You Slay Me (33 page)

I met Amelie an hour later at the south side of the Jardin du Luxembourg, one of the few parks that allowed dogs. Jim and Cecile came with her, Jim strutting alongside the crotchety Corgi, periodically giving her ears and head a swipe with its huge pink tongue. I made a mental note to have a talk with Jim about the propriety of ear-sucking in public.

"I was not followed," Amelie said by way of a greeting. "We took three Metros and walked through the shop of a friend to leave by the alley. No one could follow me."

I gave her a little hug and invited her to share my bench.

"Eh... Cece and I are going to go check out a lovely stinky spot I found while I was on the run yesterday. We'll see you in a bit," Jim said as it nudged Cecile toward a low bank of shrubs.

"Don't go too far—we might have to get out of here quickly," I warned before turning back to Amelie. "Why do I feel like we're going to be in-laws?"

She laughed, shaking her head. "I will admit, to me it was at first most disturbing, but I see now that the demon is not a true demon,
hein?
It is
unepetite
demon. Cecile, she seems to like it, so I say
ouf,
and let them be."

"Mmm. I have a feeling I'm going to have a sulky demon in love when it's time to leave Paris."

"Leave? Ah. You have solved the problems haunting you?"

"Not yet, but I hope to soon. You've probably heard about my challenge, huh?"

Amelie gave me a pitying smile. "Yes, I did. That was not so well done of you, was it?"

I think it was the experience and knowledge she had that made me feel like I was being called on the carpet by my grade-school principal. I squirmed a tiny bit and stared down at my hands. "Um ... well, I had this plan, you see? I figured it would bring the murderer out into the open if I challenged Drake and lost. It's obvious that Drake has been set up as the fall guy, and I just kind of stumbled onto the scene and messed everything up. But then my chief suspect up and got herself kidnapped by the demon Bafamal, and no one knows where she is or how I can find out, and I can't ask Drake for help, because it's against some rule to talk to the person you've challenged, and I don't trust Fiat any farther than I can spit, and even if I did, I doubt if he'd order his men to track Ophelia because I don't have any gold left except the bit on the talisman you gave me, and that means I'm left with having to pull out Plan B, which between you and me, I'd rather not do."

Amelie gave me an odd look. "That was a great deal you said."

I sighed. "Yeah, well, it's been kind of a rough last couple of days."

"Ophelia Dawkins has been kidnapped?"

"Sometime last night, I think. She was there when I went to bed, and gone this morning. Jim says her room smells like Bafamal, so that can only mean someone conjured up the demon and had it snatch her."

Amelie did a pretty good impression of Drake's head tip. "You are a very linear thinker, are you not?"

I smiled at the praise. "I try."

She shook her head. "It will not benefit you. You have much learning to undo before you can step into the role you were meant to take. A Guardian draws her power from her understanding of the possibilities, not in linear order. You must shake yourself of the desire to see only those things that can be arranged to match what you know, and learn instead to embrace
all
the possibilities that exist."

"That sounds strangely like a quantum physics class I once took," I said warily.

She gave a one-shouldered shrug. "Quantum theory is just another way people have of ordering that which cannot be ordered."

"Ah. As I failed miserably in that class, I think I'll quickly change the subject to something I can think about without having to lie down in a quiet room with a cold wet cloth over my eyes. You don't happen to have any idea of why someone would want to kidnap Ophelia, or where they would take her?"

She shook her head. "You do not see, and yet it stares you right in your eyes. Do you have your talisman?"

"Sure." I plucked it out from where it rested between my breasts.

She took it from me, holding her hand open flat to show it resting on her palm. Slowly she closed her hand over it, then held up her other hand, also closed. "Now, tell me, which hand has the talisman?"

I touched her left hand, the one that I had seen holding the talisman. She opened her hand. It was empty.

"Uh ... well, you must have palmed it to your other hand, although I don't quite see how since your hands never moved—"

She opened up her right hand. It, too, was empty.

"Now," she said, tapping me on the forehead. "Close your eyes and open yourself up to the possibilities. Tell me where the talisman is."

I felt a little silly doing this in the middle of a busy park, but I sensed she was trying to show me something important, and since I hadn't done too well trying to muddle through things on my own, I figured it was to my benefit to learn. I closed my eyes, pushed away all the noises and distractions that surrounded me, shoved down all the worry and panic and confusion that filled me, squashed even the faint burn that was my feelings about Drake, and opened the magic door in my mind. I pictured the talisman, remembering what it felt like, how it felt beneath my fingertips, visualized the smooth, curved lines of the warm jade touched here and there with cool gold.

I opened my eyes. I knew where it was. "It's in my hand," I said, blinking in surprise at the hand that rested on my thigh. I turned it over, opened my fingers, and stared at the talisman resting on my palm.

"How ... I don't understand. It was there all along, but I couldn't see it or feel it?"

"That is because you did not consider all the possibilities, only the one you believed to be true. In order to be a great Guardian—and I believe you have that within your ability if only you will seek it—you must learn to see not just what you know to be, but those things that also might be."

I absorbed that for a few seconds. "So you're saying that I should consider the possibility that Ophelia hasn't really been kidnapped?"

Amelie just looked at me, neither confirming nor denying that idea.

"If that's so, then it would mean she disappeared for some reason of her own."

She raised an eyebrow.

"Which would also mean that if Bafamal was in her bedroom, it was because ..." Goose bumps rippled up my arms. "Because she summoned it there. And if that's the case, then I couldn't have summoned it when I thought I did. Oh, holy
grenouilles
—that's why it could lie to me! She summoned it before I could, probably telling it what I was going to do and what to say to me after it pretended to be summoned." I stood up and faced Amelie. "That's why the circle felt different! That's why I was so sick and feeling icky yesterday—it wasn't just a depression over leaving Jim behind—the demon was there all along. It was the demon's presence that I felt!"

I spun around, holding my talisman to the sky, suddenly feeling as if I were a hundred pounds lighter. "I wasn't wrong! I wasn't stupid! I was right about Ophelia! She
is
the murderer, wahooo!"

"That is a very strange thing you are celebrating," Amelie said with a dry smile.

I grinned and sat down. "I know, call me wacky, but it does make me feel better to know that I wasn't wrong about her. I've been wrong about so many other things. But I suppose I shouldn't be celebrating yet. I still have to draw her out and get her to confess before enough witnesses that Inspector Proust will be able to charge her."

Amelie smiled and looked out over the park. Dusk was setting in, but the rain had stopped some hours ago, and now the soft, warm summer air was luring people out to the park.

"It's going to be a long night," I said with a little sigh.

"The longest of the year."

I did a quick mental calculation. "Oh, that's right, today is the summer solstice. Midsummer."

"Litha," Amelie said, still watching the people strolling by us. "It is also the night of the full moon." She slid me an odd look. "You have chosen well for the night of your challenge."

"Pure happenstance. I didn't actually set it up this way. Ophelia kind of pushed me into it."

She shook her head. "You are not seeing the possibilities, my friend. But come, we have much to do if we are to ready you for the tasks you have chosen to undertake."

I stood up when she did. "We do? I don't want you getting into trouble on my account—"

"We won't go back to my shop," she said, putting her fingers to her lips and blowing a shrill whistle. "What we . need we have here."

The shrubs near us rustled; then Cecile emerged at a stiff waddle, Jim following with a plaintive note in its voice. "But baby, it can work. I'll lie on my back and you can lower— Oh, hi. This isn't what it sounds like."

I glared at it with the squintiest eyes possible. "You are a heartbeat away from an intimate introduction to a pair of scissors and some rough twine, demon."

Jim had the decency to look abashed. It didn't fool me, however. I kept a close eye on my furry little friend as we walked up one side of the Jardin and down the other, Amelie talking the entire time, lecturing me on everything from the foolishness of linear thinking to a brief history of the Otherworld.

"This is all fascinating," I said an hour and probably several miles later, "but it's not terribly practical, if you know what I mean. I was hoping you'd teach me some wards or give me an idea of how to tackle one of the demon lords, something useful like that."

"Demon lords?" she asked, coming to a halt. "What do you need to know about managing a demon lord?"

"Eh ... well, I may have to summon one of them."

"Which one?" she asked, going absolutely still, her eyes large and black under the soft yellow glow of a nearby lamp.

"Bael," I said, hating to say the name.

She shuddered and started walking very quickly, as if to distance herself from the unpleasant idea. "No. You are not that foolish. You would not attempt to bind the most powerful lord in all of Abaddon, not you who does not even yet know the extent of your abilities. It is impossible what you say. You cannot control even the small powers you have touched. You are making the joke to me."

"This is not doing a whole lot for my self-confidence," I said as I trudged along. I was telling the truth. My stomach had knotted up into the size of a prune. A runty prune. One with a rotten core.

"This is not funny!" Amelie suddenly shouted, spinning around to pin me with a look that shriveled my stomach even further. "You have challenged a wyvern! You intend on summoning a demon lord! These are not trivial events you plan—they could destroy you!"

I made a placating gesture as I urged her forward. People had stopped to stare at her outburst, and the last thing I wanted to do was garner anyone's attention after having my face on all the newspapers. "I didn't mean to sound flip. I'm taking the matter of Bael very seriously, very seriously indeed. But you don't have to worry about the other thing—the challenge to Drake is just an excuse to draw Ophelia out in front of a bunch of witnesses. Drake won't mind if I cancel the challenge."

She stared at me as if I had cheese growing out of my ears. "You cannot do such a thing!"

"Sure I can."

Her head shook vehemently. "No, you cannot. It is in the rules—once a challenge has been made, the two combatants must see the challenge through to the end. One must be the victor, the other the loser."

I shrugged. "I'll just refuse to fight and let him be victor. I was planning to forfeit anyway, that's how I'm going to get Ophelia to show. And if she doesn't, I have a little chat with Bael and have him bring her forth to admit her guilt."

Amelie stopped, took a deep breath, and pulled on my arm until I was turned to face her. "You do not understand," she said slowly. "By the rules that govern the
Vau-dela,
the challenge must be fought. There is no losing by default. There is no forfeit. Either you fight or your opponent will destroy you. That is the law."

I shook my head. "He can't destroy me. To do so would mean he'd kill himself, too."

She just looked at me. "Yes, it would."

I chill rippled through me at the certainty in her eyes. "He wouldn't do it. He'd refuse. He's not stupid. He wouldn't kill himself over something like a little formality—"

She sighed again. "You do not understand even though I have told you our history. The laws that govern the
Vau-dela
are not ones you can break. You accept them, or you are not a part of our world. Drake was born to the
Vau-dela;
he is immortal. He knows the laws and he will abide by them, even if it means his own death. You
must
fight him."

"Oh, God," I said, my guts twisting with a new understanding of just what I'd set into motion. "What have I done?"

"That is a question you must ask yourself," Amelie said acidly as she continued on down the path. "For I do not have an answer."

Even if she didn't have an answer, she had a lot of opinions. The next hour was spent with Amelie telling me in exacting detail just how stupid my plan was, but by the time the moon was rising beautiful and cold in the velvety blue-black sky, I had heard enough. I glanced at my watch and waved my hand for Jim to stop sweet-talking Cecile. "I'm sorry, Amelie, but there's nothing else I can do. I appreciate all your help, and your warnings, and all the information you've given me, but there's no other way out of this situation. Ophelia has us where she wants us—impotent. Justice for the deaths she caused aside, I can't let her blame Drake for her crimes. Or me. So that means I have to do what I have to do. If you'll excuse me, I've got to go to the south entrance and meet my friend Rene. He's promised to be my backup tonight."

"There is nothing I can say to make you see the folly of your plan?" Amelie said, her face twisted with worry.

I put my hand on her clenched fists and gave a gentle squeeze. "No. But I thank you."

She straightened her shoulders and started down the path to the south. "Very well. I, too, will be your backup."