Bayou Moon - Andrews, Ilona [157]
“This is the day the secrets get told,” Grandmother Az said.
William looked up. She stood in the middle of the room, wizened and ancient as ever, and deep sadness pooled in her small dark eyes.
“You’re awake,” Ignata said and rose to offer her chair. Grandmother Az ignored it. She stared at him, and William felt a pull of magic.
“Tell them, child,” she said. “Tell them who you’ve seen in the woods.”
“Vernard never died,” William said. “I’ve seen him. I fought him in the Mire.”
“The monster? No.” Cerise shook her head. “No, it can’t be.”
“He prowls the night,” Grandmother Az said. “He stayed away from the house for many years, but he’s come back. He knows something is wrong. He is a monster now, but some memories still linger. The thing he did, the unnatural thing, it changed him too much. The magic was too strong.”
Silence fell, tense and charged, like the air before the storm.
“Who is E?” Ignata said. “A was the cat, B was the pig, C was the calf. D was Vernard himself.”
Kaldar rose. “The Box. It speeds up the healing, yes?”
He crossed the room. A dagger flashed in his fingers. He took Cerise by the hand and glanced at her. She nodded. Kaldar cut at her forearm. Blood swelled. He wiped the crimson liquid off with his sleeve and raised her arm high. A thin line of red marked the wound but no more blood came.
“Sweet little E,” he said. “I’ve wondered about that for years. She never got a cold. All of us would be down with flu or some other crud, but she would be up and chipper.”
Cerise studied her arm as if it were a foreign object. “I don’t remember it. The Box. I don’t remember it at all.”
“He probably sedated you,” Ignata said.
“It would have to be a bloody strong sedation,” Murid said, “to dull that kind of pain.”
Ignata frowned. “Do you remember the remedy?”
Her mother grimaced. “Oh, please. It’s the redwort tea. During the last few weeks, he practically drowned her in it every chance he got. That’s probably the only reason she is sane now. That’s what the remedy does—it keeps you from going mad.”
Richard’s clear voice filled the room. “The question is what we are going to do with the journal now.”
WILLIAM tensed. His every instinct screamed in alarm.
Faces turned to Richard.
“We have the journal. It is too late for Genevieve, but not too late for Gustave. Cerise told me that he’s being held in Kasis.”
Richard leaned forward. “The place is a fortress and the Earl of Kasis has a lot of guards at his disposal. Not only that, but the place itself sits on the border between Adrianglia and Louisiana in the Weird. It touches the Edge, but that’s about it. If we attack it, we’ll have people from both countries on our trail. But we must get Gustave back. We must at least try.”
“Blackmail,” Kaldar said. “We trade Gustave for the journal. Spider will do anything to keep us from turning it over to the Adrianglians.”
And it all went to shit. William bared his teeth.
“Spider is too dangerous,” Erian said.
“Screw Spider. That journal is monstrous!” Petunia’s voice cut him off. “It’s the product of an abnormal mind. Brilliant but abnormal. We must destroy it.”
Kaldar gaped at her. “As long as we have the journal, we can get Gustave back.”
She glared back. “William! How big was the creature you saw?”
They all looked at him. The hair on the back of his neck rose under pressure. “Large. At least six hundred pounds.”
Shock slapped the Mars’ faces. Even Cerise paused, frozen in an instant.
Aunt Pete whirled to face Grandmother Az. “That’s about right, isn’t it?”
Grandmother nodded.
Pete’s stare pinned Kaldar like a dagger. “So, ask yourself, nephew, do you really want to hand that monster-making blueprint to the world in exchange for one life?”
“It’s not our problem,” Erian said. “Why are all of you ignoring me? It’s not our problem!”
Mikita shook his head. “It is our problem. We are the Mars. It was made by our in-law on the land that’s now in our family. We are responsible.”
Aunt Pete stomped her foot. “There is a bigger responsibility here. Human responsibility. Vernard knew enough