Songreaver (35 page)

Garrett was confused. "Aren't you?" he said.
Then he looked down at his own body. "I'm a ghost now too,
right?"

Grahm burst out laughing. "You really don't
get it at all" he said, "Ghosts are like people waiting for a boat,
and, when it shows up, they get halfway across the gangplank and
then stop, thinking they left their luggage on the dock or
something."

"And you're already on the boat?" Garrett
asked.

"That boat already sailed," Grahm said with a
grin.

Garrett looked around the wavering gray tomb.
"Where's
my
boat?" he asked.

Grahm put his hand on Garrett's shoulder and
lowered his head. "
That's
what I'm here to talk to you
about," he sighed.

"What's wrong?" Garrett asked, suddenly very
afraid.

Grahm patted his shoulder. "It's all right,
little brother," he said, "You just have a very interesting
decision to make."

"Huh?"

Grahm looked down at Garrett's body and the
Girl in Brown kneeling beside it. "Who's the girl?" he asked.

"A friend of mine," Garrett said,
"
Wait!
Can you tell me her name?"

Grahm looked at him. "How would
I
know
her name?" he asked, "I thought she was
your
friend."

Garrett shrugged. "I figured you'd know
everything now," he said.

Grahm cackled with laughter. "Where do you
get your information, little brother?" he laughed.

Garrett frowned.

"It's all right," Grahm said, clapping
Garrett on the back, "It's just hard for me to see the living now.
I haven't been back more than a couple of times since... you
know."

A leaden weight settled in Garrett's heart.
"So, you really are dead," he said, "You really died at
Brenhaven."

Grahm smiled, putting his arm around his
brother's shoulders. "It ain't bad at all Garrett," he said, "I
mean, you just died. What did that feel like?"

"I dunno," Garrett said, "I guess it hurt a
little, but it doesn't hurt now."

"Exactly," Grahm said, "The hard part's
over."

"So, where did you go?" Garrett asked.

Grahm stepped back and opened his mouth to
speak, but couldn't seem to find the words. At last he laughed.
"Garrett, it's just one of those kinda things you have to see to
understand."

"It's good though, right?" Garrett asked.

"Yeah," Grahm chuckled, "It's good."

Garrett looked down at the Girl in Brown. She
was shaking his body and screaming, but he couldn't hear her
voice.

"Can I say goodbye to my friends?" Garrett
asked.

Grahm smirked. "If you choose to come with
me, you've already said all the goodbyes you're gonna get to
say."

"
Choose
? What do you mean?" Garrett
asked.

Grahm sighed. "I mean you just did something
you weren't supposed to do, Garrett. You just took a big chunk of
the magic that made this world and agreed to carry it around for
the rest of your life... then you got killed without passing it
along to the next person."

"What happens now?" Garrett said.

"You can leave it lyin' on the floor there
and come with me," Grahm said, "or you can pick it back up... and
do what you promised to do."

A wild hope sprang up in Garrett's heart.
"You mean I can go back to life?"

Grahm gave him a hesitant nod. "Sort of," he
said.

"What do you mean?" Garrett asked.

"Well, the only thing holding you to that
body would be the magic you're carrying around inside it. It's Old
Magic, Garrett, the kind that trumps the rules of the game, so to
speak. Someday, you'll give it up and pass it to the next guy.
That's the day you'll see me again."

The vision of Brahnek's cold blue eyes
suddenly burned bright in Garrett's mind. "So, I'll be some kind of
undead monster?" he said.

Grahm laughed. "You'll still be Garrett," he
said, "You'll just be a little bit... different."

"What if I don't do it?" Garrett asked, "What
if I go with you?"

Grahm smiled sadly. "Then you and I would
have some really great adventures... There's so much I want to show
you... but, if you walk away now, that magic will be lost
forever... forgotten... really forgotten. Your people will die in
chains they will never be able to break."

"My
people
?" Garrett said.

Grahm grinned and said nothing.

"What am I supposed to do?" Garrett
asked.

Grahm lifted his hands. "That's up to you
Garrett," he said, "It's your life."

Garrett stood silent for a moment. Then he
nodded. "I want to go back," he said.

Grahm hugged him again for a very long time.
"I'll see you again, Garrett," he said, stepping away at last, "...
a long time from now."

"I missed you a lot," Garrett said.

"I missed you too, little brother," Grahm
said.

Garrett looked down at his body again. "Well,
how do I get back in," he asked.

"You just have to make the decision," Grahm
said.

****

Garrett gasped for breath. His chest felt
like a block of ice.

"Garrett!" the Girl in Brown cried out. She
wrapped her arms around him tightly as Garrett struggled to
breathe, blinking as his vision slowly cleared.

"Garrett! Are you in there?" Marla's voice
called from the stairway beyond the door. The Guardian still stood
on the threshold, looking down at him with its three void-black
eyes.

"I'm all right!" Garrett shouted, "Just stay
back."

"
You were dead!
" the Girl in Brown
whispered, "How did you..."

"It's all right," Garrett said, "I... I have
something I have to do."

Garrett slowly got to his feet. His legs
shook beneath him, and he leaned on the Girl in Brown for a moment
before he trusted himself not to fall.

He faced the Guardian then and saw it for
what it was.

The words of an ancient song wrapped around
the thing in the threshold like chains of sorrow and hate. Garrett
heard the voice of fire and thunder in his mind, the voice of the
dragon that had conjured the white goat into being from some
fevered dream of loss. He heard the voice of infinite sorrow that
formed every word, every fiber of the creature's body, and his
heart ached for it.

It looked at him with its midnight eyes and
waited.

"I set you free," Garrett said, and a strange
tone filled his voice. He stretched out his hand toward the
Guardian, and the white goat shrank back from the sound it heard in
his words.

"Don't be afraid," Garrett said, "You've done
what they asked of you, and now it's over... you're free now."

The words of the ancient song began to
unravel in Garrett's mind. He saw at once that he could unmake the
Guardian altogether, if he so chose. Perhaps that is what Brahnek
would have done, but he was not Brahnek Spellbreaker. He was just
Garrett, and he felt nothing but pity for the animal that stood
trembling before him.

He pulled the darkest notes from the song,
hearing them fade into silence, leaving only the simple melody of a
creature, unbound and free. Garrett watched as the shadow lifted
from the creature's eyes, and it stared back at him with crystal
blue wonder.

Garrett smiled.

The Guardian bleated in terror and fled,
clopping up the stairs past Marla with a flutter of its membranous
wings.

Marla ducked to the side to let it pass then
ran to Garrett as he stepped from the tomb, bewilderment on her
face.

"Garrett! Are you all right?" she gasped,
"What happened?"

"I have it, Marla," he said. His tongue felt
stiff and cold when he spoke. "I have the Word."

Marla laughed with joy. Then she glanced over
Garrett's shoulder and looked startled. "Who is that?" she
asked.

Garrett looked back at the Girl in Brown,
standing in the doorway behind him, and he smiled. He extended his
hand to her and guided her forward as Warren and Diggs and Scupp
raced, panting, to the bottom of the stairs.

"Everyone," he said, "This is my friend..."
He looked at the Girl in Brown. "Alyss?" he guessed.

"Not even close," she laughed.

Every inch of Garrett's body ached with a
chill tension by the time he dragged himself up over the rim of the
pit. He lay, gasping for breath and listening to the trickle of
water past him on the floor of the roundhouse room beside the
bottomless pit. The ghouls sat beside him, catching their breath.
Marla was already coiling up the last length of rope with a
troubled look on her face.

Garrett looked over to see the Girl in Brown
edging toward the shadows.

"Don't go," Garrett said, "... not yet."

The Girl in Brown smiled and stood by the
wall, looking at him. When he looked at her and let his eyes go out
of focus, he could see the words of her Song in his mind's eye.
Like a symphony of darkness, a spell of shadow and secrecy swirled
about her body. He tried to read in it some clue, some hint of her
name, but the threads were woven too tightly. If, in trying to free
her, he pulled the wrong stitch, she would be torn and frayed apart
into nothingness. He needed to know her name.

"So, none of us are gonna remember her after
she leaves?" Warren said.

Garrett pushed himself up into a sitting
position with his hands on the floor behind him. "Yeah," he said,
"that's the way it works."

"That's dumb," Warren said, "Why don't you
just write yourself a note or somethin'?"

Garrett saw the Girl in Brown tense, and he
sensed the danger growing in her.

"No!" he said, "It's for her own
protection."

Warren shook his head. "Whatever. I'm
hungry." He got to his feet and helped Scupp and Diggs up as
well.

"You coming back to Marrowvyn with us?" Diggs
asked.

"No," Garrett said, "I have to go see
Lampwicke."

Diggs nodded, and he and Warren bid them
goodbye and loped off into the shadows. Scupp gave Garrett a
worried smile and then glanced at the Girl in Brown once before
following her brother.

Garrett got to his feet, rubbing his chaffed
hands together to try to warm them up. He looked down and peeled
back the edge of the silk bandage on his palm. The red swelling
where he had touched the hot door was gone.

Marla tossed the last coil of rope down
beside her duffle bag and turned to face the Girl in Brown.

"So why is a Banal still in Wythr, so long
after the war?" Marla asked.

The Girl in Brown said nothing.

"What war?" Garrett asked.

"The war between dragons and humans," Marla
said, "The Banal were created to infiltrate and sabotage the human
side during the war. The war is long over. Why hasn't she gone
home?"

"Home?" the Girl in Brown laughed bitterly,
"Where is that?"

Marla tilted her head. "Are there any more of
you left?" she asked.

The Girl in Brown looked at the floor.
"Garrett," she said, "I have to go."

"No," Garrett said, "I don't want you to go.
Come with us to Annalien's house, please."

She shook her head. "I'm sorry, Garrett. I
have to go," she said, "I'm glad... I'm glad you're all right."

Garrett nodded. "I'll... I'll see you soon,
right?"

"Yeah," she said, looking at Marla,
"Goodbye."

Garrett and Marla watched her go. Garrett
waited until she was out of sight, and then he rushed to Marla's
side.

"Marla," he whispered, "I need you to help me
remember. I need you to help me remember to ask Annalien her name.
If I know her name, then I can remember her. Annalien knows
it."

Marla looked at him with concern. "Garrett,"
she said, "I don't think that's a good idea. It's safer if you
don't
remember her. Garrett, she's not human. She's a very
dangerous thing. She was created to spy on and
destroy
humans!"

"Marla, please!" Garrett said, "I can already
feel her memory slipping away... you have to help me hold this
thought and ask Annalien what her name is."

Marla nodded sharply. "All right," she said,
"Let's go."

They left Marla's gear lying beside the pit
and descended into the tunnel network beneath the city, making
their way toward Annalien's house.

Garrett whispered to himself as he walked.
Remember to ask the Girl in Brown's name. Remember to ask the
Girl in Brown's name.

Marla walked beside him, and, despite his
focus on remembering the girl, Garrett could sense Marla's tension.
He knew she disapproved, but that didn't matter now. Only
remembering mattered.
Remember to ask the Girl in Brown's
name.

He almost lost track of his thought when he
came to the juncture of tunnels where he had trouble remembering
the way to Annalien's house, but he caught the memory back just as
it slipped away and repeated it fiercely to himself again.
Remember to ask the Girl in Brown's name.

When they reached the underground dome that
contained Annalien's house, and he saw at last the golden light of
day spilling through its little round windows, he turned to look at
Marla and smiled. "I'll be right back," he said.
Remember to ask
the Girl in Brown's name.

Marla swooned against the wall of the dark
tunnel, overcome with sun-sickness and unable to proceed any
further toward the ghost's house. "Garrett," she said, "please just
wait a minute... we need to talk about this."

"I'll just be a minute," he said, desperate
to hold onto the thought.
Remember to ask the Girl in Brown's
name.

Marla gave him a thin smile and nodded.

Garrett grinned and started toward the sunlit
house.

"Garrett!" Marla cried out, and he turned to
look back at her.

"Yeah?" he asked.

A look of pain crossed her face, as though
she were reluctant to speak. At last she said, "How did you find
the Word of Breaking?"