“I know where you are.”
Well, of course she did.
Gia looked surprised. “The Lady… here?”
“You’ve met?”
Now she looked a little frazzled-Weezy had never imagined Gia’s composure could slip. “Yes… and no.”
Weezy cocked her head toward Vicky who was playing with the Band-Aid on her finger. “Does she…?”
Gia shook her head. “No. Better that way. Gabby-gabby, if you get my drift.”
Weezy got it. Better that Vicky knew nothing about the Lady’s true nature, because she’d talk about her and everyone would think she was either lying or deluded.
A few moments later she arrived, looking perfectly dry and comfortable in her short-sleeved housedress, as if she’d stepped in from a balmy spring day instead of a winter storm that was still snowing and blowing.
Weezy felt a bit awkward introducing her as “The Lady,” but Gia already knew who she was, and Vicky… Vicky seemed unaccountably in awe of her. She stared at the Lady like the baby stared at her.
“I believe we’ve met,” Gia said softly.
The Lady nodded. “Yes, we have.”
“Thank you. I know what you did… thank you.”
“Would that I had been allowed to do more, but it was not possible.”
Gia’s throat worked. “I know that, but…” She glanced at Vicky. “Thank you.”
Weezy had to ask. “How did you get here from the Pines?”
“I walked.”
Gia blinked. “You walked? In this storm? From south Jersey?”
“I do not feel cold or rain or wind. And to be honest, I rode much of the way.”
Weezy had a vision of the Lady walking along the side of Route 206 with her thumb out.
“Don’t tell me you hitched a ride?”
“People are kind to an underdressed old woman caught in a snowstorm.” She focused her attention on the baby in Weezy’s arms. “You hold the reason for my visit. I wished to see him in person.” She leaned in for a closer look. “Interesting.”
The scene struck a discordant note in Weezy.
“But aren’t you aware of everyone?”
“Only the sentient. Newborns aren’t self-aware. And this creature, even when grown, will function mostly by instinct.” The Lady leaned closer. “Where are the tentacles?”
“Tentacles?” Gia said.
“They appear to have been removed,” Weezy said.
The Lady frowned. “Show me, please.”
Weezy unsnapped his shirt and worked his left arm free. She raised it to expose the underarm area. While washing up the baby yesterday she’d looked for the tentacles and had found a healed but recent scar in each axilla.
“If you look closely you can see a little-ohmygod!”
Yesterday when she’d touched the scars she’d felt a little lump beneath each. Now this scar appeared to have split and something was protruding from it. Weezy remembered how Dawn had described the tentacles-“like slim little garter snakes.” This was no more than an inch long, but that was what it looked like. Or maybe a rat tail. As she watched, it curved and straightened.
The Lady nodded, her expression impassive. “They are growing back.”
Gia’s face was ashen.
Vicky, who was out of the line of sight, said, “I have to go to the bathroom, Mom.”
“Go ahead, sweetie.” Gia’s eyes were glued to the tentacle. “Go right ahead.”
With Vicky out of sight, the baby began screeching. He fought Weezy as she tried to reinsert his arm in the sleeve, and struggled maniacally to break free from her grasp.
The screeches were almost nonstop.
Weezy felt ready to burst into tears. How was she going to handle this?
“This is not good,” the Lady said, barely audible over the noise. “You cannot take care of him. As his tentacles regrow to their full length, they will be grabbing everything in sight. Your situation will soon become untenable.”
Weezy had to admit the truth of that, but couldn’t help feeling offended.
“Well, I can’t just throw him out on the street or give him up for adoption.”
She’d love to pass this torch, but to whom? Ideally someone who knew the care and feeding of q’qrs. No one alive today knew that.
The Lady stared at the baby. “Very little in this child is human. He houses more Otherness than humanity. And as such, he should be kept separate from humanity. I know you feel an obligation, a responsibility, but your greater responsibility is to humanity. You must continue your study of the Compendium.”
Yes… the Compendium. No way she could concentrate on that or anything else with this screeching.
“She’s right, Weezy,” Gia said, wincing at a particularly loud shriek. The noise seemed to be causing her physical pain.
Weezy nodded. Only Vicky seemed able to quiet the baby and the girl couldn’t stay with the baby every minute. She looked at the Lady.
“But who?”
“I will take him.”
The Lady caring for a child… she wasn’t even human. Then again, neither was the baby… not quite.
“How will you manage?”
“I know his needs. And I have my ways.” She reached out and placed her palm on the baby’s head. “Hush now. You’ve caused enough disturbance.”
And miraculously, the baby quieted. He stopped struggling and stared at the Lady. Then he held his arms out to her. Weezy saw nothing else to do but hand him over. The Lady cradled him and he remained quiet, staring up at her face.
“If you will give me a blanket,” she said, “I will take him to my home.”
Some small part deep inside felt she was betraying Dawn, but the rest of her knew this was the best course-for her and for the child.
She went to his room and returned with the blanket from his crib.
The Lady wrapped him snugly and said, “You may visit any time you wish.”
And then she walked out.
Weezy felt guilty at the flood of relief when the door closed.
Vicky returned then. “Where’s the baby?”
“The Lady took him to her place, honey,” Gia said. “He’ll be happier there.”
Vicky’s expression said she was pretty happy herself.
Giving in to a need to move, Weezy wandered the room. As she passed the table where she’d left the Compendium, she noticed it was open. She knew she’d left it closed.
She looked at Vicky. “Were you looking through this?”
“That was me,” Gia said. “Hope you don’t mind.”
Weezy stared at the open page.
“Was that okay?” Gia said.
Weezy shook herself. “What? Oh, yes. Of course. It’s just that… is there any reason you left it open at this page?”
Gia approached and looked over her shoulder. “No. I just opened it at random. I was going to flip through but then you said coffee was ready. Why?”
“It’s the same page Vicky opened to last night.”
The Naming Ceremony page…
Odd. The page order in the Compendium was in constant flux-random, chaotic. Not impossible that it could open to the same page twice in a row, but the probability was low.
She closed the book, stepped back, and said, “Do me a favor and open it again-anywhere.”
Gia gave her a puzzled expression, then shrugged and smiled. “I remember how this book used to drive Jack nuts. He could never find anything he wanted. I’ll try near the beginning instead of the middle.” She flipped it open and stared. “Well, I’ll be.”
Weezy checked it and felt a little tickle in her stomach. The Naming Ceremony page lay open.
She closed it again and motioned Vicky over.
“Hey, Vicks. Open this for me, will you? Any page you want.”
“Sure.”
She opened it near the middle… revealing the Naming Ceremony.
Gia glanced at Weezy. “Looks like this old book is trying to tell you something.”
/>
Tell me something? Ridiculous.
Or was it?
4
Ernst stormed up to the Lodge’s second floor and found two Kickers replacing the door to one of the rooms. Ernst knew whose room.
“What is the meaning of this?”
“Just following orders,” one of the Kickers said. “The boss told us to-”
“Where is he?”
The other jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the room. “Right inside.”
Ernst raised his black, silver-headed cane. “Out of my way! Out!”
They scuttled to the sides, leaving him a clear path through the doorway.
After a number of days’ absence, he’d returned to the Lodge and had been shocked to see its street facade defaced by a pair of steel window shutters on the second floor.
He stormed into the room and found Hank Thompson staring out one of those windows.
“The shutters must come down!”
Thompson smiled as he turned to face him. “Morning, Drexler. How’re they hanging?”
He was goading. Thompson seemed to take inordinate pleasure in annoying him. Well, Ernst was already annoyed- more than annoyed.
“Remove those shutters immediately.”
Thompson gave him a cold stare. “No.”
“This is a historic building. You cannot deface it like this.”
“What’s defaced? These are primo roll-up hurricane shutters. Heaviest of the heavy duty. Watch.”
He picked up a remote, pointed it at the nearest window, and pressed a button. With a soft clatter, a ribbed steel sheet unrolled from the cylinder at the top and slid down the tracks attached to either side of the frame. He pointed the remote at the other window and the same happened, darkening the room.
He grinned. “Pretty neat, huh? And if there’s a power failure, I’ve got a little gadget that lets me crank them up and down by hand.”
“Have you gone mad? This is totally irrational. You’re on the second floor. Someone would have to put up a ladder in full view of the street and the claque of your followers who drape themselves on the front steps.”
Thompson’s smile faltered. “What if what wants in isn’t human? What if it flies through the air?”
Ernst stared at him. He had gone mad.
“‘It’?”
“The Kicker Man warned me. He hasn’t led me wrong yet.”
Was he talking about the Change? Had he had some sort of premonition and was preparing for it?
Ernst hoped he was wasting his time, hoped that Jack, the man Thompson hated so fiercely, had succeeded in stopping the One.
“So don’t waste your breath telling me to undo this. It stays.”
Ernst turned toward the new door. “And this?”
“Steel. With a big bar across it. The walls are stone, two feet thick on the outside, a foot on the inside.” He looked around, nodding. “Yep, I’ll be safe here.”
Ernst saw no point in continuing the conversation, so he walked out.
Where was the One? Alive? Dead? He wished he could call Jack.
5
Jack turned away from the Lady’s window and faced the occupants of the room. He’d taken Gia and Vicky home from Weezy’s, then returned here.
“Storm’s done. You’re sure he’s still alive?”
Both Glaeken and the Lady nodded from their customary places at the table. Weezy was in her place too, the Compendium open before her. And next to her, a new face: Eddie.
Under different circumstances, Jack would have been amused at his reaction to seeing Mrs. Clevenger alive and well, and finally meeting the mysterious “Mr. Foster.” Even though Weezy had prepared him, he’d been awestruck.
Over in the corner, Dawn’s baby, confined in a playpen, contentedly chewed on a bone-a freaking soup bone.
When Eddie had seen him he’d whispered a simple, “Jesus.”
At least he hadn’t done a Kramer.
Glaeken said, “And slowly, very slowly, growing stronger.”
Not what Jack wanted to hear. A supernova of frustration blazed in his chest. He’d blown it. His original plan had been sabotaged-unintentionally, but sabotaged nonetheless-and he’d been forced to improvise. But he couldn’t excuse himself. He’d blown it.
“I need to get back to Nuckateague.”
“For what possible purpose?” Weezy said.
He glared at her. “Oh, I don’t know. To toast some marshmallows over the ashes of Rasalom’s mansion. What else?”
He was walking a thin line here and he didn’t need anyone baiting him with stupid questions.
“I’m serious, Jack. You’ve seen the news. That whole area is crawling with state and local cops. Even Homeland Security is into the act. The Coast Guard found the wreckage of the cabin cruiser, so they’re out on the water patrolling the bay, looking for bodies.”
“But Rasalom is not a body. And he’s not in the water. I don’t care how resilient he is, he’s saddled with a human body. It may be a special human body, but human muscle can’t function in near-freezing water like they’ve got in that bay. Somehow he made it to shore-maybe somewhere along the South Fork, maybe Gardiner’s Island, I don’t know. But he’s on land, and he’s hurt, and he’s hiding.”
“I don’t disagree,” Weezy said. “And if he’s findable, he’ll be found. But not by you.”
“Don’t be so sure.”
“Think, will you?” she snapped. “You’ll be conspicuous as all hell out there. If you’re poking through the bushes on land, the cops or DHS will want to know who you are and what you’re doing there. If you somehow find a boat to take out, the Coast Guard will want to know the same things. If there’s a chink anywhere in your ID you’ll wind up in jail and completely out of the fight. Is that what you want?”
Of course it wasn’t.
He forced a smile. “I hate it when you’re right.”
She continued her stare. “Funny. You didn’t used to.”
“I’m not exactly who I used to be.”
“And you seem to be getting less like him every day.”
Jack glanced at Glaeken and remembered what he’d said last night about the Ally.
The Ally wants a tool… a relentless tool.
He raised his hands in surrender. “Peace. You’re right, I’m wrong. I’m open to suggestions-anything but ‘let’s just sit back and see what happens.’ Anything but that.”
“All right,” Weezy said. “Let’s play a game.”
“Weez…”
“No, I’m serious. And this is a serious game.” She closed the Compendium and stood it up on its spine. “Guess which page it will open to when I let go of its covers.”
Had she lost her mind?
“Weez…”
“I’m going to guess the page about the Otherness Naming Ceremony.” She let the covers go and the book fell open. She looked down and said, “Well, well. What do you know: the Otherness Naming Ceremony. Let me try it again.”
She did.
“How about that? The Otherness Naming Ceremony.”
Jack moved around for a look. Sure enough. He recognized the page.
She called Eddie over and he got the same result.
Jack took the book from her and tried it himself: same page.
“What the-?”
He knew this book. Before Weezy had come back into his life and taken over the Compendium, he’d owned it, studied it-or at least tried to until its sequencing went on the fritz and pages began appearing in random order, anywhere they damn well pleased.
In all his time with the book it had never done anything like this.
“Since coming across that first reference on Wednesday I’ve been finding more and more mentions of the Other Naming Ceremony. Think about that: In all those months, not one reference till last week, then one after another, and now the book won’t open to any other page.”
“Another malfunction in its pagination?” Glaeken said.
“I showed it to Gia this morning and
she said it looked like the book was trying to tell me something.”
Jack laughed. “Yeah, but she was-”
“-joking, or at least half joking, sure. But it got me to thinking. Could it be trying to tell me something?”
“It’s a book, Weez.”
“But the Compendium isn’t like any other book in the world, maybe not like any book ever made-and I emphasize ever. I’ve been studying it a long time. I’ve become attuned to it. It’s kind of, well, almost interactive, and I’m wondering if maybe it’s somehow become attuned to me.”
Silence around the table.
Jack didn’t know what to make of this. A book-even the most maddening and amazing book in the world-trying to tell them something? It didn’t sit right. His instinct was to reject the idea out of hand. But Weezy had instincts too, and he’d learned to respect them.
Finally Glaeken cleared his throat. “What do you think it’s trying to tell us?”
“That maybe what we talked about when I first showed you the page is a way to go.”
Jack vaguely remembered. “Putting someone through the Naming Ceremony and giving him Rasalom’s Other Name?”
She nodded. “That’s it. ‘ No two humans may have the same Other Name. The First-named shall be powerless as long as the Second-named lives. ’ That sounds pretty good to me. In fact that sounds like just what we’re looking for.”
Glaeken said, “You neglected the rest of it.”
Weezy remedied that: “‘ The First-named shall hear the Name within the Second and thus be able to resolve the duplication. ’”
Glaeken was nodding. “Which means the One will be powerless until he hunts down the usurper and wrings his neck. Which won’t be very long if he can ‘hear the name’ within the unfortunate who has it.”
As before, Jack was thinking that would be an excellent way to make Rasalom come to him, but he saw a couple of major problems.
“Aren’t we getting ahead of ourselves?” He turned to the Lady. “Once again, I volunteer, but you’re the only one who can perform the ceremony and you’ve already said you won’t.”
“It is a death sentence,” she said, shaking her head.
He turned back to Weezy. “But even if we can change her mind, we don’t know his Other Name.”
The Dark at the End rj-15 Page 24
