All That Lives Must Die - Eric Nylund [45]
Fiona remembered what Kino had said: “The dead are restless. No one living, not even I, understands what moves them.”
Welmann sighed. “I feel it sometimes. Don’t get me wrong . . . all these barbecues”—he cleared his throat—“the company of fine ladies, and all the leisure time is great. But it feels like there has to be something more.”
He paused and stared miles away. “I’m not sure what ‘more’ means . . . Heaven, Hell, or oblivion, but I know there’s a final destiny waiting for me.”
Fiona sensed the weight and the truth of what he said.
They sat quiet for a moment.
Mr. Welmann laughed and got up. “Geez, that’s about enough of that. We better get you two back. If half of what I’ve heard about Paxington is true, you’ll have a ton of books to read your first week.”
Fiona nodded.
He led them down the other side of the hill. There were mausoleums and obelisks ahead, and the beginning of the graveyards.
“You know your troubles are just beginning, right?” Mr. Welmann said. “The League is dangerous, and three heroic trials or not, it’s never done testing you. The other side of your family won’t give up, either. It’s not in their nature.”
Fiona didn’t like the way he talked about the League. They were part of the League now. But out of respect for Mr. Welmann, she thought about his warning before she answered.
“The League has our best interests at heart,” she told him. “And I think our father has gone away. The other Infernals? No one is going to bother us after what we did to Beelzebub.”
“Best interests?” Eliot said. “What about what Kino just did to us? In case you didn’t notice—we could have died back there.”
They came to a stand of headstones so dense, they had to pick a crooked path through them, single file.
Fiona frowned at her brother’s assertion. She wanted to say that Kino just meant to show them what the other side of their family stood for. But what about those people on the other side of the fence who had tried to tear them apart? And those birds? Kino had to know about them. He had to know that leaving them there would be dangerous.
Mr. Welmann lifted a foot onto a headstone to tie his shoelace. “Look,” he said, “I’m not trying to scare you. Just decide who you trust and who you don’t . . . and watch each other’s backs.”
Of course that’s what they’d do. The question was, whom to trust?
Well, each other, of course.
Her mother? As much as Fiona wanted to trust her, Audrey had lied to Fiona and Eliot for the last fifteen years. Maybe for a good reason, but she had still lied. There was no reason to think she wouldn’t continue to do so.
“Just over there,” Mr. Welmann said. “We’re almost to Little Chicken Gate.”14
He slowed. “You two wouldn’t know a kid named Robert Farmington? We used to work together. Haven’t seen him here yet. I wondered if he was okay.”
“Sure, we know Robert,” Eliot said. “He’s a friend.”
“We know him,” Fiona echoed, unsure what Robert and she were to each other anymore. He had acted so strange today.
Mr. Welmann, however, did not look happy at this. “He’s still driving for Mr. Mimes?”
“Not exactly,” Fiona replied. “Uncle Henry fired him. But it’s not what it sounds like. He helped us . . . just got into a little trouble with the League.”
“He’s going to Paxington now,” Eliot added.
Mr. Welmann halted and his eyes narrowed. “That can’t be right,” he said. “No one gets fired from the League and walks away. Robert’s a great kid, but he doesn’t have the brains or the pedigree to be in a place like Paxington, either. Something stinks. . . .”
“Could he still be working for the League?” Fiona asked. “Watching out for us?”
That would explain his standoffish behavior. As a secret bodyguard, it would be a conflict of interest to get too close emotionally. Her pulse quickened. So it was a forbidden attraction . . . all the more dangerous for them, and exciting.
Mr. Welmann shook his head and started walking again. “The League don’t work like that. When they fire you, it’s permanent.”
“He did mention having to lie low,” Fiona said.
“And when Uncle Kino showed up,” Eliot said, “did