Fevre Dream Page 0,82

and gone. Have I ever tried to tempt you with that?"

"You tempted me with a goddamn steamboat instead," Marsh replied. "And you sure as hell told me a pack of lies."

"Even my lies have held a kind of truth, Abner. I told you I sought out vampires to put an end to their evil. Can't you see the truth in that? I need your help, Abner, but as a partner, not as a bloodmaster needs a human thrall."

Abner Marsh considered that. "All right," he said. "Maybe I believe you. Maybe I should trust you. But if you want me for a partner, you're goin' to have to trust me, too."

"I've taken you into my confidence. Isn't that enough?"

"Hell, no," said Abner Marsh. "Yeah, you told me the truth, and now you're waitin' for an answer. Only if I give the wrong answer, I don't get to leave this cabin alive, do I? Your lady friend there will see to that even if you don't."

"Very perceptive, Captain Marsh," Valerie said from the darkness. "I bear you no malice, but Joshua must not be harmed."

Marsh snorted. "See what I mean? That ain't trust. We ain't partners on this steamer no more. Things are too goddamned uneven. You can kill me any damn time you want. I got to behave myself or else I'm dead. The way I see it, that makes me a slave, not no partner. I'm alone, too. You got all your damn blood-drinkin' friends aboard to help you out if there's trouble. God knows what you're plannin', you sure don't tell me. But I can't talk to nobody, you say. Hell, Joshua, maybe you ought to kill me right now. I don't think I like this here kind of partnership."

Joshua York considered that in silence for a time. Then he said, "Very well. I see your point. What would you have me do to demonstrate my trust?"

"For a start," said Marsh, "supposin' I wanted to kill you. How would I go about it?"

"No!" Valerie cried in alarm. Marsh heard her footsteps as she moved toward Joshua. "You can't tell him that. You don't know what he's planning, Joshua. Why would he ask that if he didn't intend to-"

"To make us even," Joshua said softly. "I understand him, Valerie, and it is a risk we must take." She started to plead again, but Joshua hushed her and said to Marsh, "Fire will do it. Drowning. With a gun, aim for the head. Our brains are vulnerable. A shot through the skull would kill me, while a shot to the heart would only knock me down until I healed. The legends are accurate in one respect. If you cut off our heads and hammer a stake through our hearts, we die." He gave a raspy chuckle. "One of your kind would do the same, I think. The sun can be deadly as well, as you have seen. The rest, the silver and garlic, that is all nonsense."

Abner Marsh let out his breath noisily, scarcely aware he'd been holding it. "Boil me for an egg," he said.

"Satisfied?" York asked.

"Almost," Marsh said. "One more thing."

A match scratched against leather, and suddenly a little dancing flame burned in York's cupped palm. He touched it to an oil lamp so the flame crept across to the wick, and a dusky yellow illumination filled the cabin. "There," Joshua said, extinguishing the match with a wave of his hand. "Better, Abner? More even? Partnership demands a little light, don't you think? So we can look each other in the eye."

Abner Marsh found he was blinking back tears; after so long in darkness, even a little light seemed terribly bright. But the room looked larger now, the terror and the suffocating closeness of it melted away. Joshua York was regarding Marsh calmly. His face was covered with husks of dry, dead skin. When he smiled, one crackled and flaked away. His lips were still puffy and he looked as though he had two black eyes, but the burns and blisters were all but gone. The change was astonishing. "What is this other thing, then, Abner?"

Marsh took York at his word and looked him straight in the eye, "I ain't goin' to go this alone," he said. "I'm goin' to tell..."

"No," Valerie said, from where she stood by Joshua's side. "One is bad enough, we can't let him spread this. They'll kill us."

"Hell, woman, I wasn't figurin' on putting' no advertisement in the True Delta, you know."

Joshua steepled his