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"Who&039;s in charge here?" Eddie asked He atching the intersec-tion behind the little group very carefully in case the others should get their courage back So far he saw and heard nothing alarht that the others had probably left this ragged crew to its fate

They looked at each other uncertainly, and finally the woman with the blood-spattered face spoke up "Spanker was, but when the god-drums started up this time, it was Spanker&039;s stone what couess Winston would have couns, so you did" She wiped blood deliberately frolance to Eddie

"Well, what do you think Winston was trying to do to usted to find the wouilty about what he had done "Trim my sideburns?"

"Killed Frank &039;n Luster, too," she went on doggedly, "and what are you? Either Grays, which is bad, or a couple of god-rotted outlanders, which is worse Who&039;s left for the Pubes in City North? Topsy, I sup-pose - Topsy the Sailor - but he ain&039;t here, is he? Took his boat and went off downriver, ay, so he did, and god rot hi; herthe woman had said earlier It was Spanker&039;s stone what come out of the hat and we set hi Shirley Jackson&039;s story "The Lottery" in college and understood that these people, the degenerate descendents of the original Pubes, were living Jackson&039;s night emotion when they knew they would have to participate in such a grisly drawing not once a year, as in the story, but two or three times each day

"Why?" she asked the bloody woman in a harsh, horrified voice "Why do you do it?"

The woest fool "Why? So the ghosts what live in the machines won&039;t take over the bodies of those who have died here - Pubes and Grays alike - and send theh the holes in the streets to eat us Any fool knows that"

"There are no such things as ghosts," Susannah said, and her voice sounded like soto her own ears Of course there were In this world, there were ghosts everywhere Nevertheless, she pushed ahead "What you call the god-drums is only a tape stuck in a machine That&039;s really all it is" Sudden inspiration struck her and she added: "Orit on purpose - did you ever think of that? They live in the other part of the city, don&039;t they? And under it, as well? They&039;ve alanted you out Maybe they&039;ve just hit on a really efficient way of getting you guys to do their work for the next to an elderly gent wearing what looked like the world&039;s oldest bowler hat and a pair of frayed khaki shorts Now he stepped forward and spoke to her with a patina of good er with razor-sharp edges "You are quite wrong, Madareat hosts in all of them - demonous spirits which bear only ill will to hosts are very capable of raising the dead and in Lud, there are a great many dead to raise"

"Listen," Eddie said "Have you ever seen one of these zombies with your own eyes, Jeeves? Have any of you?"

Jeeves curled his lip and said nothing - but that lip-curl really said it all What else could one expect, it asked, fro?

Eddie decided it would be best to close off the whole line of discus-sion He had never been cut out for er at the bloodstained woman "You and your friend there - the one who looks like an English butler on his day off - are going to take us to the railroad station After that, we can all say goodbye, and I&039;ll tell you the truth: that&039;s going to uy who looked like Jeeves the Butler asked "What is a railroad station?"

"Take us to the cradle," Susannah said "Take us to Blaine"

This finally rattled Jeeves; an expression of shocked horror replaced the world-weary conteo there!" he cried "The cradle is forbidden ground, and Blaine is the hosts!"

Forbidden ground? Eddie thought Great If it&039;s the truth, at least we&039;ll be able to stop worrying about you assholes It was also nice to hear that there still was a Blaineor that these people thought there was, anyway

The others were staring at Eddie and Susannah with expressions of uncoested to a bunch of born-again Christians that they hunt up the Ark of the Covenant and turn it into a pay toilet

Eddie raised the Ruger until the center of Jeeves&039;s forehead lay in the sight "We&039;re going," he said, "and if you don&039;t want to join your ancestors right here and now, I suggest you stop pissing andand take us there"

Jeeves and the bloodstained wolance, but when the man in the bowler hat looked back at Eddie and Susannah, his face was firm and set "Shoot us if you like," he said "We&039;d sooner die here than there"

"You folks are a bunch of sickon the brain!" Susannah cried at theo, for the love of God!"

The woman said somberly, "But it is death to enter Blaine&039;s cradle, mum, so it is For Blaine sleeps, and he who disturbs his rest h price"

"Come on, beautiful," Eddie snapped "You can&039;t smell the coffee with your head up your ass"

"I don&039;t knohat that nity

"It means you can take us to the cradle and risk the Wrath of Blaine, or you can stand your ground here and experience the Wrath of Eddie It doesn&039;t have to be a nice clean head-shot, you know I can take you a piece at a tih to do it I&039; a very bad day in your city - the uythrew a grenade at us and kidnapped our friend So what do you say?"

"Why would you go to Blaine in any case?" one of the others asked "He stirs no more from his berth in the cradle - not for years now He has even stopped speaking in hisin his ht He looked at Susannah She looked back and shrugged

"Ardis was the last to go nigh Blaine," the bloodstained woman said

Jeeves nodded somberly "Ardis alas a fool when he were in drink Blaine asked him some question I heard it, hut itabout the mother of ravens, I think - and when Ardis couldn&039;t ansas asked, Blaine slew him with blue fire"

"Electricity?" Eddie asked

Jeeves and the bloodstained woman both nodded "Ay," the woman said "Electricity, so it were called in the old days, so it were"

"You don&039;t have to go in with us," Susannah proposed suddenly "Just get us within sight of the place We&039;ll go the rest of the way on our own"

The woman looked at her mistrustfully, and then Jeeves pulled her head close to his lips and mumbled in her ear for a while The other Pubes stood behind the at Eddie and Susannah with the dazed eyes of people who have survived a bad air-raid

At last the woh the cradle, and then it&039;s good riddance to bad swill"

"My idea exactly," Eddie said "You and Jeeves The rest of you, scatter" He swept them with his eyes "But remember this - one spear thrown from ambush, one arrow, one brick, and these two die" This threat ca so weak and pointless that Eddie wished he hadn&039;t made it How could they possibly care for these two, or for any of the individual members of their clan, when they dusted two orthe others trot off without so lance, it was too late to worry about that now

"Come on," the woman said "I want to be done with you"

"The feeling&039;s mutual," Eddie replied

But before she and Jeeves led the which hts: knelt, brushed back the hair of the man in the kilt, and placed a kiss on his dirty cheek "Goodbye, Winston," she said "Wait for me where the trees clear and the water&039;s sweet I&039;ll come to ye, ay, as sure as dawn makes shadows run west"

"I didn&039;t want to kill him," Susannah said "I want you to know that But I wanted to die even less"

"Ay" The face that turned toward Susannah was stem and tearless "But if ye mean to enter Blaine &039;s cradle, ye&039;ll die anyway And the chances are that ye&039;ll die envying poor old Winston He&039;s cruel, is BlaineThe crudest of all demons in this cruel, cruel place"

"Come on, Maud," Jeeves said, and helped her up

"Ay Let&039;s finish with theain, her eyes stem but somehow confused, as well "Gods curse my eyes that they should ever have happened on you two in the first place

And gods curse the guns ye carry, as well, for they were always the springhead of our troubles"

And with that attitude, Susannah thought, your troubles are going to last at least a thousand years, sugar

Maud set a rapid pace along The Street of the Turtle Jeeves trotted beside her Eddie, as pushing Susannah in the wheelchair, was soon panting and struggling to keep up The palatial buildings which lined their way spread out until they resee, run-to-riot lawns, and Eddie realized they had entered what had once been a very ritzy neighborhood indeed Ahead of the loomed above all others It was a deceptively siing roof supported by ladiator movies he&039;d so enjoyed as a kid Susannah, educated in more formal schools, was reeously sculpted bestiary - Bear and Turtle, Fish and Rat, Horse and Dog - which ringed the top of the building in two-by-two parade, and understood it was the place they had come to find

That uneasy sensation that they were being watched by many eyes - eyes filled equally with hate and wonder - never left theht of thein froht on toward the Cradle of Lud And as they neared it, ancient bodies began to twist and dance in the strengthening wind on either side of them