Wicked Bronze Ambition

118

Tara Chayne said, “Here is where the theory gets esoteric. The practical aspects of what happened may take years of study to work out.”

“Since it looks like you all are finally willing to talk about this stuff, why not fill me in even where you don’t think I’ll understand? I can fool you sometimes.”

Orchidia said, “Strafa, Singe, and I talked this over on the way here. Singe believes that the smoothest road forward is the direct one.”

“Thank you.” Three large goat carts would have been needed to haul that load of sarcasm.

Singe said, “Don’t make me reconsider.”

Her sense of humor is atrophied. Better not risk her going totally serious.

Little Strafa said, “When Grandmother’s spell activated, it not only did what she wanted it to, but did what the laws of nature required. She hadn’t taken those enough into account, probably because she never looked past what she wanted right now.”

Orchidia said, “Constance is a master. Her spell suite would have performed exactly as designed if that bolt had struck the sacrifice’s heart. But once it ricocheted into the protection Strafa was trying to weave-”

Moonblight interrupted. “That’s what made the missile stray. Strafa being Strafa, she probably tried to protect Min first.”

Little Strafa said, “I can reclaim no memory of anything that happened between the time I left Garrett that morning and when I ran into Jiffy and Min. I’m not sure how many hours or days I lost, then gained by going back.”

Definitely weird, that great leap backward.

They were picking at something I thought we had covered before. Then I saw that there was more to it. Why did we have Hagekagome and Little Strafa? “Was Strafa supposed to be regressed?”

Tara Chayne said, “No. A temporal tremor created her and the other girl, both.”

“Out of legend,” Orchidia said, harkening back.

“Huh?”

She indicated Hagekagome. “That has happened before. In folklore.”

Tara Chayne said, “I’m sure the point of the exercise, for Constance, was a false death for Strafa that would make the Operators scramble to replace her in time to do the Ritual tonight.”

I didn’t get that. The midnight changeover from Day of the Dead to All-Souls might be particularly potent, but I suspected that the Ritual did not have to happen at any specific hour.

Maybe midnight tonight was just the best time to do it using a skeleton crew.

Orchidia said, “Meyness apparently wasn’t that distraught about missing the chance to harvest the power of TunFaire’s only Windwalker.”

“Could that be because Furious Tide of Light had no healing powers to mention?”

“Ah. Yes.” Cold, cold. The Black Orchid had emerged. I tried recalling Dane and Deanne from the heyday of the Faction. Had they shown any talent for healing?

They hadn’t impacted my consciousness much. The talent I recalled was one for shaping life-forms. They had helped the Faction create monster bugs. “I see what he must have been thinking.”

“He was wrong.”

“In so many ways. But that’s behind us. That’s all settled. Talk to me about Hagekagome. Who is she? What is she? How can she possibly be so devoted to me, and have those stories about our wonderful times together, while I have no clue? I’ve never suffered egregious and persistent memory loss. And how can she be only this old if she’s been pushed forward in time? If Strafa got younger?” Fact, though. The girl had been gaining on Penny, fast, from the moment she attacked me.

And my own Strafa didn’t get younger, did she? My own Strafa got dead. Little Strafa was a whole different creature. So why shouldn’t Hagekagome be a whole different creature, too?

But. .? Different from?

Orchidia made a joke. “Dog years.”

“Huh?”

Penny hadn’t contributed much but awed responses to the flash and bang over yonder, so far. Now she found a reserve of daring, leaned her cheek against my arm, and said, “Hey, Hage!”

Must have been a game they’d made up. Hagekagome responded, “Hey, Dread!” Sleepily.

“Hey, Kage! Who is that boy that you’re in love with?”

“Mikey Garrett. Hey, Dread! Who is that man. .?”

The game went a couple of rounds more. I lost it, becoming frozen in a moment.

Hagekagome tightened her grip even more when she said my brother’s name.

All the evidence was there.

I plummeted into the deep, dark well of my mind, headed down and away further than I’d ever fallen before.