The boy gestured with his skull wand and the werewolf moved forward. He had a strange little machine in his hands, a metal ball studded with vacuum tubes and black bakelite dials. A long telescoping antenna emerged from its center. Its purpose was not immediately clear.
Ayaan remembered the ghost and his words. Don't pretend to be one of them. They won't believe it. The device the werewolf held must be a weapon. Ayaan knew one when she saw it.
'Semyon Iurevich,' the Tsarevich said. 'Is trustable, this one?'
The lipless wonder came forward. The dry skin of his face had drawn away from his smallish features, making his eyes very wide. His nose turned up like a pig's. He wore a stained white bathrobe and a pair of slippers. He came up to her and ran his hands over Ayaan's arms and hips. She wanted to kick him away but she controlled herself. Like a broken horse, she thought. She let her shoulders slump, let her neck bow. Let them think it was too much, that she was overwhelmed, dazzled by their evil.
'He sees future, knows all,' the Tsarevich announced. 'Can read you like book.'
The lich's bony hands stole across her belly, grabbed at her buttocks. She leapt away but knew better than to attack him. The liches chuckled at her discomfort. Semyon Iurevich reached out again and she let him touch her. She closed her eyes and thought of Sarah, of just how far she would let this go if it meant keeping her promise to Dekalb, if it meant seeing Sarah again.
The lich's touch grew more clinical, less intrusive. He focused on one small patch of her left arm as if the information he sought was written there, as if he'd found the right page of her book. Finally he looked up. She saw, with a start, that he wore a toupee.
Energy passed between them. Ayaan's soul lurched in her body. Her heart would have gone wild with palpitations if it still could beat'this evil thing, this lich was really looking into her, his power was real. She knew that at any moment he would see through her game.
Then it was over and the hands lifted away from her skin.
'Is not one of us,' the lich told his master. 'Not as yet. But is safe, with precautions.'
Only the fact that she was dead and no longer needed to breathe kept Ayaan from sighing with relief. She didn't know how'maybe the naked ghost had come to her aid'but she had fooled them. 'I don't want anything but to rest,' she said. 'And maybe get something to eat. I can see now that there's no beating you.'
The Tsarevich's image nodded and stepped even closer to her. Another step and his nose would be in her navel. At least the projection of his nose would touch the leather covering her belly. He looked up at her like a toddler addressing his mother. 'No rest for wicked,' he told her, 'but maybe is not so bad. I have mission here. I have great work to complete. So many things to do, and not so many hands. I take a chance, yes? Is work for you, if you will have it, and it proves you. Otherwise, you stay here, you be like new Least.You interested?'
'I... I guess so,' Ayaan said. She bit her lip and looked away. She had never tried to look coy before and she thought she must be overdoing it ridiculously.
'Is good!' The boy nodded happily and his smile lit up the whole room. 'You do good, now. You do good, come back, you see man behind the curtain.' He pointed at the car at the end of the tracks where his real body still sat out of view. 'You do bad, we have provision for this as well.' He pointed again, this time at the device the werewolf held. The hairy lich touched one of the black knobs and the vacuum tubes lit up with a dull orange glow.
Ayaan felt something tickling her neck. She put a hand on her throat and felt the silver tattoo there. It felt warm, though the rest of her skin was disturbingly cool. The tickling turned to a tingle, and then a sensation of uncomfortable heat. It only took a few seconds to become painful. She clawed at the tattoo but that only made it worse.