World's End

Page 147

"HK--" I whisper incredulously. I touch the face, and my hand confirms his reality. "HK!" I scramble to my feet, and grab him by the shoulders. "Holy Hands of Edhu! Ye gods ... I never thought I'd find you alive."

He sags against me, his legs going out from under him, as if the shock is too much for him. I lower him to the ground and crouch down beside him. "You . . . you 186

WORLD S END

... what are you doing here?" he asks almost plaintively.

"I hardly knew you."

"I came searching for you." It is almost too painful to keep looking at him. His once fleshy face is gaunt and haggard. His body is filthy and covered with bruises, his clothes are in rags. There is a metal collar around his

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neck, an oozing sore on his leg. I wonder morbidly how

I must look to him.

"You came?" he asks again. "You came here to find us?" His voice rises. "You fool, you fool--you're the biggest fool of all!" Irritation prickles inside me. His eyes catch on the trefoil dangling at my chest; he grabs it.

"You told them you were a sibyl? Is that how you did it? When they find out, they'll kill you--"

He drops the trefoil, his hands trembling.

"No they won't," I say, as calmly as I can. I grip his shoulders. "I really am a sibyl, HK."

"You? A sibyl?" His eyes focus on me again. "You said you couldn't... you never ... How? When?

Why?"

"Song. Song infected me." I look down, feeling my face flush, as if he could read how it happened in my eyes. "When I came here."

"Song!" His eyes bore into my head. "Then you must be crazy, just like she is!" He pulls away from me.

"I saw you when I came down here, you looked crazy. You were talking to yourself--"

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To myself. For a moment I don't realize that he means talking to the air. Talking to myself. I saw myself... I saw my own future. And I will be--I am--perfectly sane. I begin to laugh, for the first time in months, or maybe years. "I'm sane!"

I grab HK again, shaking him, convulsed with laughter.