Read Online Bride of the Rat God by Barbara Hambly - Free Book Online
Authors: Barbara Hambly
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you doesn’t mean he couldn’t have killed Keith, you know.”
“No, of course not.” She regarded him with slight surprise. “But Mr. Sandringham must be sixty at least, and not in very good shape. Besides, he was almost too drunk to stand when we saw him, and that was before the two bottles of champagne. I don’t think he could have killed a twenty-two-year-old athlete.”
Alec sighed, twirling the leaf in those soft, deft fingers. “You ever spend a night in a flophouse when one of the alkies goes off his head from Jamaica ginger and decides the guy next to him is a seven-foot warthog who raped his sister?”
“Hmmn,” said Norah. At length she asked, “What makes you think he did it?”
He hesitated. “I never said I thought that.”
He slipped down from the porch wall and straightened the kinks from his shoulders. “But it’s just like Brown to get everybody out of town. Do you mind going to the desert? Red Bluff’s a ghost town three hours drive from Berdoo—some nice rocks near there and one of the best battlefields in the business, but you’ll be shaking scorpions out of your shoes the whole time. They shot the cattle drive scenes of Sawdust Rose there. If you don’t think you can...”
His voice trailed off as he saw her attention leave him; Norah was staring up Ivarene Street at three white-robed figures that had appeared from the shadows of the trees.
As they came closer, Norah saw that they were women clothed in diaphanous veils designed for a somewhat more classical climate than even California’s. The veils hung limp with the rain; presumably umbrellas were not known in the Arcadian lands. But even that did not diminish the serene dignity of the tall, graceful woman who led, her dark hair hanging loose about her shoulders and her pale blue, piercing eyes made paler yet by the same heavy mascaro that Christine favored. “We have come to warn you!” cried the tall woman, raising a hand upon which gleamed ancient gold. “The shadow of evil lies upon this house!”
They picked their way over the rough ground to the brick steps and collected their veils for the climb. The other two women did not wear damp cheesecloth nearly as gracefully as their leader did. One of them was a short, elderly, rather pudgy type who looked as if her name should be Aunt Edna; the other, tall, thin, and flaxen fair, had a restless, hungry gaze.
They stopped a few steps short of the porch itself, and the dark-haired leader lifted her hand again. “Hail, fellow sojourners in this lifetime! A warning has come to us, a warning of disaster. Your life, and Miss Flamande’s, may be in deadly danger.”
Alec propped his glasses more firmly onto the bridge of his nose and turned to Norah. “You going to introduce us?”
FIVE
MOUNTAIN OVER WATER
Sign of sacrifice
I did not seek out the innocent ones; rather,
it was they who sought me out...
The first omen was correct,
the second and third were incorrect...
“I AM N ADI N EFERU- A TEN , counselor of the Sabsung Institute for the Well-Being of Souls.”
“So pleased,” murmured Christine, holding out one hand. By the gleam in her dark eyes Norah could tell she was anything but pleased by the incursion into her house of a woman who was not only taller and more elegant than she but clearly had a backstory that beat even being the illegitimate daughter of a French adventurer in the Grand Turk’s harem. “Norah, darling, could you fetch us all some coffee—I’m absolutely dying —and please rip that phone out of the wall!”
It was ringing again, jaggedly and insistently. Alec went to get it.
“We of the institute do not drink coffee,” intoned Nadi Neferu-Aten. “Caffeine is a drug, clouding not only the senses in this life but the sight of the inner eye in its quest for the vistas of eternity.” She folded her long hands with their seal rings and cartouches.
“Well, caffeine may be a drug for you, but for me it’s the stuff of life, right up
“No, of course not.” She regarded him with slight surprise. “But Mr. Sandringham must be sixty at least, and not in very good shape. Besides, he was almost too drunk to stand when we saw him, and that was before the two bottles of champagne. I don’t think he could have killed a twenty-two-year-old athlete.”
Alec sighed, twirling the leaf in those soft, deft fingers. “You ever spend a night in a flophouse when one of the alkies goes off his head from Jamaica ginger and decides the guy next to him is a seven-foot warthog who raped his sister?”
“Hmmn,” said Norah. At length she asked, “What makes you think he did it?”
He hesitated. “I never said I thought that.”
He slipped down from the porch wall and straightened the kinks from his shoulders. “But it’s just like Brown to get everybody out of town. Do you mind going to the desert? Red Bluff’s a ghost town three hours drive from Berdoo—some nice rocks near there and one of the best battlefields in the business, but you’ll be shaking scorpions out of your shoes the whole time. They shot the cattle drive scenes of Sawdust Rose there. If you don’t think you can...”
His voice trailed off as he saw her attention leave him; Norah was staring up Ivarene Street at three white-robed figures that had appeared from the shadows of the trees.
As they came closer, Norah saw that they were women clothed in diaphanous veils designed for a somewhat more classical climate than even California’s. The veils hung limp with the rain; presumably umbrellas were not known in the Arcadian lands. But even that did not diminish the serene dignity of the tall, graceful woman who led, her dark hair hanging loose about her shoulders and her pale blue, piercing eyes made paler yet by the same heavy mascaro that Christine favored. “We have come to warn you!” cried the tall woman, raising a hand upon which gleamed ancient gold. “The shadow of evil lies upon this house!”
They picked their way over the rough ground to the brick steps and collected their veils for the climb. The other two women did not wear damp cheesecloth nearly as gracefully as their leader did. One of them was a short, elderly, rather pudgy type who looked as if her name should be Aunt Edna; the other, tall, thin, and flaxen fair, had a restless, hungry gaze.
They stopped a few steps short of the porch itself, and the dark-haired leader lifted her hand again. “Hail, fellow sojourners in this lifetime! A warning has come to us, a warning of disaster. Your life, and Miss Flamande’s, may be in deadly danger.”
Alec propped his glasses more firmly onto the bridge of his nose and turned to Norah. “You going to introduce us?”
FIVE
MOUNTAIN OVER WATER
Sign of sacrifice
I did not seek out the innocent ones; rather,
it was they who sought me out...
The first omen was correct,
the second and third were incorrect...
“I AM N ADI N EFERU- A TEN , counselor of the Sabsung Institute for the Well-Being of Souls.”
“So pleased,” murmured Christine, holding out one hand. By the gleam in her dark eyes Norah could tell she was anything but pleased by the incursion into her house of a woman who was not only taller and more elegant than she but clearly had a backstory that beat even being the illegitimate daughter of a French adventurer in the Grand Turk’s harem. “Norah, darling, could you fetch us all some coffee—I’m absolutely dying —and please rip that phone out of the wall!”
It was ringing again, jaggedly and insistently. Alec went to get it.
“We of the institute do not drink coffee,” intoned Nadi Neferu-Aten. “Caffeine is a drug, clouding not only the senses in this life but the sight of the inner eye in its quest for the vistas of eternity.” She folded her long hands with their seal rings and cartouches.
“Well, caffeine may be a drug for you, but for me it’s the stuff of life, right up
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