I Should Die

back into its set, and footsteps stomping back to the library. Jean-Baptiste appeared, his face a mask of composure but its mottled reddened tone belying his true emotions. He avoided looking at the rest of us and spoke directly to Gaspard.
    “Theodore, indeed, has a five-foot-tall thymiaterion with mystical symbols engraved around the pedestal, including the signum bardia . He knows of two others extant in the world: one in China and one in Peru, so he can’t be sure that his is the one that was mentioned in the guérisseur ’s tale. But he assumes that that doesn’t matter as long as they were all created for the same purpose.
    “He said that he never discovered its use, but he’s excited by the theory that we are proposing—that it was created to facilitate a re-embodiment.”
    “Did he offer to bring it to us?” Gaspard asked.
    Jean-Baptiste shook his head. “He said it would take weeks to get the customs clearances to take an object like that out of the country.”
    My heart leapt to my throat, and I blurted out, “Then we have to go there!”
    “That is what he suggested,” Jean-Baptiste confirmed, turning to me. “Bran must take his family’s records. And a revenant must accompany Vincent in case he needs to inhabit a corporeal body while the process is attempted.”
    “Surely you should go,” urged Gaspard. “The head of France’s bardia should represent, since it is in a way as much a diplomatic mission as it is a—”
    “I will not,” Jean-Baptiste interrupted angrily, before visibly calming himself and continuing. “You made your case for my contacting Theodore, and rightfully so. But that is the extent to which I will be involved. You do not know what you are asking, Gaspard.”
    Jean-Baptiste tilted his head slightly, listening, and then said, “In any case, Vincent has made up his mind. He wants Jules to accompany him.”
    “Then Bran and Jules should prepare to leave,” Gaspard said.
    “I’m going too,” I stated, my eyes flickering to Papy as the words left my mouth. I lifted my chin, preparing for his refusal.
    “I am not letting you fly to New York with two men I barely know,” Papy said, scooting his chair back abruptly. He looked like he wanted to grab me and leave the house running.
    “Then it’s decided,” JB dictated. “Monsieur Mercier will accompany his granddaughter. Bran, you will want to prepare your things. Gaspard, please let Jules know of his appointment and call our pilot. You will all leave tonight.” And he turned and marched out of the room.
    Papy and I stared at each other in shock while Gaspard walked over to the phone and began dialing. Bran scooted off and began assembling his books, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
    Finally Papy unstuck from his frozen position and, taking me gently by the hand, said, “I don’t care who he is or how much power he holds. Monsieur Grimod will not make decisions for me regarding my own granddaughter.”
    “Papy, I have to go with them. You’ve got to understand that,” I said, not pleading but simply stating it as a fact.
    “Kate, this could be dangerous,” he said.
    “How dangerous could it be? It’s a trip to New York on a private plane, a visit to an antiquities collector, some ceremony that involves Vincent—not me—and then we’re back again. In fact, it’s probably safer for me to be out of France—and away from Violette and the numa—than in it.”
    Papy stared around him, at Bran, eyes like an owl’s, as he glanced up from his books at us. At nineteenth-century Gaspard, holding the telephone inches away from his ear, as if it were a dangerous object from the future that just may infect him with progressiveness if it touched his head. “How can we trust these people?” he asked, resisting.
    “They’re better than the alternative, who have actually threatened us,” I reminded him softly, and in my mind corrected that to threatened me .
    “But . . . school—” he began, in a last attempt to dissuade me.
    “Is out for the week,” I responded. “Remember—winter ski break starts tomorrow. Papy, listen. If this works, Vincent will regain his body. I have to be there for that. If it doesn’t, then at least we will be face-to-face with this antiquities guy, who might be knowledgeable enough to know of another solution. Just think, you’ll be able to meet this client you’ve been dealing with for decades.”
    I could tell that Papy had already thought of that. He