The Prophecy Machine

31

He held her very close, so tightly she feared he might crush her in his joyous embrace. He smelled to high heaven, smelled of mold, smelled of onions, smelled of Bowsers and Foxers and primeval sweat.

Letitia didn't care. She was just glad to have him safe again, glad to have him there.

“Rest,” she told him, “you're practically asleep on your feet. We can talk after that.”

Finn, bone-weary and ready to drop, started to babble and couldn't stop. It all came at once, the whole thing from the start: Foxers, Bowsers, Nicoretti and the seer. The Bullies and the stone. The Coldies and the storm, Hooters hooting in the night. And, finally, poor Squeen William setting off the trap Sabatino had laid for Finn.

“I knew it,” Letitia said, clenching her fists till her palms turned white. “That old man told me his son was up to something. Bragged about it, can you believe that?”

“I can indeed. That, and any other madness you have to tell.”

“I couldn't warn you, love. There was nothing I could do.”

She glanced at Julia, giving her a nasty stare. “I might've had some help, if Miss Julia hadn't run off for fear she'd get taken apart.”

“What?” Julia raised her snout, blinked her red eyes. “Who's going to take who apart? Anyone tries, they'll come away without a hand!”

“Don't lie,” Letitia said. “If you lie, you don't get an afterlife. Though I don't know as you would, being what you are …”

“Wait just a minute here.” Finn clapped his head between his hands. “Who's going to take Julia apart, what are we talking about?”

“I didn't even know about that. I left when the old man came in. And where was I going, one might ask? I was going to look for you, Finn.”

“You had better be talking true this time,” Letitia said.

“What old man? Calabus, you mean? He was in here? You didn't say a thing about that.”

“Now when would I, dear? With all your tales, who'd get a word in? That man-you won't believe this, I didn't-He wanted me to work with him on that-whatever it is. As if you could get me down there again … Oh, Finn, you don't know what I'm talking about, I scarcely do myself.”

She paused to get a breath, led Finn over to the bed and sat him down. “You're soaking wet. Get out of those clothes and get into something else.”

“Like what? I don't have anything else.”

“I don't care, I'll wrap you in a sheet. Finn, that man is scary. He so much as told me he doesn't know what he's doing down there. All that-that awful machinery, and he doesn't know? He wants help from me? He said he had a dream. I thought I'd come out of my skin, listening to stuff like that.”

“It simply doesn't make sense.”

“You think I don't know? That's what scared me to death. Oh, Finn …”

Finn looked down at his basket and grasped her hand in his. “I'm sorry about the food, I really did my best.” The rain had done its job, and there was nothing left but a soggy layer of mush.

“I couldn't get you anything to wear. Shops aren't the same over here.”

“You got back, love.”

“Captain Pynch said hello.”

Letitia made a face. “You told me that.” She studied the amulet the Mycer had sent, ran the polished chain through her fingers, touched the tiny stone.

“I hope she's not angry at me for using her name. I didn't know what else to do.”

“She's not mad. She's greatly concerned, is all.”

Finn watched her, trying not to shiver in his clothes. His heart nearly broke with the joy of seeing her again. Still, he was filled with sorrow and dread. He hadn't told her, and certainly never would, all the seer had said. That, and the grim account of the Coldie that Letitia would surely perish here.

He would never let that happen, no matter what. He would see her out of here, safely home again. And who could credit a dreary apparition, a thing with no more substance than smoke? Why, the fellow had no idea if this was tomorrow or today. And even if a seer and a shade had dire things to say, that didn't mean they were so. Especially the dead …

One thing he believed, a thing he couldn't let go, the words the Coldie had said:

There is something in the Nucci house, something that's more like us than you …

He became aware, then, that his thoughts had taken him far away. He glanced up quickly, hoping she hadn't read his fears, that none of the horrors in his mind had come her way …

“All right,” he said abruptly, as if a great plan had taken shape in his head, “we're getting out of here. I shouldn't have waited, no matter what.”

He ran his hands through his hair, tried to cast the weariness aside, and, now that he'd begun, wondered what he ought to say next.

“I take the blame, though that won't help a whit. We have held ourselves hostage here-for as loathsome as it is, it seemed a sanctuary from the madness outside. Our fears were real enough, I don't have to tell you that. There is still great danger out there, danger very real.

“I am convinced, though, we must face those dangers, for we are surely not safe here. Letitia, Calabus' behavior toward you is alarming enough. The old man's daft. That device down below has scrambled his head. And Sabatino has such a hatred for me-and a lewd obsession toward you-I feel he's a greater menace than Calabus himself.”

And why don't you tell her there is something so dread and unspeakable here, that even the dead fear it? Are you doing her a favor, keeping her in the dark?

“There can be no more waiting for a ship. If I knew one would sail into the harbor tomorrow, I would not wait it out. And if we can't stay here, if we cannot stay in that- that open asylum they choose to call a town, then we must go somewhere else still …”

For a moment, silence met his words. Letitia's eyes told him nothing at all. She worried at a pitiful chunk of nearly petrified bread.

“All right, I'll be the one to say it,” Julia said, with a rattle and a croak. “If not here or the lovely village, where? Are you aware your flair for the dramatic drives others to the limit, Finn? Up the wall, right to the edge-”

“You do, you know,” Letitia put in, “not that I don't like the way you talk, because I do.”

“Oh, well I'm sorry if I do my best to make matters clear. I regret I'm such a bore.”

“Stop it, dear. We don't need that.”

“All right, I'll get to it at once,” Finn said, grateful for the intrusion, which had given him time to discover several new thoughts.

“We will not stay here, and we will certainly not go into town. It is senseless to wait for a ship. We will-we'll travel over land. Away from the coast. Entirely the other way. If anyone pursues us, and I really doubt they will, we- should get a good start before any Foxers or spiritual zealots know we're gone.”

“How on earth are we going to do that, Finn? Would you please tell me that?”

Letitia sat cross-legged on the bed running her hands through her hair.

“We don't have a map, we scarcely know where we are now. We have no provisions, and-don't take offense, dear-it appears they're quite hard to get.”

Finn pretended not to hear. “We have no knowledge of the country, I'm aware of that. But this is clearly not the only village in the land. We'll follow the road. It has to go somewhere besides this.”

He hoped the folly of his plan did not appear as fragile to Julia and Letitia as it did within his head. He regretted now that he hadn't thought this out before, that he hadn't asked the crew of Coldies, for most of them had lived or died nearby.

“We can't be sure there won't be Hooters and Hatters in the next place too,” Julia said. “Quite often, religions aren't confined to one town.”

“She's right about that,” Letitia said.

“We don't even know where the next town is.”

“We don't know if there is a next town.”

“If there is, it could be worse than this one, how do we know?”

“What if there's no one but Foxers there?”

“What if there's Vampies? Vampies with brooms? Why, I could've been squashed completely flat!”

“All right, that's quite enough, both of you.”

Finn stood, leaving a wet spot on the bed. He'd slipped off his shirt, but kept the damp trousers on.

“I don't know what we'll face out there, I don't know what we'll find to eat. I know that we're going, all right? We don't have a choice. If someone has a better idea, I'd be pleased to hear it now.”

“It's not that we don't approve, dear. It's just-frightening, is all. The thought of having no idea where we're going, what we'll find there …”

“And that's exactly what's kept us here, what's blinded us up to now.”

Finn shook his head, frowned at the grim, peeling paper on the walls, at the spiderwebbed ceiling, at the threadbare carpet on the floor.

“We'll leave an hour before sundown. Tonight. That gives us time to see where we're going before it gets dark. By the time night falls, we'll be safely out of sight. I doubt anyone will bother to track us down. If they do, we'll be ready for them, you can count on that.”

“I know we can, dear.”

“Well, you can. We'll-get out of this …”

He was wet, hungry, ready to drop for lack of sleep. Letitia reached for him and drew him back to the bed.

“Finn, I really think you should sit. It won't do any good to keep talking about this. What we all need to do is get some rest.”

“Good idea,” Finn said, pulling gently from her grasp, “I appreciate the thought, but there's much I have to do right now. This room is a ruin, but there are items here we can turn to good purpose for our trip. These drapes, which are filthy, could serve as a tent. The bedposts will serve as poles. If we break up the chair-”

“Finn,” Letitia said, as gently as her nature would allow, “I'm going to strike you, dear. I have never done that before, but I will surely do it now.”

Finn blinked, startled. There was something in those black, enormous Mycer eyes, something close to anger, something close to fire. Something new in this bold, defiant beauty, something haughty, something naughty, something wild.

Bones and Stones, he thought, whatever that is, it is terribly attractive, though I do hope she can't find anything to throw …

And, in that instant, she did. Reached out and clutched at an object, reached out unaware, lifted up Julia, ready to hurl her through the air.

“Letitia, don't!”

Letitia didn't hear. Letitia was hungry, Letitia was beat. Weary, strung out, tired of the same shabby dress. She yearned to wash her hair, soak in a tub, yearned to be anywhere but here. Something was squirming, squawking in her hand. She didn't know what and didn't care …

The door swung open and struck the wall hard, raising a veil of dust. Letitia froze. Finn reached for his blade, then remembered he'd left it in a chair across the room.

Sabatino slouched in the doorway, dressed in resplendent lilac hues, watching with a vain and arrogant grin.

“Oh dear, a family quarrel. What a nice surprise. Do go on, pay no attention to me. When you're finished, you'll find fresh linens, clothing, lotions and such. A tub and hot water, all right here, just outside the door.

“And-I nearly forgot-luncheon is served very shortly in the dining salon. I think you'll find it quite a treat. Squeen is maimed for the moment, so the meal should be a real delight.”

Sabatino paused, inspected Letitia up and down, then down and up again. It imparted such lewd and open desire that Letitia felt a rush of color to her face.

“There is nothing so arousing as a woman full of ire,” he said. “You are fortunate indeed, Master Finn.”

Finn went for him, unarmed or not, but the fellow was gone in a lavender blur before he could stalk across the room …