The Prophecy Machine

“I can see that.”

“Father-”

“That's no way for a son to do, boy. Locking me up like that. That hurt a lot. You've been breaking my heart since your mother passed on. I wish she'd stayed around to suffer, see what I had to go through.”

“You locked me up, Father, don't forget that.”

“Damn you, boy, you did it first. Whoever does it first, that's the one started it all, you ought to know that.”

“Grandfather's gone berserk again,” Sabatino said quietly, “He's worse than he's ever been before. I think he might have the Newlie girl. You've got to destroy that device of yours, Father. It's bulging all over the place, it's getting out of hand.”

Calabus was silent for a while. “He's got Miss Letitia, you think?”

“I think he likely does.”

“That's what people get for playing in the walls. I told you that when you were six. Tell that lizard fellow, tell him if she's still all right, I'll go and get her out. If I do, though, he's got to give her to me.”

“Like hell I will!”

Finn tried to get up. Pain pushed him back down.

“Stay out of this,” Sabatino said. “You think you're going to reason with him now?”

“Just help me up. Get me a stick, anything you can find …”

“He'll agree to that if he has to, Father,” Sabatino called out. “He loves the lady, but he'll give her up to save her life.”

“I want that lizard, too.”

“He'll go for that.”

Finn opened his mouth to protest, but Sabatino shook his head.

“Can I come in now? I'd like to get that wine and a cloth of some kind. Tell Squeen to find something clean-”

The shot clipped the plume off Sabatino's hat. Sabatino hit the ground. Lilac feathers filled the air.

“Damn you, boy,” Calabus shouted, “you think I'm deaf and blind? I know your intentions, I've got 'em right here!”

Calabus raised a tangle of paper and shook it in the air, endless loops and snarls, ravels and curls, whorls and kinks and coils. Finn swallowed his pain and stretched his neck to see. There, on the porch, was a man in a rage, a man with a musket, a man with severe disorders of the mind.

“It's all right here, you damn fools! The works! Everything!What's going to happen, everything that has! You can't trifle with me, I can read this stuff now!”

Calabus crowed again and spread his arms wide, tossing paper to the wind. “Don't try an' put something over on me. I know what you're up to before you know yoursel-”

The house began to shake, began to roll, began to twitch, began to rock, began to quake. To the left and to the right, to the bottom and the top, wood began to squeal, began to creak, squeak and groan.

Finn saw it, then, felt it in his belly, felt it in his toes. A window cracked, timber snapped, and dust began to fall. A spot near the roof began to swell. It bulged, oozed, festered like a boil, like a horrid open sore. A foul and awful corruption throbbing with dark bits of matter that tumbled through its grime-encrusted coils.

Finn couldn't breathe, couldn't draw a breath.

“It needs more room,” Sabatino said, “the damned thing's coming outside …”

43

She had never felt so wonderful And warm, so full of energy and life. She knew, as she had never known before, that this was what life was really like, that she'd only thought she was truly alive before …

Then, she'd been only one, only a single lost and lonely soul, a creature looking at the world through a single, lonely pair of eyes. Now, she was everywhere there was, everywhere at once, everywhere she'd ever be …

She laughed, laughter she couldn't hear. She could almost remember now, remember the long, long before; before she'd worn the form she wore now. She could almost see herself then, see beyond the blur, beyond the veil before her eyes. And something within her said, No, don't look before, don't look back, you don't want to see that now …

44

It only hurt for an instant. Then everything was gone and it didn't hurt at all. When he opened his eyes, the pain was still there and he wasn't where he'd been.

“Ah, you are with us, I am happy to see. You are feeling fine again?”

Finn scowled up at Sabatino through the sharp and screaming pain. “No, I am not feeling fine. Why did you pick me up, you damn fool, don't you know any better than that? You don't pick up a man who's broken several bones, you could kill him like that.”

“I take offense,” Sabatino said. “From a brother in arms, I expected more gratitude than this.”

“Oh, well, now I understand.”

“I felt we should distance ourselves from the house. I didn't think it was safe to leave you there.”

“You did this for me?”

“Well, no, that's not quite true. You see how close we are? You can see right through me, Finn. When your leg feels better, you and I together, we'll retrieve the house. Which is rightfully mine, of course. Father's in no condition to make decisions of any sort. And, of course, you'll want to try and get Letitia out. I feel there's little hope, but of course you must try.”

“I think I worry when you don't lie,” Finn said. “And don't say I won't get her out, because I will.”

“You should try and stand now,” Sabatino said, leaning down to help, “get used to moving a bit.”

“Don't come any closer-get away from me …”

He turned, then, as he felt the tremor moving through the earth, felt the rumble, felt the beat, like some gigantic heart. Sabatino had carried him a hundred paces or more, but it was clearly not enough. The power, the terrible tug of the thing was weaker here, but it was there. And how far would it go, what would it do when it grew beyond the house?

Finn felt a chill as the words of the seer came to mind. There was more to that dark device than a madman's dream. Calabus' father had created the thing, but there was magic there as well, a spell of such power that it struck out at anyone who threatened the machine.

And what has it done to you, Letitia? Has it stolen your soul, has it taken your mind? If I find you, my dear, what then will you be …?

“Finn, look. Over there.”

Finn started, then followed Sabatino's eyes. Someone was coming down the road. Not just someone, more like everyone-everyone who lived in that foul, odorous, unfriendly village was apparently on the march, coming their way.

“Damn them all,” Sabatino muttered, “just what I need, a bunch of interfering fools. They've got no right coming here.”

“Maybe they want to help,” Finn said. “You could use a little right now.”

“Help? That herd of idiots?” Sabatino laughed, or possibly sneered. “They're more pitifully inept than you are, Finn. And you're scarcely any use at all.”

Sabatino muttered beneath his breath. Clenched his fists and ground his teeth. He didn't like anyone at all, and surely didn't like them more than one at a time.