Stephen Brust - The Gypsy

Madam Moria had found her other cane. She thumped it impatiently on the carpet, "It's over then,isn't it?" she demanded.

"Over?" said Csucskari. "No. It's not over. The Fair Lady has been banished from this world, but we have tasks yet to do."

"We're together now," said Owl. "That is something."

Durand turned his head, spoke to Csucskari as he kept his fingers on Stepovich's pulse. "There's still a warrant out for you, you know."

"Yes," said Csucskari.

"Perhaps it would be best if you left."

"I don't know where to go."

"This is something new?" Raymond asked, and laughed.

"The Pennsylvania border is a good start," said Durand.

Csucskari caught Raymond's eye. "We must leave together," he said. They both looked at Daniel.

His grip on Laurie tightened. He stared back at his brother, over her head. "I could be happy."

"You've chosen already," said Csucskari. "When it mattered most. Why torture yourself?"

" 'Needs must when the Devil drives,' " Raymond began, but the Gypsy gave a slight shake of his head. The Coachman snorted.

A tremor shook Daniel. The bow slipped from his fingers, falling to the carpet. He seemed to age before their eyes. He let go of her. She didn't seem to notice.

Daniel closed his eyes for an instant. Then he opened them and set his jaw. He gave himself a little shake.

Laurie blinked suddenly, and drew herself up. She looked around the room and Durand saw the confusion grow in her eyes. "Daniel?" she asked, puzzled.

"Daniel is gone," said the Raven.

Stepovich groaned.

Laurie spun suddenly, seemed to see anew her father on the floor. "Daddy!" she wailed, and launched herself at him.

Mike had stirred. He made a sound that might have been her name, and she flung herself to her knees on the floor beside Durand.

The Raven turned aside again.

"We have to go," the big gypsy reminded them all.

"How?" said Csucskari.

Something shining flashed through the air, struck the Coachman's chest and fell to the floor. "Get the hell out of here," Ed growled. "You been nothing but a pack of trouble anyway." The Coachman crouched slowly, rose with Ed's Cadillac keys in his hand. He jingled them in a loose fist.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

A growing wail of ambulance sirens answered him.A second siren, rising and falling, chimed in. "Get the hell out of here!" Ed snarled. "The cops are coming. And remember: Super unleaded, or she'll knock like hell on the hills."

"We'll be gone, then," said the Coachman. He opened the door. The big gypsy lifted a hand in a quick goodbye, then led the way down the stairs. The Gypsy took the Raven's arm as tenderly as if he were wounded.

"Come, brother," he said.

"I was what she made me," he said softly. "Not as my acts betrayed me."

The Gypsy tugged at him gently.

The Raven looked once more at Laurie as she bowed over her father. It was the only farewell he gave her.He straightened, squaring his shoulders. Then he stopped, and picked up his fiddle bow from where he'd dropped it. As the sirens drew nearer, he stood still, looking at the fiddle in his hands.

"Brother," cautioned the Gypsy.

Daniel stepped forward suddenly, thrust fiddle and bow at Ed. "For her," he said. "Later. When she wants it."

Moria scowled. "Are you certain?" she asked.

"See she gets a case for it." The Raven turned as abruptly as a father abandoning a child. "Let's go,"he told the Coachman, and caught his brother's elbow and hurried him down the stairs.

The Coachman gave the room one elegant sweeping bow, one last sardonic smile, and followed.

Bells fasten to your feet.

That you needn't be alone,

And I'll dance with you the Gypsy Dance

That you have always known.

"GYPSY DANCE"

"… not really surprised… No, it's what I'd expect her to do… Because if she waited for the kid to ask her, she'd wait forever. So, what did he say?…Yeah, that's about what I'd expect. Well, maybe they would be smarter to wait until this whole mess got cleaned up, but smarter isn't always best, Marilyn,you tell Tiffany that for me." Stepovich listened while he thumbed through his statement again. He started to switch the phone from one ear to the other, then remembered that shoulder no longer worked. "Yeah.I know, it is quite a mess. They said they could have saved my arm if the quack who fixed my shoulder the last time hadn't bungled it… Well, thanks, I appreciate that… I guess I'll have to, won't I?…No, I don't mean to sound bitter, I'm just tired of all the damn questions about… sure I understand, I didn't mean you, ask whatever you want… What makes it so bad is that I'm so foggy about what happened after I got hit… Ed? I don't know. From what I can gather, he was under a coffee table or behind a couch or some damned thing while Durand had all the fun… I was being sarcastic, Marilyn.But as I say, after I got hit, I didn't know much of anything that happened… Yeah, I knew about Ed's friend Madam Moria, but.. yeah, I'd heard that the guy who shot me was the one who did the liquor store clerk, but I don't know why he was at Moria's place,… Me? I told you, Ed just wanted to introduce Durand and me to Madam-Huh? Yeah, as far as I know, the killer just happened to show up while we were there. These things happen…, Holes? Who are you. Internal Affairs?… No, really… No, really… Okay, well, tell you what, Marilyn, soon as I'm feeling better, I'll buy you a cup of coffee and tell you the whole story… that's right, the whole story… Yeah, I guess I do owe you that much, but don't blame me when you don't believe it. Hell, I was there, and I don't believe half of it… Yeah, I guess that's a promise. Okay, dinner, not coffee… Okay. Hey, I've got company right now, though, so I got to get off the phone… huh? You bet, Marilyn. A beautiful woman." As he said this, Stepovich's visitor gave an exaggerated look around the hospital room and harrumphed. He bravely waggled his eyebrows at her. "Right… much better, hell, you know cops are made of unbreakable plastic… How should I know, Marilyn? Maybe. I don't even know if they'll offer me a desk job after they read my statement… Yeah, they finally got it out. It ended up lodged between two ribs… bounced all over hell inside me getting there, I guess, they say I'm lucky I'm even… Right. I will. No, really, I will, I promise. You, too. Thanks for calling… Bye."

As soon as Stepovich hung up the phone, she said,"Cut the cards, three times."

He sighed and obeyed her. It was awkward, one-handed. They were peculiar cards, even for the kind of deck it was. Thick edges gone soft with age and handling, smelling like some old spicy perfume. Not even their backs matched. She shifted the piles, muttering to herself as she did so. He watched her practiced fingers lay the cards out in a careful pattern on the white hospital sheet beside him. She bent over them, her hair falling forward like a curtain. "Of course," she muttered. "I can see it."

"See what?" Stepovich asked crabbily.

Her fingernail tapped a card, two people exchanging chalices. "I see Durand asking a woman with red hair to join her fortune with his. She hesitates, but not for long."

"Actually, Tiffany Marie asked him," Stepovich pointed out. She ignored his interruption.

Her hands moved again, jabbing at the ornate cards. "This one, the Queen of Stars? She receives gifts soon, gifts due her. A kettle, perhaps, and a new cane. Perhaps a pound of good tea."

Stepovich harrumphed.

Her fingers wandered on. "An older man close to you opens new doors, or finds a new opportunity."It was a hand coming out of a cloud holding a flowering stick. Stepovich noticed that it was a single arm,then threw the thought away.