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ahead. Even though nothing officially starts until seven o'clock, there's still a lot of activities planned
throughout the day. The place will be crawling with buskers and sidewalk merchants. I think there's even a
little carnival set up in the parking lot by the A&P."
"We'll come too," Josh said. He held his wife's hands in his, and squeezed them gently. "We'd rather
be looking for Alex than just sitting around here doing nothing."
"Same here," Thomas added. Charlie nodded in agreement. Drat looked glum. The troll would have to
wait until after the sun went down before he could join in the search.
Something had been nagging me all night long. Never one to avoid the stupid questions, I asked, "Just
how will Aeshma corrupt Alex? I mean, she seems like a pretty good kid. What exactly could he do to get her
to willingly commit an evil act?"
Josh and Sabrina lowered their eyes, and Thomas kind of hemmed and hawed. Obviously there was
something else they were keeping from me.
"What? He makes her smoke a cigarette? Drink a beer? Pick her nose in public?"
Thomas set his harp down beside the chair and sat forward. "It takes a little more corruption than that
to taint an Innocent," he said.
"That's the problem," Josh said, still refusing to look up. "I can't imagine Alex doing anything really
evil either, and if Aeshma can't corrupt her, he'll kill her."
"Or worse," Sabrina whispered.
"You still don't understand Alex's nature," Thomas said. "She's an Innocent. In her case, that means
she is the embodiment of Hope. Haven't you wondered why she was always so upbeat?"
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"I just figured she was one of those  Up With People kind of kids," I lied. In truth, I had always found
it a little creepy.
"The last Innocent corrupted was the embodiment of Compassion," Josh said.
That explained a lot. "So if Aeshma corrupts her, humanity will be without hope?"
"For at least a thousand years," Thomas answered. "Individuals can still experience hope, but as a
race..."
"And what if he kills her?"
Josh took a deep, shuddering breath. "He won't kill her. He'll have the mob do it." He held his wife
close as she began to sob softly against his shoulder.
"If he kills her, another Innocent will take her place," Thomas continued. "If humanity kills her, he can
possess her body and keep her soul trapped for all eternity. Mankind will be forever without hope unless we
can exorcise the demon and kill it--and Aeshma is a very powerful demon."
I finally felt like I had all the pieces of the puzzle, except of course the most important one. Who the
hell came up with all these dopey rules?
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CHAPTER NINETEEN
Kingston is a university town, a college town, or a military town, depending on how you look at it. It
hosts Queen's University, the Royal Military College, St. Lawrence College, and Canadian Forces Base
Kingston--not to mention several penitentiaries. No matter how you slice it, it's a young person's town, and
today they were out in full force. Well, except for the inmates.
It was still near the start of the school year, and the students hadn't blown their entire budget yet. Give
them a couple of months and you'd see several of them huddled around a single beer with four straws, but for
now they had money to burn.
It was unseasonably warm for the end of October. The sun, though pale, hung suspended in a cloudless
sky. You could get away with leaving your jacket at home, though the temperature would certainly dip as
night fell. The trees still had most of their foliage, all bright yellows, oranges, and reds, and the odd gust of
wind blew errant leaves through the streets to add color to the drab gray pavement.
Kingston was one of the few places that could get away with holding an event like this on a Monday,
but as I said, it was a young person's town. Thanksgiving was a couple of weeks past, and everyone had
recuperated from the holiday and was just looking for an excuse to party. Princess Street had been closed off
with neon-orange police barricades at the intersection of Division at one end, and Barrie Street at the other.
Instead of cars, vendor's stalls occupied the parking spaces that lined both sides, hawking everything from
Goth jewelery to cotton candy. Most of the restaurants had taken advantage of the nice weather and set up
sidewalk cafes. A large white banner strung across the street proclaimed this the "Hub of Kingston Nightlife."
It was a perfect day. If they only knew.
I spotted a gremlin with a tuft of red hair at one of the cafes, squatting on a table where some young
stud was trying to impress several of the ladies. Just as Loverboy tilted his plastic mug back for a drink, the
gremlin gave it an extra little nudge and Romeo dribbled beer all down his shirt. I'll bet you they're the same
little creeps responsible for splashing water all over your pants when you wash your hands in the men's room,
too.
I sensed movement at my feet and looked down to see a second gremlin in the process of tying my
shoelaces together. When he realized he'd been caught, he grinned, stuck out his tongue, and vanished in a
puff of smoke that smelled like sulfur and rotten eggs, just like the stink bombs I used to make back in high
school.
As I knelt down to retie my laces, I couldn't help but notice that there seemed to be a lot of Other
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Realm denizens about. Not just gremlins either, but succubuses (or is it succubi?), shapeshifters, faerie--both
dark and light--ogres, and just about anything else that could stand the light of day. I took it as a sign of
encouragement. They were all here for something; I just hoped that something was Alex.
I mean, what if Aeshma didn't bring Alex here at all? He could have taken her anywhere in two
worlds. Why here? The rest of the gang seemed convinced that this was the place, and they understood these
whacked-out rules better than I did. Thomas kept spouting some nonsense about synchronicity. I hoped he
knew what he was talking about.
Alison appeared beside me. "What I wouldn't give for some of that cotton candy."
I smiled. "Maybe Bear will share some of his with you. He's stolen at least two bags of the stuff
already that I know of."
Alison had always loved carnivals, and couldn't get enough cotton candy or caramel apples.
Sometimes I wondered how she had managed to stay so slim.
"It's not fair," she pouted. "Why do dead dogs still get to eat, but dead girlfriends don't?"
"They do seem to have all the fun." I glanced over at the few rides set up in the A&P parking lot. Bear
had taken up residence on the Scrambler, and was shoved up against the corner of the seat as the ride spun
him about. The wind whipped his ears back and sprayed his spectral slobber over the couple in the seat behind
him. Hey, at least he hadn't thrown up.
"Have you seen Josh and Sabrina?" I asked Alison.
"Yep. And Charlie and Thomas too. No one's seen Alex yet."
"Well, it'll be dark soon. The next band comes on at seven. They're a reggae group, which usually
attracts a pretty big crowd," I said.
"You'll find her. Don't worry," Alison said, then blew me a kiss and was gone.
To be honest, I was hoping I'd find Alex before it got dark. That's when the really creepy things came
out to play. And speaking of creepy, Drat would be here soon. I'd left him cab money, but it worried me to
leave him alone at my place. What if he got hungry and decided to snack on the paperboy or something?
Thomas said that trolls rarely actually eat humans, and then it's usually only war captives, or the sick and
elderly. I guess they figure they're doing us a big favor by culling the herd. Still, I wouldn't want to have to
explain to the police why old Mrs. Angeline went missing. I'm pretty sure natural selection isn't a valid legal
defense.
I wandered up and down the street for a while, waiting for the sun to set. There's a New Age/Occult [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]