Ghost Dance (32 page)

"Best not," Alex said. "We need to respect the metaphor."

"OK," he said. "But this place is fucking huge. Do you know the way through?"

"We should just find it automatically.
We're
not evil."

Morgan wasn't so sure. It seemed to him he might be exactly the sort of thing this place was designed to trap.

Alex's eyes cut to him, black and unreadable. "Worried?"

The sounds of the demon grew faint, but Morgan couldn't tell if they were making progress. They twisted and turned and the maze went on and on and it all looked the bloody same. Then, just when he'd stopped expecting it, the end came.

They halted between the low walls of stone, gazing at the desert beyond.

"If we step out, is that where we'll end up?" Morgan asked, nodding at the scrubland stretching to the horizon.

"Maybe. I think it has a lot of exits."

"Could one of them lead out of the spirit world?"

"Let's see," Alex said, taking his hand and stepping forward.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Alex felt a dizzy sensation of falling as she stepped from one place and into somewhere else entirely. There was the hard snap of something out of alignment slotting back into place, and she knew they'd left the spirit realm - at least for now. She looked at Morgan, unchanged beside her, and was relieved to see the shofar still tucked in his belt.

"We're back," she said. They were in a desert far bleaker and more barren than the one they'd left. There was no greenery, just rolling sand dunes and, in the distance, mountains. "I think this is Death Valley."

"But why did it bring us here?" Morgan said. "There's... nothing."

"Not quite nothing." She pointed to her left, where the sand was churned, spoiling the silken smoothness of the dunes. It was too fine to hold prints, but she guessed the trail had been left by a vehicle, maybe more than one. Though the sun was nearer to the horizon than its zenith, it was still hot enough to steal her breath. She knew how dangerous that kind of heat could be and they had no water with them. Her fair skin would burn agonisingly if they didn't find cover soon.

"Whoever that is, they've got to be going somewhere," Morgan said. "We need to follow them."

Alex looked at the tracks which led towards the horizon in either direction. There was no way to tell which way they'd come from and which they were going. "Or we could wander around for hours and then die of heat exhaustion. Why don't I take us back into the spirit world?"

Morgan shivered. "No thanks." He walked away before she could protest, following the broad trail to the top of the nearest sand dune and down.

Alex trotted to catch up with him, cursing as the sand slipped away in sheets beneath her feet and she lost almost as much ground as she gained.

"How the hell are you walking so easily?" she asked Morgan.

"I've spent a lot of time in deserts."

"I thought you were British."

He rolled his eyes as she drew alongside, gasping for breath. "We have got passports, you know. Anyway, I was in the army."

"In Iraq?"

"Afghanistan. And other places."

She heard something in his tone that told her he didn't want to elaborate and she didn't press him. They walked in silence, not even the sound of the wind to disturb the perfect stillness.

Alex knew she was sweating, but the parched air snatched up the moisture before she could feel it. The painful band of a headache tightened around her temples and although she knew they were moving they didn't seem to be getting anywhere.

When she heard the faint sound she thought at first that the wind had picked up. Then the pitch rose and she knew what she was hearing. "PD's here."

Morgan frowned at her.

"My partner. The coyotes."

As if her voice had summoned them, the creatures loped into view around them. Alex knew they weren't hostile but she didn't like the wildness in their eyes. The people trapped inside the animal bodies were burning with rage and she didn't want to be its target. "Easy," she said. "We have what we need to help you. We just need to find your real bodies."

The lead coyote lifted its head and howled.

"Do you think he understands?" Morgan asked.

"I hope so. But he's losing himself in the beast."

The air filled with the musky odour of fur as the creatures kept pace beside them. The sand dunes gave no chance at a long view, and Alex had no sense of how long they'd travelled or how much further they needed to go.

The sun had sunk lower in the sky, acquiring the first hint of red, when Morgan stopped. He held out his hand to halt Alex beside him. The coyotes seemed to understand some need for caution. The leader sunk to its belly and the others clustered behind it, eyes swinging between Alex and whatever lay ahead.

"Do you hear that?" Morgan whispered.

She cocked her head, then nodded. "Voices." They could be anyone, but knowing the way the spirit world worked, they were almost certainly someone connected to all this. The maze would have spat them out into this particular part of the real world for a reason.

She didn't like the idea of walking into whatever was waiting with only Morgan beside her. He'd lost both his gun and his knife in the spirit world. But her mouth was so dry she found it hard to swallow and she was beginning to feel light-headed, a combination of heat and thirst. If they didn't chance it, the desert would finish them off anyway.

The dune in front of them obscured what lay beyond, but the voices grew louder as they drew nearer. Alex thought she recognised at least one of them. "That's Coby, isn't it?"

Morgan nodded.

She hesitated a moment then walked forward, to the top of the rise and over. The coyotes howled when they saw what lay beyond, a high desperate note that went on and on. Alex tried to see what had spooked them, but it was just a ring of young people, probably Croatoans. They were dressed in Native American costumes, beads and buckskin.

She couldn't see Coby's face, but there was a shock of curly hair on a man with his back to her and she knew it was him.

"Coby!" Morgan shouted. "I've got the shofar. You know what it can do, so don't fuck me around." He held the horn above his head and the gold around the mouthpiece glinted in the sunlight.

The people in the circle shifted and turned to stare at him. Alex saw the skulls beneath their beautiful faces and knew these were the true leaders of the cult, the body-hopping spirits of the old in fresh young bodies. She thought some might try to rush Morgan before he could use the horn. They didn't, though. And they didn't seem entirely surprised to see them. A shiver of unease passed down her back, and then the curly-haired man turned.

It both was and wasn't Coby. He had the same features and the same wide hazel eyes, but there were crow's feet around them and his skin had lost the glow of youth. He was holding another man, a knife against his throat.

"PD," Alex gasped.

"Yes," his captor said, "I know what you're thinking and I am Coby. And yes, I will kill your partner's body if you don't do exactly what I say."

"I'm not giving you the shofar," Morgan said. "I'm sorry, Alex."

Coby smiled. "I don't want it. I want
you
, Alex. Or are you going to sacrifice this man again to save your own skin?"

"Wait," Morgan said. "Tell us what the hell happened to you."

Alex guessed he was stalling for time and was happy to let him.
Could
she sacrifice PD again? But if she saved him at the cost of the shofar, the whole world would suffer. She'd have sacrificed the greater good to salve her own guilty conscience. Wouldn't that be worse than the original crime?

"Alex happened to me," Coby said. "She pulled me into the spirit world, where events aren't ordered by time, but by their psychic significance, their weight. There was one event - one day in my life - that outweighed all the others. Once she pushed me away with all the force of her considerable power, it was inevitable I'd return to it."

"The day you murdered the other kids in your class," Morgan said. And then, "
You're
Laughing Wolf. Jesus, you've lived these last I don't know how many years twice. And the second time you knew everything you found out the first time. You set the trap in the Croatoan centre to draw Alex there so she could send you back in time to set the trap. You probably set up the whole fucking cult just to draw us there. You wanted to go back to the beginning."

"You're a clever guy," Coby said. "When I was younger, I underestimated you. Now I know I need you."

"Need
me
? I've already spoken to Dee for you. I thought it was Alex you wanted now."

She looked between them, agonised. The knife pressed against PD's throat and the coyotes paced as if they were caged. The leader's lips were pulled back in a fierce snarl and Alex could see PD's face behind the beast's, equally feral. She thought he understood everything and was judging her for her hesitation.

"I need you both," Coby said, "but Alex first." His face hardened and his hand tightened on the knife. Droplets of blood gathered beneath the blade and fell on PD's white T-shirt. The man possessing his body whimpered but didn't try to pull away. With the blade pressed against his jugular, any movement would have killed him.

Morgan turned to Alex, the shofar clasped against his chest. "Don't listen to him. His promises aren't worth anything. PD's already dead. You tried. Let it go."

"He's right," she said thickly to Coby. "I've got absolutely no reason to trust you. I'm not putting my life in your hands along with PD's."

"I'm not asking you to. I just want what I've always wanted - a chance to escape what I know is waiting for me at the end of my life."

"You don't deserve to escape it," Morgan said. "And it's not like it's gonna end there. If you're immortal, you can do anything you want."

"I don't want much. I enjoy killing, why deny it? But I like it personal, one victim at a time. Even if I live forever, the people I kill will be nothing, a blip on the radar. Malaria kills a thousand times as many every day. If you're really so concerned about innocent life, Morgan, why don't you devote your time to finding a cure for that?"

"Listen to him," Morgan said to Alex. "Listen to the shit he's spouting. You
can't
let him live forever."

"Summon the spirit world, Alex," Coby said. "Just draw it in. The circle is here, we're ready to perform the ghost dance to evoke paradise." He caressed PD's face with his free hand, smiling. "We've even got a direct descendant of Jack Wilson here to make the metaphor complete. All we need is for you to take the metaphor and turn it into reality."

He gestured to the circle around him, a sharp jerk of his head. The Croatoans linked hands and began to turn as the low hum of a chant throbbed through the desert air.

"Don't do it," Morgan said. "If he gets to Eden he gets the apple - it's game over."

The coyotes snarled and howled and the circle below moved faster. Their feet churned the sand into a fine yellow fog.

"But Eden's got a guardian, hasn't it?" Alex said. "And you've got the shofar. I've got to save PD. I owe him."

Morgan turned to her and for a moment she saw violence in his eyes. Then it faded and his hands dropped. She didn't think he could kill her in cold blood.

Coby smiled. His hazel eyes were hidden in the shadows beneath his brows as the setting sun dyed his skin red. "Use the dance," he said to Alex. "Jack Wilson knew what he was doing when he taught his people to perform it. He just wasn't as powerful a spirit traveller as you. He could never pull Eden all the way through, though he spent all his life trying. Visualise paradise, Alex, and the dance will bring it to you."

"Eden," she said. "The
biblical
Eden?"

Coby's mouth quirked. "If that's the easiest thing for you to picture."

She could see him vibrating with energy. Coby thought he'd won and maybe he had. "OK," she said, then shut her eyes and spread her hands wide in a welcoming gesture.

She did exactly as Coby had asked - she pictured the perfect little glade she'd imagined as a little girl when she'd first heard the story of Eden. She visualised the apple trees, side by side, old and gnarled, leaves bright against their cracked bark. And then she smiled and pictured the serpent. Coby thought he could escape the judgement he was owed, but if she could contrive it he'd find himself facing it anyway.

She felt the power build and build inside her until it was too much to bear. Her arms dropped and her eyes opened. Her neck hairs stood on end, springing back up when she ran a hand down to smooth them, as if the air was filled with static electricity.

The coyotes must have sensed it too. The one which contained PD's spirit cocked its head, ears pricked, then lifted its head and howled. The others joined him. She realised, with a lurch of alarm, that they were howling a perfect counterpoint to the chanting of the Croatoans below.

She took an unconscious step towards them, tried to pull up short and instead stepped forward again, drawn by the power of the dance. Whatever she'd set in motion here was out of her control - or Morgan's. He walked forward beside her, the tense set of his jaw revealing both his struggle against the movement and its futility.

Alex stopped beside Coby near the edge of the circle and Morgan flanked the cult leader on the other side. Her eyes met Coby's for a moment, but the pale hazel was unreadable. Then the other man looked back into the centre of the dance and the expression on his face made Alex's stomach churn.

The Croatoans were running now. Sweat beaded on the beautiful young faces and gathered in the armpits of their buckskin tops. The coyotes had moved to circle them, a snarling, feral outer ring. The Croatoans sensed them and the skulls beneath their perfect skin grinned at the beasts.

At first she thought it was a shadow in the centre of the circle and looked up to see what had cast it. There was nothing, and when she looked back down the stain had grown and she saw that it was grass.

It was a vibrant, emerald green, a colour she'd never seen in the desert, not even after a rare rainfall. The grass grew and spread. She felt it sprouting beneath her feet and nearly overbalanced, taking a step back onto sand only to have it too erupt into growth. The air was filled with the bright, fresh smell of it.