Freddy made an inarticulate noise in the back of her throat.
“I think so, too,” said Ban. “If you’ll excuse me, I must go. I’ll just go talk to you in the past for a bit, and then it’s time for stories around the cooking fire. I never miss that.” She sank back down into the sand and vanished.
Furious with herself and Ban and Roland and Josiah and Cuerva Lachance and the world in general, Freddy strained uselessly against her bonds. Ban pretended to be helpful, but she wasn’t. It was just more mind games from Cuerva Lachance. It was just more—
—stories…?
Freddy squeezed her eyes shut. Stories. She knew about the stories. Everywhere Three was, there were words, shaping stories, shaping history, even, sometimes. Bragi had changed everything by standing up to Loki with a poem. Ling had stopped a slaughter by telling her people what they believed. The boy in the cave had actually talked to a character from one of his own stories. Mika … Mika had done something very strange with her story. Freddy did know about the stories, but she hadn’t thought about what they meant.
Josiah never wanted to talk about the stories. She’d pieced that bit together for herself. He didn’t like talking about Cuerva Lachance’s figments, either, and they were mostly characters out of stories … like Māui, now that she thought of it. She had seen Three’s connection to stories again and again, but she should have thought more about Josiah’s attitude. He’d always been cagey about it. She’d known he was trying to direct her attention away from something, but she hadn’t been sure what. She thought now that he hadn’t wanted her to think of Three as a storyteller. In particular …
… He didn’t want me to think of Three as his storyteller … and of him as a story …
Ban had asked Josiah and Cuerva Lachance—no, wait, Josiah and Loki—what they had done to reality. They had turned it inside out. She’d been wondering about certain inconsistencies in Josiah and Cuerva Lachance, but she’d been thinking of them as cosmic forces at the time. What if they weren’t cosmic forces? What if Mika hadn’t called them out of the air? And the choice …
Freddy opened her eyes. The air in front of her was twisting out of shape. As she watched, Mel fell out onto the sand, a plump little ball in bunny-rabbit pyjamas. Roland, fully dressed, stumbled to his knees just behind her. And she knew why Roland shouldn’t have to make his choice. And she had no way of telling him she did.
23
“Freddy!” Mel bounced to her feet and ran across the sand, or tried to. What actually happened was that she jogged in place as if there were a treadmill hidden beneath the desert. She was absolutely white in the face. “The spider plants came to life and tried to kill us, and there were chairs with teeth, and the piano turned into a house on chicken’s legs! Where did you go?” It was the only time Freddy could remember Mel ever sounding anything like her actual age.
“Stop running. You’re not going anywhere,” snarled Roland. He was almost as pale as Mel, and there was a long tear in his left sleeve.
Josiah came out from behind the rock, Cuerva Lachance on his heels. “I see you got our message.”
Mel stopped abruptly and accidentally by bumping down onto her rear end. “It was hard not to, what with all the crows coming in through our bedroom windows and all.”
“Let her go,” said Roland. Freddy felt herself turning red. She’d never had an urge to be a damsel in distress, and she didn’t see why she should start now.
“Sure,” said Josiah. “When you tell us who Three is and make your choice.”
“What’ll happen if we don’t?” said Mel.
“What do you think?” Josiah nodded at Cuerva Lachance.
She smiled. “He lets me do what I want sometimes. Terrible things may happen. It’s also possible I’ll just go sit in a meadow for days. You never can tell.”
“I’m banking on the terrible things, though,” said Josiah quickly. “I expect they’ll happen to Freddy.”
“I thought you were supposed to be her friend,” said Roland. Freddy tried to waggle her eyebrows at him. She had known almost since they started time travelling that Josiah wasn’t exactly her friend. They got along surprisingly well: much better than she and Rochelle ever had, if she was going to be completely honest with herself. But she couldn’t trust him.
Josiah hesitated briefly before answering. “She’s fun, but this is more important.”
“Maybe Freddy’s Three,” said Mel.
“Sorry. Try again,” said Josiah, sounding bored. “We know it’s one of you two. Just confess and make the damn choice already.”
“We keep telling you,” said Mel, “no.”
Josiah nodded at Cuerva Lachance again.
As far as Freddy could see, she didn’t do anything at all. However, the rock holding Freddy was alive now. There was no transition between it being a rock and it being … something else. It breathed in, contracting the rope holding her in place. Another rope emerged from the rock and wrapped itself around her neck, cutting off her air completely. She raised her bound hands to pull at it, but it was as hard as the rock itself.
Roland and Mel were both shouting at Cuerva Lachance, but since they were doing it together, Freddy couldn’t tell what they were saying. Tendrils of red were creeping across her field of vision as everything went fuzzy and dim and far away.
“All right. All right. It’s Roland,” said Mel.
The rope relaxed. Freddy drew a painful, ragged breath in through her nose.
Roland didn’t notice right away what had happened. But Cuerva Lachance and Josiah were both looking at him now. He turned to Mel. “I’m sorry,” she said and signed. Freddy could see a tear trickling down her cheek. “They were killing her.”
Roland glared across the sand at Freddy. “I knew you would be the one to screw up. I told you.”
She couldn’t even shake her head at him; she was held too firmly in place. Don’t make the choice, she thought, wishing she could pour the words directly into his brain. Don’t make it! If you do, you really will be Three. There’s no such person as Three! She couldn’t pour the words directly into his brain. She squirmed. He was nearly sneering at her now. He thought she had ruined everything.
“Don’t worry about her,” said Josiah. “You know she’s been exaggerating, don’t you? It’s just a little choice. Me or Cuerva Lachance. It hardly means anything at all. One of us will be slightly dominant for the space of your lifetime. That’s all it is. We do it because we always have.”
You haven’t always done it, thought Freddy. Roland, develop psychic powers now, please.
“She hasn’t told me anything,” said Roland. “I haven’t let her. I’m not going to make your stupid choice.”
“Yes, you are.” Cuerva Lachance gestured towards Freddy. “Human beings are very fragile, aren’t they?”
“You’re bluffing,” said Roland. “And we’re leaving. Come on, Mel.”
He turned around. The desert turned with him, leaving him still facing towards Josiah.