And Eternity (18 page)

“I, yes,” Orlene said. “Thanks in part to you, I am no longer in danger of descending to Hell. But when Jolie talked with you before, you told her it was impossible, or nearly.’’

“The quest must continue, regardless. From me you need a blank soul?”

“So I understand. To transfer-”

“Come with me.”

Orlene hesitated, remembering how Thanatos had come for her when she died and she had fled him. Have no fear, Jolie thought. He is a good man, as well as a good Incarnation.

“May I dress first?”

“Dress,” he agreed.

She paused, but he did not retreat or disappear. Just go ahead and do it, Jolie urged. He doesn’t even realize there could be a problem, after all the naked souls he’s seen.

Orlene went to the closet, snatched down a decent dress, and grabbed for the rest of what she needed. She carried them into the bathroom and got herself in order as quickly as she could. Thanatos waited impassively, seeming not to move at all.

“I’m ready,” she said, emerging. But he was already on his way, and she had to run to catch up. She didn’t dare ask where they were going.

In the yard the death-steed Mortis was grazing.
Oh, look at that!
Vita thought. As with many girls of her age, she was thrilled by the notion of a horse, any horse.

Thanatos glanced at his deathwatch. He turned and put his hands at Orlene’s sides. He lifted, and the horse came up and stood before them, so that Thanatos could set her on. Then Thanatos mounted behind her, putting one arm around her in an impersonal way to keep her secure.

The horse took off. There was no wind, no tilt, but suddenly they were riding upward through the sky, leaving the city below.
Ooooo!
Vita squealed in awed delight.

“Mortis likes you too,” Thanatos remarked.

You can hear me?

“I hear your soul. Vita.”

I like this too,
Jolie thought.

“Women do,” he agreed.

They peered down to see fluffy cotton-ball clouds below. Mortis was galloping on air, moving far faster than any mortal animal could. On occasion his hooves kicked up divots of cloud dust, which dissolved behind them. The scene was beautiful, with the morning beams of the sun spearing out from the east, lighting the near sides of the clouds.

I begin to get a notion what Luna sees in Death, if he takes her on rides like this!
Vita thought.

“On occasion,” Thanatos agreed.

Then the steed was moving down to another city. They had no idea where it was; the speed and magic had been such that it could be anywhere. They had departed at dawn, local time; here it was afternoon.

They landed on a city street amidst traffic. Orlene flinched as a car charged toward them, but it passed right through them as if they were ghosts. Yet of course they were not ghosts, exactly; Vita’s body was alive and solid, so that meant that Thanatos and Mortis had to be solid, too, to lift and carry her as they had.

Magic
, Jolie reminded her.

“True,” Thanatos agreed. “Mortals can neither perceive nor affect us unless we wish it.”

The horse walked across the street and into a solid wall. They passed through the wall and into a lighted factory region at the base of a megabuilding. “This man is about to die of a rare internal electrical imbalance,” Thanatos said, dismounting and approaching one of the workers. Sure enough, the man paused before his equipment, and fell back, looking startled.

Thanatos stepped in and reached out to the man, but not to help support him. His hand passed into the man’s body without resistance and out again, holding the man’s soul. The soul came out in a translucent skein, mottled by black patches and white, distorting out of shape. The body sank to the floor, its eyes staring as if still startled.

“But you never gave him a chance!” Orlene protested.

“He might have recovered had you not swept out his soul!”

“He would have endured until I took his soul, but not for recovery. I acted promptly so as to spare him unnecessary pain. When a soul is in balance, a person can not die until it is removed, no matter how hopeless the physical case.” As he spoke he was folding the soul like so much gossamer, until it was wadded into a ball, which he placed in a little bag.

He returned to Mortis and mounted. The horse walked back through the wall, then galloped into the air again. “How can you just take lives, all day?” Orlene asked. “It is a necessary part of human existence,” he replied seriously. “Without death there could soon be no new life. The old must be cleared away for the new. Even as it is, we are threatened with overpopulation.”

Orlene was silent. She hadn’t thought of it that way. Soon they came down in another city, somewhere in the world. Mortis halted at a Dumpster similar to the one they had hidden in when fleeing Vita’s pimp, so long ago.

“Your turn, Orlene,” he said abruptly.

“What?”

“Within that Dumpster is a newborn infant who will die within hours if unattended. No mortal knows of his presence except his mother, who is beyond compassion in this respect, having such serious difficulties of her own as to be unable to return. My attention is not necessary, as the baby is unsullied and will go to Heaven, but to avoid subjecting him to avoidable agony as the next load of garbage is dumped, crushing him, I am interceding. You are looking for a blank soul; this one is close enough. Climb in and take it.”

“But I can’t do that!” Orlene protested. “You are with me, sharing my power for this event by my extension. Do with him as you saw me do with the last case, and the soul will come out for you.” Orlene waited a moment, flustered. “But-”

“I understood that you wished above all else to recover and cure your own baby,” Thanatos said emotionlessly. “This is the way to obtain one of the seven elements required. How serious is your quest?”

Tight-lipped, Orlene got down and approached the Dumpster. Now they heard it: a faint mewling from within. They climbed up and peered in.

The baby was there, half swathed in dirty rags, grease and blood splotched over his body, short dark hair matted to the tiny skull. “Oh, my God!” Orlene breathed numbly.

So little!
Vita thought.
I never realized how small they were. His ankle is no bigger around than my thumb!

Orlene reached forth with a shaking hand to take the soul. Her teeth were clenched.

No!
Vita thought.
Don’t kill him!

She has to, Jolie thought.
It would be cruel to let him suffocate in garbage, or to die slowly of exposure.

Thanatos is right: it is an act of mercy to take this innocent soul now.

But he’s just an eensy baby! He never did anything to anyone! He shouldn’t be killed, he should be held and cuddled and nursed and everything!

Those are not his options, Jolie returned, realizing that they were in effect Orlene’s inner voices, her conscience debating while she hesitated.
It is wrong, we know, but the world is not governed by right, it is governed by circumstances, and all we can do is alleviate the most egregious cases. Sometimes the choice is between evils.

You must be good at that! Vita shot back.

“That’s not fair!” Orlene protested. “She’s not evil, she’s-”

Oh, damn, I’m sorry!
Vita thought with genuine contrition.
I didn’t mean that, Jolie. It’s just that I never was into killing, and this poor baby…

I know, don’t I know! Jolie replied.
I died before I had a baby of my own, and then when I came to watch Orlene, it was like…

I guess we better stop; I don’t think we’re helping.

had to agree. This was Orlene’s decision, hard as it was. Thanatos had given her a cruel lesson in death and souls!

Orlene reached again for the baby. He took a ragged breath and cried a little louder, as if aware that death was upon him.

“I can’t!” Orlene cried. “Oh, I just can’t!” She put both hands down and picked up the baby and held him close.

Jolie and Vita maintained thought silence, not knowing what would come of this. Probably she had forfeited the soul she so needed; Thanatos would take it himself and put the dead baby back. But how else could she have reacted this woman who had already lost her own baby and died herself because of it? What Thanatos had inflicted on her had been more than cruel, it had been diabolic. Jolie knew it was not her place to judge him, but she could not accept this thing he had done.

Orlene climbed out of the Dumpster, managing to bring the baby along. She came to stand before Thanatos as he sat on Mortis. She held the baby protectively. “Maybe I have no right to ask this, but if there is any way to save this baby, I’ve got to do it,” she said, the tears coming. “I’m a mother, not a killer.”

“That is not your baby,” Thanatos said. “You can gain nothing by interceding.”

“I know. I expect nothing. Please.”

“But you can salvage the soul, for your purpose.”

“I cannot, though I lose my own baby. Please.”

“I ask you again to consider just how serious you are about your quest for your own baby. If you will not do what is necessary-”

“Oh, Thanatos, I would give my own soul to save my baby, if it were only clean enough instead of hopelessly soiled! But I cannot sacrifice this innocent one to my purpose! This baby should have his chance to live and to make his own decisions about good and evil as he grows. I am grief-stricken over the loss of my own, but I cannot help mine by denying this one his chance. I beg you, I beg you, spare him, if you possibly can!”

The death’s head nodded. “I can, to a degree. Mount.” He extended a bone hand.

Orlene grasped it, holding the baby close with her other arm. Her weight diminished and she was moved effortlessly to the front of the great horse.

A short gallop through the air and buildings brought them to a hospital. “Take him there,” Thanatos said, lifting her down.

Orlene walked into the hospital. She approached the front desk. “I found this newborn baby in a garbage dump,” she said. “Please take care of him and arrange for his adoption.” She held out the baby.

A nurse appeared and took the baby. “You will have to make a statement,” she said. “Where he was found, what time-”

“I can’t do that,” Orlene said, turning away.

“But you must! It is a crime to-”

Mortis walked through the wall. Thanatos reached down. Orlene caught his hand and was set back on the horse.

The nurse stared, holding the baby. “She disappeared!’’ she exclaimed. “She just disappeared!”

“Sometimes they come like that,” the girl at the desk said. “So there is no legal claim on the baby. We’ll take care of him.”

“Yes, we’ll take good care of him,” the nurse said. Mortis leaped, passing through the ceiling, through the various chambers of the hospital, and on out the roof. Orlene, her effort done, sank into renewed grief. Jolie understood the temptation that had been on her: to try to keep the baby herself. She had resisted that, but it hurt.
You did right!
she thought.

You did right
. Vita echoed. “Yes, you did right,” Thanatos said. “I will save an otherwise lost soul for you, from a baby whose situation is not subject to salvage, and deliver it to you when you have obtained the artifacts you require from the other Incarnations. You are worthy, in my estimation.”

You mean this thing was a test?
Vita thought, outraged.

“A soul is infinitely precious,” Thanatos replied, unperturbed. “I would not yield one to a person who failed to appreciate its value, not merely as a convenience for a purpose, but as an entity in itself. This was a necessary determination. Orlene refused to do what she believed was wrong, even to achieve the thing she most desired.”

But did you have to make her hurt so?
Jolie demanded.
Knowing that she had lost her own baby?

“The ultimate proof of character is not lightly achieved. A lesser proof would have been valueless. Incarnations do not deal in valueless matters.”

The understatement of the century!
Jolie realized that Thanatos had been correct in his action, however cruel it had seemed. Orlene had won her soul not by taking what was proffered without conscience, but by maintaining her standards of decency and compassion despite the seeming cost.

I think maybe I learned something
. Vita thought.
I couldn’t’ve done it myself.

Jolie wasn’t sure she could have, either.
We thank you,for this hard lesson,
she thought. “You are welcome, Jolie,” he replied. Mortis landed back in Luna’s yard. Orlene got down. “I, too, thank you, Thanatos,” she said. “I will try to get the other things I need.”

“We are not yet finished,” Thanatos said, dismounting.

He accompanied her into the house.

“I don’t think I understand,” Orlene said. Thanatos took a seat on the same couch that Judge Scott had used the night before. Jolie was glad that they had thought to return to pick up Vita’s scattered clothing before sleeping! “The shifting of the course of a life cannot be accomplished by a single Incarnation unilaterally,” he said.

“A life is too important for that. In my early days in Office I sometimes declined to take the souls that were due. I once saved a drowning man, for example, instead of allowing him to die. I learned later that both Chronos and Fate had had to make adjustments to accommodate my action. They had not spoken of it to me, making allowance for my inexperience in Office. Now I am more careful, just as other Incarnations are careful of my prerogatives. Orlene, you will have to present your case for the baby you saved to Fate, so that she can decide whether to alter his thread of life.”

“But Fate is-”

“Your natural grandmother,” he said.

“My what!”

Thanatos paused. “I apologize. I see you did not know.”

I did not tell her
, Jolie thought
. I thought it best to let her follow her quest without the complication of that knowledge.

“My natural grandmother!” Orlene repeated, dazed. “That may complicate the picture,” Thanatos said. “Nevertheless, it was at your instigation that that baby’s thread of life was rerouted, and it is your responsibility to obtain the authorization for it. Jolie will be able to guide you to the Incarnation of Fate, of course.”