“I’m sorry,” GB said desolately.
“Don’t be,” Joby growled, walking to unlock the door. “You were just used, the way she uses everybody.” As he walked inside, he said, “She had her little ace all ready, anyway. You were just the appetizer.” GB still hovered uncertainly outside. “If you’re comin’ in, come in,” Joby said gruffly as he threw himself down to lie on the couch.
“Hawk’s not here?” GB asked, stepping timidly in after him.
“He’s gone to help out on the Garden Coast,” Joby replied. “Said there was some kind of emergency, though he probably just can’t stand any more of my company.”
GB sat unhappily in Hawk’s favorite chair, picking nervously at the upholstery.
“If it’s any comfort,” Joby told him, “the board’s ‘Dear John’ letter just said I was being let go because I seemed stressed and unhappy in my work.” He snorted mirthlessly. “Knew damn well I’d slap them with a wrongful termination suit faster than you could say, ‘here’s your ass,’ if they’d written down the truth.”
“Donaldson’s gonna start patrolling the shops on Main Street with dogs now,” GB said miserably. “He’s tellin’ that to every kid he busts.”
“Good,” said Joby. “This town chose Hamilton’s Gestapo. They should have it.”
“Nobody chose that, Joby,” GB said. “They just—”
“Yes, they did,” Joby cut him off. “They could have stopped this if they’d really tried. They could have stopped all of it years ago. They just didn’t care that much. I’ve been forcing help on people who never asked me for it. That was my biggest mistake.”
For a while GB just looked at him despondently. Then he said, “Demon attacks are goin’ up. Jake’s managed to fend ’em off so far, but everybody’s talkin’ about goin’ to the Garden Coast for protection if the Cup’s not found soon.” He hesitated. “Maybe you should go there right now, Joby.”
“Why?” said Joby. “I’ve got no cause to run away. What else can they do to me?”
“Lots,” GB said. “If the demons didn’t have it out for you, she’d never have come after you this way.”
“Who? Hamilton?” Joby scoffed. “What’s she got to do with demons? She just took me down because I like the kids she hates.”
“I don’t think so,” said GB. “Someone had to clue these demons in that we were here. Everybody says what a peaceful place this was. When did that begin to change?”
“The year I got here, if you want to know the truth,” Joby said darkly.
“Just you?” GB asked. “What about Hamilton?”
Joby thought about it. “Yeah, I guess she came then too. So?”
GB nodded gravely. “And who were Sky and Jupiter after when they got killed?”
“Hamilton.”
“And who brought Donaldson to Taubolt?”
“Hamilton,” Joby breathed, sitting up as chills ran down his arms.
“She’s workin’ for them, Joby,” GB said quietly. “She has been all along.”
“But, there’s no way to know that,” Joby said. “You’re just guessing.”
“No, I’m not,” GB said. “She’s one of them. So is Donaldson.”
“What, actual demons?” Joby said, incredulous despite his contempt for them.
“No. Hosts,” GB said. “Demons aren’t anything but air and bad intentions without a physical host. They need the host to make what they want real.”
“How do you know this?” Joby said, wondering if GB were inventing all of it for some reason. “Every person of the blood I know has been talking about demons since October, and I never heard a thing about hosts.”
“I didn’t know any of this either until three weeks ago,” GB said bleakly. “When Donaldson questioned me.”
“What! He told you?” Joby said, sure now that GB was lying. But why?
“No,” GB said even more forlornly. “I saw it in his mind.”
“What?” gasped Joby. “You did . . . what you did to me? To him? But you said—”
“I had no choice!” GB blurted out. “He did it to me! I was so scared! He just pried me open, Joby. I couldn’t keep him out, and I was sure he’d know I could see him back and kill me for it! I saw all kinds of things while he was in there, and if he knows . . .”
As GB began to cry, Joby leapt up to shut the cottage door, suddenly fearful of who, or what, might be lurking outside, listening. Then he turned to look back at GB in dawning horror. What the boy was describing was mental rape!
“When they let me go that day . . . I just thought they’d wait to kill me ’til I’d said what they wanted at that meeting,” GB wept. “I’ve been hiding ever since then, expectin’ ’em to find me, and . . . finish it. I’m sorry, Joby. I’m so sorry . . .”
“Hey,” Joby said, coming to place a careful hand on GB’s shoulder, unsure whether it would help or hurt to touch him while he was reliving this. “You did what you could to protect yourself. That’s what I’d have wanted you to do. But that was weeks ago. If they were coming after you, wouldn’t they have tried by now? Maybe you’re okay.”
“I don’t know,” GB said, swiping at his eyes, and dragging himself together. “He was pretty busy lookin’ for what he wanted, and . . . and it got kind of physical,” he added uncomfortably. “So maybe he was too busy to notice me in there lookin’ back. Maybe—”
“Physical how?” Joby cut him off, his fury growing with each ugly revelation.
“It takes contact to get into another person’s mind that way,” GB said grimly. “Keepin’ someone’s arm cranked back works just as well as puttin’ hands together.”
“He tortured you?!” Joby yelled. “Physically?”
“They wanted you bad, Joby,” GB said. “That’s why I’ve been sayin’, you gotta go up to that Garden Coast right now.”
“No fucking way!” Joby exclaimed. “I’m not running off and letting them—”
“No!” GB shouted him down. “Joby, there’s nothing you can do! They’ll just deny it, and they’ve made everyone suspicious of you now. Besides, if I did get lucky, and they don’t know what I saw, they sure will when you go howlin’ back to town with it. You’ll just get me killed for sure! Who you gonna go to, anyway? The cops? The school board? Why not just go to Hamilton?”
“This is fucked,” said Joby, rubbing at his eyes as he began to pace.
“The point is, I know them now,” GB said fiercely. “A lot of ’em anyway. Donaldson’s head was full of their names. You asked me once if I knew what to do about it. Remember? That day we did the dandelion trick? Well, now I do. Now that we know who and where they really are, we can take Taubolt back and make it just the way it used to be. Without their hosts, the demons will be nothin’ but a stink on the wind. Jake and the Council will be able to deal with ’em in an afternoon then. But we’re not just talkin’ about Donaldson and Hamilton. There’s at least twenty or thirty more hosts hidden here in town. We’ve got to get them all at once, and we gotta do it totally alone, Joby. We go to anybody else with this, and nine to one, I’m roadkill before sunset. I need to know you understand that.”
“I understand it,” Joby said wearily. “I just got too angry to think straight for a minute, but I’m thinking now. So what’s this plan of yours?”
“Good work,” Lucifer said, setting down the list that Kallaystra had brought him.
Was that a compliment? she thought dryly. He really must be hard-pressed.
“Now I need you to find me five adolescent boys. No one of the blood, you understand, or known to Joby in the slightest. They must all be ‘ognibs’ as the vermin call them, and as new to Taubolt as you can find. I’m looking for vivid and violent imaginations, more than usual credulity, and serious delusions of grandeur.”
“As you said,” she smiled sweetly, “adolescent boys,” thinking that any of Taubolt’s numerous computer-gaming freaks would fit the bill quite nicely.
“Your task,” he went on, “will be to convince them there
is real magic hidden in Taubolt, and you need their help to save it. You have three weeks, though I’d prefer it sooner. Joby’s still refusing me, but he’s very brittle and could break at any moment. When he does, I don’t want to give him any more time to think than necessary. Think you can handle the pace this time?” he asked severely.
“Of course,” she said frostily. “Coming out of hiding is always simpler, especially when half of what I’m telling them is true. Once I’ve shown the magic to them, what’s left for such ready minds to question? How should I describe the help I’m asking for?”
“Tell them that Taubolt’s fairies, of which you are one, of course, are threatened by an invasion of demons.” Lucifer smiled at last. “Explain that there’s a spell that will defeat the demons, but it requires five mortal channels.”
“I’ll have them in three days.” Kallaystra smirked. “They’ll have had wet dreams that don’t excite them half as much as this will.”
“Explain the dire need for secrecy, of course,” Lucifer added with mock gravity, “and make it clear that great courage will be required, but that they will not be harmed.” His smile returned. “What they don’t know won’t . . . Well, yes it will,” he shrugged happily, “but that’s all part of the fun, isn’t it?”
Kallaystra was quite familiar with the spell he meant. “May I ask who these boys will be used to kill?” she asked.
Lucifer glanced toward the list of children she’d just given him, and said, “Why, all the nasty demon hosts in Taubolt, of course. Didn’t I just explain that?”
Midnight found Joby staring up into the darkness once again, sorting through the hopeless web of anxieties his life had become. He’d found GB’s plan appalling. How had the boy even imagined him capable of killing people—demon hosts or not? He wanted very badly to discuss all this with someone other than GB—Jake, the Council, especially his son—but GB was right about at least one thing. Joby had learned long ago that, in a tiny town like Taubolt, secrets known to more than two weren’t likely to stay secrets long—especially such explosive ones. With GB’s very life at stake, it wasn’t Joby’s right to divulge any of what he’d been told. That right was GB’s alone.
Sleep had become such an infrequent visitor these past few weeks that Joby had trouble thinking even in broad daylight anymore. He closed his eyes again, trying to translate the fatigue that never left him now into the rest that never came, but the sudden crunch of running steps outside on his gravel drive had him halfway out of bed even before the pounding on his door began.
“Joby!” GB pleaded outside. “Joby, let me in!” Pound, pound, pound. “Wake up!”
Tying his robe, Joby hurried toward the door, flipping lights on as he went.
“What’s happened?” Joby asked as GB tumbled from the darkness.
“They’re gonna go after the Garden!” GB said, still breathing hard, as if he’d run here clear from town. “I don’t know when exactly, but it’s gonna be soon. Joby, you’ve got to decide! We gotta stop them now, or—”
“Wait a minute,” Joby cut in. “Just . . . Here. Sit down,” he said, closing the door and waving GB toward the couch. “How did you find out this now?” Joby asked wearily. “It’s after midnight, GB. Couldn’t you have waited until—”
“No!” GB exclaimed. “There’s no time left, Joby. Don’t you get it? They’ve got us rounded up like cattle here! Everybody thinks we can run up and hide out in the Garden if things get bad, but the demons have found out about it! I don’t know how, but I saw! It’s in all their heads!”
“Wait a minute,” Joby said sharply, his sleep-deprived mind coming suddenly awake. “In whose heads? Don’t tell me you’ve been—”
“I had to!” GB said defiantly. “You may be fine with sitting here and doing nothing, but it’s a damn good thing I wasn’t.”
“Are you crazy?” Joby gasped. “What happened to all that fear of being killed? How many people’s minds have you been gallivanting through now, for godsake?”
“I did it while they were sleeping,” GB said sullenly. “I realized that most of them would never feel me there if they weren’t awake, and just mistake me for a dream if they did. I wasn’t caught, was I?” He frowned almost belligerently.
“I don’t know!” Joby said angrily. “Were you? Do you know?”
“It doesn’t matter!” GB protested. “If we don’t do somethin’ real soon, my dead ass’ll just be one more on the pile here. They’re gonna burn it, Joby! The Garden Coast!”
“What?” Joby gaped. “How do you—”
“Would you quit askin’ that?” GB snapped. “How many times do I have to say it? I’ve been in their heads every night this week! I have the names of every demon host in town now. See?” He yanked a wad of paper from his back pocket, unfolding it as he held it out for Joby to look at.
Hamilton’s and Donaldson’s names were at the top, of course. Below these, at least thirty more were written in GB’s neat printing. Other than a couple particularly obnoxious shop owners and two members of the school board, which Joby found as gratifying as it was unsurprising, there was not another name he recognized.
“I’ve never heard of most of these people,” Joby said.
“Well, duh!” GB exclaimed. “Whadaya think, they’re gonna stand out in front of Franklin’s Hardware and wave at us? These are the people no one knows,” he growled, folding up the list again and shoving it back into his pocket. “They’re gonna set the woods on fire all around that Garden place, and burn it to the ground, along with anybody who’s up there ‘helping,’ like Hawk,” he finished pointedly.
“Oh, God,” Joby breathed, not having thought of that yet. “When?” he asked, trying to remember when Hawk had said he’d be returning.
“I couldn’t tell,” said GB. “It seemed soon, but for obvious reasons, I’ve been gettin’ in and out too quickly to look around for details. So are we gonna stop ’em, Joby, or just sit around and do nothin’ like everyone you were complainin’ about last week?”
All at once, Swami’s urgent plea returned to Joby’s mind. Something bad . . . I don’t know what yet. But . . . will you help us save this? He’d seen all this coming, Joby realized with a shiver down the length of his whole body. They had told him Swami was a seer, but Joby had never . . .
“There won’t be anywhere left for us to go,” GB pleaded. “We’ll be stranded here in Taubolt while they pick us off like hunters at a duck club.”
“I can’t kill people,” Joby murmured in a daze. “I’m sorry,” he said, as much to Swami as GB, “but I just can’t do this.”
“Bullshit!” GB shouted in frustration. “You’re doing it right now! You’re killing me and Hawk and every other person of the blood you know, Joby! You’re killing us instead of a tiny handful of vicious haters. They’re not even really people anymore. They’re just food for what’s inside them, hollow shells, burned out years ago by what their greedy, spiteful minds so eagerly invited once. I’ve been in their heads, remember? It’s like pit toilets in there, Joby. Deep down, whatever’s left of them is prob’ly beggin’ for release. You’d be doin’ ’em a favor, but no! You’d rather murder all your friends instead. Is that it?”
“Why don’t you just do it then?” Joby snapped. “You’ve been doing magic all your life. If this decision is so simple, can’t you just—”
“Weren’t you listening when I told you last time?” GB cut in impatiently. “It’s a very big spell! It’s gonna take both of us and five channels!”
“Which will come from where?” Joby asked, hoping this necessity might buy him at least a bit more time to think.
“I’ve already found ’em,” GB said. “There are some very brave and generous kids in this town, as you already know. And some of them are just as eager to get rid of Donaldson as we are.”
“Those people on your list,” Joby pleaded. “I don’t even know them. How can I kill people I don’t even know?”
“It’s prob’ly better that way,” GB
said quietly. “You won’t suffer as much later. Joby,” he said, sounding almost tender suddenly. “I know this is a terrible decision. I hate them even more for forcing you to make it. I shouldn’t have yelled that way, but you do know Hawk, don’t you. Will it hurt less to let him die? You knew Rose. Imagine her death times hundreds. You have the power to stop that. All of it. How’re you gonna feel, later, knowing that you didn’t?” He stood up to come stand face-to-face with Joby and look sadly into his eyes. “A lot of people are about to die here, Joby,” he said softly. “The demons haven’t left you any choice about that. You only get to choose who.” When Joby failed to find his voice, GB said, “Who’s gonna die, Joby?”
“I need time to think about this,” Joby said palely as the choice tore through him.
“How much time?” GB said, still quietly, but with clear frustration.
“I don’t know,” Joby murmured. “A day?”
“You told me once about your friend Ben,” GB said sympathetically. “That fire was their doing too, you know. If you’d had the power to save him then, would you have sat around asking yourself all these moral questions first?”
The question hit Joby like a rockfall. If he’d had the power then . . . It had never even crossed his mind, until now. He’d healed Sky years before, just by wanting him healed, if Tom Connolly had been right. Joby felt dismay spread across his face as he stared into GB’s questioning eyes. Why hadn’t he healed Ben? Surely Joby had wanted that as badly as he’d ever wanted Sky’s recovery . . . Or hadn’t he? . . . Deep down . . . had he hesitated . . . not sure, perhaps, whether to want a rival gone?
“Oh God,” Joby whispered, tears welling in his eyes. “Oh God.” Was he a murderer already? Somewhere deeper in his heart than wherever all these self-ennobling moral qualms were coming from? Why hadn’t his desire been enough to heal Ben?
The Book of Joby Page 74
