Carousel Sun (35 page)

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Low Tide 4:41
P.M.
EDT

Joe’s three kiddies were handcuffed and hauled off by Archers Beach policemen and -women. It may have interested no one but myself that cops and prisoners were accompanied off the property by a pair of summer people in brand-new shorts who didn’t look like they were having any fun.

Nothing was said about what might have befallen the couple guys who had been blocking the street earlier. I figured if nobody else wanted to talk about them, then I didn’t, either.

That made it fairly easy to give statements that were for the most part truthful. Unless you’re a stickler who counts sins of omission.

In any case, mention of Ulme was omitted; certainly any mention of windows opening in the smoke. Our three gentle visitors were by testimony reduced to petty thugs out for random mischief. They’d torn down the baskets and smashed the fruits, and when Peggy got her cell phone out to call for help—they’d snatched it out of her hand and stamped it beneath their boots.

The cops gathered up the poor smashed remains as evidence.

I, so the story went, had arrived while play time was in session, and had managed to subdue the attackers by dint of not being too squeamish about smacking heads against hard objects.

The cop folded up his book, and said he’d be in touch to have us sign statements, and neither Peggy nor I was to leave town. He didn’t mention Felsic; hadn’t questioned Felsic; hadn’t apparently
seen
Felsic, though Felsic had been standing right next to Peggy when the cops arrived on the scene. I made a note to talk to Felsic about that.

The fire department, the fire inspector, and the remediation specialist were still doing their various things when the cop left us. I pulled Peggy aside and asked her how she was holding up.

She sighed, and ran her fingers through her pink hair.

“I’ve got soot on my face, I bet.”

“It was a hell of a party. You wouldn’t be doing justice to its memory if you didn’t have soot on your face.”

She snorted.

“Yeah, well. I’m going to have to call Arbitrary and Cruel; and somewhere I’m going to have to come up with a new cell. Dammit; I
liked
that phone.”

“Well, here’s what,” I said. “It looks like The Mango’s closed for the rest of the day. Why don’t you come with me? I’ll introduce you to Gregor; we’ll see if he has any prepaid phones. Then I’ll buy you lunch at Bob’s.”

She looked at me doubtfully; I could see the to-do list getting longer as she stood there.

“C’mon, Jersey, you don’t want to call the bosses on an empty stomach.”

She sighed and gave me a reluctant grin.

“There’s that. Do you know anybody in town who can look the booth over and give me an estimate on—”

“I’ll take care of that,” Felsic interrupted, putting a hand on Peggy’s shoulder. “Let Kate take care of you; call Management; have a bath. Should I come past, tonight?”

“Yes,” Peggy said with a smile.

“I will, then,” Felsic said, smiling, too, before stepping back. “Go on, then, the pair of you. The midway’ll come to no harm.”

“That sounds like marching orders to me,” I said, tucking my arm through Peggy’s. “C’mon; I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”

Gregor had a prepaid candy bar with 60 starter minutes preloaded hanging on a card behind the counter. When he heard what happened to Peggy’s phone, he threw in an extra 120-minute card for free, and pointed at the door.

“I’ll get it activated and bring it over to Bob’s. You girls need to sit down and relax. Big and tough, right? Picking on somebody their own size, sure! Lucky it wasn’t worse, that’s all.” He peered at Peggy. “I hope this ain’t put you off us, deah.”

Peggy smiled and patted his hand.

“No, I met Kate first, so I knew this was a good town.”

“Well, there.” Gregor looked pleased, then pointed at the door again, making shooing motions with the hand that held the minute card.

“Go on! Go sit down ’fore you fall down!”

So it was that we were sitting in a booth in Bob’s nearly deserted main room, ice tea to hand, and lunch on the way.

Peggy was looking wilted and pale, no shame to her. I sipped my ice tea—unlike his coffee, Bob’s ice tea is pretty darn good—and put the glass on the table.

“So,” I said, by way of keeping her awake. “I didn’t know you and Felsic were an item.”

She stirred and reached for her glass. “That makes us even, right? I didn’t know you were the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz.”

I grinned. “That warning about not looking behind the curtain . . .”

“Too late for that,” Peggy interrupted. “I’m dating Felsic. I saw a woman throw herself into a living fire, and walk out of it like I walk out of the shower. I’m right here behind the curtain with the rest of you.”

“Then you know there’s nobody here who’s all-powerful.”

“Neither was Oz.”

She took a long drag on her straw, and sighed, deep and heartfelt.

“Here you are, ladies.” Bob put a bacon, lettuce, tomato and cheese sandwich in front of me, a cheeseburger in front of Peggy, and a plate of fries bigger than my head between us.

“Look okay?” he asked, standing back, and watching us sharply.

“Looks
won
derful,” Peggy told him. “I really am hungry.”

Bob grinned. “I’ll leave you to it, then. Holler if you need anything; I’m just in the back.”

He bustled off, pushing through the kitchen door with energy.

“Is Ulme going to be okay?” Peggy asked, applying a liberal coating of ketchup to her burger.

“I think so. Her Great Flame didn’t look to me like a man who’ll be fooled twice. Whatever Joe did to snatch Ulme in the first place isn’t going to work again. Us, though . . .”

I paused. Peggy was tired, maybe even a teensy little bit shocky. I’d drawn on the land’s energy, but I could own to being tired, too. Not really the time to be introducing more stress into either of our lives.

“What about us?”

I picked up half of my sandwich and gave her a straight look.

“Well, I’m thinking of Joe as I know him. He’s not going to be pleased with us, and he’s not a man who’s shy about letting his feelings be known.”

I took a bite, feeling lettuce crunch.

“What’re the chances Kyle will get him?”

Chewing, I blinked. “Kyle?”

“Ulme said Kyle was hunting Joe, remember?”

“So she did.” I thought about that, reaching for a french fry. “Well, fuck.”

“What?”

“If Kyle’s hunting Joe, then he’s MDEA—”

Peggy blinked.

“Maine Drug Enforcement Agency,” I expanded. “Which means he’s not likely to be making me a carousel animal, like he said he would.”

“You think a cop’s gonna rip you off?”

“Let’s just say that I’m alive to the possibility.”

She nodded and turned her full attention to her burger. I did the same to my BLT. At some point, Bob came by and refilled our glasses; the fact that I didn’t notice him was kind of a testament to how tired I was. Peggy must be out on her feet.

The street door opened, bell jangling.

“Good. You’re still here!” Gregor called, coming quickly to our table.

“Taking our time,” Peggy said.

“That’s what you need.” Gregor put the phone down at the edge of her plate. “I just loaded in that extra one-twenty while I was at it. Sorry it took so long; had me on hold forever. But you’re all set now.”

“Thank you,” Peggy said, giving him a smile that was just a little ragged at the edges. “I really appreciate your help.”

“No problem at all. You need anything else like this, you come see me.” He gave me a nod. “Kate.”

“Thanks, Gregor,” I said, dredging up a smile of my own. “You’ve been a big help.”

He colored a little, nodded.

“You two have a good rest of the day, now. See you.”

I looked at Peggy. She had picked up her new cell and was frowning at it.

“God, that’s an ugly thing.”

“Tomorrow, you can call your cell company, explain what happened to your phone, and talk them into replacing it for free. That’ll be fun, won’t it?”

She brightened considerably.

“You know, it will.”

“So, if you’re taking suggestions—home, a shower, and then a call to Management?”

“Sounds like it might be the bet,” she said. “Then beer. What about you?”

“Shower and nap, I think. Got a date tonight.”

“You need to look your best, then! How do we settle?”

“Bob!” I called. “How much do we owe you?”

“On the house!” His voice came from the kitchen.

“Bob—”

“Can’t hear you, Kate! Wicked noisy back here.”

I rolled my eyes. Peggy got up, cell phone in hand, and jerked her head toward the door.

“C’mon, we’ll gang up on him later.”

“Deal.”

We walked up Dube Street. I saw Peggy to her door, and safely inside, then started up the steps to the porch.

My cell phone gave tongue. I sighed and fished it out of my pocket.

“Katie,” my mother said urgently. “I need you here—now. There are intruders in the Wood.” There was a small pause before she added.

“They aren’t dead. Yet.”

It isn’t far from the midway to Heath Hill. It’s a lot farther when lives are hanging in the balance. Running down Grand, I asked the land to show me what was going on in the Wood.

That got me a head full of shadows, and looming, tentacled horrors. I thrust my will forward and into the land, demanding that the trees attend to the land’s Guardian.

That . . . wasn’t too bright.

They paid attention, all right. I was hit with a spike of enmity so strong that my link to the land evaporated in a blast of static. The land howled—defiance, not panic—and we were united again, sharing a very lively fear for the intruders’ lives.

The Wood . . . I had never felt the Wood’s
anger
before. To me, it had always been a measured, peaceful place—and it hit me that I wasn’t going to be in time; the trees were too angry; people were in mortal peril, and I couldn’t run fast enough. I needed to be there. Needed to be there
now
.

And once again, in response to my urgency, it came, that whooshing blur, and the sense of not quite being—and then I was being again, all right. I was on my knees well within the boundary of the Wood, a vine-wrapped man under my right hand.

The air inside the Wood was cold—I mean to say, bone-chilling cold. There came a faint, soft growl inside my ears, which I ignored as I took a breath, and said, as calmly as I could manage. “It’s Kate.”

There was a pause, stretching out. I used the time to look about me. We were in a clearing so small it could be argued that it was only a clearing at all because the thickness of the surface roots made it impossible for anything else to take root here. Those that had were hulking brutes of trees, their leaves as sharp as knives, and their branches like the twisted fingers of murderers.

The man under my hand was trussed up handily. His ankles and wrists were bound in the vines of fox grape and honeysuckle, twigs and dirt were tangled in his light brown curls, and there was what appeared to be a stringy, flexible rootling around his throat.

His eyes were closed, he was breathing, and I knew him.

I let go the breath I had been holding, and looked around me, aware that I hadn’t had any kind of acknowledgment to my announcement. A gleam drew my eye, and I saw my mother crouched behind a small shrub directly across from me; Arbalyr the firebird perched in a branch above. She shook her head when she saw that I’d seen her.

I looked away, keeping my hand on Kyle’s shoulder, and said, more loudly, “It’s Kate.”

A breeze tickled the inside of my ears, but that was all. Right. Time to pull rank.

“I am the Guardian of this Land, and in the absence of the Lady, I am empowered to arbitrate with the Wood. I know this man, and I vouch for him. I do not believe that he came into the Wood with intent to despoil or destroy. If you have evidence that refutes this, I will see it now.”

Nothing. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my mother shift, her eyes narrowing.

He should not have come here
, the Wood informed me, coldly.

“He should not have come here,” I agreed. “Plainly, he was in error. Did he offer the Wood harm?”

The
others
wished to harm us. He followed them.

“Maybe he wished to forestall them,” I said, and rose to my feet. “I will see these others. Preserve this man until I have learned what I might.”

Silence.

“Well?” I asked, irritably. “I don’t have all day, you know.”

A path opened before me, and I followed it, not far, as such things are measured in the Wood.

Two people—a man and a woman—were bound hand and foot, and very deeply unconscious on stony ground littered with twigs and pine cones. Not your most comfortable sleeping situation. I knelt down so I could get a good look at their faces.

The man was a stranger, but I recognized the woman.

She’d tried to kill me a few weeks back, and it was only luck and the land that she’d murdered my favorite commuter mug, instead. It really is an aid to memory, almost getting shot.