“Spear me to an ash-tree,” she replied. “Save a thief in my stead. Cut me apart and scatter me in the sea. Cast me back into the lake where I was found.”
None of that sounded like anything I could live with. “I can’t.”
She reached out a hand and caressed my cheek. The look in her eyes was hauntingly compassionate. “I know. And I’m sorry.”
The giraffe broke off at a run and I followed it. The motorway curved upwards and upwards and ever upwards, stopping at a cliff-edge of broken tarmac and shattered concrete. I stared out over a gulf of mist-shrouded water and saw a castle amidst a lake.
And then the giraffe was gone, and the strange old woman sat next to me, cards between her hands. The ten of spades. The ace of hearts. The devil and the moon.
“Nimue said I’d killed you,” I told her.
“You did.” She flicked a card between her hands. The five of diamonds.
I looked closely at her. Had I seen her somewhere before? The face was unfamiliar, but we were in dreams and faces were easily changed. Eyes were less so. I looked at her eyes.
“Vera King?”
She flipped the Queen of Diamonds. “The same. You stuck me good, little girl. Hardly any of me left now.”
“So you’re just here to fuck with me?”
She shook her head. “My, but you would never have made a sorceress. You think so narrowly.”
I sat down on the edge of the asphalt cliff. “What then?”
“I’m stuck, my dear, stuck between worlds. But the devil don’t have me yet, and I can cling to that.”
“And you’re talking to me because?”
She cackled. Proper Witch-of-the-West cackled. “Your fine lady had a plan. The queen’s gambit—a pawn for the board, but you refused it.”
“You know between the cards and the chess I’m getting deeply tired of game-related metaphors.”
“A pity, because you shall get little else. We are both pawns, my dear, in a game your queen plays with her own self. A far-sighted little Tireseas she was, and she saw that one day she might become a thing that we all should fear.”
“I swear if you don’t start making more sense I’m going to kill you all over again.”
She tsked as only a granny can. “Such anger, and still so young—relatively speaking. You stand at a crossroads.” The two of spades. “Your lady will live or die, rise or fall, ascend or perish according to what you do next.”
“She seems to want me to kill her.”
Vera King smiled. “So kill her. And good riddance.”
“But then she’ll be dead.”
“Death is a transition, child.”
“Yes. To being dead.”
She gathered her cards and stood, shaking her head. “My Arty should have killed you all. Then we would never have had this bother. Kill her or heal her. But don’t do nothing. Doing nothing invites chaos.”
“Why are you helping me? If you are helping me.”
She threw a card face down at my feet. “I got no choice, dear. You’re the one who killed me, after all. And I take some pleasure in watching you fail.”
I wasn’t sure if she was worse dead or alive. I stooped and turned over the card. The ace of hearts. Before I could pick it up, a hand closed around mine and plucked the card from my fingers.
Looking up, I saw that Vera King had gone, and in her place was a girl, passing fair and young, her golden hair unbound and a faint smile on her lips.
The sunlight through the curtains woke me at last—oh right, I didn’t have other people’s alarm clocks or actual fucking cockerels getting me up this time. Checking my phone, I found a text from Nicola Bright. Will be at your office circa 1.30 if convenient.
It wasn’t hugely. It was nearly noon already because seriously man, fuck sleep patterns. Still, an hour and a bit was just about enough time to get into the office and if I didn’t catch up with the professor now she might decide I was too unreliable to be worth it. And they said sleeping in your clothes never paid off.
To be honest, I was glad of the distraction. Having made the very mature and positive decision to do something about Nimue if I possibly could, only to wind up chasing a sodding giraffe and playing three moves of chess against my ex, I was feeling a bit symbolismed out for the day.
Vision quests could officially go fuck themselves.