Magic Street Page 0,137

his light, almost empty body into the gap between the houses and, as far as any observer on the street could have seen, disappeared.

Inside the house, Ceese heard the door open and called out, "Who's there!"

"Bill Clinton, the first black President, what do you think?"

It was Yolanda. Ceese picked up the golden cage wrapped in a copy of his leather jacket and walked into the living room.

She was laying Mack Street down on the floor. His shirt was open and a terrible wound was seeping blood.

Ceese cried out, a terrible groan, and flung aside the cage. He ran to Mack's body and embraced it, covering himself with blood. "Mack," he cried.

"He's not dead," said Titania.

"Do you think I don't know death?" said Ceese. "He's cold, and he has no heartbeat."

"He's not dead," she said. "He's just empty."

"What do you mean?"

"In our battle, Oberon used him up. Emptied all the wishes out of him. So in the end, the old monster had nothing left to draw on. A couple of bullets from your gun took my dear husband right in the mouth and he had no strength to turn them into anything but what they were. Bullets."

"Oberon's dead?"

"He's bound. While he was lying there gasping with pain like he had never felt before, I bound him. I stripped him of that hideous shape. I sent him back down, and this time he didn't have the power to bind me in return." She walked over to the corner behind the front door, where the golden cage had rolled after it fell out of the jacket. Puck was glaring at her.

"It's over, Puck," she said.

"I could have helped. I could have saved the boy." and you would have done it."

"Let me out."

"No revenge," she said. "I'll set you free - of this cage, of Oberon - but only if I have your solemn vow. No revenge on me or any of the people who helped bring Oberon down today."

"So now I'm your slave," said Puck.

"I'm offering you parole," said Titania. "As long as you don't try to hurt me or any of these mortals, you're free. So say it. Give me your oath."

After a moment's hesitation, Puck launched into a stream of some language Ceese had never heard before.

"What's he saying?"

"What I told him to. Only he's saying it in Sumerian, so you can't witness his humiliation."

"Sumerian?"

"It's where we first met. I found him in the wild and loved him until he awoke from his animal stupor and realized he was a man. It took a while longer to persuade him that he was really one of us, and immortal. Isn't that right, Enkidu?"

Puck answered with another stream of incomprehensible words. Titania chuckled. "That'll do."

She passed her hand around the globe. As she did, the wires unwove themselves and skeined themselves around the third finger of her left hand. So fine were the wires that they became a simple gold band.

Released from his prison, Puck squatted down and strained like a dog trying to lay a turd in the grass. As he did, he grew larger and larger until he was his full height. But not the same man. No, not the old homeless guy. He was young and beautiful and seriously pissed off.

"You owe your freedom to me," said Titania.

"Only because you didn't let me help," said Puck.

"Help now. Help me waken the boy. Let him remember who he is."

Puck sighed. "Well, turnabout is fair play. He healed me once." He knelt on the other side of Mack from Ceese and laid a hand on the boy's head. Then he sighed, smiling. "Oh, Mack, it's good to know you."

Mack's eyes fluttered and opened. He took a huge breath. His heart started. Ceese's tears didn't stop, but they changed meaning.

"No," said Ceese.

"I have to," she said. "I have to finish this. He's the last bit of business."

"He's not a bit of business," said Ceese.

"He's the most beautiful of souls," she said, "but he's been too long away from the rest of himself, and he needs to be made whole again."

"You're giving him back to Oberon?" asked Ceese. "To that damned dragon?"

"Dragon no more," said Titania. "I tamed him. He's just an ordinary fairy now, except that he's in chains, and can't find the best parts of himself, and has no idea of why."

Mack sat up under his own power, stood up, looked around. "Did we win?"

"We did, Mack, thanks to you. And to Ceese. And Ura Lee Smitcher, who shot the bastard in