The being whispered, “That is enough. You are rude and you bore me.”
Halla tossed a pebble at the figure. Instead of passing through, it bounced off the thing’s chest.
The being pointed at Leddie. In a conversational way, it said, “Think of what was done to you.”
Leddie gave a short scream and fell to one knee, dropping her weapon and hiding her head under her arms.
It pointed at Whistler. “Think of what you did.”
Whistler closed his eyes and began shaking.
It pointed at Halla. “Think of what you’re keeping.”
She staggered back two steps and stared at me.
The thing pointed at me. “Think of what you’re giving away.”
I saw myself handing Harik’s book to somebody and losing my little girl forever. The image was like a battering ram. I may have staggered, or wheezed, or played the nose-whistle for all I know, but I think I was dazed for no more than a moment. Losing Manon forever was not a new thought for me.
The figure stood less than two steps in front of me. “That should do it! Now—”
The lantern snuffed out, leaving us in darkness that was just about as pure as could exist.
Without thinking, I aimed a thrust straight in front of me. I hit something. My long experience living in darkness may have helped. I followed up with three ferocious cuts. My first and third connected. Something big fell on the floor near me, and I dropped onto it with my knees. It was a writhing body that made a crackling noise. I held it down.
“Is everybody standing?” I shouted.
Halla, Leddie, and Whistler all agreed that they were. I pulled my knife and stabbed whoever I was kneeling on. I stabbed again to be sure. I stabbed it eleven more times to be really sure, and because both eleven and thirteen are strong numbers. Then I felt safe to conclude that I was kneeling on an unmoving body that might not start moving again.
I remained on my knees with my knife point pressed against the body while Halla took forty damn minutes to light the lantern. Had it been somebody else, I’d have thought they were flustered.
The lantern light showed I was kneeling on what remained of the insulting, unliving entity, although it wasn’t transparent anymore. It was so emaciated that all the water might have been drained out of it, and it crackled like dry leaves when I stood up. The entire face was sunken, as if it had been smashed with a face-size stone.
I pulled the city ring off its left hand, shoved the feathered hat inside my jerkin, and handed the broadsword to Leddie, who looked at it like a lover. “I found the ring.”
Halla and Whistler were already peering into the next chamber. Halla said, “Is it the right ring?”
I opened my mouth and then closed it.
Halla reached for the lantern and led Whistler into the next room. I knelt over the body just in case.
Several minutes later, Halla stepped back into the room. “Thirty-three ancestors. The ring is not there.”
I held up my hand. “This must be it then. I found it on the unliving guardian, or whatever the hell you want to call it.”
“Let us forget that creature instead of naming it,” she said. “We found a medallion, two swords, a big hammer, and a pair of boots that look new. No bow, and all the trousers are rotten.”
Whistler had followed her in, and he grinned with his arms full of weapons. “We’ll be rich!”
“Son, you’re already rich,” I said.
“I’m not the richest yet!”
I sighed, hoping I wouldn’t have to kill Whistler when he went crazy with greed. “Let’s leave. If there’s anything else down here, I don’t want to look at it.”
“What about all the gold?” Whistler almost whined it.
Halla asked, “Are you a dead ancestor?”
Whistler shook his head.
“Then it doesn’t belong to you, does it?”
THIRTY
I turned the left boot over in my hands so that the morning light shone inside it, and I nodded as if that would help me understand a single thing about it. I had already examined the right boot and learned not a damn thing from it, either. Holding the boot out to Tapp, I said, “Would you care for a look?”
He shook his head and waved me off, then he glanced at the iron doors leading back into the crypt. “There’s something I need. I’ll hop right back over here in a couple of minutes. Don’t stir.” Tapp hustled off around the corner of the stone house toward the street.
Halla said, “If Pil were here, she could tell us about all these things. Bib, what did you do to make her leave?”
“Nothing. It was time. She was like a baby bird leaving the nest.” I tossed the feathered hat to Leddie. “Put that on.”
Leddie held the hat far away from her body and frowned at it.
“Give it to me,” Whistler snapped. He grabbed the hat, dropped his own hat on the grass, and eased the feathered hat onto his head. Then he pulled it down to a stylish angle and used one finger to primp the feathers.
“Do you feel smarter?” I asked. “What’s thirty-one plus two hundred and twelve divided by nine?”
Whistler’s eyes got big. “I couldn’t say.”
Halla said, “If you had to kill all of us in thirty seconds, what would your plan be?”
“I’d hire a hundred crossbowmen.”
I smiled. “I admit it would be effective, but we’re looking for something a little more creative. Take off the hat, unless you want every little old lady in town to fall in love with you.”
Whistler put his own hat back on.
Halla put on the medallion, but she couldn’t read my mind, and when I slapped her, it still hurt. She tried to fly to the top of the house, but she only made it three feet off the ground.
I
