“Life goes on. Besides, if I’m wrong and Mike and I can’t make this work, I’ll move back in.”
“Oh, I hope it works.”
“Me too.” Judy smiled at something she read on her phone, an unexpectedly tender expression that made me feel odd about having seen it. Judy was so private, it felt like an invasion.
We ate in silence, Judy tapping out messages, me letting my thoughts wander again. I didn’t feel like cooking, so maybe Malcolm and I could go out to dinner to celebrate anything I could think of. Unless he had to go to Baghdad, which was a less pleasant thought. On the other hand, if he could make a difference there…that was a positive thought that almost outweighed my fear for him.
My phone buzzed with an incoming text. I swallowed a bite of cake—Judy was right, it wasn’t bad—and checked the display. HEARD FROM AL-HUSSEIN, Malcolm wrote. THEY FOUGHT OFF INVADERS. WELL INTACT.
Relief flooded through me, making my joints weak again. “The Well is still there,” I said.
Judy looked up. “That’s wonderful news! What happened with the explosion?”
“I guess that was an invader tactic, because Malcolm said they fought them off.” I tapped out BUT IS THE WELL ACTIVE?
It took a minute for the reply to come. NOT YET. TALKING TO AL-HUSSEIN NOW.
I took another bite of cake to calm myself. “More news soon,” I said when I’d swallowed. “I could really use some good news.”
“Yeah. Like that the Wishing Well has been purified, and it’s giving out invader-fighting weapons that predict where they’ll strike next.” Judy swiped across her display. “Looks like Mike is coming over at six to help me load up my things. He says if Malcolm goes to Baghdad, their team won’t be hunting tonight.”
“That’s true.” I’d forgotten, for the moment, what Lucia had said about only the new steel magi being needed for the next stage of al-Hussein’s plan. Impatiently I checked my phone, though I knew no new messages had come through. I threw away my trash and gathered up the phone. “I feel better now.”
“No more low blood sugar,” Judy said.
“I’ll see if I can finish the mail-in auguries before two.” I left Judy tapping rapidly and took my time passing through the stacks to the front of the store. I did feel better. Maybe it was just the effects of a good meal, but I felt more positive than I had since witnessing Samudra’s death.
I did a few more mail-in auguries with no communication from the oracle. That was fine by me, given that all its recent communications had been of disasters. As grateful as I was to have warning of the invaders’ attacks, those warnings wore on me. “It would be nice if, just once, your communication was of something positive,” I said as I searched for the fourth augury. “Like…telling me that Mike and Judy are going to work out. Or giving me a winning lottery number. I mean, not the last one, because I don’t need to win the lottery, but that’s the sort of thing that makes people cheerful.”
I will end. Helena will end.
I stopped mid-step. “See, that’s the exact opposite of what I asked for,” I said. The day’s events had left me too numb to be distraught over the now-familiar warning. “Do you not understand human desires? You must understand, because you gave me my honeymoon.” Another thought struck me. “You can’t possibly mean that our ending is a positive thing?”
No. I will end. Helena will end. There was a pause that felt like the oracle was searching for words. Life is. The enemy falls. We fall. Life is.
“I have no idea what that means.” I continued searching for the augury. “But life seems like a very positive thing. So…thank you, I guess.”
Seal the cracks.
That one, I didn’t understand either. We’d had our chance to seal the cracks and lost it. “I don’t know how to do that, but maybe it will become obvious sometime,” I said.
The augury was a paperback titled I am the Messenger, its cover disfigured by a dirty boot print. I brushed at it to no effect. Well, condition didn’t matter to the oracle.
When I emerged, Dave Henry was leaning against the counter, his familiar aluminum briefcase beside him. “Four requests,” he said by way of replying to my greeting. “How are you holding up?”
“Fine, I guess.” I waved at him with my left hand. “I have two hands again, so I feel more positive.”
“I heard they worked a miracle. Congratulations.”
“I’m grateful.” I accepted the first slip—What is wrong with the Well?—and disappeared into the stacks.
The oracle’s attention was instantly on me, pressing down like a soft but inexorable weight. “I guess it’s not so strange that you’d care about this one,” I said. I found the augury, a fat little paperback called The Tin Roof Blowdown, and examined it for a minute before remembering I wasn’t allowed. “I hope this works. Though I don’t know why people didn’t try to figure this out fifty years ago, or any time in the years since. Maybe they did, and I just don’t know about it. I guess it doesn’t matter, so long as they’re trying now.”
I handed Dave the paperback. “$4000. That’s good. Usually it means there’s a lot of information in the augury.”
“I hope you’re right.”
I filled the rest of the augury requests—How do we defend the Well against invaders? Where will the invaders strike next? and Where is the custodian’s body?—with the oracle essentially breathing down my neck. I’d expected it to refuse to answer the question about where the invaders would attack next, because it had refused so many others along those lines, but the light never changed. Well, Lucia was in a position to get the augury immediately and act on it right away, so maybe that made a difference.
“I really hope those help,” I told Dave as Judy wrote out his receipt. “It’s not a good feeling, being the only named Neutrality left.”
“We’ve got security surrounding this place, and stone magi monitoring the wards,” Dave said. “There’s no way we’ll let invaders get to you.”
“I didn’t remember about the security.”
“Lucia didn’t want to make a big deal about it. She said it wouldn’t help you do your job better, knowing about it. But you should know you’re protected.”
I almost wished I didn’t know, as it reminded me that Abernathy’s was almost certainly the invaders’ next target. But it was sort of comforting. “Thanks. I’m sure everything will be fine. They tried an attack once already and failed, so they have to think twice about trying again.”
“Right.” Dave put the books into the briefcase and saluted me with it. “Hang in there.”
He meant well, so I suppressed a feeling of irritation at his air of breezy confidence and went back to work.
The rest of the afternoon was quiet. Only a few Ambrosites showed up at two. “Everyone’s waiting to see what happens in Baghdad,” one woman confided in me. “As soon as we know if the Well is active again, you’ll see a deluge of questions about what wishes to ask for.”
That made sense. None of the Ambrosites’ requests drew the oracle’s attention; none were rejected. By 3:30, the store was empty again. Judy leaned against the counter as the bells jingled, saying goodbye to our last customer, and pulled out her phone. “Do you mind if I go upstairs and pack?” she said, reading something on her screen. “Mike will be here right at six, and I’d like to be able to load up and go.”