Chapter 3
"You mean that you are just going to accept what Barnabas tells you and do nothing about Edmund?" Roger said angrily to Carolyn.
"Barnabas promised that Edmund would return."
"As Barnabas returned, crippled and ready to die? That is not good enough. What right had Amy to.. to take him away?"
"She needed him."
"And we are at her convenience?"
"What else can we do? She is the one with the power. We can be grateful that she is fighting for us."
"And since we can do nothing, we better accept it, and be thankful?"
Carolyn tried to protest, but she knew that he was right. They were helpless against the forces against them, and had to depend on those like Amy and Barnabas, who had the power, and abide by their decisions.
"You started it, Uncle. You are the reason why Burke Devlin soured on us. Now he has the power and means to hurt us."
"And that makes it all right?"
"It was your mess, and Amy is straightening it up."
"Barnabas, I did as you asked." Megan looked at him, trying to keep the tears from overflowing her eyes. "Isn't there anything else that I can do? No way to..."
"No, Meggie. I think that this is one thing that you cannot help. I know, you are good at solving problems, but not now. As you said, I got into this trouble, and I have to abide by the consequences."
"You could have stayed with Amy..."
"It is my time, Meggy. I know it. I had been told beforehand. I got crippled and it cannot be fixed. At least this gives me a chance to get Julia in the clear."
"It is unfair." she said. "Amy manipulated you into turning Hallie, and no one was there to remind you of the consequences. "
'Other thing are unfair too. It was not fair that Josette died as she did. It was not fair what happened to Sarah. It wasn't fair, what Maggie and Willie had to suffer at my hands."
"If I had paid more attention, if I had noticed what Hallie was, I could have stopped her without Amy..."
"You could not. She hid it well. And by then Amy had taken control and made sure that you were not involved."
"Because if I was involved I would have stopped you from turning Hallie. If Amy wanted a vampire slave, she could well have done what Angelique did and summon a bat. She should have left you in the clear... She is a manipulative bitch."
"She is a Sibyl."
"So?"
"So, she lives by different rules. "
"She did not care what she was doing to you, or to Angelique."
"She was a slave, blinded, and with no hope of rescue unless she made it happen. And she wanted revenge on Hallie. She was generous enough to offer her protection, but on her terms."
"Except that you paid for it."
"It is my time, Meggie. I was told of it before Amy knew what her destiny was. She may well have been manipulated into it."
"And you want Verhoff to be the one to do it? "
"So that George does not have to."
Megan sighed. "I can see why you would not want to go on, the way you are, but still.."
Trembling, Elsa laid the Hanged Man on the table.
"Yes, Elsa." Amy said approvingly "Barnabas is going to be the bait for the trap."
Elsa sobbed.
"It must be" Amy insisted. "He knows that he is bait, he agreed to it. He knows that Burke needs to be stopped. Draw now the next card."
"Which one?"
"The one that Burke will use for his purposes, the mask that he will wear to get close to Barnabas, and make him deliver you into his hands. Burke cannot come as himself to Collinsport. But he can use others. We must control who it is that he will use, so that we can take him - or her - away when we want."
"Who will that be?"
"That you must find."
"Could it be Carolyn or Roger, as they are worried about Edmund?"
"There is a possibility."
"Is that why you did not send Edmund away, to worry them, and make them make a foolish choice?"
"If I denied it, would you believe it?"
"You are..."
"Not human any longer."
"No, you are not. There are others who might be used by Burke, Julia, George, Urien, Willie... They love Barnabas, they would take crazy chances for that they think is a chance to make him well again. Are they on your list?"
"Not so much. Willie has a wife and child to think of. Julia has her husband and her daughter. Urien has a whole future ahead of him, and is a bit chastened by the way Hallie used him. He would be wary of any offer that looks too good. George... if it were not for Georgina, he might be willing. Still, Burke could work on their minds."
"And I have to find who is it?"
'You forget another player. Doctor Verhoff."
"Him?"
"He hates Barnabas, and believes he has him in his power."
"So?"
"So cast the card, Elsa. Whoever comes, we will now will be Burke's mask."
It was the Magician.
The Man of Power. The Man of Knowledge. Also the Fraud, the Cheat, the Mountebank.
"It will be Dr. Verhoff." Amy said.
"So you expect me to kill you, don't you?" Verhoff said, as he faced Barnabas. "I can understand why you would want to die. That kind of injury, if inflicted by magical means has no cure. And you, very nobly, do not want your friends to have to do it. Let an enemy get the pleasure of doing you the favor."
"I want to make a full deposition of what I did, who else was involved, and the circumstances of it."
"And why would you do that? To get Dr. Hoffman in the clear?"
"I could not believe that you would want to charge her with anything. She was completely ignorant of what went on. I was kept ignorant until the last moment."
"No one let her know anything?"
"How could they do it? Amy approached them in their dreams, and they only talked to those who had shared in the dreams. Julia was never a part of it."
"Did you have the dreams yourself?"
"No, but Adam did. The link we had is very frayed, but it can be pulled if there is a need, and Amy pulled it to summon me to the church. Everyone else involved was there. And Julia was not there.
"And this Amy, is she in the I Ch'ing maze now?"
"Yes She is a Sibyl there."
"So this is your story? That you were obeying a Sibyl's summons and that Dr. Julia Hoffman had noting to do with it?"
"Yes."
"Have you considered Mr. Collins that I will not sign your death warrant unless I can also sign hers?"