Untitled

“Uh-uh,” Rondeau said, pointing at Bethany with his knife. “Her.”
13
H er, what?” Marla said, looking sidelong at Bethany.
“She’s got a freezer full of hearts back there,” B said. “Rondeau says they’re human.”
“And we know someone else who likes to snack on hearts,” Rondeau said. “So I’m
wondering if maybe we haven’t found ourselves one of Mutex’s cohorts and coconspirators.”
Marla looked at Bethany.
“That chest was locked,” Bethany said, scowling.
“Rondeau picks locks,” Marla said. “It’s like a nervous habit. He’s also curious,
intrusive, and has no concept of personal privacy. Those are some of the qualities I
value in him. Explain yourself.”
“Don’t command me on my own train,” Bethany said, rising to her feet. “But, since we
were getting along so beautifully, I will explain, in the interests of continued
friendliness. If you’d opened the other locked ice chests, you would have found other
things—livers, kidneys, lots of things, each in its own place.”
“What, are you an anatomist?” Marla said. “Or do you have a stake in the organ trade?”
“Both good explanations,” Bethany said. “But, no, neither. I’m a cannibal.”
“Jesus,” B said.
“Jesus advocated a limited sort of cannibalism,” Bethany said. “But he’s not the subject
under discussion right now.”
“A cannibal,” Marla said neutrally.
“Do you disapprove?” Bethany said.
“That depends. Don’t get me wrong, people-eating isn’t something I’ve ever been
interested in personally, but I’m aware that it’s, ah, a complex subject. There can be
power in it, I know.” In the sorcerous world, the pro-cannibal/anti-cannibal debate was
as ferocious as the arguments about abortion in the ordinary world. Marla just tried to
stay out of it, though she found cannibalism disgusting, on a visceral level, much as
she’d been disgusted by Finch’s predilection for ghost-fucking.
“You can get diseases from eating people,” Rondeau said. He hadn’t put away his knife.
Marla hadn’t told him to.