"Just look at the note, would you?"
I unfold the paper. Morrigan's handwriting is distinctive: all flourishes and yet completely legible, even when it's covered with bloody fingerprints. Still alive, Steven. You're not the only one. Don's in Albion, Sam is too. Get there if you're able. Your best chance is together.
Be careful.
M
I read it aloud. Lissa frowns as she looks from the note to me. She shakes her head. "Steven, this doesn't feel right. It could be a trap."
"Everything feels like a trap, though, doesn't it? Every street's a potential ambush. If we keep this up, whoever our opponent is will have won." I heft up my backpack. "Morrigan's alive. I have to cling to some sort of hope."
Lissa's lips tighten, she's not happy at all. "But there's hope and then there's insanity, Steve."
I look her squarely in the eyes. "I've got a bit of both, I reckon. And anyway, besides you and the contents of this pack, it's all I've got."
I'm also much happier following Morrigan than trying to get Mr. D's attention. Lissa has explained the ritual, and why the craft knife is necessary. Anything else has to be worth trying first. Lissa knows that. It's hanging there in front of us, this secondary truth. Drawing Death the old way scares the shit out of me, and I can understand why most Pomps would be unfamiliar with the process. There's too much pain. It's one thing to have people wanting you dead, another entirely to take yourself to that place.
Now all I've got to do is get to Albion. It's a northern suburb, about twenty minutes away. Once I'm there I'm sure I can find Sam and Don. Pomps can sense each other-it's an innate thing, hard to describe, but you know when they're near and, if you know them well enough, you can tell just who is about. I haven't sensed any Pomps since the Hill and I'm a little hungry for it. There's a loneliness within me that is completely unfamiliar.
I realize that all my life there have been Pomps around and now there seems to be nothing but the polluting presence of Stirrers. I need my own kind with a desperation that is almost painful.
And I'm terrified that they'll be dead or gone by the time I get there.