6
The scary guy . . . the guy with the forever eyes . . . the guy Drexler called “the One.” Physically he wasn’t the least bit imposing, even less so than the first time they’d met. Now he seemed almost . . . delicate. But he had an air of authority about him, of hidden power that warned away. Hank had hoped never to see him again, but here he was. And where had he come from? Maybe he’d already been here, standing in the shadows. But how had he got in?
Hank wasn’t about to ask.
Drexler gave a little bow—Hank half expected him to click his heels—and gestured toward Darryl.
That word again . . . and they were both looking at Darryl. Was that what this was all about? He’d entered the Orsa as Darryl and emerged as this poor, confused son of a bitch. Hank had a feeling a Fhinntmanchca was more than a poor, confused son of a bitch.
“So I see,” the One said to Drexler. “You’ve done well, Ernst. Very well. I am pleased.”
Drexler seemed to swell inside his stained white suit. He gave another little bow.
“We exist to serve.”
We? Hank thought. Does that mean me too? Like hell.
But he wasn’t about to say that.
The One stepped forward and Darryl said, “Mother?”
“No.” He looked down at him. “I am not your mother. You thirst? Then you must drink.”
He pointed to the near end of the sagging Orsa, to where clear liquid trickled from a half-inch pore at its center. Darryl looked at the trickle, then back to the One.
“For me?”
The One nodded. “For you.”
Hank recoiled as Darryl shuffled over on his knees and began to lap the fluid, swallowing greedily.
“Hey, Darryl, man, get off your knees. You’re a Kicker and—”
Without looking at him, the One raised a hand and Hank stopped. He didn’t want to, but his words dried up.
Drexler said, “He is no longer a Kicker. He has become the Fhinntmanchca and requires nourishment that only the Orsa can provide.”
Okay, Hank thought. Time to ask.
“What’s the Fhinntmanchca? What’s it do?”
“It is the Maker of the Way,” Drexler said.
“Those are just words. What do they mean? How do you ‘make’ a ‘way’?”
The One spoke without taking his eyes off Darryl.
“Cataclysm.”