Read Online No Dominion (The Walker Papers: A Garrison Report) by CE Murphy - Free Book Online Page B

And—”
    “And I didn’t have the Sight,” I interrupted. “And somebody’s gotta go, right? There’s a big fight brewing, and Brigid’s gonna be waiting for us, and we got no way to get there except Cernunnos. And you can’t ride with him.”
    I was asking a question there, and she knew it. She gave the god a desperate glance, then shook her head as she looked back at me. “I can’t. I really can’t. Not if I want to live my life, Gary. Not if I want to go home to Morrison. If I ride with Cernunnos again I’ll never come back. He’s…” She swallowed, and that time I didn’t have to ask. Cernunnos was god of the Wild Hunt, master of beasts. I hated to say it, but Jo was suffering a case of genuine animal magnetism.
    “All right, so you can’t go, so who knows, maybe it ain’t you the cauldron spell got bound to. Maybe it’s me. Besides.” I jerked my chin at Cernunnos, whose pointy face was smug. “Horns here ain’t gonna let anything happen to me, are you? ‘cause if he does, he’s gonna have you to reckon with, and I don’t figure that’s the kind of reckoning he’s looking for with you, Jo.”
    Cernunnos smiled, real close to a leer. Joanne growled and turned on Cernunnos. “Help me out here. Your memory works both ways. I mean, it must, right? Because we’re way before you and I met the first time chronologically, but you still know who I am. So you should already remember it if Gary went gallivanting off with you in the past!”
    I squinted one eye shut, tryin’ ta follow her logic, then gave up. I didn’t figure gods worried too much about when somethin’ happened. Linear time was for humans, mostly ‘cause we kept thinkin’ it would help us make sense of things. After seventy-four years I knew better, but I still hadn’t let go of today followin’ yesterday an’ chasin’ tomorrow.
    Cernunnos shrugged. Jo said my shrug looked like plate tectonics ‘cause I had big shoulders. If I was plate tectonics, Cernunnos was the water ripplin’ over ‘em, smooth an’ fast. “Perhaps the past I remember most clearly is one the old man did not come here in.”
    I grunted with offense. Being immortal meant he had to be older than me, so he had no place laying out words like old man, even if I called myself that from time to time. He ignored me and kept talking to Jo. “Of all mortals, you should realize there are paths not taken. Nothing is immutable, Joanne. Not even for a god.”
    Jo bared her teeth like she was gonna take him by the throat. “Okay, okay fine , but you’re the one who said you needed a force for life—”
    “He is as bright a force of life as I have seen, and never doubt that I have seen many, gwyld .” He threw out that word on purpose. Jo an’ I had looked it up ages ago. It meant shaman, or magic man, or druid, in old Irish, and Jo didn’t like him using it. Most of the time he humored her, so he was drivin’ home a point now. Her eyebrows pinched, sure sign she knew it, too. “More,” Cernunnos said, “he carries with him a spirit of tenacity, a creature of great age and soul. He—”
    “That’s his spirit animal! ” Joanne howled. “I helped him find that!”
    “So much the better.” Cernunnos sounded like a cat who’d stole the cream. “It binds you together and adds some aspect of your strength to his.”
    Joanne stomped a foot. I grinned at the ground, then tried to solemn up as she waved her hands again. “I said no! Just because I got you into this doesn’t mean you have to go gallivanting off across time and space to—”
    “Save the world, doll? Like you done a hundred times or so now?”
    My girl’s mouth snapped shut. I stepped up to her and put my hands on her shoulders. “I’ve told you I don’t know how many times, Joanie. You’re the best thing that’s happened to me in a long time. You got me all tangled up in this crazy fantastic world of yours, and I ain’t never lived like I done the past year. You keep throwin’