Page 51 (1/2)

"That won’t work down here," soic doesn’t work" It was that kid, and Quentin recognized hi--his shade looked about thirteen That must have been what he looked like just before he became a monster, before he died for the first tiirlfriend," Martin said nastily "She’ll not save you"

Maybe it was that Quentin could still die--that’s what attracted the, however terrible, that made a difference in the world above

A couple of shades in the front row started forward, the first wave of the inevitable rush, but Benedict stepped forward to rabbed a badminton racket out of somebody’s hand and brandished it at them like a sword

"Come on, you bastards!" There he was: the warrior Benedict should have been He assule and pointed the racket at Martin Chatwin "Come on, who’s first?" he shouted "You? Coh with nothing in his hands and no ic in play, he was painfully aware that he didn’t look very dangerous Too bad he didn’t bring a sword He squared off and put up his fists and did his best to look like he had the faintest idea what to do with the," Julia said matter-of-factly behind him And then she repeated, "It is ti new happen now Quentin stole a glance back at Julia, then stopped and stared Everyone else was staring too Julia was taller, and her eyes had beco down at her arms with a small, deliberate frown on her face as she watched theer, watched her skin take on a lustrous, pearly luht at the castle, butelse

Then she was s She looked past him at the asse a strong wind Benedict gaped

"Can you seeelse now, soer human A spirit? She had been beautiful before, but now she washerewhat she’d been becoh she see there With an air of curiosity she picked up a stick from the floor, a hockey stick it looked like When she touched it, it grew It ca staff with a knobby crown She hefted it, and the shades scrambled back even farther, even Martin Chatwin

"Come," she said to him Her voice was Julia’s voice, but aht"

Martin didn’t come any closer He didn’t have to, Julia came to him In a flash, quicker than a hu, she had him by his shirt front She picked his splayed out like a starfish Her strength was surreal Quentin wasn’t sure if she could hurt Martin--it’s not like he could die a third ti

The croas like a soccer crowd: the front ranks scra in froain Their voices and the sound of their feet were loud in the enor There was no end to theh them, but he didn’t think she could save theoing to be all right"

Quentin had said that to her on his parents’ lawn in Chesterton He wondered if she re from her now

Julia thumped the end of her staff on the floor, and then Quentin had to look away The light was that bright He couldn’t see, but he heard the asp in unison The light was different--it wasn’t the thin fluorescent gruel that passed for light down here, it was real rich white-gold sunlight, with all its wavelengths intact It was like a gap had opened in the clouds

A voice spoke

"Enough," it said Or she said: it was a wo that harain, he sao in front of Julia, where her staff had struck the floor She was a vision of power Her face was lovely, warm and humorous and proud and fierce all at once It was the face of a goddess And there was so else there too--half Her face was in shadow There was gravity there, and an understanding of grief Everything will be all right, She seemed to say, and whatever is not, ill narled staff like Julia’s In the other She carried, oddly, a bird’s nest with three blue eggs in it

"Enough," She said again

The shades did what She said and kept still Julia knelt in front of the goddess, her face buried in her hands

"My daughter," the goddess said "You are safe now It is over"

Julia nodded and looked up at Her Her face was strea with tears

"You’re Her," she said "Our Lady"

"I have cooddessexactly, but it was hard to look at Her, the same way it’s hard to look at the sun--She was that intense Only now did Quentin really register the scale of Her She must have been ten feet tall

The dead watched the For a moment the entire underworld was silent

Julia rose to her feet, drying her tears

"What happened to you?" Quentin said "You’ve changed"

"It is over," Julia said "I aoddess now A dryad" I am partially divine," she added, alnificent She was going to be all right

"It suits you," he said