Along the walls, the rune shuddered, their ears drooping.
The shaman stepped down into the circle.
At first, Caliban thought it was another stag-man. The rack of antlers over its head was huge, twice the size of that of any of the other males, hung with bones. Round stones with holes in them clicked against something that looked disturbingly like human fingerbones. It wore a cloak of woodpecker feathers that dazzled the eye with spots and stripes until the shape under them seemed to swim in the firelight.
Then it spread its arms, and the stag-man behind them rushed to take its cloak away, and he saw that it was a female.
An antlered doe. Shaman—and judging by the number of points, a very old one.
The doe’s face did not wrinkle like a human’s would, but the long planes of her muzzle were sunken, the bones in fine relief, and the hairs had gone white, turning her skin a frosted green.Her spine was bent slightly forward, possibly under the weight of those magnificent antlers, and her breasts were flat sacks against her chest.
The doe’s eyes were milky with cataracts, but they narrowed with unnerving clarity on his face.
Caliban swallowed a mouthful of blood. The demon had gone so silent that it was like being alone in his head for the first time in months.
“You,” said the antlered doe, in a low, throbbing voice, mourning dove rather than sparrow. “Why here, you?”
Caliban had to swallow again before he could speak. “It was an accident. We were on the road, and the storm drove us off.”
“Lie, you.”
“No lie.”
“Bring demons here, you.”
Uh-oh.
“We didn’t mean—”
She took a step forward, her eyes narrowing, and struck him across the face. The strength in those delicate limbs was astonishing. His head snapped back. The demon yammered, briefly, and then fell back into that terrified silence.
“Lie, you! Demoninsideyou, you!”
Despite the fear and the pain and everything else, Caliban felt a sense of vindication so powerful that it was practically a venial sin. He turned his head and stared at Brenner.
The assassin said “Heh,” and made a kind of full facial shrug. He had the decency to look embarrassed.
“The one inside me is dead,” Caliban said, turning back to the rune. “I swear, it is no harm to anyone.”
The rune-shaman’s nostrils flared. She put her face down practically next to his and inhaled.
“Could be, you. Or could be lies, you.”
“No lie. I swear it.”
She tilted her head. “Ye-e-es. Maybe, you. What other demons though, you?”
Is she asking if I have any other demons? God, isn’t one enough?
“What other demons?” asked Brenner.
The antlered doe turned and looked at him, then stepped forward, her head darting forward. She walked like a bird or a lizard, oddly jerky. “Others, you. Clanking, clicking, tearing. Four-leg, six-leg. Know, you?”
Brenner inhaled. “I think she means the Clockwork Boys.”
“The Clockwork Boys? Have they come here?”
She glowered. “Not knowclokwerk, me. Know demons. Demons come, rune territory,myterritory. Kill rune. Want killme. Know, you?”
