F. Paul Wilson - By the Sword

She'd wanted him to dump it in the ocean but had not offered a clear reason why.

… something momentous …

Momentous good or momentous evil?

If the latter, then yeah, dump it in the Mariana Trench, where no one, not even Rasalom, could reach it.

But if at some crucial moment in the coming showdown it could tip the scale against the Otherness, Jack didn't want it under seven miles of ocean.

… it might cut either way, depending on who wields it …

O'Day had killed Gerrish with it, and Jack guessed that would be considered an ill use of the weapon. But Glaeken had used it defensively, and nonlethally at that.

Yeah… so it depended on who wielded it.

He'd given it a lot of thought, leaning this way and that. The tipping point had come when he remembered what Veilleur had said about Rasalom being at the Kakureta Kao temple. If so, he could have gone after Dawn or the katana. The fact that he'd chosen Dawn told Jack that the katana wasn't all that important to him.

Jack decided to keep it, figuring he could dispose of it at any time if he changed his mind. But if he ditched it now, there was no going back.

It wouldn't fit in the false back of the secretary with the rest of his goodies, so he found a spot on the top shelf of one of his closets. It was too long to lie flat so he leaned it at an angle.

He stared at it for a moment, wondering if he was doing the right thing.

Don't make me regret this, he thought, then shut the closet door.

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