F Wilson - The Dark at the End

His mind whirled with possibilities.

What if discovery of the Ceremony was meant to spark memories of the broken sigil and send Weezy and him back to Johnson to find it?

No, wait… Rasalom couldn’t know they’d seen it…

Unless Drexler told him. Drexler had been living in the Lodge when they found it.

Jack tracked down Drexler’s number in his phone history and hit SEND. When Drexler picked up, he wasted no time.

“This is Jack. Did the One ever ask about me?”

A heartbeat or two of hesitation, then, “You flatter yourself.”

Not an answer.

“He never asked you about our interactions when I was a kid?”

“Why on Earth would he care?”

Still not an answer.

“Yes or no?”

“No. Never.”

“Okay.”

Jack ended the call.

Lying… Drexler was good at it. A good liar’s reflexes when withholding info were to avoid getting caught in a lie, so he dodged a yes-or-no answer whenever possible-just as Drexler had done until pinned down. And Jack had sensed an instant’s hesitation before the flat denial.

Pretty clear now that Drexler had been contacted by the wounded Rasalom, maybe even helped him. The One had survived and turned to Drexler, and so he’d switched sides again.

Why am I not surprised?

But it meant Drexler’s denial was bullshit. Rasalom had quizzed him on what he knew of Jack’s childhood.

The scenario took shape in Jack’s head:

Rasalom, knowing Jack was the Heir, probed Drexler about his childhood and learned that he and Weezy had seen the broken sigil. That may or may not have been important to him at first.

He knew finding Jack would be nigh impossible, but the Order knew what Weezy looked like, so he told Drexler to find her and then do nothing more than watch her-because maybe she would lead them to the Heir.

Once Rasalom knew her location, he could have floated to her apartment windows, entered, and found the Compendium. He could have altered the book Wait. The Other Naming Ceremony didn’t appear until after Dawn moved in. So…

He moved Dawn in across the hall-reason to be determined.

Then he changed the Compendium to keep opening to the Other Naming Ceremony-which he might well have added to the book.

Jack punched the steering wheel. And we played right into his hands. We remembered the name on the sigil, we went and found it, and now we’re ready to perform the Other Naming Ceremony on a not quite human baby He almost hit a divider as the truth hit him.

That’s it! That’s why Dawn was moved in across the hall. So we’d go looking for the baby. Because the baby’s such an obvious choice to take on Rasalom’s Other Name.

Except it isn’t his Other Name. It’s bogus.

But what was all this supposed to accomplish?

Jack hadn’t a clue, but he did know that, for whatever reason, Rasalom wanted the Lady to perform the Ceremony.

He called Weezy again, and again got her voice mail. Then he remembered Eddie. He’d probably be with Weezy, and even if not, he could run over and tell them to wait for him.

But Eddie’s voice mail came on immediately as well.

Jack tossed the phone into the backseat-worthless piece of crap. Wait. Could be a local cell outage in the city, or was the Internet down again?

He retrieved it and called Gia. She picked up almost immediately.

“Is everything okay there?” he said. “The Internet and the phones?”

“Yes. I’m on the computer now. Why?”

“I’m not sure. Can’t get hold of Weezy or Eddie.”

“I thought they were with you.”

“Long story. Are you going out at all tonight?”

“No plans. Schools are open tomorrow. Why?”

“Good. Stay in. Don’t go anywhere.”

“Should I be worried?”

“I don’t know. Just… stay in. I’ll call you later.”

He cut the call and stepped on the gas. He didn’t know what Rasalom was up to, but he knew he had to stop the Ceremony.

“It’s been two hours, Weez,” Eddie said. “We should have heard from him by now.”

Eddie was really on her nerves with his constant bugging to start the Ceremony.

“How can we hear from him when our phones say ‘no service’?”

“I believe we should get on with it,” Glaeken said. “The One has regained his strength.”

Weezy looked at him. “You’re sure?”

He nodded. “I sense it. He’s back in the city and he’s damaged, but he is strong again.”

“Where in the city?” Eddie said. He looked frightened.

Glaeken shrugged. “I’ve never been able to pinpoint his location. I know only that he is here.”

“Weezy…” Eddie drew out her name. “If he’s nearby and he finds out what we’ve got planned, no telling what he’ll do.”

“I told Jack we’d wait.”

Eddie gave her a look. “Is that really what this is about?” He nodded at the baby. “Or are you just postponing the inevitable?”

Was that it? Was she delaying the Ceremony just because of the baby?

“Jack could be in jail, for all we know,” Eddie added. “We’ve got to get this done.”

“I agree,” the Lady said. “We have all we need here to perform the Ceremony.”

Weezy looked around the room. Looked like she was outvoted.

She sighed. “All right. Let’s do it.” She looked at the Lady. “What’s the first step?”

“According to the Compendium, the baby must be seated on the lap of whoever recites the Ceremony. That would be me.”

While Eddie pulled one of the wooden chairs away from the table, Weezy stepped to the playpen and lifted the baby. He loosed one of his ear-piercing shrieks as he lost his grip on his bone. Weezy quickly retrieved it for him and returned to where the Lady was seating herself on the chair. Weezy set the baby on her lap. The Lady faced him outward and wrapped her arms around him.

“Now… hold the Compendium before me so I can see the words…”

Perfect.

Rasalom removed the earphones and paused to marvel at how everything had fallen into place. His original plan had gone off track in seemingly disastrous directions, and yet somehow…

His original intent had been simply to locate Glaeken.

He’d known for years the identity of the Heir, although not where he lived. The plan had hinged on one all-important assumption: that the Heir knew the whereabouts of Glaeken. If that were so, Rasalom could use Dawn’s baby as a means to locate Glaeken through the Heir.

From his discussions with Drexler he’d known of the Connell woman’s relationship to the Heir. So he had paired Dawn with the Connell woman, knowing the girl would be needy and would attach herself. He would eventually allow Dawn-with the Connell woman’s help-to find her way back to her baby. The Connell woman would show the q’qrlike child to the Heir. The Heir, if he knew Glaeken’s whereabouts, would want him to see the child. And Rasalom would follow.

But the revelations in North Carolina had made all that unnecessary: Glaeken turned out to be an impotent mortal and no threat.

Which freed Rasalom to devote all his energies to eliminating the Lady.

That was when he realized that Dawn’s baby could be used as a means to that very end.

Through the Connell woman, he had learned where the Heir lived-a bit of information crucial to the plan. Once he had established that, he entered her apartment while she was out and inserted a new page about the Other Naming Ceremony into the Compendium, arranging for it to appear whenever the book was opened. The Connell woman couldn’t help but find it, and couldn’t help but bring it to Glaeken’s attention. And to the Lady’s as well, since she was the only living being-aside from Rasalom-who knew the Small Folk’s language.