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.The creature jumped back, staring at the remnants of the shackles.“Well, aren’t we the little band of wingless angels,” he conceded, his voice still sneering, “but how on Earth am I to escape? These stunted apes control everything.Listen to them.You hear the Bossa Nova? That’s the big boy’s song.Rodrigo, Lord of All.And his Mother, Lucia.Can you imagine living with this music for a year now? Isn’t it sweet?”“Oh, you’ll escape all right,” I said.“We’ll take you out of here without question.Every human between here and the airstrip is already dead.And the others will soon join them.But we want to rescue all the Taltos.Where are the others? Do you know?”“Morrigan,” said Mona.“When did you last see her?”“Morrigan!” the creature said, his head falling back, his voice like a black ribbon as the words flowed: “Stop saying her name.You think I don’t know who she is? She’s the mother of the entire Secret People.Of course I know her name.Morrigan is probably dead.Anyone who didn’t cooperate with these Drug Merchants is dead.Morrigan was dying before they ever came.She birthed five males before she birthed Miravelle.That’s too many children in too short a time.”He gave a weary shake of his head, eyes still half-mast, weight shifting from one hip to the other.“Her own sons rose up and raped her in the hope of a female birth.At last Miravelle! And da da da DA! The tribe goes on! Morrigan was sick unto death, and her milk dried up, and then came the poison.If the Drug Men shot her they wasted their bullets.She was my mother, by the way, I loved her.Past tense.Get on with it.”I expected Mona’s tears to come and I thought them justified, and I held her tight with my right arm.But they only stood in her eyes, forming a glaze in the light as she followed this cold, hard speech.She looked suddenly like a costumed waif in her feathered finery, gazing up at the face of this bizarre and sardonic creature.This was a blow of such weight falling upon her that she could only stand there and let me support her.I wondered if she would slip from consciousness, so grave was her stare, so still her figure in my grip.“Take it easy, my little one,” I whispered.I kissed her cheek.“We have yet to explore the main building.”“Oh, Beloved Boss,” she said in a faltering voice.“Oh, Beloved Boss, I have sought and so I have found.”“Not yet,” said Quinn, eying the creature grimly.“Not till we search the island end to end.”“Well, aren’t we the gallant little gang of Blood Thieves,” said the tall being, “and we all love each other, kissy, kissy! I’m impressed.Seems in my fathomless noisome memories of Paradise Lost and Come Again and Gone Underground and Lost and Species Wiped Out that you merciless little beings preyed upon humans rather ruthlessly.What is this, Valentine’s Day for Vampires?”“We’re going to get you out of your little prison,” said Quinn with equal coldness.“Will you kindly cooperate with us and tell us what Taltos are left here?”“And I’d oh, so love it if you told us your name,” I said sarcastically.“It’s a bit hard to read your mind.I keep stumbling in the ice and snow when I try.”He gave a bitter laugh in a small show of sinister spontaneity.“Oh, so the outside world has finally come,” said the being, swaying with undeniable grace, his words flowing like glossy syrup.“Well, you’re a year too late.I don’t know who’s left or where they are.I might be the sole specimen.” He made a broad upward gesture with both hands, and a broad hateful smile.“And you did say that Morrigan was your mother?” Mona asked tenderly.“Out of Morrigan and Ashlar,” he said.“Pure as they come.Oberon of the first rank, known by the younger ones as a cynic and eternal wet blanket.Though I’ve never called them by name.They are Mother and Father to me.If I’d killed my brother Silas when he first started talking sedition maybe none of this would have happened.But I don’t think the Secret People could have gone on forever.”“The Secret People, that’s a lovely name,” I said.“Whose idea was that?”“Yes, I’ve always thought it was sweet,” he said.“And our life wasn’t bad at all, let me tell you.But Father was naÏve to think it could last.Even Morrigan told him that.You can’t keep a community of twenty Taltos perfectly under your supervision, you know, that sort of thing, no matter how much diversion and education and stimulation you provide.Father was a dreamer.Morrigan was an oracle.Silas was the poisoner.So it came to a bloody end.”Suddenly I divined a human presence behind the far door, and so did the Taltos.A tall dark-skinned woman came in, perhaps fifty years in age, but extremely well groomed and seductive—black-rimmed eyes, heavily made-up face, blood red lips, and a head of luxuriant dark hair and a pinched waist, breast-heavy figure.She was holding in her hand an obviously religious statue.She was fastidiously dressed in a mauve silk dress with a golden chain for a belt, black net stockings and sharp heels, flashy gold earrings, and she spoke immediately in heavily accented Spanish.“Well, I finally found it but I had to move Heaven and Earth, I tell you, you’d think it should be common enough, with the Pope going all the way to Mexico, but I had to go on the Internet and find it, and here it is.”And there it was!She set it down on the low white table along the wall! A brilliantly painted statue of Saint Juan Diego!I was thunderstruck [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]