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I’m the one all this is for," Jenny said "It’s et personal"
"No, let’s get general," Julian said "Want to talk about life?"
There was a kind of soft triu-on-a-mouse tone As if he knew he had her
"Did you know," he went on, "that in the Congo there’s a kind of fly that lays its eggs in human flesh? They develop into little white worms that live inside you forever So inside the skin of your arm They say that when they crawl inside your eyeball it’s quite painful"
Jenny stood where she was, appalled
"That’s Nature for you," Julian said and laughed The laugh didn’t sound quite sane
Jennv got her voice back "We’re not worms"
"No Huas, for instance It touches you, your skin co off Happened to thousands of soldiers in World War I Some man invented that for the benefit of his brothers"
Jenny wanted to look away frohts threaths of red and purple on his hair His eyes were mirror-brilliant
"It’s the sao your ho each other In thirteenth-century Peru they used to crack little boys’ ribs wide open so the priests could take their hearts out still beating These days it’s drive-by shootings People never change"
Jenny could feel her breath catch "Okay "
The soft, insidious voice went on "So Nature is cruel and ruthless"
"Okay "
"And life is fragile and bewildering And death-death is inevitable and worse than anything you can iine"
From the boat Dee said defiantly, "Who cares?"
Julian spoke without turning toward Dee "She cares," he said "Don’t you, Jenny? You care if it’s a cruel and pointless universe You care if you’re surrounded by evil"
There was soaze now His voice was reasonable, flowing "So why not despair? There’s nothing wrong with that Things will be so ive in "
He was co toward her, and Jenny knew she couldn’t resist He was co to put a warm palm on the back of her neck, maybe, or press her hand And whatever he did, she wouldn’t be able to resist, because at that
"I believe you!" she said, speaking before he got to her He stopped, head tilted slightly, quizzically Then suddenly she was speaking in a rush "You wanted to prove how much evil there is-well, fine; I believe you And I don’t know all the answers I don’t even know the stupid questions But not everything is evil, like you say There are good people Like Aba Like randfather He died to save me, and he’s not the only person who’s died for somebody else I can’t explain the evil that’s out there, but that doesn’t ive in"
The s victory had drained out of Julian’s face, and so in his eyes instead But Jenny went on before he could speak, her words tu over one another "You said I cared about whether it was a cruel and pointless universe, and I do But you want to know so else I care about? I care about you, Julian"
He was startled now He looked as if heforward, deliberately, holding his eyes and speaking
"You wanted to showelse is that way But I’ it And you wanted to prove tothat, either I care about you, Julian I-"
He disappeared just as she reached hiround
Jenny picked it up ait spin on its side for a while and finally land flat Looking toward the boat, she saw that they were all looking at her: Dee, and Audrey, and Michael-and Su her head out Nobody seemed to knohat to say
It’s not what you think, Jenny thought, but she didn’t kno to explain it to them She did care about Julian She’d seen the moonbeam side of him, the vulnerable side that was so badly hurt it made him strike out She evenloved Julianin a way she was just discovering But that didn’t mean she didn’t love Tom Tom was a part of her life, a part of her She could never betray hi all that in words was beyond her They’d just have to think whatever they wanted
"You know," Michael said at last, running a hand through his rumpled dark hair, "I think we just won this Game" He smiled, a weak and wry smile, but a real one nevertheless
"And I think we should get out of here on foot," Dee said "My guess is this boat isn’t "
Nobody talked h the tunnel Dee went first, one hand on the dank wall to guide her Jenny folloith Su hands Jenny had the feeling that they were all sore from Julian’s last and er for it, too In the end it had pulled theether Julian had revealed their secrets-and Jenny had never felt so close to her friends before
She was relieved to see Dee’s forhter blackness and to feel fresh air on her face They had found the end of the tunnel Now she could see the loading dock
"Will you look at this!" Michael exclaimed when they reached it and climbed up "Will you just look, please?"
The park ake
All the lights that had been off were on, and all the rides were going Fairy lights twinkled and glihts played on a fountain below them To the left, the Turnpike was illu ready to race Straight ahead, the rocket ride was already inThe structure of the March Hare roller coaster was picked out in flashing neon, and Jenny could hear the clatter of a car on the wooden tracks
Everything was going, all at once It looked exactly like a norht-except that it was still deserted The rides were operating by theht, but scary As if the whole park was inhabited by ghosts The o-round music was distant but eerily distinct, and she could hear the Noah’s Ark foghorn in the pauses
On the central island of the lake, the lighthouse rose white and slender and silent
"Noe find the bridge, I suppose," Audrey said quietly from behind Jenny
Jenny unbuttoned her shirt pocket, reached in She looked at the three doubloons on her palht Then she closed her hand and heard the we have to do first," she said "Follow me"
The arcade was only a short distance away Its sign was lighted, too, but the inside was diht to the cabinet with the mechanical wizard
She tried not to look at the black cabinet that stood opposite, but she got a glihastly as ever, their eyes still shut Jenny turned her back on the just the tiniest bit As if so down His hand lifted the wand and dropped it slightly, lifted and dropped, a sad repetitive htly, the dark ness Every so often his lower lip moved
"Grandfather," Jenny said
It was a forht He was Grandfather, like all the Grandfathers in fairy tales, a ed in a story
Dee had said there was nothing Jenny could do for him, and it was true She’d accepted it before, really, and she was even more certain now There was no wav to put his soul back into his body-if he even had a body anymore, which Jenny doubted No way to fix him or undo what the Shadow Men had done
But there was one thing sheto Julian, surging up in the back of her randfather had died for her He hadn’t-exactly-but he’d meant to And she was sure he’d rather be dead than be like this
The only question hether her idea would work
"Grandfather, I thought of so from your journal A way to help you But I need to know if it ork-and if it’s what you want"
The lass eyes didn’t look at her, and the ruddy plastic face couldn’t change expression But she had the feeling he was listening
"I saw the runes in your journal, and I know that runes can do things here, they can change reality They canof is Gebo, Grandfather, do you understand? Gebo"
"What’s she talking about?" Summer whispered, from several steps ahere the others waited
"I don’t know Gebo-which was that?" Dee said, and Michael said, "Shush, okay?"
Jenny stood watching the
Suddenly the glass eyes rolled The whole figurethe wand up and down The carmine lips opened and shut, and the head bobbed
It was a perfect frenzy ofdesperately to convey agreement At least, that hat Jenny hoped it was If she rong, it was going to be a terrible ht," she whispered "I love you, Grandpa" She could feel tears starting in her eyes, but she wasn’t going to cry, she wasn’t She wasn’t really sad She was happy and a little scared Beyond all hope, she’d gotten to see her grandfather again It had helped her remember him, how kind he’d been to her, how otten the chance to say she was sorry, and now she had the chance to say goodbye It was ot, more than Jenny could ever have expected
She reached into her back pocket for the Swiss Ar, alotten since she’d tucked it away in the mine ride It had survived the cave-in and the flood and everything else She was glad, because it was Tom’s, and now because it was very useful
She held it in her hand a e blade She set the blade against the old-fashioned wooden cabinet, just above the glass, and, bearing down hard, carved a diagonal stroke Then shean X Making Gebo, the rune of sacrifice It was funny, how she’d had a pre it on the door She’d felt that it had been iined this
She stepped back
Pinching her left index finger between o purple with blood Then, without hesitation, she jabbed once with the knife
She didn’t really knohether she needed blood for this Isa, the ice rune she’d used to stop the flooding waterfall, had worked without it But she wanted to do this just right, and er, she painted the X with blood Then she stepped back again
TheEverything see its breath around Jenny For a moment she was afraid she couldn’t speak, but the dark eyes were at last looking straight at her There was a silent encourageentle trust
The third step is to say the name of the rune out loud
Jenny took a deep breath and clearly and quietly said, "Gebo"
Rune of sacrifice, of death Of yielding up the spirit
It happened iure in the cabinet, the old sequins, spash it Both ar the caked paint on its face, flaking off in pieces Every part of the figure that could move thrashed frantically