Blind God's Bluff A Billy Fox Novel - By Richard Lee Byers Page 0,4

more or less how it had felt at the time, it was still a hard idea to wrap my head around.

“Yes, and it was the only work you’ve performed tonight. You’re young and strong. Maybe you can do more.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I know! Stop telling me and listen! Remember the shaky sensation you told me about. Make yourself feel it again.”

I tried, essentially by imagining as hard as I could. It started a kind of echo shivering inside me. I wasn’t sure if it was all just memory and wanting or something more.

“Maybe I’ve got it,” I said.

“‘Maybe’ is no good!” the old man snapped. Blowing right into my face, his breath was as rancid as his BO. He sprayed spit, too. “You have to trust the power.”

“All right,” I said. “I trust it.”

“Now imagine force streaming out of you like before, only this time, even stronger. Strong enough to smash every fey to pulp.”

I tried. I tried to be an atom bomb that only blasted fairies. The vibration shot out of me.

My strength went with it. My legs gave way and dumped me on the floor. I banged my head against the door as I went down.

The brownwings all buzzed louder. In their death throes, I hoped. But then the noise got softer again, and the door hitched open a crack. I didn’t have my weight solidly planted against it anymore, and, still alive, healthy, and pissed-off, the fairies were shoving it.

Floundering in wood dust and termite wings, I threw myself against it. It cut off a tiny arm as it banged shut. The room went completely dark again.

Along with the buzzing, snaps and crunches sounded all around. The fairies were picking and clawing their way in wherever they’d found a weakness.

“Useless,” the old man growled. For a moment, I’d given him real hope, and it had energized him. Now that I’d crapped out, he sounded ready to give up.

“Screw you, too.” Awkward because I had to keep bracing the door, I clambered back onto my feet. “I could have run away like Pablo. I didn’t have to stop to help you in the first place. Hell, maybe if I let the brownwings in, they’ll concentrate on you and leave me alone.”

“I don’t recommend it. You already made yourself their enemy, and they don’t forgive.”

“I wouldn’t really do it anyway,” I said. “But I could use some help, as opposed to just hearing you bitch. If using these… abilities is all about imagining, then it seems like you should be able to do it blind. Hell, maybe you can even do it better.”

“No,” he said. “My anatomy’s not like yours, and my brain doesn’t work like yours. With my eyes gone, I can’t visualize. That’s why someone sent the brownwings after me early, when murder would breach custom.”

“Then they don’t want to kill us?” I asked. Not that going through life like Helen Keller seemed a whole lot better.

“They won’t kill me. It doesn’t matter what happens to you.”

The house kept popping and crunching as the brownwings tore it to pieces.

“Okay,” I said, “let’s see if I can get the shaky feeling going one more time.”

“Even if you can,” said No Eyes, “I doubt it will do any good. You have no training. It was a fluke that you were able to accomplish anything before.”

“Remember when you said I need confidence? You’re not helping.”

“Very well. Try, then. Tell me when you have it.”

I tried until I was straining like you strain to make out tiny print. All I found was an aching, empty place.

“It’s been a long time since I was anyone’s vassal,” the old man said. “I never thought I’d have to go back.”

“Right,” I said. “That’s the really bad part.” Then the vibration shivered out of the center of me. “Wait! I feel it! What do I do with it?”

“I don’t know. The forbiddance came naturally to you, but you can’t make it strong enough.”

“Then think of something else!”

“Your only hope is to try something else that seems natural and right.”

In that case, we were probably screwed, because how could anything about this situation seem “natural?” But I tried to think of things I liked, things I did all the time. Cards. Backgammon. Pool. The T-bird… which we could drive away in, if only it were here.

I reached for it with my mind. I pictured it sitting in its parking spot on Seventh Avenue and wanted it. I hadn’t really thought any of this through, but I guess