Night Shift
Page 55

When she met up with a demon named Colconnar—and she was never clear about how that happened, whether he had sought her out or she had summoned him—she struck a bargain with him. Her bargain was this: that in return for becoming free of the sickness, she would bear the child of Colconnar. Demons rarely breed to make their own babies, which perhaps you knew.”
Manfred shook his head faintly.
“No? Huh.” Sylvester seemed a little disappointed. “My mother got Colconnar to agree that she would have her child with her as long as she lived.”
Manfred nodded. This story is not going to end well, he thought. Sylvester nodded gravely back. He continued, “Colconnar—my father—had said he would take the cancer away. He did. But he did not guarantee Squirrel Hands that she would be healthy, and she didn’t think of asking for that. Whether Colconnar caused it or not, my mother got an inflamed appendix, or maybe some womb infection—at least, those are my best guesses. I was about ten, maybe twelve, when my mother died, after considerable suffering. The moment she was dead, Colconnar came to get me.”
Manfred had heard stranger stories and believed them. “There were other people there?” he asked. “Members of your tribe?” Sylvester nodded.
“Did they see him?”
“How would I know? He took me. I didn’t get to do any post-abduction interviews.” Sylvester looked at Manfred as though he were wondering if his grandson was deficient.
Manfred reminded himself to be patient. “All right. So you went with your father. Did you know who he was?”
“Oh, he told me who he was right away. I believed him. If you had seen him, you would have believed him, too.” And Sylvester shivered.
Manfred tried not to think about how frightening that must have been for a preteen boy. “So were things a lot different? With your dad?
I know that’s a stupid question, but I guess I want to know how you managed . . . in demon-land. I guess it’s not actually below us.”
“Different realm,” Sylvester said. “A different dimension, I think.
Different creatures. Different laws.” All the lines of his face were drawn and grim as he told Manfred this.
“Why’d he want you?”
“Good question,” said Sylvester, for the first time showing some approval. “He was preparing me to be useful, so he could offer me to his ruler as a servant. Colconnar was proud of having a son. I would have been a rare gift.”
“But that didn’t happen?”
“Colconnar sent me out into the earth. Time had passed differently. Everything had changed. There were white people everywhere.” Sylvester Ravenwing looked sad. “He’d sent me here, though there was no town then, no Midnight. He ordered me to verify the report that a powerful witch was living in this area. Demons enjoy having sex with witches, especially virgin witches, though the witches don’t always survive it.”
Manfred winced. “So you found the witch.”
“I did, and I liked her. I was so impressed with her that I confessed why I had come. My father would be coming for her. She had had a forewarning, and she was gathering people to help her, other people with magical abilities.”
By now, Manfred could see where this story was going. “She planned to trap him?”
“Yes, grandson. She called together everyone of power she could find, because Colconnar was strong. If he gave me to his lord, the sacrifice of his son would gain him power. If he had sex with the witch, he would gain even more power. His ambition was to establish a kingdom on earth, a place all his own.”
“What about the rest of the demons? Why didn’t they want to do the same thing?”
“Do all humans want to conquer Russia? Or Australia?” Manfred had no answer for that. “So did the witch and her crew bind the demon?”
“Yes, they did.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“But you were here!”
“No, I was not. My presence would amplify Colconnar’s power, the witch said. And she sent me away to Tennessee.”
“So you don’t know what happened.”
“I do know that Colconnar is still trapped.”
“But not how.” Manfred slumped his face in his hands. “And there’s a demon under the crossroad. Okay, how’d you meet Xylda?”
“I traveled for years in what had become America. Sometimes I looked like my Indian self, and sometimes I looked like a white man. I kept going back to Tennessee, because it was my birthplace, and very beautiful. To my surprise, there came a sort of fashion for Indians, as we were called, and the remnants of my tribe held exhibitions there, of tribal dances and crafts and so on. Though I was a half-demon, and my Indian people knew that on some level, they still claimed me.
They allowed me to use my magic nature to train as a shaman. It was very strange to be valued rather than killed off. At one of these ‘Native American’ events, I met your grandmother Xylda. She was lonely, and she was wild and beautiful, too.” Sylvester smiled broadly. “Her gifts had made it hard for her to have friends. She was shunned in the com munity.”
I know what that feels like, Manfred thought.
“She was delighted when we met. It was her birthday, and she had no one to celebrate it with. We came together by way of celebration, and we stayed together for two years. We were the first for each other, and I know she wore my necklace until the day she died. I could feel it.”
“The necklace.” Manfred searched his memory. “The freshwater pearls?”
Sylvester nodded.
“She did wear it always. But you left.”
“She didn’t think I would make a good father for the child, when she did a reading of your mother as baby. She married a human man to teach your mother how to be human. Since I couldn’t.”
“So why are you here, now?” It can’t be a coincidence, Manfred thought. “You’re not just here to do your grandparental duty by me.”
“That’s the important part.” Sylvester looked even sterner than before. “I will tell you.”
Sylvester’s narrative style left a lot to be desired. Manfred was heartsick and had too much to think about to know where to begin. “Get to the point,” he said.
“However the witch imprisoned my father, the spell has lasted two hundred fifty years, and it’s about to wear out.” Sylvester was pleased to have finally gotten to what he considered the main point. “You’re going to have to do some more talking,” Manfred said.