Bitter Gold Hearts

______ XXXVII ______

Dean didn't wake me as instructed. Amber pirated that chore with a half hour head start. The brief rest hadn't been enough to restore my resistance. I fear I succumbed. Amber wasn't a disappointment. When I ventured into the kitchen, I realized Dean had found his missing scowl mask. It was as ferocious as ever. He has pretensions to gentility, though, so he said nothing. I devoured a few sausages and hit the street. I listened to the talk around Playmate's place, where the old men hang out. They had a dozen theories about what had happened in Ogre Town. Some were as crazy as the truth, but none were correct. Collecting Amiranda's corpse was cut and dried. I paid, they delivered, I drove it home, and Dean helped me lug it into the Dead Man's room.

Have you taken up a new hobby, Garrett?

He was awake. I'd thought I might have to start a fire to get his attention.

Or are you getting into a new line?

"Once in a while I like to have somebody around who doesn't get temperamental."

Dean tells me you have been having adventures.

"Yes. And if you'd stay awake and do a little work, I'd have a lot fewer." I brought him up to date.

At last you have begun to understand that several things are happening at once. I am proud of you, Garrett. You have begun to think. I wondered how long you would discount the repeated appearances of the Bruno person. Particularly in view of your first collected fact having been that the younger Karl left his house to investigate a pilferage problem that the Dount woman suggested might have another Hill family at its root.

"You figured there might be a connection, eh?"

Of course.

"But you didn't bother to mention it."

You have become too dependent upon me. You need to exercise your brain yourself.

"The reason you're here at all is so I don't have to strain my brain. We humans are born bone lazy. Remember? With innate ambition and energy levels only slightly above those of a dead Loghyr."

Do not make a special effort to irritate me, Garrett. You have done adequately with your collection of corpses and your parade of frenzied females. If you have a question you cannot handle yourself, spit it out. Otherwise, relocate yourself in some demesne where the mentality is sufficiently naive to appreciate your wit.

"All right, genius. Answer me this. Who killed Amiranda Crest? Is that something else you've been holding back, waiting for me to get my head bashed in while I tried to find out the hard way?"

I suppose you mean do I know who gave the order that resulted in Miss Crest's death at the hand of the ogre breed Skredli and his henchmen!

"To be precise."

We must be precise, Garrett. An intelligent mind is not ambiguous. I could have talked about that for hours, but I resisted. "Do you know who's responsible?"

No.

"Do you know why?"

Chances are if we knew that, we would know who as well, Garrett. I can render at least three plausibility's immediately, though I will discount the pregnancy as motive till such time as you produce evidence that she told someone. She did not tell you except by the most ambiguous implication, and young women empty the darkest corners of their souls into your ears.

"You know, with two marks and all the help you've given me I could buy a barrel of beer."

Find Donni Pell. Bring her to me. Find out who Bruno's master was. Look for any connections with the daPena family. Look into the pilferage at the daPena warehouse. It might open new avenues. Now be gone. I cannot endure your vexatious importunities any longer.

"Right. I'll just conjure the Pell woman out of thin air."

You will not learn anything sitting here drinking beer.

"You have a point, I admit. But before I fare forth to keep my date with destiny, how about you clue me in on how Glory Mooncalled manages his magic show. Or hasn't the hypothesis withstood the test of time?"

The hypothesis has stood quite well, Garrett. But not enough time has passed to set it in concrete. I should not risk contradiction by events, but I will present you with the key. Glory Mooncalled has not found the secret of prolonged invisibility. He has invented invisibility by treaty. When you cannot escape the seeing eye, you convince the eye that blindness is in its own best interest. Be gone. Take your tart back to her family.

"You ready to go?" I asked Saucerhead. I didn't have to ask Amber because I knew she wasn't—either emotionally or intellectually. She was scared to death. But for the thousand marks she would give it a shot.

Saucerhead grunted and got to his feet slowly. His exertions of the night before were exacting their price. I hoped he hadn't drawn too heavily on his reserves. Even the most stubborn will has its final limit.

"Let's do it, Garrett," Amber said.