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The hippogriffs stared at her with their angry yellow eyes and gave absolutely no sign as to whether they would or would not give her twenty-four hours Janet struck out into thebehind her
“Not being critical at all,” Josh said, “but if I were High King or High Queen or whatever, I would have brought maybe a detachment of soldiers with us? Like in a support capacity? Maybe that elite Whitespire regiuys drilling? It’s nuts the stuff they can do”
Janet took a deep breath Patience
“We’re hunting a god, Josh You kno that oes You send the shock troops in first, the really bad-ass ones, the definitely undefeatable guys, and what happens? They get slaughtered like instantly And it’s like ooo, scary, nuh-uh, those guys were supposed to be undefeatable! Then the heroes go in and do the real work It’s all just to build draht maybe we’d skip that part and cut to the chase”
“But I love that movie,” Josh said, a little forlornly
“That raises a good point though, Janet,” Poppy said “Since we’re cutting to the chase How are we supposed to go about fighting a god?”
“Not fighting,” Janet said “Hunting”
Even she wasn’t that clear on the distinction she was ht shut them up for a few minutes so she could think Somebody had to
“And not we,” Josh said “You’re not fighting You’re taking care of the baby”
“I’ll take care of the baby,” Poppy said, “by fighting”
It arh the sodden grass they alking on was bitter cold There were depths to this place that the sun couldn’t touch Fortunately Janet had on awesome boots
“Anyway,” she said, “Martin Chatwin beat Eot that the three of us don’t have?”
“Like about six ers,” Josh said “For starters”
It was good to be out in the field again, whatever the odds And it was good to be in charge Before the desert she’d never really given things her all, at least not when the others were around to watch It was too vulnerable-ive No wonder the others hadn’t taken her as seriously as they should have Plus she’d done a few fucked-up things She wondered whether Quentin felt angry about what happened that night Like it was her that broke up hiot a junkie in the house, you don’t leave youron the table
And like they would have lasted two iven what a loser Quentin was back in those days anyway The funny thing was, the ether the less she wanted to sleep with him Weird how that worked
When they found the boardwalk Janet started trotting along it, double-ti behind her but Josh called out “Hey, wait up!” and when they didn’t he started sort of slowlyGuy lives in a fantasy world without junk food or cars or trans fats or TV and he’s still fat You had to admire his dedication to the cause
On the way Janet noticed a pair of child’s shoes, ancient and weathered, abandoned on a rock It was the oddest thing They looked pitifully s—they were a boy’s shoes—all the way out here, this deep into the Northern Marsh, and what could have happened to hiood
When the pier was in sight she drew the crossed axes from her back
“Awesome axes,” Josh said “Where did you—”
“Your ave them to me,” Janet said “After I fucked her”
“Why—”
“Because she enjoyed it so much”
Not her best work maybe, but they couldn’t all be winners And she really didn’t feel like telling that story again
Janet stopped at the very end of the pier and looked around, hands on hips Everything looked nor on here But then swamps already looked like the end of the world anyway Maxiled chaotically There wasn’t o
Stray windlets roughened the surface of the bog A couple of dead, thunderstruck trees poked up in the o Suddenly she felt powerfully aware of the circularity and futility of life
Eliot had said Umber was under the swaht about just juence-gathering skills But then, giant turtle While she eighing the options, Poppy passed her and began cliht breach of discipline, but this once she was going to let it pass Poppy dipped an elegant toe in the water, then put her whole foot in
“Huh,” she said
“Careful”
Poppy wasn’t careful With the traditional Australian’s indifference to personal dryness and veno sed her up in one gulp, her entire lean length
“Poppy!” Josh peered down after his vanished wife-and-child “Poppy! Jesus!”
Nothing Then Poppy’s hand broke the still surface of the water, like the Lady of the Lake, except in this case instead of offering up aenthusiastic thumbs-up
“Oh, thank God”
Josh executed a well-practiced cannonball off the dock Bombs away So much for stealth Janet descended the ooden ladder in a dignified fashion, like a normal person, until she was immersed up to her knees She sahat Poppy meant—it did feel weird under there Not wet, so to push her back up and out She leaned down and put her head under
And collapsed in an upside-down heap on wet ground Janet felt thoroughly nauseated; her inner ear was objecting strenuously to what it was hearing fro had just happened
“Jesus!” She spat to keep herself fro up and down
“Again! Again!”
At least so themselves
They were under the water, the three of the on the underside of the surface of the swamp, which noas hard and slick It was dark down here, but it was pretty clear what thecastle that looked exactly like Whitespire but creepier, its battle white torches The sky above it—or the lake bed, or whatever it as black
“An underwater, upside-down Castle Whitespire,” Josh said “I’ll aduess”
“It’s a e”
“Mirrors invert left-right, not up-down,” Poppy said, with tedious correctness “Plus the black-white thing isn’t—”
“OK, OK, I get it”
They e was up, so the three of them flew over the wall and into the courtyard They saw no one Josh knocked on the thick door to the outer hall No answer, but it opened easily The place looked empty but not abandoned—it was neat and clean, andthe walls
“Spooky,” Poppy said
They’d been standing there looking around aiuards standing frozen at the far end of the hall Their eyes were dead—they looked about as alive as a couple of decorative urns
“Oh,” Josh said He called to theuys! What is this place?”