"Swami," said the lad.

"You were able to endure this bond then, Swami?"

"His mind is like a fire," Swami said. "But he meant me no harm. He broke the bond when he saw that it was hurting me."

Merlin turned to Michael. "Then he may not be past reaching."

"We must try to bring him back," said Michael. "While there is any hope at all, we must! Swami has agreed to help us."

"This mere lad?" Merlin exclaimed turning to the boy again. "How? Why?"

"For whatever reason, Gabe trusted him as he has trusted neither of us," Michael said, clearly pained by the admission. "They have a bond, however small. And I cannot be both channel and physician, Merlin. We both know how adversarial this will be."

"You intend to use this child as a channel?" Merlin said, appalled.

"His gifts and strength are greater than you credit, Merlin, or I would never have asked this of him. Particularly his capacity as an empath. Have you some secret store of that skill, which I am unaware of?"

It was a rhetorical question that Merlin didn't bother answering, but turned back to the boy. "Swami, have you any notion what this means? What it could cost you?"

"Michael has explained it very clearly," Swami said, demonstrating at least sufficient sense to look afraid. "I don't know if I'll have the strength to hold that much pain for very long, but I want to try. To save an angel," he added, still looking too wonderstruck for Merlin's comfort. Still, it had been bravely said, and it was doubtless true that Michael would not have asked the boy unless he really thought him able.

"We must go back there now," the angel pleaded, "before whatever remains of their bond fades." Michael turned to Swami. "Are you ready?" When Swami nodded, Michael smiled gratefully and took his hand. An instant later, the shed was empty.

Swami rose toward consciousness as if through sodden velvet curtains, letting the rustle of breeze-born foliage, the smell of dewy earth, and the play of cool air across his skin draw him back into the waking world. When he finally opened his eyes, he was relieved to find them all still there. Merlin, the enchanter of ancient tales, sat propped against a stone, contemplating the morning sky. On a fallen tree beside him sat the two others, one dark and beautiful despite the weary sadness in his face, the other, golden-blond and familiar to everyone in Taubolt, yet truly known by none, it seemed.

Two archangels! It still dizzied him. Who was he to keep such company? And yet, they had needed his aid, and he had not failed them. That fact alone seemed sufficient to justify everything he'd been through, and a great deal more.

Though it seemed unlikely that he'd ever fully understand the bulk of what he'd been through, the ordeal had left Swami in possession, by default, of much of what the wounded angel knew. He understood now that Taubolt and all it protected were in far greater danger than anyone but these few around him guessed; that the things he had always taken for wonder were just the thinnest skin upon a world of marvels unimagined by himself or anyone he knew; and that Joby was the poor, unwitting fulcrum on which all their fates were balanced. Swami could only grimace now at the woeful ignorance in which he had risked bringing Joby here.

Despite all these revelations, what most occupied Swami's mind was the crucible he'd just been through. For two days and nights without ceasing, Swami had been the living link through which Merlin and Michael had waged war against the animal madness on which Gabriel had cast himself adrift. It had been inexpressibly painful, exhausting, fearful work, endured not in hours or even minutes, but instant by instant as the punishing current of their spiritual battle had passed through the fragile wire of his being. Much of what Swami could remember seemed just a fevered plunge through mental landscapes as incomprehensible to him now as they had been then, but, in the end, they had succeeded. Gabriel had returned fully to himself, relinquishing his lion's form, and Swami had been allowed, at last, to drop into exhausted sleep virtually where he stood.

Now, probing his own mind, Swami found the person he'd always been still there, intact, but stretched across a great deal more that he had never been, or at least never been aware of. It seemed that he would, and would not, ever be "himself" again.

He was about to sit up when the darker angel said softly to no one in particular, "My soul's become a foreign land. I feel such remorse. . . . What have I done to us all?"

"Gabriel," Merlin said gently, "you are hardly the first of your kind to flee the anguish of despair in that fashion. But you are one of very few to willingly return. I stand in awe of such great heart. Temper your remorse with that."

"I share the fault, brother," said the lighter angel Swami still couldn't help but think of as Jake, "I should have spoken less harshly when you brought Joby here. That you should think I would not let you stay . . ." He looked away. "You should never have been made to waste your strength in hiding from us all."

"Peace, Michael," Gabriel said. "I was hiding long before I came here." Swami saw his gaze grow distant. "With Joby gone, I had no purpose left to fill the time. No hope at all. Everywhere I went, Lucifer's minions taunted me with visions of my coming damnation. I was half-mad with their torment before I ever thought to seek the Cup's protection." He looked up at his brother, eyes glistening. "I remember, Michael . . . how you warned me." His face fell in shame. "You were right. I am a fool."

"I'll hear no more of this!" Merlin snapped with surprising vehemence. "There is only One with authority to assign your fate, and He has yet to speak. We have not all suffered these past two days just to have you sink back into despair and madness." He fell abruptly silent, then shrugged apologetically. "I'm sorry. Truly. We all have remorse to deal with, it seems, and I deal with such things less gracefully than angels." He offered Gabe a rueful smile. "No doubt my demon father's influence."

As Merlin spoke, Michael glanced at Swami and smiled to find him looking back. "Our hero is awake," he said.

"Good morning, lad," Merlin said gruffly. "Now I fear you've seen the mighty in yet another flattering light. Sorry for the rude awakening. I hope your sleep was good. God knows you earned it."

"I feel much better now," Swami said, sitting up stiffly, and rubbing at his eyes.

As Swami's fists fell away, he found Gabriel kneeling beside him. "I owe you more than I can pay," said the angel, leaning down to kiss his forehead. In awe, Swami watched him draw his perfect face away, as all the stiffness of his night on the ground suddenly departed. His body tingled with such energy that he couldn't keep from standing; half-certain he'd be able to fly if he tried. "I am in your debt forever, little brother," Gabriel said, smiling uncertainly at Swami before returning to his place beside Michael and Merlin.

Little brother. He'd been called little brother by an archangel!

"I have lived a very long time," Merlin said, "and never seen a braver act than the service you performed here, young man."

"Thank you," Swami answered, not sure what to make of such praise from beings as far above himself as he was above an ant. "I'm not sure how I'll keep the rest of my life from seeming dull now."

Michael and Merlin laughed. Even Gabriel smiled.

"There will be some need of heroes around Taubolt for a while yet, I suspect," Merlin chuckled. "I doubt you'll lack employment."

"Believe me," Michael grinned, suddenly seeming more like "Jake" again, "it'll be good to have someone else who knows what's really going on around here. You have no idea how hard it's been havin' no one to talk with but this cantankerous old wizard."

"Michael?" Swami said uncertainly.

"Yeah?"

"Do you mind if I still call you Jake?"

Michael's smile softened. "You'll have to," he said. "More than ever, the folks in town have got to see me as a trusted peer, not some exotic icon from their mythic past. Besides, I am still Jake, Swami, much as I ever was. I'm just him and more. Can you see it that way?"

"I'll try," Swami said, uncertain. "I guess . . . I guess I'm that now too."

"You are," Merlin said gently, "as much yourself as ever, Swami. A passage like the one you've just been through cannot help but change you, but underneath every tree ring, the ring before remains. Rest assured, you've gained much, and lost nothing that would have been yours to keep in any case. Growth changes us all."

"As for that," Michael added seriously, "what you've touched inside my brother's mind still belongs to him and no one else. Hard as it may be, you must guard it all as someone else's treasure, for that is what it is. Do you understand?"

Swami nodded solemnly.

"Well then," Michael said, "glad you're awake. You should eat something while we all get our signals straight about how to handle things."

Merlin had already gone to their small fire, where he ladled oatmeal from a pot Swami knew they had not brought with them, into a bowl that had also come from who knew where. As he brought the bowl to Swami, Merlin glanced at Michael and said, "I assume that containment is still our primary aim?"

"If it's still possible." Michael nodded.

"In addition to providing some plausible explanation of what he's seen then, our story must discourage him from wanting to know more. Any ideas?"

Swami disagreed completely, but he held his tongue. Surely, such powers knew better than he what was best.

"Swami?" Merlin said. "You have something to say." It was not a question.

"Well," Swami hesitated, "if Joby's your grandson, then he's of the blood, more than lots of us are."

Merlin nodded.

"So, I don't see why we've all been hiding from him . . . or why you've hidden him from us."

"Swami," Michael said, "you were born in Taubolt, and embraced its secrets with a child's ease. Joby grew up in a different world, one that makes no allowance for even the possibility of such things. By the time he got here, Joby was a ruin of the man he might have been but for this trial he's caught in. He is so much better today only because the Cup and Taubolt's people have provided him sufficient protection to heal and find himself again-a task still far from finished."

"Yes, but how would telling him, or us, have changed that?" Swami asked. "We could have helped him even more if-"

"What Joby needed, and still needs, is refuge," Merlin insisted. "The truth would turn everything he rests assured of, the very bedrock of his daily reality, upside down. We dare add no such stone to the load he already bears. What if he fled Taubolt altogether?"

"There is another thing," Gabriel said softly. "Being of the blood, Joby has already used its power in many small unwitting ways since childhood. That things so often shift around him is not always merely Lucifer's doing. What he believes, be it hope or fear, has great effect. Were he to become conscious of his power, Lucifer would have a new and far more potent lever to manipulate him with."

"As for hiding him from Taubolt," Michael said, "you know how suspicious people were of him at first. How easily would Joby have found refuge here if others had known what you do? Even now, if they found out, he might suddenly be shunned by people whose welcome and friendship have been crucial medicine to him."

Their arguments made undeniable sense. Swami, himself, had been afraid of Joby after learning what the lion's mind had shown him. Still, he could not forget the look on Joby's face after watching his brief bond with Gabriel at the end of their hike, nor Joby's pleas for understanding afterward.

"You still are not convinced," Merlin said, looking at him curiously. "You know my grandson in ways different from our own. Tell us what you think."

"I think he loves Taubolt more than anything," Swami replied uncertainly, "and believes in us so deeply. What will it do to his refuge when he finds out we've never believed in him enough to come out of hiding . . . even now?"

All three gazed at him in silence, Merlin with obvious chagrin.

"It has the ring of truth," Michael conceded. "If trouble comes, we may have as much need of Joby's trust as he will have of ours. But it would still be very dangerous for all the reasons we've discussed, and, while I intend no offense to anyone here, we must be careful to avoid any further interference in Joby's trial."

At this, Gabriel looked forlorn, while Merlin looked offended.

"But isn't hiding from him interference too?" Swami dared to press. "Why is he here at all, if not to find us? It's his destiny to know. I feel it with everything inside me, and I don't think hiding from him's going to work for too much longer anyway. Not after . . . what he saw."

"From the mouths of babes," Merlin sighed, glancing at Michael, then back at Swami. "Having heard our concerns, what do you suggest we do?"

Swami felt far from easy about giving any more advice to his betters, or about bearing the responsibility if he turned out to be wrong, yet, it seemed so plain to him. "Stop deciding for him, either way," he said. "If Joby wants to hide from Taubolt, fine, but if he asks to know the truth, then . . . then warn him that the answers might be hard to hear, even frightening, and if he still wants to know, just answer whatever he asks."

Merlin drew a long, pensive breath.

Michael nodded. "Very well, but there are some things no one must be informed of. The wager is one. My true nature is another."

"And mine," Merlin added. "Not yet, at least."

"I think I have already had too much to do with all these matters," said Gabriel, breaking his long silence. "With your leave, Michael, I would stay here, in these forests, for whatever time is left to me, and care for all that lives here in solitude. May I remain?"

"Of course, brother. One has come to Taubolt who may pose a threat here if he cannot be dissuaded. Your help in guarding this place would be very welcome."

"I will go then," Gabriel said, rising to leave them. "Peace upon you all, with my unending gratitude." He turned to Swami and said, "Especially to you, my friend. If ever you need help, you have but to call and I will come." Then he took a step away from them, and vanished.

24.

( Trick or Treat ) As October arrived, fall suddenly descended over Taubolt like a soft, smoky curtain, turning maples, oaks, and alders into bright splashes of fire among the evergreens. Mornings came chill and dewy for a week. Then the rain arrived, roaring on the roofs and hammering branches bare. Dry gullies became creeks again, while creeks became rivers, and rivers became raging torrents. Chocolate-colored cataracts spilled over cliff tops into the roiling bay whipped into rafts of marshmallow cream by storm surge thundering up the cliff sides to cast flurries of shredded foam and spindrift swirling across the headlands west of town. Not until the month was nearly over did the weather clear again, to everyone's relief.

Three nights before Halloween, as the sun set beneath a pale, cloudless sky, Taubolt's more enlightened ladies gathered in the back room of Molly Redstone's shop for their weekly New Age meeting. There was much to meditate upon. It had been a stormy month on many plains.

"He'll be crippled for life!" gasped Carolena. "That's what I heard. The poor man has a wife and two young children, and he's only twenty-seven! What an awful thing."

"It was obviously that Greensong woman," said Alicia. "I'm all in favor of saving the environment, of course, but she's taken things much too far. I can't stand her."

"Well, they did try to rape her," said Margery Baltore. "I might have gone out and driven a few spikes into those trees myself if someone had done that to me."

"But they already caught the men who did that!" Alicia objected. "They're being punished. What more did she want? Now she's ruined the life of a completely innocent man. How's that supposed to save the trees?"

"Oooooh." Carolena grimaced, her fists balled in anger. "People are so unenlightened! It just makes me want to go out and shake some sense into them!"

"Ladies," Molly interjected calmly. "Let's get recentered. Judgment can have no place in our endeavors. We are here for higher purposes."

"I'm sorry," Carolena said. "There's just so much stupid violence out there lately. It's hard to stay attuned."

"The secret," Molly said gently, "lies in staying focused on our goals, rather than our obstacles." She smiled in anticipation of what they were about to hear. "With that in mind, Cassey and I have been saving something special to end our meeting with tonight. Cassey, will you tell us all what you told me this afternoon?"

Cassey smiled, eyes gleaming with delight as everyone turned to face her. "I've seen the fairies!" she said in hushed wonder. "Just today, with my very own eyes!"

"What?" said Margery, sounding a tad skeptical.

"Ooooh, tell us!" squealed Lolly Berrit.

"I went out on the headlands to enjoy the nice weather," Cassey said gleefully, "and, from a distance, I saw several children go into that pretty ring of trees down below the church. I didn't think much of it at first, but when they didn't come out again, something made me wander up a little closer, just to see what they were doing. But when I got close, three birds flew out, and there was no one in the ring at all!"

"Couldn't they just have left while you weren't watching?" Alicia mused. "Or gone out the side you couldn't see?"

"To where?" Cassey protested. "That circle's got nothing but open fields around it in all directions. Three children, three birds. Isn't it obvious?"

"Wow! They turned into birds?" Carolena exclaimed. "Amazing!"

"A raven, a blue jay, and a seagull," Cassey said smugly. "What would three such different birds be doing in there all together anyway?"

"Goodness!" Lolly gushed. "This is it! The proof we've waited for, isn't it, Molly?"

"It has begun," Molly said quietly, looking meaningfully at each of them. "The devas have revealed to me that our purpose here is to reestablish contact with these spirit beings and help them usher in the coming dawn of enlightenment. The New Age is upon us at last, and Taubolt will be its portal to the world."

"How exciting!" Carolena squeaked, literally bouncing in her chair, while the other ladies in their circle received the news with varying degrees of satisfaction.

"Our enthusiasm must be tempered with great caution, though," Molly warned. "As the sacred celebration of Samhain approaches, such spiritual activity is bound to increase, but we mustn't scare them off with tides of vulgar publicity. Be more attentive than ever to the signs, but I think it would be best if our discoveries were discussed nowhere but here for now. Is this acceptable?"

The women all nodded, and Carolena said, "That's very wise, Molly. We all know what happened when those two English girls told."

"Oh, yes!" clucked Lolly. "The place was overrun, and all the fairies driven out!"

"That's precisely what we must avoid." Molly nodded. "Our calling is to guard the cradle of rebirth, not commodify it as so many others would."

"Like that Karl Foster," Sharine agreed. "Talk about unenlightened!"

"And Agnes Hamilton!" Margery added. "She wants to run this whole town!"