Technomancer (Unspeakable Things: Book One)

those who came for us, or at least enough of them to force them to leave us alone.
    “Gilling, do you remember your offer to me? Last time we met?”
    “Hmm?”
    “To join you,” I said. “I think I’ll take you up on that. I’m offering you a temporary alliance, please understand. I’m not cutting up any meat.”
    Gilling stared at me for a second with wide, glittering eyes. “Ha!” he shouted after a moment, then stepped back, putting a fine-boned hand to his chin. “Why, I do think you are serious. Can that be? Have I not made myself clear, fellow rogue?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean, my crazy friend, I can no longer allow your presence here. I have a great deal of problems of my own. Any and all of our associations are herewith at a permanent end. You are a great danger to me and everyone in my cabal. If you really wish to help me and prolong your own existence, you should flee the desert now. Take your girlfriend with you and run to the far side of the globe. Perhaps that will be far enough…”
    I nodded. “That’s what I thought you meant.” I wasn’t thrilled to learn he knew about Jenna.
    Gilling pushed wide the door leading into the wine cellar. “Don’t try to follow me,” he called over his shoulder. “I mean you no harm, but my home is well guarded. You might not survive the trip.”
    A sense of desperation set in. I needed him more than ever now. What could I offer this man for help?
    “Gilling?”
    Gilling paused at the edge of the burning rip he’d formed. Already, it had diminished somewhat, becoming orange in color. It looked smaller and colder. I wondered where it led. He had one foot in the wine cellar and theother—someplace else. The foot that had moved forward was darker, indistinct. It was as if half of him were a painting that had been blurred by an artist’s hand.
    “What, my doomed champion?”
    “What if I did it under the direction of another member of the Community?” I asked.
    “Who?”
    “Rostok.”
    I could see he no longer wanted to listen to me, that he wanted to step away into the safe nothingness that lay ahead of him.
    “Rostok told you to kill Dr. Meng?”
    “No,” I said. “Not exactly. But he did send me to her. He knew what she was, and what she had done. He knew what I am as well. I only acted in self-defense.”
    Gilling shook his head. “A series of intriguing technicalities. No doubt you might convince a member or two Rostok was behind the matter, but they will want you dead still. If Rostok has a powerful assassin on the board, the rest will want to stomp the spider down all the more.”
    “What if I give you an object, then?” I asked. “What if I hire your help?”
    “You call me a mercenary?”
    “I’ve got a ring I can spare,” I said, knowing he liked rings. I realized it was Jenna’s and not mine to give, but I also figured she would be dead if I didn’t get help fast.
    “A ring?” Gilling asked.
    It could have been my imagination, but his voice seemed to rise up a half octave when he said those two words.
    “Yeah,” I said. “It gives the wearer luck.”
    Gilling laughed, stepping back out of the glimmering space that was his exit. I stepped toward him, closing the distance between us slowly.
    “Luck?” he cried. “Again with the jokes, Draith! You must stop, really! You have to be the unluckiest man I’ve ever had the misfortune to encounter. Do you know that three of my followers have died since I first met you?”
    I explained briefly how it worked. He cocked his head while I spoke, staring at my hands. “That’s Robert’s ring. I had wondered—never mind.”
    I watched him closely. He’d been about to confess more knowledge of Robert’s disappearance. But right now, I didn’t care about that. I cared only about Jenna and me.
    “What exactly is the nature of your proposal?” Gilling asked.
    I told him I intended to go to the cubes of the Gray Men and find the source of their power to open paths into our world from theirs. I planned to close those pathways, if I could.
    Gilling surprised me by walking closer as I spoke. He studied me intently with those odd eyes of his. As I finished, he reached up slowly and plucked the ring from my fingers.
    “They will probably kill us all,” Gilling said. “You know that, don’t you?”
    I nodded.
    Gilling held the ring up and admired it. He twisted it this way and that, letting his burning candle reflect from the curved gold loop. The diamond