Page 73
Well, Brat Prince, I thought, you gambled, you lost! And you get to die now. Here's your personal Pacaya.
But I was merely flying backwards through the bracken again, smashing against tree trunks, and through clattering crackling branches and wet fronds. I twisted and turned with all my might trying to escape this thing, trying to flee to one side or the other, but it was driving me backwards at such speed that I was helpless.
Finally I was flung down in a grassy place, an open grassy circle of sorts, unable for a moment to move, my body aching all over. My hands and face were badly cut. My eyes were stinging. I was covered with dirt and broken leaves. I climbed to my knees and then to my feet.
The sky above was a deep radiant blue with the jungles rising high all around as if to engulf it. I could see the remains of some huts here, that this had been a village once, but it was now in ruins. It took me a moment to catch my breath and then to wipe my face with my handkerchief, and wipe the blood from the cuts on my hands. My head throbbed.
It was half an hour before I reached the lodge on the banks of the river.
I found David and Jesse in a tasteful tropical suite there, all very civilized and pretty with white curtains and veils of bleached mosquito netting over the white iron bed. Candles burned all through the rooms and the manicured gardens and around a small swimming pool. Such luxury on the edge of chaos.
I stripped everything off and bathed in the fresh, clean swimming pool.
David stood by with a heap of white towels.
When I was myself again, as best as I could be, with these soiled and torn clothes, I went into the cozy little parlor with him.
I related what I'd seen.
"Khayman's in the grip of the Voice, that's clear," I said. "Whether Maharet's heard it or not, I have no idea. But Mekare gave me no hint of menace, no hint of mind or cunning or ..."
"Or what?" Jesse asked.
"No hint that the Voice was coming from her," I said.
"How could it possibly be coming from her?"
"You're joking, surely," I said.
"No, I'm not," said Jesse.
In a low confidential tone I told them all I knew of the Voice.
I told them how it had been speaking to me for years, how it talked of beauty and love, and how it had nudged me once to burn and destroy the mavericks in Paris. I told them all about the Voice--its games with my reflection in the mirror.
"So you're saying it's some demonic ancient one," said Jesse. "Trying to take possession of blood drinkers, and that it's taken possession of Khayman, and Maharet knows it?" Her eyes were glassy with tears that were slowly thickening into pure blood. She brushed her curling copper hair back from her face. She looked unutterably sad.
"Well, that's one way of putting it," I said. "You really have no clue who the Voice is?"
I lost all taste for this conversation. I had too much thinking to do and I needed to do it quickly. I didn't tell them about the image of Pacaya in Guatemala. Why should I? What could they do about it? She had said she wouldn't harm us.
I went out of the room, motioning for them to let me go, and I stood in this dreamy little tropical garden. I could hear a waterfall somewhere, perhaps more than one, and that throbbing engine of the jungle, that engine of so many voices.
"Who are you, Voice?" I asked aloud. "Why don't you tell me? I think it's time, don't you?"
Laughter.
Low laughter and that same distinctly male timbre. Right inside my head.
"What's the name of the game, Voice?" I asked. "How many are going to have to die before you finish? And what is it you really want?"
No answer. But I felt certain someone was watching me. Someone was off in the jungles beyond the border of this garden, beyond this horseshoe of little thatched-roof luxurious guest suites, staring at me.
"Can you even guess what I suffer?" said the Voice.
"No," I said. "Tell me about it."
Silence. It was gone. I could feel its distinct absence.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73 (Reading here)
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145
- Page 146
- Page 147
- Page 148
- Page 149
- Page 150
- Page 151
- Page 152
- Page 153
- Page 154
- Page 155
- Page 156