by Jonah Hewitt
Hokharty looked down at the bloody knuckle and then slowly looked back up at Moríro. Moríro’s face was blanch white but otherwise expressionless. What had just happened? Lucy wondered. Was there supposed to be a crack, a pop or a bang? A wisp of smoke or something? Lucy was feeling very nervous. Moríro took a step back.
“Necromancer.” Hokharty bowed from the neck deferentially then spoke slowly, “I too regret what must be done. I believe you to be a good man, and I had hoped you would see reason, but I believe that you can no longer see things clearly.” Somewhere from behind them came the sound of a large door opening, and then the telltale sounds of shuffling feet and creaking floorboards as the gathered crowd made way for the sharp footsteps of someone approaching. Hokharty kept talking, “I was afraid you might feel this way, but the decision is too important to leave in the hands of any one man, so I sought out some assurances of my own.” He then looked beyond them to the crowd and towards the approaching new arrival. “I regret having to do this, Necromancer, but I am no longer here at your request.”
Lucy turned around slowly with her stomach dropping and her heart in her throat. The clack of high heels approached and the crowd parted to allow a tall and slender, elegantly dressed woman with amber glasses and stylish shoes to walk through. She strolled up to them with her hands behind her back. Lucy held her breath and reached out her hand hoping someone would grab it. Moríro stood there numb and impassive and wouldn’t take it, but Nephys grabbed it and held it tight and Lucy pulled him close to her side. Amanda stopped just a few feet from where she and Moríro were standing and smiled contemptuously at him as she slowly pulled one hand from behind her back, removed the glove and held up one freshly-pricked bloody finger.
“Flubbit,” Hiero tooted quietly.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Debates and Deliberations
Lucy was alone in an upstairs library at Rivenden. The walls were covered in bookcases and books were littered about the small desk and the floor in stacks. It was lit by the same blue-white candles found downstairs in the ballroom, only fewer of them. The room was a perfect cube and the ceiling was high enough the pale candlelight couldn’t reach the very top. It looked like she was at the bottom of a large well with nothing but blackness above her going on forever. Lucy looked down. The future felt pretty black as well.
After Amanda’s arrival in the ballroom things broke up pretty quickly. Amanda ordered Hokharty and Graber and all the dead things around like underlings. Several chafed at this but obediently complied. First thing Amanda insisted on was that Graber do something about that imp. It seemed she was not yet over the fight at the farm. It was quite the struggle, and the sound of the bagpipe’s squeals made even the skeletons’ teeth grind. Lucy wondered how it could bother people who didn’t even have ears anymore. Eventually the large corpse hauled the bagpipes out of the hall to someplace else. Nephys ran after him, but a vampire stepped up to restrain him – it was Miles. Amanda then dismissed the rest of the rabble and concentrated on the vampires. As the dead things filed out, Amanda barked orders at Hokharty, who reluctantly obeyed and passed them on to his vampires, commanding them to follow Amanda’s instructions explicitly as if they were his own. Graber returned to fetch Moríro who looked no more pleased to go than the imp, but he cursed less than usual frankly. Hokharty then had specific directions for Miles and Schuyler, after which they escorted Tim and Nephys from the hall. Schuyler didn’t look back when he left, not even to his five groupies who were whimpering about being left behind, but Miles and Tim did. Miles held back the most and stared at Lucy for the longest time before he finally went. After that it was just Amanda, Lucy, Hokharty and the other vampires.
Amanda was most explicit about Lucy, and insisted that no dead thing or vampire was to so much as touch her, EVER. She laid down a long list of all the terrible things she would do to any of them if even a hair on Lucy’s head was harmed. It was a pretty awful list, involving meat grinders, acid vats, flesh-eating beetles and a vivid description of a secret room with a sturdy chair with silver chains and one tiny hole for the sunlight to come through. Every day the small spot of sunlight would get closer and closer until it would eventually reach the vampire. The spot was big enough to burn, but never big enough to kill, at least not in one day. Not one of the vampires looked like they doubted her. Lucy imagined there was a charred vampire skeleton sitting in that chair right now, wherever it was. Amanda’s voice had that kind of authority.
After that, none of the vampires wanted to volunteer, but eventually one dark-haired vampire in a prim early 1960’s party dress came forward. She was immaculate, with lurid red lipstick and her hair coifed and done up in a bun. She looked like something out of an Audrey Hepburn movie. Amanda seemed satisfied, if not by the vampire then by her fashion sense. The vampire smiled and gestured for Lucy to follow her. She had led Lucy to this room and smiled before closing the door gently. Lucy sat down at the desk, but was afraid to open any of the books for fear of what might be in them – something awful, probably. Instead, she just sat down on the rickety chair with thin upholstery, drew her knees up to her chest, hugged them and prepared for what she knew was coming. Amanda was going to come in that door and try to talk her into bringing her mom back, she just knew it.
She didn’t have to wait long. Twenty minutes later the door opened and Amanda came through, smiling. None of the scary Amanda, or Amarantha more likely, was on display.
“I have nothing to say to you,” Lucy said immediately before Amanda could say a thing. Amanda just sighed and smiled a nervous, disarming smile. Then she carefully closed the door, walked over to the small desk, pulled up a chair opposite Lucy and sat down.
“Well, I hope you are at least prepared to listen.” She reached a hand across the small desk, but Lucy put her foot against the desk and pushed her own chair back several inches. Amanda withdrew the hand and looked sad. If she was faking it, she was very good at it.
“Perfectly understandable,” she said, folding her hands on the desk and looking away herself. After sitting quietly for a moment, she spoke again, “I’m sorry I was so gruff down in the ballroom just now. I just can’t stand being around so many dead things.” Amanda looked away and shuddered. Whatever her intentions with all those things down there, her revulsion of them was genuine.
They sat in silence a while longer, but something was burning on Lucy’s tongue.
“What did you do with Yo-yo?”
Amanda raised an eyebrow and smiled. “I thought you had nothing to say to me?” she said smugly. Lucy just folded her arms across her chest and looked away. She hated this game. Her mother would play it with her every time she would pout or sulk. There was no way to speak now without looking peevish. It was eerie how much alike Amanda and her mother were. Manipulative ruthlessness seemed to run in the family. They both sat quietly for a while longer before Amanda spoke again.
“He’s fine, Lucy,” Amanda said simply, “I only took him to keep him safe, just like I want to keep you safe.” Lucy looked away. Then Amanda did another trick her mom always did. She craned her neck around until Lucy couldn’t help but look her in the eye. “You can see him in a while if you like.” Lucy’s mom always did this when she wanted to make sure Lucy was listening. Lucy looked Amanda in the eye and Amanda smiled at her. Lucy just turned away again. Amanda leaned back.
“Yo-yo is a very special boy, Lucy, just like you are a very special girl. I can see now why your mother went to such lengths to keep you safe.”
Lucy turned away again. She just hated it when Amanda talked about her mother that way. The witch had no right to talk about her mother after the accident.
“You killed my mother,” Lucy said softly. Then she added in a louder voice, “You betrayed us all to Hokharty, and now you’re going to kill all of humanity with him!
“No, Lucy, I was trying to protect you and your mother, and I’m trying to save the world, not destroy it.”
“But Yo-yo said…” Lucy almo
st began tearing up.
“I promise you, Lucy, I didn’t kill your mother.” Lucy turned back to Amanda. She had reached her hand across the desk again and her eyes looked moist. She certainly looked sincere. “Lucy,” she said intently, “I was trying to protect you and Yo-yo, but I…I mean we…couldn’t do a very good job until…that is until I found Amanda.” She withdrew the hand slowly and looked away, very sad. “I needed this body, these powers to protect you, but I was too late. What happened to your mother was…regrettable. Tragic even, but, I swear, we can fix it, Lucy, we can fix it!” She brightened and was suddenly very earnest.
Lucy said nothing but turned her shoulder to Amanda. She thought of the note in her pocket and what it meant. If she didn’t hear what Amanda was going to say next then it wouldn’t be real, it wouldn’t be possible. Fortunately, for the moment, Amanda moved on to other subjects.
Amanda sat silently a while before speaking. “If it’s any consolation, the family has always been this dysfunctional.” Lucy looked back at Amanda suspiciously. “It’s true,” she said, nodding, “Going all the way back to Hokharty.”
Lucy raised an eyebrow.
Amanda smiled. “Yes, we’re related to the old mummy believe it or not. All necromancers are. Our line came from one of his nieces I think. It’s hard to say, actually, the genealogical records aren’t exactly accurate up to 5,000 years ago.”
Lucy rubbed her nose with her sleeve. It was hard to imagine that crazy bloodsucker actually had a niece, let alone that that niece was her umpteenth great grandmother.
“We’ve always been at each other’s throats. It’s this power, Lucy. It does things to you.” Lucy looked back at Amanda. Amanda seemed very near tears herself. She turned away as if ashamed to let Lucy see her cry. Was this an act? It didn’t seem like one.
“You’re mother had the right idea, actually.” Amanda hugged herself, got up, walked around the room and looked absentmindedly at the book titles as if trying to distract herself and prevent herself from crying. “Run away, and never come back. Take a chance at having a normal life, maybe even a husband…or a child.” Lucy looked at her, she was crying. Lucy was certain she wasn’t faking it either. Amanda was actually crying, or was it Amarantha?
“It’s wrong to have this power,” Amanda said after a while, “Wrong to force it on people.” She turned and faced Lucy and composed herself, quickly wiping a tear from one eye. “But as wrong as it is to have it, it’s much worse not to use it for the good of others.”
Lucy looked back at her, and Amanda’s voice began very urgent, very earnest.
“There are things Hokharty does not know, things that not even Moríro knows. Your mother was very special, Lucy, even for a necromancer. Do you know how I know?”
Lucy shook her head vaguely from side to side.
“Because of you.” Before Lucy had a chance to think, Amanda crossed the room and kneeled at Lucy’s feet and placed her hands on the armrests of her chair. Lucy tried to move back but she couldn’t help but look at Amanda’s big, brown cow eyes. They were full of tears. Amanda was literally kneeling at her feet and looking up at her, pleading with her eyes. Lucy was overwhelmed.
“Lucy, more than anything I wanted a child. We both did. Amarantha and I.” She looked aside confused by the conflict of being two people in one body and uncertain of how to proceed. “She wanted a son, and I…” she nearly broke up saying this, “I wanted a daughter.” She had to turn away and swallow before continuing. Lucy’s own eyes were tearing up against her wishes, but she was too stunned by Amanda’s behavior and what she was saying to do anything about it.
“But a necromancer has the power of death, not life,” she continued, her lower lip trembling. Amanda had to bite her lip to keep from breaking up at this point. “Any necromancer of any significant talent loses the power of life.” Lucy looked at Amanda, confused. “They can’t have children, Lucy.” Amanda said bluntly. “That’s why I…WE couldn’t have children. That’s why Moríro is your great uncle, and not your great grandfather, because the bloodline can only survive through siblings that do not have the gift.” Amanda leaned over and rubbed one eye with the heel of her hand and tried to compose herself.
“But your mother was different, Lucy,” she went on.
“What?” Lucy said meekly.
“Every necromancer has a unique gift, Lucy. Some have the ability to summon ghosts or make zombies, or turn into specters, like I can, but I knew that somewhere, someday, one would be born with a very special gift. I’ve been searching for centuries, and now I’ve found it. I thought Moríro had it, but I was wrong about him.” She looked down and pulled a face of rage and bitterness at the thought of Moríro, but it melted away when she turned back to face Lucy “But then I found out about your mother, and I knew that if I had to drag myself back from hell itself to find her I would.”
“What are you talking about?!” Lucy was becoming increasingly nervous.
“Her garden, Lucy. A necromancer can’t grow so much as a bean sprout, but your mother…she could grow anything. Her plants, her garden, you. They are all proof of it.”
“Proof of what?!” Lucy was shaking now.
“Life, Lucy, your mother’s gift was life. She had the gift of life and so do you. That’s how I know you can bring your mother back and that’s how I know you can defeat Death for all of us.”
Lucy jumped up out of the chair, pushed Amanda away and retreated to a corner of the room. She knew something like this was coming but not this! She didn’t want to hear it.
Amanda got up slowly. She wasn’t angry; she just kept on talking, “The soul at death is shattered into a dozen pieces, Lucy, pieces that can never be put back together again. It’s only Amanda’s heart and body that keeps me from falling apart. But you can put those pieces back together, Lucy. You can put your mother’s soul back into her body and give her life. Not like a zombie or a vampire or any of those other dead things, like other necromancers, but as a real living human being, that can run in the sunshine and laugh and love, whole and complete, Lucy, you can resurrect her just as she was before.”
Lucy was walking back and forth across the room looking for somewhere to hide, but there was, of course, nowhere to go, all the while Amanda kept talking making it harder for her to think.
“And not just her alone, Lucy” Amanda was less weepy now. The more she spoke the more ardent she became.
Lucy looked up frantically. What did she mean?! Amanda crossed the room and grabbed Lucy by her shoulders and held her firm while she gazed into her eyes.
“Once your mother is back, she’ll be immortal.”
“No,” Lucy said weakly and tried to look away.
“Yes!” Amanda said defiantly, “And she will have power over death. LISTEN TO ME!” she yelled and shook Lucy gently. Lucy couldn’t help but look back.
“Your mother will have the power to bring anyone back.”
Lucy didn’t know what to say.
“Listen to me Lucy,” Amanda was desperate to convince her, she was speaking faster now. “Hokharty is a monster, Lucy, he only cares for numbers and figures and the balance between the worlds. Moríro is no better. He is indifferent to human suffering and only lives to serve the Great Master. Hokharty thinks he has double-crossed Moríro, but I’m the one who has double-crossed him.”
“What?!”
“You mother is the key, Lucy! The Great Master is heartless. He cares nothing for justice or mercy, but he drags all down to the underworld to him. But he is also weak and old, Lucy, and with your mother we can defeat him.”
“Defeat DEATH?!” Lucy’s mind was reeling.
“Yes! You’re mother can resurrect the souls of the dead. You can bring her back to life, but she can MAKE life, Lucy. She could overturn all of the underworld and free anyone she wanted to. We could end the meaningless of this life and give life back to all those that deserve it. We could give life meaning again, Lucy!! Instead of the good and bad dying together in ignominy for
no reason we could save the good forever and send the evil straight to hell where they belong!”
Lucy tried to push Amanda away, but Amanda held her firmly. “You’re crazy!!” she yelled and tried to writhe free, but all she could do was turn her eyes away.
“Am I?!” Amanda yelled earnestly, “Look at me, Lucy, LOOK AT ME!” Amanda shook her hard once. Lucy looked up at Amanda. Both her eyes and Lucy’s were full of tears. “Listen to me, Lucy. Hokharty wants to kill billions, just to make sure that Death can keep on killing for another thousand years, but what does it matter when they die? ALL of them will die sooner or later. ALL OF THEM! Lucy! Death will kill everyone! What does it matter If they all die now together in fire and blood of if they die alone of old age, or of cancer, or of a broken heart, or pneumonia or a gunshot or of any of the other stupid meaningless random ways there are to die in this wretched world …even a car accident?!”
Lucy narrowed her eyes to push the tears out and looked at Amanda with fury when she said the words “car accident.” She couldn’t have felt more stabbed in her heart if she had driven the knife into her chest herself.
“WHAT DOES IT MATTER?!” Amanda yelled again.
“Get away from me!” She pushed Amanda away and went to the far corner and buried her face in it and wished she could disappear like Yo-yo. She closed her eyes and wished to be engulfed by the darkness, but the feeling of oblivion never came.
“What does it matter, Lucy?” Amanda said softer this time, almost, like a prayer. “The whole of human life is death and misery. Whether it’s measured out in large amounts in natural disasters, or bit-by-bit in teaspoons, what does it really matter? I’ve been to the afterlife, Lucy. I’ve seen it. We are all going to a sunless land of no hope, no music, no life and no promise, where the best you can do is struggle to hold onto what little remains of yourself, your very soul, before every little piece of you is blown away, but we can stop all that.”
