Lexicon

think we both understand this. You are infected with a murderous impulse. You’ve managed to ameliorate this so far by plotting my demise. If you actually succeeded . . . well, that would be a problem, wouldn’t it? Since you would inevitably begin to, well,
kill everyone
. I think you must realize this. You must plan to kill me. But you must not do it. Quite the conundrum.”
    She wondered how quickly she could get off the bed and get her hands around Yeats’s throat. Probably not very fast. Probably to no great effect, even if she did. She needed to be smarter. This was her chance; she would not get him alone again. She needed her head to stop pounding.
    “Was this a suicide mission? I don’t think so. It goes against your character. I think you came here with a plan to kill me and the vaguest hope that you would somehow be redeemed. For you are such an immediate girl. You live from opportunity to opportunity. Does that sound right?”
    Maybe
, she thought. She didn’t know. She was hungry. She wondered where Eliot was.
    “I’m founding a religion,” said Yeats. “I use the term
religion
loosely. But then, so does everyone. It’s rather a lot of work, even with the bareword, and once it’s done, that’s only the first step. So I won’t waste any further time. Here’s what’s going to happen. You will open your eyes. You will look at the bareword. I will say,
Forever serve my interests
.” He loomed closer, a shape she couldn’t quite bring into focus. “I see from your expression that this is unexpected. You thought you would be killed. A natural assumption. But what I realized, Emily, is that you have made yourself useful. You are skilled, resourceful, adaptable, and you have a kill order in your head that will be triggered in the event of my death. You are, in fact, the perfect bodyguard.”
    “No. I won’t do that.”
    “Of course you will. You have no way of stopping it.”
    She bared her teeth, trying to rise from the bed. He was right. She was alone in a cell. She didn’t even have a bucket. But there had to be something. There had always been something before.
    “As many people as I’ve enthralled, I don’t think I’ve ever encountered someone who hates me quite this much. Which makes this rather fascinating, Emily, since, the brain being what it is, your mind will invent a series of rationalizations to justify why you’re choosing to serve me. How far will you bend in order to reach that place? That’s what raises my curiosity. I wonder whether the end result will still be able to be accurately called
you
.”
    “I will kill you.”
    “Well,” he said, “you’ll want to.”
    “Stay back.” She thought she heard him approaching, and threw out her arms. “Stay back, you motherfucker!”
    “I’m not going to grapple with you, Emily. You will open your eyes of your own volition. You will do this because you see there is no alternative.”
    “Eliot,” she said. “I want to see Eliot.”
    “I’m afraid Eliot is in Syria. He flew out last night.”
    “Tell him I’m here.”
    “Oh, Emily,” said Yeats. “He already knows.”
    She didn’t want to believe him. But she couldn’t find falsehood in his voice.
Eliot
, she thought.
Eliot, you were my last hope.
    “Open your eyes, please,” Yeats said, and she began to shake very badly, because she was going to do it.

word
(w α : d)
    (noun)

    1. a single distinct meaningful unit of language
    2. a basic unit of data in a computer
    3. something spoken or written:
a word of warning
    4.
(with negative)
the smallest amount of something spoken or written:
don’t believe a word of it
    5. contentious or angry speech:
he had words with her
    6. a command, password, or signal:
she gave the word to begin
    7. one’s account of the truth:
her word against his
    8. a promise or assurance:
I give you my word I’ll return

[FOUR]
    “So you left her,” Harry said.
    Eliot rubbed his forehead. His throat was sore; he had been talking for some time. It was taxing, because he was recovering from a near-death experience and outside the window forces were gathering to kill him. “That’s what you get from that story? That I left?” Harry didn’t respond. “Yes. I left. There was no alternative.”
    “There’s always an alternative.”
    “Well,” he said. He felt tired. “It didn’t feel like it.”
    “What then?”
    “Yeats sent her after me. I had this crazy idea that I’d be left alone if I went far enough away. That I