Chapter 19

His ears felt sticky and the whistling in his hair meant his mouth didn't listen and the taste in his knees was like cough candy ...

I'm dead.

Something laughed out near the edge of the park and he tried to turn his head to look but the magpies had taken his fingers ...

Shit.

Stone was drip-drip-dripping into his eye sockets and the clouds had faces but they screamed in silence ...

Double shit.

The ponies were losing at Tall Card but he had the ace and his head was wrapped in brown paper and it smelled of vinegar ...

"Mother?"

"Not your mother, son."

He fought to escape the clowns with no legs, pulling himself hand over hand towards the light, towards the cool water dampening his lips, and he opened his eyes ...

"Shit."

"Now, is that any way to talk to a man of the cloth?"

Badger stared. "You're dead."

Putting the cup down on the small table, Book sighed. "I was once."

"Then ..." Badger felt a rising panic. "You're ... a ... a ghost?"

This time the older man smiled. "No, son. I'm flesh and blood."

"How? I mean, 'e told me you were dead. Tried to get me to give him a bigger cut. Said 'e'd done the Miranda gig." Badger knew his tongue was running away with him, but he couldn't stop himself. "'Ow can you be sitting here, large as life and twice as ugly?"

"Magic." Book gazed levelly at him. "And you aren't really supposed to be here either, so in the same way you're dead too."

"Dead?" Badger quickly felt his chest. "No, I ain't. My heart's beating. No thanks to you lot."

"Cat saved your life. With more than a little help from Simon."

"What?" Suddenly the events of the day came rushing back, and he had the grace to blush, if only a little. "Oh. Yeah. But I meant before. After that gorram broadwave. You know what the Alliance tried to do to me?"

"And so, like the rat you are, you saved yourself, never caring what happens outside of that."

"Rats survive." Badger shrugged, as well as a man could