Which she always would’ve had to, one way or t’other. And looking at her now, I could only guess she did.
“Hey, gal!” I said. “Been a Methuselan spell since last I heard your voice. Still and all, close like we been, you of anybody oughta know better than to put yourself in my path.”
“I wouldn’t, save how you already put yourself in mine.”
“Uh huh. Well, c’mon, then—let’s parley.”
I beckoned her further down, and she came, dipping ‘til her boot-heels brushed the tree-tops. A wild light flickered crown-like through her unbound tresses, or maybe just lit up those white streaks running through it, milkstone seams on a black rock-bed. Time hadn’t treated her too badly—better’n myself, I’m sure, with my own hair in rat-tails, Tad’s army surplus coat swimming on me and my M-vale A Wing jumpsuit-top peeled down to make the rest of it look like a pair of muddy orange slacks.
“Saw what you done with the swamp,” I told her. “That’s some fine work.”
“Testament to the unknown strength of women in combination,” she replied. “And without a single scrap of devil-might, either.”
“Noticed that, too. Quite the break in tradition.”
“Well, you was the one first pointed out t’me how once witches get their Mark, they turn lazy—lie ‘round, act like junkies, let their familiars do all the work. And them that’s lazier still go on and devil-deal directly, then settle in on gettin’ petted if they do ‘nough ill to satisfy and beat on if they don’t, like the King o’ Flies is their pimp…”
“Hold on, now. That’s my Momma you’re talkin’ ‘bout. And my Daddy, too.”
“I’ve heard you say worse.”
“And that’s my right, like it’s yours to reject all Hellish influences, if doin’ so makes you feel better ‘bout the damage you wreak. I ain’t about to tell nobody how to practice, let alone how to preach. But I want them bones you took.”
“What, Tearsheet’s?” She cast Doll a contemptuous look. “That’s between me, him and whoever else aims to fulfill his threats ‘gainst my domain—this bitch, I guess, if she ain’t too fear-froze to do more’n gasp over it.”
I shook my head. “Hell no, I don’t have one earthly care over what you do with those. It’s Gley Chatwin’s bones I’m speakin’ of, and those belong to me, if they do anybody.”
“Hmmm.” A beat went by, her riding the forest’s hat and me not breaking gaze, hands curled in my pockets, ‘til: “Naw, can’t let you have them neither, Alleycat. Not when I know what you want ‘em for.”
“You go cold turkey, so everyone else has to? That ain’t any sort of democracy I ever heard of.”
“More like an enlightened monarchy, I ‘spose. Every coven needs its devil, if only ‘cause they’re used to the idea; I’m it, for now, ‘til they learn better. And when I die, my bones go back in the pot, community property, to be held in trust.”
“Fine for you, very enlightened. But it ain’t a policy you get to start with somebody’s already damn well dead, not when there’s someone else has a prior claim. So bring out them bones—her brother’s, too, just ‘cause you got me offended. I ain’t about to say it twice.”
“Look where you are, where you been. You got no power over me.”
“What I am is Gley Chatwin’s only child, a sick ball a’ witchery cut up with Hellfire, and everything you know, you learned from me. Not to mention how where I been is ten years outta this shit-hole, with time enough to think and read on things you ain’t ever even heard of—time to practice ‘em, too. You really want to throw down?”
“Goddamnit, Allfair...this ain’t none of your business! You run off, remember? Left all the mess for me. Well, I cleaned it up, and now I get to keep what I caught. So pack up little miss Won’t-Do-Her-Duty here, and get the hell out of my woods.”
“Uh uh, woman. You get outta my sky.”
Orpah widened her eyes at that, just long enough for me to jerk Tad’s Patton gun from my waistband, hork a wad of spit and blood down the barrel, and shoot. It hit her in the shoulder, sending her spinning; she gave out a cry, cast a handful of witch-balls down, narrowly missing me and Miss Doll both. “Run, gal! While you still can!” I yelled her way, but she stood there, seemingly spot-rooted with fear, ‘til I had no leisure time left to pay her any further notice.
For that wind was back, all at once and all around, lowering in like a storm, clouds abruptly black with the shadows of other witch-es rising up to Orpah’s defence.
I kept on horking and firing, enspelled bullets popping apart into stinging fetch-gnat swarms, but eventually, those ran out. A half-second after she heard my hammer click twice, Orpah came swooping down so she and me were almost within kissing range. “Might be jail ain’t left you quite as smart as you made out, if that’s all you got,” she told me.
I laughed again. “Or might be this here’s where I all the time aimed to end up, so thanks for playin’.”
Orpah snapped her teeth at me like a dog, then opened her mouth a bit further, like she was fixing to retch out a fresh curse-hex all over my mocking face. But before she could, young Doll slid some sort of stoppered-up hooch-bottle she’d been keeping up her sleeve out into her palm, and whipped far enough forward she could bust it quick-smart ‘cross Orpah’s high-set nose. Announcing, as she did: “That’s her, so go to it!”
While Orpah yowled, something like a squished-down ferret jumped clear as the glass broke, unwinding itself mid-air into a flapping skin-cloak, wide and flat as a furry, airborne ray. It engulfed most’ve Orpah, and set in to squeeze. Her face, already bloody, straightaway begun turning purple; I could hear a couple bones crack, or maybe just grind. The broom veered off one way, her body another, plunging to the dirt-and-weed-entangled forest floor. Above, meanwhile, the coven of covens all shrieked out together at the feel of it and dipped off in varying directions, too stunned to keep up their bombardment.
Best friend I ever had, I thought, and shrugged. Then grabbed Doll by that same sleeve and whisked her aside, into a pocket between two trees, a trail no one but me could see, or step on. “Hey!” she yelled, or started to, but shut up admirably fast, once my finger sealed her lips.
“Hush,” I told her. “That was the whole of your plan right there, yeah? Pretty much?”