Richard Kadrey: Kill the dead

"That's got to be a bad way to go for you."

She turns to me, looking every bit the ironclad matriarch that frightened Eleanor so much that she'd rather be a bloodsucker than a daughter.

"It's the worst possible way for a Geistwald."

I look at Aki and back at Koralin.

"I see Aki over there and I see a pampered little prince taped to a chair. His heart is beating like a scared rabbit and his soul is bouncing around like a Super Ball in his chest. Then I look at you and I don't see anything. You're hollow and I can't help noticing that you don't seem to have a soul."

"The Geistwald line discarded them centuries ago. They're done away with at birth."

"Are you dead by any chance, Koralin? Are you Death Born?"

She shoots Aki an angry glance.

"Der Todes Geboren. Yes. All Geistwalds are. It's our gift. The source of our strength."

"You're Drifters. Your whole fucking family. That's your secret. Savants might be special, but you're something else entirely. I bet no one even knows there's a fourth kind of Drifter."

"Not many. The few who do either work with us or they die quickly."

"I bet. That's a big secret to hide for centuries. Is that why you came to America? You couldn't stay in the old country without someone finally figuring out what you were? Pretty soon you'd have to wipe out every Sub Rosa in Europe. Not the way to make friends and influence people."

"Something along those lines. But we also came for the same reasons as the Springheels. There was no room for new dynasties at home. Here it was open land and fertile soil. The East already had settled families so we followed the Springheels to the West. It was paradise for many years, but then things changed."

"Other Sub Rosas came and started crowding you out?"

"Of course not. We encouraged them to follow us. You can't build a true dynasty in the wilderness. A dynasty must be appreciated and acknowledged."

"Then why are you doing this? How many old families do you have to kill off to prove you're the best? How much more wealth and power do you need? What the hell is it that you really want?"

"The next million years," she says. Koralin paces as she talks. I've hit a nerve.

"This land is ours. It belongs to Der Todes Geboren. The other families can stay as long as they understand who rules here. But not you. Not your stores or industry or cars or noise. When we came here, the Indians living along the river didn't trouble us. They recognized what and who we were. They respected our privacy and we respected theirs. Then others came. Traders from Mexico. Spaniards on ships. European trappers and settlers. They ran out the Indians. We poisoned the river. We called down the haze from the ocean. We froze and choked them, but they wouldn't go away. They planted trees and brought their stinking cattle. They built their cities and bred like rats. They changed the land completely. We hardly recognized our home."

"But they learned to keep out of your way, so you must have made contact sometime."

"Charles Springheel was a fool. He decided that we should coexist with you people, and being the oldest family, he convinced the others to go along with him."

"So, you decided to kill off everything to get back at Charles for snubbing you. It sounds convincing except that when I look outside I don't see any kind of organized attack. All I see is chaos. I mean, Aki here was running around prying open manholes by hand like some teenybopper playing pranks on Halloween. This isn't how it's supposed to go, is it? This isn't your plan. It's Eleanor's revenge. Stealing the Druj screwed up your timetable and you weren't ready."

"It doesn't matter. Tonight. Tomorrow. This has been coming for a long time and now it's here."

"It's going to end tonight."

"Yes, it is. The golems we've released should make the situation clear. You people can leave now and live, or you can die here and wander the Jackal's Backbone until the stars burn out."

"I wonder what would happen if I held you down and pulled your head off your pretty shoulders."

She smiles and touches a hand to her lips.

"Aelita said that you would make threats when you didn't get your way. She gave me something that's valuable to you. A Jade named Candy."

"Anything else?"

"A head that won't stop talking."

She waits for me to say something. I don't. I stand still.

"Interesting. Aelita told me that this is when you would attack. She said that you would erupt at anything resembling a threat."

"I'm not like that anymore. Getting all theatrical is only about making the attacker feel better."

"I couldn't agree more."

"Then why don't you put down whatever else Aelita gave you and let's figure a way out of this together."

She takes an athame from inside her sleeve.

"Do you know what this is?"

"I have one just like it."

"Good. I'll keep it out where you can see it, but I don't think I'm ready to give it up quite yet."

"Whatever. Here's the deal. I'm willing to give you back the Druj. You use it to put the Drifters back in the Backbone. When you do, you get Aki and I get Candy and Kasabian."

"Why wouldn't I just use the Druj tomorrow and all this would begin again?"

"Once the Drifters are back inside, I'll get Muninn to seal the caves good and tight. The dead will stay put for a thousand years. Assuming you don't blow yourself up like Rainier, you can try your plan again then."

"Let me have the Druj."

"Get my friends over here and I'll hand it over. Do anything stupid and your fair-haired boy is dead and you won't be able to do a damned thing about it."

"This is an angel's knife. It might just kill you."

"I think I can outrun your knife, but I'm positive Aki can't outrun mine. Make the call and everyone gets to go home and sleep in their own bed."

"I don't have a phone."

"There's one on the desk over there."

She goes to Lucifer's desk and dials.

I give Aki a once-over. The tape is still good and tight on his arms and legs. There's a small pool of blood around his foot. Enough to make him light-headed, but not enough to worry about.

Koralin says, "They're on their way. It will be a few minutes. Traffic is a bit heavy tonight."

I go to one of the sofas and sit down.

"Take a load off. The room is comfy enough. For us. Poor Aki must be hurting pretty bad right now."

I look back at him.

"How are you doing, champ? Foot throbbing?"

He garbles something through the tape. Even gagged, I can recognize a sincere "fuck you."

Koralin perches on the sofa opposite me, barely resting her ass on the edge. She holds her knife upright, the point between her breasts.

"Since we seem to have struck a bargain, I'll put down my knife if you lay down all of your weapons."

I take out the Smith amp; Wesson and put it on the table. I set the black blade and athame next to it. I put the na'at at the end, where she can get a good look at it.

"So what was it between you and Eleanor? She must have really hated you to run off with your secret weapon."

"She was a troubled child."

"That's an interesting way to put it because the moment you bring her into your story, it doesn't add up. You Geistwalds are Death Born. But Eleanor was bitten by a vampire and turned. That means she had to be alive."

"Eleanor wasn't Der Todes Geboren."

"I thought so. Was your husband?"

"Of course. He was the patriarch. And Rainier. Eleanor, however, was like you. The family grotesque."

"She was Daddy's girl, wasn't she? It's his fault Eleanor wasn't dead like Mommy."

Koralin doesn't say anything for a couple of minutes. Just stares at Aki. I wait. I count the molecules that make up the pearls in the necklace.

Finally, she says, "Not being alive ourselves, we can't produce our own children. Jan conceived Eleanor with a living woman."