The Templar's Legacy (Ancient Enemy) (41 page)

When I couldn’t stuff in any more food or drink, Jen rummaged around and then handed me my phone. Her face was guarded and her movements stiff.

I took the phone and turned it on. There were several voice mails and some text messages waiting. One was from Colette.

Colette> Couldn’t you have spared her?

I looked at that message and tried to process it. My emotions were far too tangled up for me to unknot them right then. I texted her back, sharing the screen with Jen.

Finn> It wasn’t me. In the end, she gave her life to help me recapture Wendigota.

Finn> She told me to tell you something.

The words were somehow burned within my mind.

Finn> Never forget that God’s purpose must always be served, whether we recognize or not. We cannot always know, we can but pray to be the instruments of His will.

I dropped my hand with the phone in my lap, and turned my eyes to Jen.

She asked, “Is that true?”

I nodded. “But, not everything. Mémèr attacked me, and I used Wendigota to defend myself. It took her down, and when I ripped it off her, I ripped her soul out with it. She still helped me defeat it, and the last bit of her binds it in place.”

Jen stroked her fingers lightly across my forehead. I found myself wishing she would stroke my eyebrows. I barely managed not to ask her to do it. I don’t know why, but somehow, that wasn’t mine.

Jen asked, “I know you didn’t want to kill her. Are you going to be okay?”

I gave it some thought before I nodded slowly. “Yes, I think so. She died in grace.” I was still pretty wrung out, so I knew this wouldn’t be the last visit my conscience made to Mémèr’s death. When my brain had a chance to process all this, I knew it could get ugly. I suddenly felt very alone.

I met Jen’s eyes. “Are you going to leave me?”

“Just try and get rid of me, monkey boy.”

I relaxed and pulled her words over me like a security blanket. “Never.”

My phone buzzed with news of a reply.

Colette> Thank you.

I thought of one more thing.

Finn> Colette, you need to seal off the door to the nest. Fill the stairway with concrete. Don’t go in, don’t let anyone else go in. Please trust me on this. If you have to go in, do it alone.

“You think it would hit her hard?” asked Jen.

“I think it might shatter her. Her faith is the rock which anchors her world.”

“Yikes.”

I thought a little more. “Maybe I’m not giving her enough credit. Maybe she already knows. Granny knew and it hadn’t shaken her faith... I guess have a lot to learn about faith.”

“How about you, Finn? How’s your faith in God?”

“I don’t really know. It would be nice to absolutely know that everything happened for a reason, that we aren’t just out here dangling in the wind. Colette’s faith got her through some tough spots in her life… But, I suppose it doesn’t matter in the end. Even Colette and Granny couldn’t understand God’s will. Maybe we just need to do the best we can, be the best we can, and let God sort us out in the end.”

“Wow, Finn. That’s deep. What book did you read that in?” Jen’s eyes crinkled in the corners.

“What? You don’t think I can think deep thoughts?”

“Finn, the deepest you think is about six inches.”

“Ouch! If I weren’t tied down, I’d spank you! You should respect your elders!”

She rolled her eyes. “Finn, I hate to break this to you, but I’ve always been older than you!”

She’s right
,
you know.

“Hey no fair ganging up on me!”

“Ha! Spring agrees with me, doesn’t she?”

“Yeah, well she’s just a tree. What do trees know?”

Dave finally woke up again and was given the pudding treatment as well. Despite my entreaties, the medic on the plane kept both of us strapped down the entire flight. Happily, they’d elected to use diapers on us rather than catheters, but it still sucked.

Mark came back and checked on us. Our greetings were superficial, guarded, and generic. To my surprise, he gave me back the fake Caduceus.

“Here, Finn, you need this more than I do.”

Don’t even think about telling him it’s a fake. Jen’s been doing back-flips to keep that secret, and old Uncle Mark has some ‘splainin to do.

“Thanks, Uncle Mark.”

“It didn’t do nearly as much for me as it does for you. We’re all pretty fortunate in that regard.”

“I’m glad we got you back.” I said, though I wasn’t sure just how glad I really was. I needed to discover just what part he’d played in our kidnapping and the death of so many in my, I mean Colette’s, family.

“Me too, kiddo, me too.” He tousled my hair, and I couldn’t duck it. I hate that.

“For your information, I left eight of the pendants behind for the Delacroix and I’ve sent assurances to them that they won’t be hunted any more. I also told them that, as soon as we can catch Smith’s people who still have pendants, we will send those back to them as well.” He searched my face for something. I have no idea if he found it, but he finally said, “Well, I’ve got a plane to fly, but we have a lot to talk about.”

I agreed wholeheartedly.

“And, we need to step up your training. That was a pathetic show you put on back there. I took you down in less than three seconds.”

I nodded ruefully, still feeling the residual ache in my shattered but healing leg. I’d been barely able to follow his moves, let alone anticipate them or block them.

He turned to go, then added over his shoulder, “Oh, and bring Dave and Jen along. Turns out being around you is hazardous to one’s health.” He smirked and left.

Holy shit, was it ever.

I was allowed to walk on my own when we disembarked, but Dave was kept strapped down—against his vociferous objection.

It felt incredible to be back. My heart surged when we got through security and my family was waiting for me. Dave was met enthusiastically by his tribe. His sisters were all crying.

Jen’s parents were there as well, but thankfully, she pulled them off, and I didn’t have to face them.

All semblance of regret or disappointment vanished as I was surrounded by my family. Everyone but Uncle Mark was crying by the time we’d finished. There was a lot of explaining and apologizing to be done, but I really couldn’t worry about it. We were all alive. The shadow was back where it belonged, and no one was trying to kill me or my friends.

I hoped.

It was all over. Now I just had to figure out how to keep Detective Hunter from throwing me in jail, keep Dr. Washington from breaking me like a dry twig, and keep the Delacroix, the Portatori, and the McCormicks from hunting me down like a rabid dog. Thanks to Colette, I knew just who they’d send if it came down to it.

Then there was the second caduceus. We had to go back for it. I couldn't turn my back on that much power.

Oh, and let’s not forget the parents, pixies, poison ivy, sleeping monsters, and whatever else was lurking in wait for me.

Except for that, it was all over.

<<<>>>

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Ancient Enemy #4

A Troublesome Request

“
What?” I exclaimed.
A
drenaline pumped through my system.

“We need to bring Il Saia back,” repeated Uncle Mark.

“But..but she wouldn't help me when she was inhabiting Jen.”

“Finn, no offense, but you really didn't try very hard, and I have some training in encouraging people to talk.”

“And, you still won't tell me what that was,” I protested.

“Of course not, if I told you...”

He grinned.

“Then you'd have to kill me.” I finished with him and returned his grin as a scowl.

“It's just not fair. You know everything about me, and even though I've known you all my life, I don't know anything about you.”

“It's unfair, but it is what it is. You know far more about me than anyone else in the world except for a very select few. Be content with that.”

I thought knowing a spy would be much more exciting than this,
said Spring with a wistfulness born of her new, growing desire for excitement.

I suspect it's more exciting for the spy than their clueless friends and family. Now let me talk.

“Uncle Mark, how are you going to even bring her back? If you do, you're going to have to erase someone else. You might find a shortage of volunteers.”

“Who said anything about volunteers?” He replied with a disconcerting smirk.

“What? You can't do that to somebody, it would be like murdering them!”

Of course, if you believe crazy doctor Smith, ol' Unca Mark used to do that for a living.

Not helpful Spring, shush.

“Unless there's no-one using that particular body,” he said.

I stopped and tried to think through what he had just said. He gave me the few seconds I needed.

“So, you're looking for someone who's brain dead?”

“Got it in one, kiddo.”

“Wouldn't you just get a brain damaged Il Saia?”

“We won't know until we try. Remember, Il Saia told us... you... she had effectively overwritten Jen's mind with the pattern of her own—”

“So you think it might fix whatever is wrong with our brain-dead person?”

He shrugged. “It might.”

“I doubt it, our brains create our minds. If it didn't, damage to the brain wouldn't cause so many problems with people's minds.” I said.

“I know you can't completely believe that. The evidence to the contrary is too compelling. Spring somehow seems to share your mind without a brain of her own. Do you think Il Saia's magic rewrote every neuron in Jen's head?”

I frowned. I'd thought about this at length and didn't have any good explanations as to just what had happened to Jen. Could hoodoo really rewrite every neuron? What about structural difference between brains? How would it account for that? Even given unimaginable processing power, I couldn't conceive of creating a program sophisticated enough to do that mapping. It couldn't be NP-Complete. How could you effectively solve an unsolvable problem with a crystal?

It's called magic for a reason Finn.

Spring, I can't accept that the universe runs that way!

Sounds like denial to me, and I'm not talking about the river. Anyway, it happened, and given that, what Mark is suggesting sounds plausible.

I tried to think through the ramifications of doing this.

“So, what if she won't cooperate?” I asked. “What are you going to do then?” Visions of water-boards and bamboo slivers under the fingernails danced in my head.

“Finn, there are a lot of better ways to get information out of someone other than torture.”

“Like a truth serum or something?”

“Or something.”

His words chilled me. This whole idea approached perilously close to mad scientist territory,

Or mad wizard territory as the case may be,
added Spring.

“I don't know, it seems shaky to me. She thought that our knowing more would expose us to danger. What if it's like a purple elephant?”

“As in, once you're told not to think of a purple elephant, that is all you can think about?” he guessed.
There were
some
advantages to people knowing you really well.

“Yeah, but maybe there's like a name we shouldn't think about or say, like Sauron or Voldemort.”

“Come on Finn, that's just silly, and you know it.”

“No! I don't know it, and that's the problem! I don't know anything. I know that thinking about something a particular way causes physical effects. Who's to say that names don't have power? Every fantasy
and legend
out there says differently.”

“That concept is as old as language Finn. It doesn't have anything to do with hoodoo.
It's more about getting potatoes rather than artichokes when your wife goes foraging.
”

“You hope.”

Mark scowled and ran his hand over his bald head and visibly struggled not to throttle me.

“Finn think. Don't you see that this is why we need to know? We've got nothing to work with here. We have evidence that something out there in the universe threatened us with extinction. We have evidence that our understanding of the universe is incomplete at best. Dangerously wrong at worst. Don't you think we should know about it? When is ignorance ever a defense?”

“When dealing with the tax code?”

He glared at me. “Be serious here Finn.”

I thought it was funny,
said Spring in a rare show of support.