UttukuThe Books of Darknessby Robert N. Stephenson |
Table of Contents |
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Chapter 10
The Ta’ibah |
Diana Arlyn is an author of gothic fiction best-sellers. A hard drinker with bipolar disorder, she falls in love with a mysterious woman, and the turbulent relationship draws Diana unwillingly into a legend.
Diana is haunted by questions: why did the woman pick her, of all people, and how can the Ta’ibah, the hunter of darkness, know so much about her? She is also haunted by the ghost of a dead author. She must find out what he wants, recover a lost book that belongs to someone who wants to kill her, and ultimately survive the darkness.
“Why did you create it?” the Dark One asked.
We were walking together through a forest, the dark shadows of trees pushing in around us. Above, the stars flashed between the small openings in the canopy, and a sliver of moon gave the only real light. Just how he liked it.
“A memory.” Which was true.
“What you have isn’t enough?” His blackness passed through the trees like light through glass.
“It happened a long time ago.”
“Where did you keep it?” A fair question. He didn’t express anger.
“A friend.” He waited for more, but I didn’t want to say anything else.
“Very well.” We stopped by the mirror of a lake. Black glass in the night.
I remembered such things when alive, their beauty, at the time, enough to remind me of times best forgotten. I wouldn’t, couldn’t change the way I lived now. He stood beside me, partly in me. His touch, cold, empty and black empowered me to achieve my goal. I knew where everything was, who had the items; knowing isn’t the same as having.
“I understand you.” The Dark One was in my mind. “I have no such desire.”
“So you understand what I must do?”
“No,” he said, his coldness leaving me. “I just know. Knowing will not help you.”
“Very well. I ask patience with her.”
“No.”
“If we take the woman now we may not find the book.”
“You question me?” His darkness spread.
“I do not understand you. I am barred from the book’s location.” He should have known I’d been to the house.
“You also heard my words?”
“Yes.”
“Then you must find another way.”
“And Sarina?” I still had to get back the symbol. The one I’d allowed her to steal.
“Things are merging, Ta’ibah. Opportunity will come.”
“Then tell me what I need to know!”
His blow knocked me into a tree. I had questioned. Though pain didn’t affect me, I still felt stunned. He wasn’t prone to emotive violence, wasn’t prone to emotion at all. This was a warning, a very real warning.
The Dark One shifted into the starry sky, for a moment the stars winked out, swallowed by his size. He wanted information from me, yet I knew he had all things. Was this a test? He watching the student. I had been in the world too long for such monitoring, taken too many, lead even more to his pit. What was different now? The book?
I watched the lake, lights glittering on its surface, a night sky reflection. The woman, Diana Arlyn, she was the important element in the riddle, the subterfuge the Dark One wove about me.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert N. Stephenson
