Part 40 (2/2)
Carma turned to Deem. ”That's good, right?”
”Yes, very good,” Deem said.
Carma raised a hand to her forehead, rubbing it. ”It's been incredibly difficult to keep up with current vernacular over the years, but I must say, I have tried my best. 'Cool' was extremely confusing for me, but now I think I've got it down. It means the opposite, right? My pies don't make him sick, right?”
”Correct,” Deem a.s.sured her.
”It's like, your pies are so good, it's sickening,” Winn said. ”Are you sure there isn't some Sweeney Todd action going on here?”
”I a.s.sure you there is nothing human in these pies!” Carma said, smiling. ”Well, not that I'm aware of, at any rate. Deem, more wine?”
”I think I've had enough wine, too,” Deem said.
”You've certainly developed a taste for it, haven't you?” Carma said. ”And now that you're not excommunicated, you'll have to repent for each and every gulp!” She smiled.
”I'm going to wait for a while, and repent after I've got a good batch of sins built up,” Deem said.
”That'll take years,” Winn cracked.
”Awan, how long before the blood souring takes? Is it immediate?” Carma asked.
”Yes,” Awan answered. ”It'll taint their offerings right away, they'll all be rejected. The Callers will abandon them. I'm going to go around town and tell people they can stop paying. It'll take longer for the kidney trouble to show up.”
”I appreciate that you don't want to kill them outright,” Carma said, leaning forward and pouring another gla.s.s of wine for Deem, who tried to object but was ignored. ”Back in the day people would find themselves strung up or cut for the littlest offenses. Things seem so much more civilized now. Why don't all of you take your wine gla.s.ses into the sitting room, and we'll relax and chat in there for a while. I love these chairs, but my b.u.t.t hurts after more than an hour in them.” Carma immediately rose from the table and grabbed her gla.s.s, walking into the other room, leaving the others behind.
Winn noticed that Deem seemed a little wobbly as she stood. ”If you decide to drink that gla.s.s Carma just poured for you, just sip at it,” he said.
”Of course she's going to drink it!” Carma hollered from the other room.
”I'll go slow,” Deem said, looking at Winn and smiling. ”So this is what feeling drunk is?”
”Yes,” Winn said, walking around the table and taking her by the hand. ”And you don't want to go any further, or you'll know what praying to the porcelain G.o.d is.”
”Huh?” she said, following him into the sitting room.
”Trust me, you don't want to know,” Awan said, following her.
They walked down a couple of steps and landed in the room filled with sofas and chairs. Winn watched as Deem set her gla.s.s carefully on a side table and plopped into her favorite chair. Winn dropped onto a sofa and Awan sat next to him.
”G.o.d, I love this view!” Deem said, staring out the large floor to ceiling windows that faced the back yard and the hill that rose dramatically behind the house, lit with little yard lights. Bugs hovered around the lights and she could see bats darting back and forth, snapping up insects.
”I talked with Lyman earlier today,” Carma said, entering the room with a tray filled with cordials. She set the tray down on a table near the windows. ”Help yourself to any of these you want.” She walked to an oversized chair and sat in it. ”He was wondering, Deem, if you'd be willing to help him out with a little project.”
”What?” Deem asked.
”Naturally he asked me to have you talk to him about it yourself,” Carma said. ”You know how he likes you.”
”What time?” Deem asked, blus.h.i.+ng again.
Carma checked her watch. ”Let's see, it's just after nine, and the moon's out around two. About five hours from now. I hope you can stay.”
”Sure,” Deem said, leaning back in her chair.
”Lyman does seem to have his finger on the pulse of what's happening around here,” Awan said. ”And he seems highly intuitive. I'm still impressed on how he picked up on Winn.”
”That's right,” Deem said. ”He was the one who knew about you being 'blank,' just from meeting you. It's what wound up saving us from Ninth Sign.”
”Did you ever figure out what that was about?” Carma asked Winn. ”Why you're a blank? We didn't talk much about it after it happened.”
Winn considered how to respond. When he'd first found out he was blank, and was used to hide things from Ninth Sign, he felt embarra.s.sed. Although it surprisingly wound up being an a.s.set in that case, he always figured his deficiency would be a liability, and he still worried that it might hamper his ability to help Deem and Awan going forward.
Deem's words to him the other night about not knowing much about him had been rattling around in his mind, and the mixture of the company and the wine made him feel relaxed, as though he could open up to these people without fear of judgment or repercussion.
”Well, I have been thinking about that,” he said. ”And I think I know why I'm blank.”
”You do?” Awan asked. ”Why?”
”Well, it's a long story,” Winn said. ”And you may not like it.”
”Oh, I'm sure I will like it!” Carma said with enthusiasm, delighted at the prospect of Winn telling a tale. ”Doesn't matter how it ends. I'll like it.”
”I'm warning you, it's long,” Winn said.
Deem closed her eyes and sunk further into her chair. ”I'd like nothing better right now than to relax and hear it,” she said.
”Me too,” Awan said.
”Alright,” Winn said. ”If you insist.”
”I insist!” Carma said, jumping out of her chair. ”Just let me adjust the lights down in here. This room is too brightly lit for a good long story!” She walked to a dimmer on the wall, and lowered the level of light coming from the overhead fixtures. The lights outside became brighter, and Carma walked back to her chair. ”There we go. Alright, Winn, begin!”
Winn took a deep breath and exhaled. ”When I was eleven, my mother and I lived in a trailer court outside of Tucson...”
This has been a complimentary first chapter of the next book in The Downwinders series, The Impossible Coin.
Enjoy the rest of the novel by downloading your complete copy from Amazon.com!.
By the author:.
The Downwinders series:.
Blood Oath, Blood River.
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