The five responded, instantly leaping off his head and back onto the wall again.
“What are you?”
“Well, why not? If he doesn’t like the truth because it sounds crazy, then he’s learned something hasn’t he?” the thing said to itself. Then it addressed Bill. “We were once five hats, belonging to members of the Noncian Magic Circle. But our owners were murdered and the murderer then celebrated his getting what he wanted by having a heart attack. So we were left looking for someone to give our powers to.”
“And you chose me.”
“Of course.”
“Why ‘of course’? Nobody has ever willingly chosen me for anything.”
“Why do you think, lord?”
Bill knew the answer without having to think.
“My daughter.”
“Yes,” said the thing. “She has great power. No doubt it comes from you.”
“From me? What does that mean?”
“It means you will possess greater influence than you ever dreamed of owning. Even in your wildest dreams of godhood.”
“I never dreamed of being God.”
“Then wake up, William Quackenbush! Wake up and know the reality!”
Though Bill was already awake, his instinctive self understood the deeper significance of what he was being told. The expression on his face opened like a door, and whatever was behind it caught the attention of the creature that had once been several hats.
“Look at you, Billy-boy!” it said, its five voices suddenly changed and harmonizing in admiration. “Such a radiance there is out of you! Such a strong, clear light to drive all the fear away.”
“Me?”
“Who else? Think Billy-boy. Think. Who can deliver us from the terror that your child is about to call down upon the world if not you who made her?”
At the moment when the creature had talked about Bill’s “radiance” the many silent birds Bill had seen rose into the air and circled around Bill in a vortex of bright black eyes and applauding wings.
“What are they doing?” Bill asked the shapeless thing.
“Paying homage to you.”
“Well, I don’t like it.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Stop them.”
“Stop them dead?”
“Sure.”
“Sure,” the creature said, catching perfectly the tone of Bill’s response.
“Are you making fun of me?”
“Never,” came the reply.
A heartbeat later every single bird dropped out of the air and fell lifeless in the debris.
“Better?” the creature said.
Bill considered the silence.
“A whole lot,” he finally replied. He laughed lightly. It was a laugh he’d forgotten he was capable of: that of a man who had nothing to lose and nothing to fear.
He glanced at his watch.
“Almost dawn,” he said. “I’d better be going. What do I do with you?”
“Wear us. On your head. Like a turban.”
“Foreigners wear those.”
“You are a foreigner, Billy-boy. You don’t belong here. You’ll get used to wearing us. In our previous life we made very impressive hats. We’ve just come unglued of late.”
“I know exactly how you feel,” Bill said. “But that’s all going to change now, isn’t it?”
“Indeed it is,” said the remnants of Kaspar Wolfswinkel’s five hats. “You’ve found us. Everything changes now.”
RUTHUS’S LITTLE BOAT CARRIED Candy and Malingo southwest down the Straits of Dusk and between the islands of Huffaker and Ninnyhammer to Jibarish, in the wilds of which a tribe of women called the Qwarv lived by preying on weary travelers, who they then cooked and ate. Rumor had it that Laguna Munn, the sorceress they had come to find, was sympathetic to the Qwarv, despite their appetites, tending to them when they were sick, and even accepting their offer to eat with them on occasion. Certainly the island was a fit place for such repugnant events to occur. It stood at Eleven O’clock at Night: just one hour from the horror of Midnight.
The islands were still, however, slivers of time sealed off from one another. Only sounds would find their way through for some reason, echoes of echoes, eerily remote. But it wasn’t difficult to identify the sounds from the nearby Hour of Gorgossium. There was demolition going on. Massive land-clearing engines were at work, bringing down walls, digging up foundations. The noise echoed off the heights of Jibarish’s west-facing cliffs.
“What are they doing over there?” Malingo wondered aloud.
“It’s best not to ask,” Ruthus said in a hushed tone. “Or even think about it.” He stared up at the stars, which were so bright over Jibarish that the sum of their light was greater than even the brightest moon. “Better to think of the beauty of light, yes, than to think of what’s going on in the darkness. Curiosity kills. I lost my brother Skafta—my twin brother—just because he asked too many questions.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Candy said.
“Thank you, Candy. Now, where do you want me to let you off? On the big island or the little one?”
“I didn’t know there was a big one and a little one.”
“Oh yes. Of course. The Qwarv rule the big island. The little one is for ordinary folks. And the witch, of course.”
“By witch, you mean Laguna Munn?”
“Yes.”
“Then that’s the island we want.”
“You’re going to see the incantatrix?”
“Yes.”
“You do know she’s crazy?”
“Yes. We’ve heard people say that. But people say a lot of things that aren’t true.”
“About you, you mean?”
“I wasn’t—”
“They do, you know. They say all kinds of wacko things.”
“Like what?” Malingo said.
“It doesn’t matter,” Candy said. “I don’t need to hear silly things people dream up. They don’t know me.”
“And you as well, Malingi,” said Ruthus.
“Malingo,” said Malingo.
“They say terrible things about you too.”
“Now I have to know.”
“You’ve got a choice, geshrat. Either I tell you some ridiculous gossip I heard, and while I’m wasting my time doing that the current throws us up on those rocks, or I forget the nonsense and do the job you’re paying me for.”
“Get us to solid ground,” Malingo said, sounding disappointed.
“Happily,” Ruthus said, and turned his attention back to the wheel.
The waters around the boat were becoming frenzied.
“You know . . . I don’t want