Dreams and Shadows - By C. Robert Cargill Page 0,130
defense is to convince us not to take it.”
Coyote smirked, beaming with pride. “Now that’d be a trick, wouldn’t it? That’d be a trick indeed.”
“You’re pathetic.”
“Do you really think so little of me?” asked Coyote. “Do you honestly believe I did all this because I give a shit about your little friend? About a boy who cheated death only to dangle his feet over the edge every day since, waiting for nothing more than to fulfill his destiny? Dying alone and anonymous in the street? That’s what the great Colby Stevens thinks of Coyote? That I spend my time putting bumblebees in jars to watch them fight?”
“Well . . . I . . . ,” stammered Colby.
“You do think that of me, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“You have much to understand about the nature of man.”
“You’re no man.”
“No,” said Coyote. “I am his unflattering reflection.” He shook his head. “I have outlived billions of gallons of blood, and you think I somehow delight in the spilling of a few more pints. You see my hand in the affairs of a few mortals and you think that I’ve but wound them up so I can watch them bounce off one another in the night. Never have you asked yourself why I might do such a thing—to what end this bloodshed might serve. The trouble with human beings is that when examining the actions of others, they always apply their own ethics and point of view, hoping to understand them in the context of what they might do and why they might do such a thing. When no answer lies in that examination, they always ascribe malice. Malice, you see, is the only thing people understand without explanation. You are born with it and thus come to expect it.
“Do you know the difference between a good man and a great man? A good man looks around at his brothers, sees their ignorance, finds himself horrified by it, and sets out to educate them. A great man instead finds himself elated by realizing that his brothers will never know any better, using it to his advantage to forge an army of the ignorant, fighting to leave the world a better place. Ignorance is the only one truly unstoppable force in this world. And the only difference between a despot and a founding father is that the founding father convinces you that everything he does was your idea to begin with and that he was acting at your behest all along. Yes, people are sheep. Big deal. You need to stop trying to educate the sheep and instead just steer the herd.
“No one wants to admit that they’re not smart enough to understand what’s going on, so they create such elaborate fictions to convince themselves otherwise. Fairies are the construct of man and bear with them both his arrogance and his ignorance. You look at what I’ve done and you think this is about tormenting your friend. If I told you now that the blood about to be spilled would change the world as you know it, would you deign to stop it? Would you believe me at all?”
“No, I wouldn’t,” said Colby.
“Good,” said Coyote. “Were you to believe me, you might not do what I need you to do.”
“And all this is supposed to stop me from killing you?”
“Who cares if you kill me, Colby?” he said, rolling his eyes. “The machine is sprung. Mallaidh’s run off at full speed to save the man she loves, while you’ve stood here threatening an old man. The events unfolding as we speak can no longer be held at bay, but a moment will come when you will be forced to make a choice about what sort of man you really want to be, and that is where my gamble lies.
“When fate finally comes for you, who will you be, Colby Stevens? Who will you choose to be?”
Coyote turned and walked into the thick blanket of brush, disappearing into a tangle of branches, Colby staring, standing still in stunned silence.
“This isn’t over between us,” called Colby into the dark wood before him.
“Nor would I want it to be,” called back Coyote’s distant voice.
Colby stared, bewildered, into the night, fully aware that he’d most likely just been conned. But there were worse things than finding yourself fooled by the Trickster himself. Then worse things sprang to mind. Ewan!
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
SPACE AND TIME
Ewan sat naked in the corner of his apartment, his arms tightly wrapped around his knees, covered from head to