know where they are. Most of the cities are ruined. Most of the country is dust and poison. The compounds are the way of things now, and they won’t last. Can’t, with what’s coming. The worst hasn’t reached us yet, but it will. It will.”
Hawk shifted his feet, suddenly anxious to be gone. He glanced around the waterfront, then back at the old man. “You better watch out for yourself,” he said. “Whatever’s out there in the city isn’t anything you want to run across.”
The Weatherman didn’t reply. He didn’t even look around.
“I’ll come back down in a few days to see if you’ve seen anything else.”
No response. Then suddenly, the old man said, “If you leave, Brother Hawk, will you take me with you?”
The question was so unexpected that for a moment Hawk was unable to reply. He didn’t really want to take the old man with him, but he knew he couldn’t leave him behind.
Taking a deep breath, he said, “All right. If you still want to come when it’s time.” He paused. “I have to go now.”
He walked back down the dockside, unhappy with himself for reasons he couldn’t define, irritated that he had come at all. Nothing much had been accomplished by doing so. He glanced over at Cheney, who was fanned out to his right, big head lowered and swinging from side to side.
From behind him, the thin, high voice tracked his steps.
Happy Humanity sat on a wall.
Happy Humanity had a great fall.
All of our efforts to put him to mend
Couldn’t make Happy be human again.
Without looking back, Hawk lifted his arm in a wave of farewell and walked on through the mist and the gray.
A FTER HIS MEETING with Two Bears, Logan Tom climbed back into the Lightning AV and drove it out into the country to a spot off the road where the prairie stretched away in an unobstructed sweep on all sides. There he parked, set the perimeter alarm system, crawled into the back of the vehicle, and fell asleep. His sleep was deep and dreamless, and when he awoke at dawn he felt fresh and rested in a way he hadn’t felt for weeks. He stripped naked outside the AV in the faint light of first dawn and took a sponge bath using water from the tank he carried in the back. The water was purified with tablets, clean enough for bathing if not for drinking. No one had drunk anything but bottled liquids in years, and when the stockpiles that remained were exhausted, it was probably over for them all.
Dressed, he ate a breakfast of canned fruit and dry cereal, sitting cross-legged on the ground and staring out across the empty fields, his back against the AV. On the horizon, the windows of the farmhouses and outbuildings were black holes and the trees barren sticks.
As he ate he thought about Two Bears, the task the Sinnissippi had given him to accomplish, and the impact of what it meant. In particular, he thought about something O’olish Amaneh had said and passed over so quickly there hadn’t been time to take it in fully until now.
A fire is coming, huge and engulfing. When it ignites, most of what is left of humankind will perish. It will happen suddenly and quite soon.
Logan Tom stopped chewing and stared down at his hands. It wouldn’t matter what any of them did after that, demons or humans. If he was to make a difference as a Knight of the Word—if anyone was to make a difference—it would have to happen before that conflagration consumed them all. That was what Two Bears was telling him; that was the warning he had been given. Find the gypsy morph and you find a way to save the remnants of humankind from what is coming.
He wasn’t sure he believed that. He wasn’t sure he knew what he believed. It seemed to him that the world had already come to an end for all intents and purposes, that even a conflagration of the sort the Sinnissippi was foretelling couldn’t make things worse. But he knew as soon as he thought this that it wasn’t true. Things could always get worse, even in a world as
Hawk shifted his feet, suddenly anxious to be gone. He glanced around the waterfront, then back at the old man. “You better watch out for yourself,” he said. “Whatever’s out there in the city isn’t anything you want to run across.”
The Weatherman didn’t reply. He didn’t even look around.
“I’ll come back down in a few days to see if you’ve seen anything else.”
No response. Then suddenly, the old man said, “If you leave, Brother Hawk, will you take me with you?”
The question was so unexpected that for a moment Hawk was unable to reply. He didn’t really want to take the old man with him, but he knew he couldn’t leave him behind.
Taking a deep breath, he said, “All right. If you still want to come when it’s time.” He paused. “I have to go now.”
He walked back down the dockside, unhappy with himself for reasons he couldn’t define, irritated that he had come at all. Nothing much had been accomplished by doing so. He glanced over at Cheney, who was fanned out to his right, big head lowered and swinging from side to side.
From behind him, the thin, high voice tracked his steps.
Happy Humanity sat on a wall.
Happy Humanity had a great fall.
All of our efforts to put him to mend
Couldn’t make Happy be human again.
Without looking back, Hawk lifted his arm in a wave of farewell and walked on through the mist and the gray.
A FTER HIS MEETING with Two Bears, Logan Tom climbed back into the Lightning AV and drove it out into the country to a spot off the road where the prairie stretched away in an unobstructed sweep on all sides. There he parked, set the perimeter alarm system, crawled into the back of the vehicle, and fell asleep. His sleep was deep and dreamless, and when he awoke at dawn he felt fresh and rested in a way he hadn’t felt for weeks. He stripped naked outside the AV in the faint light of first dawn and took a sponge bath using water from the tank he carried in the back. The water was purified with tablets, clean enough for bathing if not for drinking. No one had drunk anything but bottled liquids in years, and when the stockpiles that remained were exhausted, it was probably over for them all.
Dressed, he ate a breakfast of canned fruit and dry cereal, sitting cross-legged on the ground and staring out across the empty fields, his back against the AV. On the horizon, the windows of the farmhouses and outbuildings were black holes and the trees barren sticks.
As he ate he thought about Two Bears, the task the Sinnissippi had given him to accomplish, and the impact of what it meant. In particular, he thought about something O’olish Amaneh had said and passed over so quickly there hadn’t been time to take it in fully until now.
A fire is coming, huge and engulfing. When it ignites, most of what is left of humankind will perish. It will happen suddenly and quite soon.
Logan Tom stopped chewing and stared down at his hands. It wouldn’t matter what any of them did after that, demons or humans. If he was to make a difference as a Knight of the Word—if anyone was to make a difference—it would have to happen before that conflagration consumed them all. That was what Two Bears was telling him; that was the warning he had been given. Find the gypsy morph and you find a way to save the remnants of humankind from what is coming.
He wasn’t sure he believed that. He wasn’t sure he knew what he believed. It seemed to him that the world had already come to an end for all intents and purposes, that even a conflagration of the sort the Sinnissippi was foretelling couldn’t make things worse. But he knew as soon as he thought this that it wasn’t true. Things could always get worse, even in a world as
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