Heretics book 3 - The Apocryphile Press

232 :: JOHN R. MABRY
leaped in. “He’s resting comfortably in his own bed. He’s as
good as he can possibly be under the circumstances.”
“The question is, how do we change those circumstances?”
Richard asked.
Brian sat down and unfolded his napkin. “Let’s go over
what we know. We know a specific demon, Articiphus, is
involved. We know that residual effects from Kat’s brother’s
soul exchange have removed Mikael’s soul, but we don’t
know to where, or how to get it back.”
Susan perked up. “Dylan, what about a soul retrieval?”
Dylan scowled. “Wal, dependin’ on where his soul has got
to, it could work. It’s worth a try.”
Kat blinked. “A soul retrieval? You mean, like in shamanism?”
“Exactly,” Susan said with a reassuring smile.
“Shamanism is Dylan’s specialty.” She gave Dylan a proud
wink.
“It can’t hurt,” Richard said. “When should we set up?”
“Wal, the longer we wait, the harder it’s gonna be. Ah say,
let’s do it right after supper. Ah mean, after dessert.”
“Does that get you out of clean-up duty?” Terry narrowed
one eye.
“Ah sure as shit hope so,” Dylan said, scooping up some
mashed potatoes.
“Why did he do this?” Kat wailed. Her outburst of emotion
stopped everyone for a second.
“Who?” Terry asked, “You mean Dane?”
Kat nodded.
Richard put down his fork and as he spoke, his shoulders
sagged. “I’m not sure. My guess is that after our unsuccessful
exit job, he had us tailed, probably by professionals, or
even by demons—”
“Like the one that followed us across the bridge,” Terry
interjected.