The Everborn - Nicholas Grabowsky [160]
“So,” Andrew reasoned, “if all you say is true, then...?”
“Then you must trust me, even though I’ve never given you reason to completely trust me ever before....”
“It’s happening again now, isn’t it?” Andrew pressed. “Like before, when we first met, when Salvatia got the better of your Watchmaid Camelia, only now Jessica is out and about with you inside her and dear Melony is my mom-to-be, and Salvatia is once again behind all of this, because of a goddamn book that you’ve actually written yourself????”
“First of all,” Ralston said, in an attempt to set the matter as clear as day to a kindred being who otherwise should understand far more rapidly, “Salvatia will not harm her captive Melony without the honor of your presence. It’s you she wants, although my life would do just as well to suit her cause. She’s using your Dreg twin brother to take your life, with Mel forced into the dual roles of victim and bait. Another thing: Salvatia herself is powerful enough to revive any one human at a time who is killed at the hands of a Dreg, and this time the resurrected human is the UFO expert Max Polito himself, not a small unthreatening little lad like the boy Nigel. This racks up more odds in her favor....
“...you see, as you well put it...yes, it’s happening again, now, just like before at the playground where our paths first crossed, only this time Salvatia would surely succeed...if it wasn’t for the book. The Watchers who stole my copy of the book away from me and whom I went on to spend some quality time with were never able to come to terms with that. They insisted the future was not ours to use as a tool to foil the past....
“Well...yes, there were drawbacks to my little scheme, such as the very nature of your being split into two entities in this current life, which rendered it impossible for just Andrew Erlandson to retrieve it alone, yes sir. Your Dreg twin brother Simon intercepted portions of the book, which eventually brought it to Salvatia’s knowledge. Damn it all, why couldn’t your mother just stick to one child at a time? But even though this phenomena is a rarity to our kind, the risk was inevitable. I knew of it when I wrote it. Because of it, overall, we have the advantage....
“Think of it: both our lives have been directed around it. Why had you been writing for me all this time? It was Bari’s idea. To protect you. To protect me. To protect the interests of the book....”
At once there came upon them a voice familiar and female and from everywhere, “It’s truly good to see you in your full potential, Ralston, and not as the obnoxious twerp you’ve lived your passing life as....”
Bari emerged into a dimension of space between them, and the genie-like torrents below the transparency of her waistline whisked out the candlelight, leaving only the light of the table lamp to illuminate the room; the light cast jousting shadows around the doorway from what was now the three of them as they conversed.
“Bari,” Ralston acknowledged her welcomingly. “And in such a timely manner, too. I was just talking about you. But you know that, don’t you. Hello.”
“Yes, I know about as much as you think I do,” Bari replied. “But you don’t know everything, and neither do I. Still, I know more than you, even with your experiences with those vagabond Watchers, even with as much as you’ve read of this book of yours that has yet to be written and that’s responsible for both the good and the bad in all this. Salvatia and Andrew’s Dreg twin brother are holding Melony in anticipation of our eminent rescue attempt. That much is clear, seeing how their ambush didn’t turn out to be here, at your residence. It is in this respect that you must have acquired better insight than I, for you have read this book whereas my ‘Born and I haven’t. So....tell us, before you ramble further about revealing sweet nothings to Andrew....where do you believe they’re holding Melony? Umm, so we could get on with it?”
“All right,” Ralston