Peter & Max - Bill Willingham [102]
“Past crimes are forgiven and forgotten,” Ichabod said.
“But any new ones, after signing the Compact, are dealt with harshly,” Snow leapt in to add.
“I promise you’ll find my repentance is deep and sincere,” Max said.
“Then we’ll adjourn this matter until we’ve had a chance to discuss it,” Ichabod said. “Max, you can stay here for the night, as our guest, and we’ll let you know of our decision in the morning.”
“Lovely!” Max said. “Wonderful! But there’s no need to put me up like some freeloader off the streets. I’ve secured my own lodgings while in town. Just tell me when you want to see me in the morning and I’ll be here.”
THAT EVENING, AND LATE INTO THE NIGHT, the witch and the two Fabletown officers discussed Max’s application for citizenship. They held the debate in the mayor’s penthouse residence, high on top of the Woodland Building, with King Cole, the mayor, joining in the discussion. The arguments went round and round, as arguments will. Totenkinder was steadfastly against it, Snow expressed a wary need of caution, while Ichabod Crane and King Cole questioned, dithered and dissembled, as they often did, when hard decisions were in the offing. But finally King Cole resolved himself and said, “I believe I understand all of the reasons why we shouldn’t trust this Mr. Piper, but the universal amnesty is the single foundation on which all of Fabletown rests. If we deny membership to one man, based upon what he’s done in the past and what we fear he may do in the future, then the house of cards we’ve built may come tumbling down around us.
“Fabletown is a fragile experiment in a new way of living, where a pauper and a king enjoy equal freedoms and responsibilities. One misstep could end it. I believe, in the final analysis, we have to treat Max Piper just like we did Bigby, and you, Frau Totenkinder, and even me. Each of us committed terrible crimes and shameful deeds in the old worlds. We all came damaged and sinful into this new world, and only prospered as much as we have together, through borrowed grace. None of us deserved our place in Fabletown. Instead it was a gift we gave to each other. Barring unimpeachable evidence that he plans to further harm Peter, or his poor wife, or any other of us, I can’t see any way we can avoid giving this man the same chance to start over that each of us has been granted. When he returns tomorrow, we have to let him sign the Compact and receive the general amnesty.”
And so it was decided.
But later that same night, while Max slept peacefully in his stolen castle, a visitor appeared quietly in his bedroom. She made no sound, but nevertheless Max awoke before she could cross the room and remove Fire from where it lay next to him on the large bed that seemed to cover acres of floor.
“I thought you might try a midnight visit,” Max said, coming fully awake in an instant. He lifted Fire, sat up in the bed and regarded her in the night-shrouded chamber.
“I can’t let you sign the Compact tomorrow,” the witch said. She still looked as old as she’d seemed the afternoon before, but now there wasn’t a hint of frailty about her. She stood thin and small in the center of the floor, but this time there was a sense of weight and solidity attached to her, radiating invisibly but substantially from her.
“And I can’t let you stop me,” he said. “Unless you’re ready to tell me where my brother and his miserable, broken little wife have hidden themselves. In that case I’d be willing to settle old matters with them alone and be on my way, like the proverbial happy wanderer, never to darken the Woodland’s door again.”
“I don’t think I’ll do that,” she said. “Instead I think I’ll do what I should have done ages ago and rid the world of you — rid all the worlds of you. At long last, I’ve finally learned that one can’t bargain with monsters. They simply need to be destroyed when discovered.”
Max stood up.
“You can’t beat me,” he said. “Fire’s too strong and I’m its master.”
“And you’ve wandered into my place of power,” Totenkinder said. “I’ve had centuries