The Dark at the End

2

The other three members of what Jack had come to call the Ally’s Gang of Four were seated around the table in the Lady’s front room when he arrived. Weezy was leaning toward Glaeken where he sat at the head of the table, shaking his head as he stared at the Compendium.

“I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Weezy looked shocked. “But-but-but you must have.”

Glaeken shrugged. “I-”

“Can I interrupt?”

Jack didn’t know what was going on, but whatever it was, the contents of the blanket-wrapped bundle under his arm took precedence.

Weezy looked annoyed as she tapped the open page in the Compendium before Glaeken. “This could be important.”

Jack unrolled the blanket, revealing the katana and the rectangle of skin.

“Not as important as these.”

“We’ve all seen them before,” Weezy said.

He held up the sliced piece of skin and wiggled the cut flap. “Not like this.”

He pulled out his Endura and held it up. “Of this Earth.”

He made a quick cut, showing everyone how the skin healed itself. Then he unsheathed the katana.

“Not of this Earth.”

He made a cut-again the blue glow along the edges, again no healing.

Weezy’s face had gone white, Glaeken looked concerned, but the Lady seemed unperturbed.

“That skin is not me,” she said.

“But it used to be yours.”

She used to be able to appear in many guises. Jack had known her as Anya when she’d been stripped of this piece of skin-or rather, stripped of everything but this skin.

That had been her first death… caused by creatures not of this Earth.

Then her second death, caused by the Fhinntmanchca, also not of this Earth.

And now the Gaijin Masamune… would that cause her third and final death?

“Still, it is not me.” She held out her hand. “I know this sword. You showed it to me.”

“Yes. Last year.” He handed it to her. “Remember what you said?”

“Of course.” She held the katana by the handle and studied the pierced, pitted blade. “I said I sensed something significant, something of great import about it… that it would be a means to a momentous end.”

Jack raised his eyebrows. “ Your end?”

She shook her head. “I don’t believe so.”

Without warning, she held out her left arm and slashed at it. Blue light flared and her cry of pain mixed with Weezy’s cry of alarm as the blade sliced through her wrist and embedded itself in the tabletop.

But the hand remained attached.

“Jeez,” Jack whispered. “What the hell?”

“The blade can cause me pain,” the Lady said. “But it cannot damage me.”

Jack leaned in for a closer look-not even a line to mark the blade’s passing.

“Swell. But how about a little warning before you pull something like that?”

“Th-that was your wrist,” Weezy said, still visibly shaken. “What if it pierces a vital organ?”

The Lady rose. “Like this?”

Before Jack could stop her, she turned, placed the butt of the handle against the wall, and impaled herself on the blade. She yelped in pain as pale blue light flashed and the point emerged from her upper back.

She turned and faced them, her expression pained as she looked down at the sword protruding from her chest.

“Could someone help, please?”

Jack was already halfway there. He stepped up to her, gripped the handle and, after a heartbeat’s hesitation, yanked it free. No blood, not even moisture on the blade.

“Thank you,” she said.

Jack couldn’t help but be angry. “Are you crazy? That could have killed you.”

But the Lady was looking at Weezy. “No fear of piercing my vital organs, dear. I have none. I am all of a piece.”

Weezy opened her mouth but couldn’t speak.

Jack could. He held up the sword. “Remember what else you told me about this?”

“I believe I said it might be used for good or ill.”

“No, I mean what you told me to do with it.”

She nodded. “I said to throw it into the sea.”

“You went further than that. I believe you suggested getting on a boat and dropping it into the Hudson Canyon.”

She nodded. “Yes, I did.”

“Well, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.” He glanced at Glaeken. “Unless you object.”

The old man frowned. “Why would I object?”

“Well, it’s sort of yours. You supplied Masamune with the original ‘metal from the sky.’ I figure you should have some say.”

Glaeken shook his head. “I lay no claim to that blade.”

“Then it goes.”

“Thank God,” Weezy said. “When?”

“ASAP.”

“Good or ill,” the Lady said. “You never know.”

“I know the ill it can do. That’s enough.” He turned to Weezy. “How deep is the Hudson Canyon?”

She shrugged. “Depends on how far out you go. It’s four hundred miles long. Go out about a hundred and the canyon floor is probably a mile from the surface.”

“A mile sounds good.”

“Hire a tuna boat captain to take care of it for you on his next trip.”

He shook his head as he sheathed the sword in its curved scabbard. The Gaijin Masamune was a collector’s item. Couldn’t risk somebody finding out and getting greedy.

“This needs the personal touch.”

He’d hire a boat, have it take him out over the canyon, and when they reached a point where the depth finder read a mile, he’d discard the scabbard, unwind the handle, and drop the blade over the side.

Not even Rasalom would be able to find it in the muck a mile down.

“Need some company?” she said.

“Not if you get seasick.”

“I was thinking of Eddie. We’re having lunch later. Wants to talk to me. He hasn’t got much else going on.”

Jack thought about it a sec. “Sure. Why not? I’ll see if I can set it up for early tomorrow.”

She smiled. “Great. We done with the sword?”

“Yeah. I’ll-”

The Lady held up a finger. “One minor thing.”

“Yes?”

“I wish the return of my skin.”

The request startled him. Since it didn’t seem to want to leave him, he’d come to think of it as his skin, his memento of Anya-a grisly one, but a memento nonetheless. Then again, Anya had been simply another manifestation of the Lady.

“Of course.” He held it out to her.

She touched it-immediately the two slices Jack had made with the sword sealed up-but she did not take it.

“I wish it returned to my person.”

With that she turned and her housedress split, revealing an identical map on her back. Jack would never get used to her clothes not being clothes, but part of her. As she said, I am all of a piece.

The split also revealed the two tunnels running back to front through her flesh, scars of her first two deaths.

“Lay it against my back but please align it properly.”

Jack handed it to Weezy, who was closer, but she backed away, shaking her head. But finally she took it. Gingerly, she aligned the pattern on the Lady’s back with that on the flap, and pressed it against the Lady. It blurred, then melted into her. The Lady’s back was unchanged, but the flap was gone.