Whoops. End:
Rupert had told the needfire to return to the sorcerer. But he hadn't specified which sorcerer. It came for us both.
The malison was broken, but I was on fire. I could feel it, see it, watching without comprehension as my right arm, my right hand, all the right side of my body began to shrivel, to scorch, to turn black. I felt no pain; there was no pain left in me, after the malison. I pulled myself back and away.
"Rupert..." It was garbled. Something was wrong with the right side of my face; I couldn't hear anything, I couldn't form words properly, I needed help. "Rupert..."
The flames had caught now, going from spectral to physical. The place was on fire; there was smoke half a metre deep along the floor. Fire licked at the hardwood; the smoke became laced with the individual scents of the fire's fuel. Books, leather, varnish, burning meat.
"Rupert?"
My right eye wasn't working; I turned my head and saw him, with my left. He had Richard's body in his arms. At least, I assumed it was Richard's body; I could think of nothing else this blackened, unrecognisable thing could be, that Rupert would want to save it while he left me in the fire. My father's voice, from the night of the first fire, came back to me: Do you feel protected?
"No," I whispered. I saw Rupert go, saw him abandon me, saw him turn his back to save the man who had brought this upon us all. "No. You should have trusted me, beloved, and instead? You left me here to burn..."
Get out, petite. You are strong, you can pull youself out along the floor, there is no real fire in the flat, and the doors are open. Go. Show me your strength. Trust only yourself. Go.
"No." Rupert had left me to die. I wanted no more it this; I wanted no more of anything. "No."
I closed my eyes, and felt my heart stop. Going into darkness, I gave myself a moment to watch myself die.
holy cow, Deb. Are you trying to kill me? Yes, absolutely to the doorway. Amazing to everything else.
buzz, first of the shop phone and then of the personal line, shrilling through my head
I'm wondering about the use of Buzz and then shrilling, here.
Also, isn't the word spelled inchoate? or am I on crack?
And did I say amazing? Damned amazing. I've told Greg he must find all your books for me in the library system, and if he can't, he has to somehow buy them for me. I did it with the narrowed, evil eye. I think he'll come through.
Deena, yup - you spelled inchoate just that way. And I haven't really done any editing on this, but buzz needs to go byebye, I think.
The first four books are indeed out of print. I think my website has links to the "lemme know if one of these four titles shows up" places, like abe and powells and whatnot.
Still have the epilogue to write, though.
edit: spelling fixed. Re Buzzing, howsabout
I rang up, risking that Richard was in fact elsewhere and not at home, and listened to the double tone, first on the shop phone and then on their personal line, shrilling through my head, bringing to my inner eye the uncomfortably clear picture of an empty shop, an empty flat, an empty world.
YES!
or, you know, I like that much better.
(gribbling)
That was a lot of work, for one morning.
Mopping floors now. Waaaaay easier.
but I did begin the epilogue....
Does it help knowing more people will see this and love it than will see your sparkling clean floors?
Oh, the sparkling clean floors (and they are, now) are for writers group tonight: one pregnant lady, so clean is good.
Deb, that was not only visual, it was audible. As Deena said, amazing. I'm going to have to read The Pensioner again now.
connie. Of all the scoobs, I could see any of them, all of them, turned and staked before Giles. My sweet, precious Giles. Can't even think of him...
...but now you've done it, and there he is. You've got all the voices, all the mannerisms just right. And now I'm not sure what's canon and what's connie's.
Plei, do you ever wonder if they give AD lines, or just tell him what Wes needs to say and turn him loose. Or could he play the phone book with that weary, bitter but not beaten twist to his voice and his face? You've got him, dearie. To the life.
Bev, actually, I think I may try beefing that up a bit - I expect it needs a bit more in her head, about Rupert's promise to always back her up, about that same promise not 48 hours earlier, about his abandoning it at the first opportunity.
Because in DC (Deb's Canon), that would have been why she went completely isolationist, abandoned the world, began looking at dimensions instead.
