Peter & Max - Bill Willingham [18]
“People change,” Bigby said.
“People?” Peter said.
“Sure, I’m people. At least some of the time. Hell, most of the time, now that I’ve taken up married life.” In what was arguably the most improbable wedding in Fable history, Bigby Wolf had recently married Snow White. Peter couldn’t understand the match. While it was true that the wolf had learned how to take human form, even as a man Bigby looked like a bad patch of road. In fact he looked just like the sort of fellow who was a wild animal in his real guise. The official story was that Snow and Bigby shared the truest of all true love. Peter had his doubts about that. But he didn’t voice them.
“You heard that my brother Max was back in the world,” Peter said, wanting to quickly conclude their business, so that he could return to his own wife as soon as possible. “How do you know? Did you see him?”
“No,” the wolf said. “If I had, I’d have taken him right then and there, and we’d be having a different sort of chat right now.”
“I doubt you could have killed Max, or even survived the attempt. He’s grown too powerful over the ages.”
“While I’ve socked away a few tricks of my own,” Bigby said.
“Still, the question remains. How do you know that he’s here in our world?”
“The information’s good,” Bigby said. “It comes straight from the witch. I’m not her biggest fan, but if she says a thing is so, you can count on it being so.”
“She’s far from all-powerful,” Peter said. “She had the opportunity to fight her duel with him and lost. Remember what that cost us?” A chill wind blew down from the hilltop, causing a forest’s worth of leaves to start chattering, all at once. Peter pulled the light windbreaker out of his daypack and put it on. It helped a little. The wolf seemed immune to any sort of discomfort. “And let’s not forget her part in creating this mess,” Peter continued. “If not for her, Max might still be — human.” He’d intended to say Max might still be his brother, but stopped himself at the last moment. He’d be damned if he shared his most personal feelings with an unrepentant killer. Bigby Wolf had been a terror of the Homelands, one of the great monsters in every sense of the word. And that was why he wasn’t allowed on the Farm, even today. Too many of his potential victims lived there, and many of them were certain the wolf would return to his old ways. But he’d taken full advantage of the General Amnesty — that part of the Fabletown Compact that wiped out all previous sins, as soon as you formally became part of the community in exile. All sorts of villains had snuck in under that ridiculous policy, including the witch of their discussion, who was another destroyer of ill repute. No one need repent. It wasn’t required. They only needed to promise to act better from now on. Peter hated everything about the General Amnesty, especially considering how perilously close Max had once come to receiving its protections.
“It’s pretty clear you still haven’t warmed up to me over the years,” Bigby said. “I can smell the fear and hate coming off you.
It’s a strong musk I never mistake.”
“I just don’t trust you is all. Your past record speaks for itself,” Peter said.
“Apparently not very convincingly, since my record also includes about four centuries of not only keeping my own nose clean, but keeping everyone else on the straight and narrow as well. Doesn’t any of that weigh in the balance?” It was true, Peter considered, that since the very founding of Fabletown, Bigby had served as its sheriff. It turned out he was quite good at keeping the peace among many squabbling factions, still learning how to get along with each other. He seemed to like the job and only quit when he had children and got married.