could have been followed?”
Comprehension and fear widened Guan Feng’s eyes, and she jumped to her feet. “I was careful. I didn’t tell anyone where I was going. I swear on my father’s grave.”
“He probably forced Bi Wei to tell him where you were.” I shoved the gun into my pocket, pulled on my jacket, and grabbed the rest of my books. “It’s all right. He would have found us anyway. I’m a little surprised the destruction of
Lena untwisted her cane into two sharpened swords and strode toward the door.
“How many?”
“Only one. But you might want to make sure you’ve got a change of underwear before you see this thing.”
Alex came around the desk to intercept me. “Isaac, tell your girlfriend she can’t bring weapons into
I clapped him on the shoulder. “Alex, this would be a very good time for you to go on break. Somewhere else.”
Jeff had joined Lena by the door. Neither one of them moved. Not a good sign.
The scream of tearing metal filled the street, followed by silence. I shoved past Alex toward the back and hurried to see what we were up against.
“All right,” I whispered. “I admit it. I’m impressed.”
I had been expecting to see Harrison, Bi Wei, and the dryad at a minimum, along with his insects. Possibly wendigos as well, depending on whether or not he was ready to announce his presence to the world.
I hadn’t expected a six-legged dragon made of old mining and construction equipment.
The thing was roughly the size of a bus. The yellow legs looked like they had come from mismatched backhoes. The mouth was a pair of toothed bulldozer blades. Heavy steel wings folded over the body to form an additional layer of armor.
