Kylie met Gaspar's gaze as he leaned against the pillar. She was trying not to look frightened, but perhaps she failed there, for the first thing he said to her was, 'I'm not going to harm you.'

She stared at him in surprise. 'I can understand you.'

'Yes... I can understand you too. That's useful.'

'You're really not going to... do anything to me?'

'No.'

'Then why did you bring me here?' said Kylie. 'And what was with all that... sniffing and stuff?'

Gaspar laughed mirthlessly at that. 'I can't even smell you! Oh... I don't know. Force of habit. It's a trick I picked up when we were conquering the new continent; it reminds the savages that we have the power to make things very unpleasant for them if they don't submit.'

'That's disgusting,' said Kylie.

Gaspar only shrugged.

'Why would you want Eduardo to feel like that, anyway?'

'Like I said. Force of habit.'

Kylie got the feeling there was at least a little more to it than that – after all, he had reason to dislike Eduardo – but she didn't press the point because it wasn't important. Instead she said, 'You've gotten back into some bad habits since you've been without your wife, huh?'

'Wife, yes.' Gaspar dropped his arms to his sides and transferred his weight (or appeared to do so, if he had no weight) from the pillar to his own two feet. 'It's time for you to make our dinner.'

Kylie stared at him, thinking she couldn't possibly have heard right. 'It's time for... what?'

'Cook the buffalo meat.'

Suddenly, there were flames crackling away in the fireplace and a haunch of beef had appeared among the kitchen utensils. Kylie moved her astonished gaze from Gaspar onto these. Then she said, 'I don't know how to cook ghost buffalo meat.'

'Ha!' said Gaspar. 'Do you know how to cook anything?'

'Yes. Yes, I do.' She raised her chin and looked at him defiantly; she couldn't seem to stop herself, no matter how much she knew he wouldn't like it. 'I make very good egg-fried rice, and mac and cheese, and... and spaghetti and meatballs! But I'm too busy to cook every day. I work and I go to college. So I mostly just heat something up in the microwave. And sometimes, when I'm feeling really lazy, I order a pizza.'

Gaspar regarded her with a look of distaste. 'I understand. I don't understand all your words, but I understand your meaning. You're trying to tell me that times have changed.'

'That's right, they have!' said Kylie. Then she softened her tone, thinking of herself and of Itzel, and realising that she had to find both of them a ticket out of this. 'But it's not really me you have a problem with, is it? You should talk to Itzel. I know she's willing to listen, and so are you, I'm sure.'

'You don't know anything about her!' snarled Gaspar. 'Or me!'

'Okay,' said Kylie, 'but you do. You love each other, remember?'

'She hit me on the head with a stick for holding a little girl hostage. I don't know why she married me, and I don't know why I married her!'

'Then remember! You must miss her. Is that why you've brought me here – to replace her?'

'Ha!' said Gaspar. 'I have no affection for you.'

'Then why am I here?' said Kylie.

'For your education. You will stay here until you have learned to be a suitable wife.'

'I'm not a wife.'

'But you will be.'

'We're really not thinking that far ahead.'

'You share his bed,' said Gaspar. 'Some would say that makes you contracted to him.'

She sighed. 'Not these days they wouldn't, Gaspar. But look, let's stick to the point.'

He raised his eyebrows – heavy, thickset eyebrows that might frighten any primitive people – and said, 'What is the point?'

'The point is,' said Kylie, 'I don't want to be here, and you don't really want me to be here. Look...' She pulled out a dining chair, sat down on it and gestured to the seat opposite. 'Why don't you come over here and sit with me?'

Gaspar looked warily at her for a number of seconds. Then he walked to the table, pulled out the chair and sat down.

'Well?' he said sharply.

'I think you need to talk about your feelings.'

'I'm a soldier. I don't have feelings.'

'Everybody has feelings,' said Kylie. 'Itzel told us that after you left her village, you went back looking for her. She said that you said you didn't want to look for gold anymore because she'd replaced it in your heart.'

Gaspar furrowed his brow. 'Did I really say that?'

'I think you probably did. If you didn't feel that way, then why would you go back and marry her?'

'That's just what I can't understand. I don't remember very well... not anymore. I know that I didn't set out to get married. I didn't even come to conquer the New World – not really. I came for gold.'

Kylie felt a strange wave of satisfaction wash over her as she realised that she had persuaded Gaspar to open up. She waited for him to say more.

He seemed to think for a moment, then suddenly his facial muscles tensed and he said, 'It made my blood boil when Mendoza sailed back to Barcelona with what was left of the first City of Gold.'

'Who?' Kylie asked the question, despite thinking that they might be about to stray from the point.

'A man I knew, and hated,' said Gaspar. 'He and two others... fools who followed him everywhere. But perhaps they weren't such fools, as they chose the right man. Mendoza persuaded the children to go with him and help him, somehow. But they parted ways after finding only one City of Gold. It was said there were six others. The children went to look for them, and at first, I tried to do the same.'

Kylie nodded. 'With your buddy Gomez. Itzel told us.'

'Gomez wasn't my friend. He was my commander.'

'I don't really understand about these Cities of Gold.'

Gaspar shook his head. 'Neither do I... not really. At least, not anymore. They were hidden by unholy mechanisms and all kinds of... God knows what, and could only be reached by a series of clues left by the ancestors of the boy Tao.'

'I don't think I can keep track of too many names,' said Kylie. 'It sounds complicated.'

'It was.'

'I don't blame you for getting sick of it. If... that's what happened?'

Gaspar thought about this for a moment, then said, 'Sick of it, yes! Going round in circles and getting mixed up with strange machinery and hanging by my fingertips from cliffs and underground staircases... and always one step behind Mendoza and the children. Sometimes more! But I did it all because I wanted the gold. I wanted it so badly, I don't see now how I could have given it up.'

'Because you fell in love.'

'Bah! You keep coming back to that.'

'Itzel told us your story,' said Kylie. 'I thought it was really romantic. You gave it up for her. And y'know, when she hit you with the stick and everything, she was only standing up for herself and the other villagers and these children you both talk about. I'll bet she made a very good wife once you got past all that, didn't she?'

Gaspar, looking stubborn, leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. 'I don't remember.'

Kylie frowned at him. 'It seems to me like you're not trying to remember.'

'I... I've been so long without her.'

'But now you've found her again.'

'We can never be in this place together now.'

'Well, so what? You met up again outside this place, didn't you? You can go somewhere else.'

Gaspar stared at her. He was silent for a long time. Then he said quietly, 'We can?'

'Sure,' said Kylie. 'I mean... I don't see why not.'

'If that's true...'

'Yes?'

'Then... perhaps... I can remember.' He unfolded his arms and leaned them on the table. 'You were right: I wasn't trying to remember, because when I couldn't have her, I didn't want to remember. It's easier to resent her than to miss her. It's been so long...'

'Well then, let's go!' Kylie said eagerly. 'You can take me out of here and talk to her instead!'

'Out there,' said Gaspar, curling his lip. 'What will I find out there? I didn't understand any of the things I saw outside that house. If it was a house!'

'It was,' said Kylie. 'With an apartment above the garage. That's where people keep their cars... horseless carriages. They run on stuff made out of oil.'

'Ha!' Gaspar sat up straight and slapped the table, genuinely amused. 'That sounds like something Tao would come up with.'

'Really?' Kylie, despite her desire to get out of there, felt her interest piqued. 'A kid in the sixteenth century? Are you sure?'

'Oh, yes. He was an inventor. He gave us some trouble that way, I can tell you. I wonder what became of him.' Gaspar was suddenly pensive. 'He must have given it up, if he lived, or with time he'd have redesigned the whole world, as his ancestors did. Because of them, those children had a flying machine.'

'No they didn't!' said Kylie. Gaspar's memory was obviously sketchy, and she absolutely refused to believe that one.

He scowled at her. 'They most certainly did!'

'The first true flying machine was invented in the early part of the twentieth century.'

'Oh?' said Gaspar. 'Flying is commonplace now?'

'Yes.'

'Do the flying machines move by oil, like your carriages?'

'Well,' said Kylie, 'it's not exactly... um... yes.'

'What else do people do? Besides go to bed without even a thought of marriage.'

'Oh... lots of stuff.'

'Are there still wars?' asked Gaspar.

'Sadly, yes.'

'Does Spain still have its empire?'

'No. Sorry.'

'Bah! So much for the service I did to my country. What about England and France? Tell me they don't still have theirs!'

'They don't,' said Kylie. 'The United Sates, for instance, where we are right now... or where we've just come from... anyway, that won independence from England in seventeen eighty-three.'

'Ha!' He grinned delightedly. 'Little more than two hundred years, and your ancestors showed those English pig-dogs!' Then his shoulders slumped. 'But even so, to have no empires...'

'Europe doesn't do empire-building now,' said Kylie, 'and the countries you're talking about are run democratically. Spain and England still have monarchies, but they don't really govern anymore. And France is a republic.'

'Mother of God.' Gaspar leaned his head in his hands. 'I have awoken to a world of shit.'

'But you still have to go out there,' Kylie said hastily, wondering why she had said so much, and a moment later realising that it must have been her pride wanting to show him how knowledgeable she was. 'For Itzel. And for yourself. I... haven't put you off the idea, have I?'

'No, no.' He shook his head. 'There has to be something better than this.'

'There is,' said Kylie. 'I don't know what or where, but there must be a place for you, and you'll find it together.'

Gaspar gave her a long, steady look. Then he said, 'You're kind. Women ought to be kind.'

Kylie returned his look with a stink-eye. 'People ought to be kind.'

'They never will be,' said Gaspar. 'Not on the whole.'

'Yes, well...' Kylie decided not to challenge him on that; they agreed on so little anyway. Then she suddenly remembered one of her first thoughts in that place, and said, 'What's outside? Can I look out the window before we leave?'

Gaspar looked at her, imitating her stink-eye. 'A young woman shouldn't be so curious.'

'Hey!'

'Yes, yes... I know what you say to that.'

'But you're talking about damaging the stone,' said Eduardo. They had all gathered around the coffee table yet again, and he had been having a terrible time trying to understand everything that was being said, to make Peter and Ray understand his objections, and to make Itzel understand what the hell they were all talking about.

'To fix it,' said Peter, whose main concern was to defend Dana's method of stone repair, although (as he would later come to reflect, and feel a little silly) she had only given him objective facts, and no opinions as to whether it would be a good idea in this situation.

'It'll be okay,' said Ray. 'You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs.'

'Kylie's no omelette,' said Eduardo. 'Boring into the stone might trap her forever or something.'

'Probably not,' said Ray.

Eduardo, struggling to keep his temper, said, '"Probably" is not good enough!'

'Qué pasa?' said Itzel.

'Um.' Eduardo clutched at his forehead as he struggled to think. 'Te lo explicaré más tarde.' I'll explain later.

Itzel looked sulky, and Eduardo pretended not to notice.

'I agree with Eduardo,' said Roland. 'It seems awful risky, and this process doesn't sound like it really fixes the stone at all.'

'You're talking about clipping the pieces together with wood,' Eduardo added scathingly.

'That's because you were right about stone,' said Peter. 'We can't fix it with more stone, but then mixing in the dust from the bore holes with the adhesive should be enough.'

'Why should it?' said Eduardo. 'Turning it to dust and mixing it with glue is gonna change it completely. Dana said it's just cosmetic, didn't she?'

'She said it makes the repair look as close to the original as it can possibly get,' said Peter.

Eduardo gave him a hard look. 'Like I said. Cosmetic.'

'I don't suppose Itzel knows if she'd be able to get through it or not?' said Garrett.

Eduardo sighed and shook his head. 'I can't even make her understand what we're talking about doing. She understands wooden pegs, and she understands fixing them into holes in the stone, but she doesn't understand glue, and she doesn't think there could ever be any use for stone dust.'

'It'd be worth a try if we weren't changing the stone,' said Roland. 'But I really don't think we should cut into it.'

'Then what else can we do?' said Ray.

Suddenly, the obvious answer occurred to Roland, and he said, 'Try to lure Gaspar out again.'

'Okay, good thought,' said Ray. 'How?'

'Find a girl he won't like for Kevin?' said Garrett.

'Oh, great idea,' said Eduardo. 'I'll meet him from school in a few minutes and tell him he has to pick one before he can go home.'

'Hey,' said Garrett, 'I don't see you coming up with any ideas!'

'I can't,' said Eduardo. 'Don't you think I wish I could?' He had begun to flare up, but stopped himself and took a deep breath before going on. 'I guess... I don't know... we're on the right track with thinking of ways to annoy Gaspar into coming out.'

'Somebody could make a pass at Itzel,' Peter said brightly.

'Ooh, good idea!' said Ray. Then he looked at Roland and Garrett. 'One of you young, single guys.'

Roland looked alarmed. 'I'm not very good at that kind of thing.'

'What kind of pass?' said Garrett.

'Something that'll really get Gaspar's attention,' said Peter. 'You're gonna have to kiss her.'

'Okay...' said Garrett. He looked and sounded doubtful.

'I think we'd better warn her,' said Ray. 'Well... ask her permission, really.'

'You want me to ask the ghost of my ancestor if it's okay for Garrett to kiss her,' Eduardo stated, and then he barked out a hysterical laugh. 'I told Kylie earlier this whole thing felt like a dream. I didn't know the half of it.'

'Eduardo!' Itzel said impatiently. 'Peter dijo mi nombre!' Peter said my name. 'Qué pasa?'

Eduardo looked at her, worn out from his efforts to make her understand the finer points of stone repair, and tried to think of a simple sentence that would explain their new plan. After a moment, he said, 'Garrett quiere besarte.'

Itzel blinked in surprise. 'Qué?'

'Garrett wants... oh, don't say that!' said Garrett, his eyes widening in alarm.

'Sorry... perdón,' said Eduardo, clutching his head again. 'I mean... quiero decir...'

'Gaspar!' All at once, Itzel forgot Garrett's peculiar request and shot over to the bookcase, next to which her husband had materialised.

Gaspar, looking the picture of repentance, held out his ghostly hands to her and said, 'Itzel...'

'Kylie!' Garrett said joyfully, and crossed the room to where Kylie had been unceremoniously dumped on her hands and knees in the middle of the floor. 'You're back! Are you okay?'

'I'm fine,' said Kylie, allowing Garrett to help her to her feet.

'Look at that,' said Peter, giving the stunned and silent Eduardo a nudge. 'She got herself out of it.'

'Of course she did!' said Garrett, laughing and leaning forward in his chair to give her a hug. 'All the bullshit we were talking about mixing stone dust with epoxy glue and me kissing Itzel... of course our Kylie was actually doing something practical that whole time!'

Kylie laughed with him. 'What?'

'Just a couple of stupid plans we had,' said Roland, hugging her in his turn. 'I think we were actually about to go through with the one where Garrett kissed the ghost.'

'To lure Gaspar out,' added Ray.

'Oh, I see,' said Kylie, her expression clearing as she stepped out of Roland's embrace. 'Well, that could've worked, I guess. Whose idea was it?'

'Mine,' said Peter, with undue pride.

Still Eduardo did not move. Kylie looked at him for a moment, then smiled and opened her arms for a hug. He rose slowly to his feet.

'Okay,' said Peter, suddenly springing into action, 'so now what are the ghosts doing?'

In fact the ghosts were just talking quietly and unobtrusively in a corner, and everyone seemed to think it best to go and watch them while Eduardo finally initiated his reunion with Kylie. He crossed the room to her in two strides and enveloped her in his arms.

'Hi,' she said simply.

'Are you really okay?' he asked.

'Yes! Why would I lie about that?'

'I don't know. You wouldn't. I was just worried about you. I was terrified for you.'

'Well, I'm back now,' said Kylie.

'This is what I wanted to do when we got you back from the Tempus thing,' he said.

She smiled against his sternum. 'Well, I'm glad you went through with it this time.'

'Of course I did.' Eduardo kissed the top of her head, then stooped to kiss her on the cheek, the nose and the mouth. She hadn't particularly expected this, and smiled quietly through it all. Then he said, 'I'm sorry I wasn't very sweet today.'

'Sure you were,' said Kylie. 'Whenever I had you alone. And even once or twice when I didn't.'

She tightened her grip on his waist for a moment, then stepped back out of his arms and smiled at him in a way that reminded him of the Tempus incident all over again. This time, he smiled back.

After a beat, Itzel attracted his attention. 'Eduardo...'

He turned to face her, and Kylie took another step back from him. Itzel stood there smiling and holding out her hand invitingly. Eduardo couldn't see Gaspar, and he didn't look for him. He stepped towards Itzel, willing enough if she wanted to lay a maternal hand on him now that he was prepared for the cold sensation it would bring.

'Gracias,' she said.

It occurred to Eduardo to point out that he hadn't really done much more than act as interpreter, but he decided not to bother and merely said, 'De nada.'

Itzel moved a step closer and placed her hand against his cheek. 'Adiós.'

Eduardo did not respond to this, but stood as though dumbfounded. After Itzel had vanished with a parting smile, he raised his own hand to his face where she had touched him.

'So,' said Garrett, 'I guess they crossed over?'

'They must have,' Roland said decidedly.

'You okay, babe?' said Kylie, sidling up to Eduardo.

He was staring at the spot where Itzel had stood, and still holding his palm to his cheek. He said as if to himself, though Kylie had prompted him, 'Her hand was so warm.'

Only Kylie heard this, and she guessed that Eduardo didn't want a direct response. Still, she wanted to say something, so she remarked to the group as a whole, 'Seems like she'll be okay now.'

'So will he,' said Ray.

Eduardo snapped out of his trance, dropped his hand to his side and scowled. 'Don't talk about him. I don't wanna hear it. He can go to Hell for all I care.'

'Maybe he did,' said Garrett. 'And maybe if Itzel went to her Underworld, they can visit each other.'

'Or,' said Kylie, 'I was wondering if maybe they could be with their children now, wherever they are. I don't think they were ever in that place Gaspar took me to.'

'What makes you say that?' Ray asked interestedly.

'Well,' said Kylie, 'it seemed like it was just for them, and it was accessible via their own personal stone tablet. I think it was, like, a copy of their first home together; it looked like a kind of simple settlers' house, only not simple to the indigenous people, you know? There was nobody else there, and I don't think there could be much more to it because he wouldn't let me look out the windows.'

Eduardo frowned, but didn't say anything.

'You should've looked anyway,' said Garrett.

Kylie shook her head. 'It wasn't worth it. There probably wasn't even anything there.'

'Then they were both stuck there this whole time,' said Ray. 'And not even together, for most of it.'

'Three or four hundred years'll soon be nothing to them,' said Peter. 'So, Kylie, how did you get him to bring you out?'

'And reconcile with Itzel?' added Roland.

'Oh, it was nothing much,' said Kylie, though she couldn't help feeling a little smug. 'We could understand each other; I just persuaded him to talk about his feelings.'

Eduardo gave a snort of derision. 'He has feelings?'

'Of course!' said Kylie, and she poked him playfully in the small of the back, trying to raise a smile. To her relief, it worked.

Then, all at once, everyone fell silent; it was the kind of grateful, reflective silence that follows a difficult job seen through to its end. Then Peter came suddenly to life, heading for the stairs to the lobby and saying, 'I have to call Dana and tell her Kylie's okay. And then I'd better call Miss Miles and tell her what happened, and then I'd better send her an invoice.'

'And Eduardo has to call his Adela and tell her what happened,' said Garrett.

'I have to what?' said Eduardo.

'You promised your cousin you'd tell her about it,' said Garrett. 'Yes, you heard me: promised! You said, "Yo lo haré saber". And then you said, "Sí, sí, sí, prometo".'

Eduardo sighed wearily. 'So I did.'

'Yes, well,' said Peter, pausing a short way down the stairs, 'you can call her from home.'

'Tomorrow,' added Kylie, snaking her arms around Eduardo's waist.

'You can go home now if you want to,' said Ray. Then, 'All of you,' he added hastily, worrying that he sounded like an even less subtle version of Peter, telling Kylie she could take Eduardo off and do whatever she wanted with him. 'It's been a long and difficult day.'

'Longer for you and Dr Venkman,' said Roland. 'And more difficult for some than others.'

Garrett gave Roland a pointed look, said, 'Thank you very much, Ray, we'll go right now,' and they both made their way down to the lobby, passing Peter on the phone and Slimer bothering him on their way out.

Ray tactfully disappeared while Eduardo and Kylie dawdled for a few minutes. They held onto each other, and Eduardo said falteringly, 'Y'know, it really wasn't supposed to be...'

'Hey, come on, it wasn't even about us,' said Kylie. 'It was about them. Now, are you going to come home with me and show me how it is supposed to be?'

'Yes,' said Eduardo, suddenly a little breathless, and once again they fell into a passionate kiss.

'Mmm... Eduardo...' Kylie murmured against his lips.

'Mmm...?'

'It isn't just about the sex...'

'Oh, good.'

'But right now, it is quite a lot about the sex.'

Eduardo chuckled, and Kylie smiled to feel the sound where it came from, deep in his chest. He then leaned his forehead against hers and said, 'Are you sure you're okay?'

'I'm better than okay,' said Kylie, tightening her grip on him. 'Are you okay?'

'Yeah,' said Eduardo. 'I just... I really hate that guy! And it has nothing to do with him being my ancestor – I don't care about that. I just hate him anyway.'

'Forget about him.'

'I can't forget anybody who tries to take you away from me.'

Kylie smiled at that, saying, 'Well, look on the bright side: Carl couldn't possibly do anything that bad at dinner tomorrow night.' Then she slipped out of his arms and slunk off towards the stairs, smiling a different kind of smile at Eduardo's comical reaction.

'Dinner?' He sounded surprised, annoyed and completely baffled as he followed her. 'When the hell did Beth invite you to dinner?'

If anyone thought they had heard the last of that day's events, they were mistaken; there were still two things to be hashed out the next morning, both of which involved Eduardo. When he arrived at the firehouse, with Kylie clinging to his waist and saying things under her breath that were making him laugh, Peter cut right into their bubble by saying, 'Eduardo, Miss Miles said you could have that tablet if you wanted to.'

'Who said what?' said Eduardo, pulling up in front of the desk where Peter was standing. He had barely registered the words, never mind their meaning.

'Our client says you can have Itzel's tablet half,' said Peter.

Eduardo frowned. 'How could she've said that? She don't know me.'

'I told her about you.'

'Told her what?'

'Don't look so suspicious!' said Peter. 'When I called her yesterday, I told her that one of us turned out to be her ghost's descendant, and she couldn't find anybody who knew anything about the tablet and she doesn't want it herself, so she said you could have it.'

'That was nice of her,' said Kylie, giving Eduardo a squeeze. 'Wasn't it, babe?'

'I guess,' he said. 'I mean... yeah, that was nice of her. Okay, I'll take it. I liked Itzel.'

'What about Gaspar's half?' asked Peter. 'You wanna take a sledgehammer to it?'

Eduardo smiled at that idea. 'Kinda. But I'd better give it back to my brother.'

'It couldn't belong to a more deserving guy,' said Peter. 'I guess you don't want to try using Dana's tip to fix the parts back together, do you?'

'I do not,' said Eduardo, privately thinking that he would as soon fuse his own hip to Carl's as join their two tablet halves together. 'Hey, is Roland here yet?'

'Yes, he's upstairs,' said Peter.

'Cool,' said Eduardo, and he gave Kylie a squeeze and a kiss on the forehead before breaking away from her.

Roland was sitting on the couch, taking a closer look at the book about standing stones that he and Ray had dipped into the day before. He had just found an interesting chapter on constructions made with megaliths that had managed not to topple for hundreds of years, when Eduardo plopped down next to him and said, 'So, you remember Surt?'

Roland looked up in surprise. 'Who?'

'I remember Surt,' said Ray, appearing from the kitchen with another tray full of coffee. Eduardo stared at the tray like one dismayed; he had been hoping to speak to Roland alone.

'Awesome,' said Garrett, also appearing suddenly on the scene. He wheeled over to the fire pole and shouted down, 'Peter! Kylie! Ray made everyone coffee again!'

'Cool!' Kylie's voice came from below, and in under a minute, they were all once again using the coffee table for its express purpose.

'What about Surt, Eduardo?' Ray said invitingly.

'Nothing,' said Eduardo.

Kylie rolled her eyes. 'Eduardo...'

'I do remember him,' said Roland. 'He's a demon who tries to bring about the end of the world. We happened to be chasing his harbinger the day you went into the containment unit.'

'Oh, you mean Fenris,' said Ray. 'Egon mentioned you'd trapped him.'

'A little tricky, that one,' Garrett said wryly.

'I saw him that day,' said Kylie. 'Surt, I mean. He was trying to lead a bunch of other ghosts and demons out of the containment unit, behind Eduardo and Slimer. You guys missed it,' she added, looking at Roland and then at Garrett, 'because you were busy being the Vanguards of the Earth and the Sea.'

'Wow,' said Ray. 'This sounds like a good story!'

'It's a crappy story,' said Eduardo.

'Well,' said Peter, 'if you don't want to talk about it...'

'What about Surt?' said Roland.

Eduardo sighed heavily, by now resigned to saying this in front of everyone. 'He had a kind of master/slave thing going on in there with a bunch of the others. Siren was one of them.'

There was a moment's silence. Then Roland said, 'What did he do to her?'

'I don't know,' said Eduardo. 'I didn't see much... hardly anything. I only know anything about it because he made her put a spell on Slimer.'

'What kind of spell?' asked Roland.

'Well, you remember how my air tank was punctured?'

'Holy shit,' said Peter.

'That's what he made Slimer do,' said Eduardo. 'He bit through it. That's all I know.'

'I see,' Roland said hollowly, and he sat staring into his cup of coffee.

'I didn't tell you because there was nothing anybody could do about it,' said Eduardo. 'You were better off not knowing. I wish I'd been more careful what I said yesterday.'

'It wasn't what you said,' said Roland. 'It was the way you said it.'

'Yeah, well... that too.'

There was a moment's silence. Then a thought occurred to Kylie, and she voiced it at once, saying, 'But things could be different now, though, couldn't they? Surt kinda got blown up when I forced him back inside. You guys missed that too, didn't you? I don't mean I think I killed him or anything like that, but he probably lost face with the other demons.'

'Maybe,' Roland said doubtfully.

'Can we please have this story from the beginning?' said Ray. 'It sounds great! I mean... it sounds terrible, but it sounds great for what we...'

'It starts with me being a dick to Slimer,' said Eduardo.

'No, it doesn't,' Kylie said firmly. 'It starts with Fenris showing up in Central Park about ten, eleven months ago...'

As she talked, and the others chipped in or took up their own parts (Eduardo much less often than might have been expected, though Kylie was not surprised), she reflected that the beginnings of stories were really very arbitrary; everybody's story could be traced back to the Big Bang, she thought, if anybody knew so much and anybody else cared to listen. She thought, with a delicious flutter in her stomach, of how she was still learning about Eduardo, gradually uncovering pieces of his heart and hopeful of finding more... but, she thought, she would have to remain curious about the part of his story that picked up on a ship sailing from Barcelona, and a race to some alleged source of gold that she could make no sense of, and the spoils going to three children, forgotten by history but long-remembered by the ghost of their rival, one a young genius whose ancestors – so Gaspar claimed – had provided him with a flying machine some time before fifteen thirty-four.

But no, Kylie thought, as she waited to take up her next part in the story being told right there and then; that part couldn't be true!