Absolute Midnight

“You have a question,” Mater Motley said, singling her out.

“It was nothing, lady.”

“I said speak, damn you! I won’t have doubters! SPEAK!”

The seamstresses who had been surrounding the young woman now retreated from her.

“I was only wondering about the Twenty-Fifth Hour?” the young woman replied. “Will it also be overtaken by Midnight? Because if not—”

“Our enemies could find sanctuary there? Is that what you’re asking?”

“Yes.”

“It’s the question to which, in truth, I have no answer,” Mater Motley said lightly. “Not yet, at least. You are Mah Tuu Chamagamia, yes?”

“Yes, lady.”

“Well, as long as you are so curious about the state of the Twenty-Fifth, I will put two legions of stitchlings at your disposal.”

“To . . . do what, m’lady?”

“To take the Hour.”

“Take it?”

“Yes. To invade it. In my name.”

“But, lady, I have no skill in military matters. I could not.”

“Could not? You dare say COULD NOT to me?”

She stretched out her left arm, the fingers of her hand outstretched. The killing rod she used against the stitchlings flew from its place against the wall into her hand. She grasped it in a white-knuckled grip and in one sweeping motion pointed it at Mah Tuu Chamagamia.

The young woman opened her mouth to offer some further word of defense, but she had no time to utter it. Black lightning spat from the rod in her direction, and struck her in the middle of her body.

Now she made a sound. Not a word, but a cry of horror as her ghastly undoing spread out from her backbone in all directions turning her flesh and bone to flakes of black ash. Only her head remained untouched, so that she might better witness every moment of her dissolution.

But it was only long enough for her to see what her young beauty had been, and to turn her eyes up toward her destroyer one last time. Lone enough to murmur: “No.”

Then her head went to ashes, and she was gone.

“So dies a doubter,” the Old Mother said. “Any further questions?”

There were none.

Chapter 10 The Sorrows of the Good Son (#ulink_cbaabc9f-2b7a-56da-8d4b-2c8708355089)

LAGUNA MUNN CLIMBED DOWN from her chair and called for her second son, her Good Boy.

“Covenantis? Where are you? I have need of you, boy!”

A joyless little voice said, “I’m here, Mother,” and the boy Laguna Munn had reputedly made from all the good in her came into view. He was an unfortunate creature, as gray and dull as his Bad Boy brother had been glamorous and charismatic.

“We have a guest,” said Laguna Munn.

“I know, Mother,” he said, his voice colorless. “I was listening.”

“That was rude, child.”

“I meant no disrespect, Mother,” the boy replied, his mother’s chiding only serving to increase the sum of hopelessness in his empty eyes.

“Lead her to the Circle of Conjurations, boy. She has come here to do dangerous work. The sooner it’s begun, the sooner it’s safely over.”

“May I stay and watch you teach her?”

“No. You may not. Unless you want to witness something that might well be the death of you.”

“I don’t much mind,” Covenantis said, shrugging.

His whole life was in that shrug. He seemed not to care whether he was alive or dead.

“Where will you be?” Candy asked the incantatrix.

“Right here.”

“So how are you going to help me with the separation?”

Laguna Munn looked at Candy with lazy amusement.

“From a safe distance,” she replied.

“What happens if something goes wrong?

“I’ll have sight of you,” Laguna Munn said. “Don’t worry. If something goes wrong I’ll do what I can to fix it. But the responsibility for the outcome falls on you. Think of yourself as a surgeon delicately separating twins born joined together. Except that you are not only the surgeon—”

“I’m also one of the babies,” Candy said, beginning to understand.

“Exactly.” Laguna looked at Candy with new admiration. “You know, you’re smarter than you look.”

“I look dumb? Is that what you’re saying?”

“No. Not necessarily,” she said, and then raised her hand, which was a fist, and opened it.

Candy put her hand in her pocket and took out the photograph she and Malingo had taken in the market in the port city of Tazmagor, on Qualm Hah. In it, she was wearing the same clothes she was wearing now. She had purchased those clothes on a whim, but now that she took a closer look, she realized that she resembled her mother to an astonishing degree. She quickly put the photo back in her pocket. Laguna Munn was right: when this was all over, she was going to get a change of clothes as quickly as possible. She’d dress like the Nonce, she decided, all color and happiness.

Before she had fully broken from her thoughts, Candy saw something bright move toward her from Laguna Munn’s palm. It came too fast for her to make sense of what it was, but she felt it strike her like a gust of cold wind. There was a flicker of light in her head and by the time it was extinguished Laguna Munn had disappeared, leaving only poor, gray Covenantis at Candy’s side.

“Well, I suppose you’d better come with me then,” he said, showing not the least enthusiasm for the task.