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and moan. The apprentice in the old man’s body stood back, looking at the creature,
expression completely unreadable.
B wondered what the spirits were. The Celestial’s actual ancestors? Or phantasms of
guilt or madness that B had given a sort of temporary life? Whatever they were, they
seemed to have the Celestial occupied, and so B hurried to Rondeau and began stripping
the tape away. When he tore off the duct tape from Rondeau’s mouth, Rondeau said, “Is
Marla dead?”
“Not last time I saw her,” B said, unbinding Rondeau’s ankles. “She wanted to come
herself, but we got the word from an oracle about when Mutex was going to make his
move, and it’s soon, so she had to go deal with that.”
“She gave you her cloak?” Rondeau said, stunned. “So you could come save me?”
“Yeah. Not that the cloak turned out to do much good.”
“I think you did all right on your own,” Rondeau said, looking toward the Celestial,
who was dimly visible through the translucent mass of angry ancestors berating him for
his crimes. “But we need to find her and give her back this cloak. She’s a badass even
without it, and normally she doesn’t wear it, but this is some serious high-stakes shit
we’re in.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe she gave you her cloak.”
“Well, I told her I’d had a vision about you, and that if you died, we wouldn’t possibly
be able to defeat Mutex.”
“Damn it,” Rondeau said. “I wish you hadn’t told me that, B. I don’t need that kind of
pressure. I got kidnapped last night, and it’s been a long-ass day.”
“Don’t worry,” B said. “I didn’t have a vision about you. I lied. I just wanted Marla to
send me to rescue you.”
“B,” Rondeau said, with real admiration. “You must be one stone-cold liar, to fool
Marla.”
“I did used to be an actor,” he said.
“And here I thought you got all your roles because of your good looks.”
“The good looks didn’t hurt,” B said. “But I’m a man of many talents.”
“Right. Speaking of your many talents…Are those ghosts and ghost-monsters and
whatnot going to kill the Chinese guy?”
“I think they’d like to, but I don’t think they can.” In fact, the spirits were fading away,
though the Celestial was still curled on the floor, apparently frightened into catatonia.
Without his conscious attention, the spirits seemed to have difficulty holding their
shape, even with B’s help.
“In that case,” Rondeau said. “Hey, apprentice!”