Chapter 2
Elsa was afraid. She tried not to show it, but it was no use. Everything was so strange there, and Amy, in spite of her attempts to reassure her, worried her even more.
She was not sure that Amy was human anymore.
The game was being played, still, with Barnabas as the pawn.. Barnabas who would die of it. They had to allow it to happen. He had been crippled trying to help, and this was his reward...
"Do you want me to cast the cards for you?" Amy offered her.
"No... I would rather not."
"Sooner or later you will have to see them. Sooner or later you will have to understand."
"You read the cards for Barnabas, too?"
"Yes."
"Did they lie to him, did they promise that things would be all right if he helped you?"
"No. There were not lies. He held the Death card in his hand and accepted it."
Elsa turned her face away.
"You cannot hide from the truth, Elsa. You are not a child anymore. You can't get out of trouble by being cute and bright. You played close to the fire and were burned, for it was no game, even though you thought it was. I am not judging you, just telling you that the time is past when you could pretend that things were not there when you did not like them."
"Isn't there any way to spare Barnabas?"
"None at all. And for all our efforts, there might not be a way to spare you if we do not play this right. I can't allow Burke to get his hands on you."
"So you have told me."
"I never wished this. But so many things that I wisher for have not come to pass... I did not wish to lose my eyes. I did not wish to become the Sibyl. But what must be, must be."
"So you say."
"So it is."
Elsa hugged herself.
"You are afraid, aren't you?"
Elsa did not answer.
'Yes, you are, but you think that if you don't admit your fear you will not be hurt. Close your eyes and hope that it goes away. But it will not. And if you close your eyes, how will you know if it has gone away?"
"I am too young to die." Elsa said, weakly "but that will not make any difference, will it?"
"No. If I can save you, I will. But if not, if the time comes to you early, it will come to you."
"Why would I want to know what the cards say? If they say that I will die... if you will kill me, then I don't want to know of it!"
"Your death is not decided. The cards can show a way to escape it. And they can help you understand."
"Like they helped Barnabas understand?"
"It helped him to know of it."
"I am not noble like him. I don't want to understand why I am going to die. I do not want to be happy about it! I want to go back home! I want this to stop!"
"It can't stop. Not yet."
Elsa turned her face towards Amy again. "You say that the cards can help me?"
"Yes."
She gathered all her courage. "Cast then, then."
Amy did. The first card was Death.
"No!"
"At the beginning, not the end. There is a death hanging over this spread, and not just for you. It might threaten Edmund. We know that it will claim Barnabas. Even I, should I lose this battle."
The next card was the Wheel.
"Changing fortunes. We could win or we could lose, and none of those outcomes is pre-determined. It is ours to do or undo. You can save yourself it you choose well."
"What must I choose?"
"For that, you must wait the other cards."
She shuffled the rest of the deck. The Wheel turned, she knew, not only for Elsa, but for all of them. All of them, except Barnabas...
"You choose the next card" she said to Elsa.
It was the Hanged Man.
"Barnabas" Elsa said. "Helpless, waiting... It is him, isn't it?""Yes."
"And I must be... must be the one to make it happen."
"All of us must make it happen.. He will pay the price for all of us."
"It must be Elsa. This is your choice to make. To help; it carry through."
"Why can't it be done without me? Without me knowing any of it?"
'Because Burke left too much of his power with you and he wants it back. You must claim that power for yourself and use it.
"Against Barnabas?"
"Against Burke But yes, Barnabas may well die of it."
Elsa shivered.
"You must assume your power, Elsa. It is the only way you can live."
"So Edmund is all right?" Carolyn asked Barnabas, trying not to show how upset she was to see him crippled.
"He is. Amy still needed him, so he stayed. She did not need me." there was a bit of hurt in his voice. "Nor Frances, so she is let us go. Frances is back in the egg, and I... I came home to die.. Edmund still holds most of Nicholas' power, so he can be of help."
"You would not lie to me, would you? Give me false hope?"
"I would never be as cruel as that. Not now. No, Edmund will return"
"And you..."
"I came to finish straightening up my affairs and to say goodbye to all. And there is one affair that needs straightening most."
Carolyn kissed his forehead. It was coming to an end... she had to say goodbye to him, and she remembered all they had gone through since 1967...
"So it is Burke Devlin who is threatening us? It seems impossible... and yet... he did hate our family when he came back here..."
"He came with hatred, then he seemed to mellow, and be willing to make his peace, thanks to Vicky... And then I cam along and it started again, as we were rivals over Vicky... well, he made his choices, and they were not good ones."
"It could have been different for him."
"Yes. But those were his choices, as we made our own choices."
"I made a lot of wrong choices."
"So did I, for that matter. But we made other choices, too. Burke too made some right choices. But in the end it became necessary to take him out, which is what Amy will try to do."
He would be back, Burke thought. Not through the labyrinth where Amy could laid down all kinds for traps for him. No, he would go to Collinsport and set his own trap there.
Both Barnabas and Frances had returned. He did not care for Frances, who had no power to command. But Barnabas...
Amy had let Barnabas go, because crippled as he was, he was no use to her. He had probably gone home to die...
But there was a way that Barnabas could be used...
"So Barnabas Collins decided to turn himself in" Verhoff said, amused.
"He is crippled, with a severed spine, that's what Megan Graham told me." his informant told him. "He probably wants to die, and wants us to do the job."
"Of course, I want first to tell me exactly who else was involved. I want to know how many accomplices he had for that thing."
"Careful" the other man told him. "We have no jurisdiction over the others, and we may get in conflict with Angelique, Amy, and other sorcerers if we go after them. The only one we can touch is Barnabas. If you try for more, for your own personal reasons, you will be the next one in trouble."