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real (and dragons, too, please), and of
course death would be less of a bummer
if there were a heaven (hell not so much).
I ve just never been able to believe any of
it. Right now, though, to some small but
detectable degree, it feels like the pH
balance in my mind is shifting. Like my
skepticism is being neutralized. Hopeful
self is sitting on rational self s chest.
I unbutton the devil puppet s coat. If
there s a radio control mechanism or
something inside him, the natural balance
of my mind will be restored. If not, who
knows?
Under the coat I find a wire armature.
No, not an armature. It s& a birdcage.
The puppet s body is a small birdcage,
and where his heart would be there is a
tiny yellow canary on a bird swing,
rocking gently to and fro. I wouldn t be
surprised if it chirped, or flew. It doesn t,
though, and I feel through the rest of the
puppet s clothes for some hidden
mechanism that might account for that tap
tap of his leg at the glass, but there s
nothing. He s wood and wire, just a
puppet, and that tapping leg just hangs
from the bottom of the birdcage, no
internal control device at all. Only the
puppet strings could have moved it.
And the strings were slack.
Curious. (You know, if curious means
 impossible or  freaky or&  indelibly
awesome. )
And now my head feels all full of
moonlight or starlight or something. Or
snow. My head feels like a snow globe
that s been shaken, and glitter is swirling
around in it like unmoored stars.
I unfold the butterfly. On the white
underside of the origami paper I find a
rhyme and a small schematic.
Near the Devil s Stream
and using poison as bait,
my counterpart impatiently waits.
Okay. I m good at riddles. The Devil s
Stream is the canal where the Vltava
flows around the Kampa, the island on the
Malá Strana side of the river. As for  my
counterpart, it could mean Zuzana s
counterpart, but I don t know who that
would be. If it s the devil s counterpart,
though, it would be an angel, so I search
my mind for some famous angel in that
area but come up empty. As for  using
poison as bait, I come up really, really
empty.
So maybe I m not good at riddles after
all. Fortunately, there s the schematic,
which shows a street, a tiny red X
inscribed on it. A new destination, right
back the way I just came.
Cradling the devil in the crook of my
arm like a baby, I set off.
Whistling.
Her
8
Thank God for Murdered
Monks
He came.
He came to find me.
When Mik rounds the corner out of
sight, I sag against the wall of my hiding
place  behind a lace curtain in the foyer
of the building across the street  feeling
as spent as if I ve actually been conjuring
spells and not just holding colored beads
between my fingers. I let out a long
breath.
Mik came to find me.
Did I think he wouldn t? I don t know.
I don t know. I get too flustered around
him to attempt anything like sustained eye
contact, and without that, it s kind of hard
to gauge interest. But watching him from
hiding like a creepy serial killer, I could
actually focus on his face long enough to
believe that& he looked interested. Didn t
he? Well, he always looks interested,
he s that kind of alien, but just now he
looked& dazzled.
 Don t you think he looked dazzled? I
ask the black cat that s rubbing against my
legs. It slipped in here right when Mik
showed up, like it was bloody well trying
to lead him to me, and when it started
purring as loud as a farm truck, I thought
for sure Mik would hear. I may have
shushed it. Shushed a cat. And what do
you think it did? It purred louder.
 I will do just as you wish, said no
cat ever.
In the safety of aftermath, though, my
concern seems a little foolish. What did I
think, that Mik would thrust open the door
and demand,  Why purrest thou, feline?
The cat continues its purr-fest, which I
take to mean: Yes, Mik was definitely
dazzled. How could he not be? I
ensorcelled him. For which, thank you,
scuppies. Two down. One for the tapping,
one to lift the butterfly into the air. Poof!
Poof! They go fast. I wish I had Karou s
whole necklace. Karou. I text her: Phase
One a success. The Puppet That Bites
would be proud.
Because, yeah, using scuppies to
animate a puppet, where on earth did I
come up with that idea?
It s not copying, though. It s an [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]