[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

little in the breeze, and the sky and sea beyond, but it was like a horror movie. Rowan stood up and
slapped her face. Then he pointed out to sea.
"Heather walked to the railing, and climbed over, and jumped.
"I screamed and struggled, but the musclemen held me.
"Rowan came close to me and held my face with one hand and shook it back and forth until I stopped
crying. He said, 'You go back to your gutter, little urchin, and you tell them what you saw. You tell them
that Rowan is the Devil  Satan himself  and that you play like I say or you don't play at all.
Remember to be afraid.' Then he let me go, and the musclemen carried me off and stuffed me in the trunk
of a car, and a few hours later they dumped me on a sidewalk in L.A.
"I remembered to be afraid. I snatched a purse and got enough money for a bus ticket to Fort Worth. A
soup kitchen preacher led me to Jesus, and I never looked back. Or wanted to."
"What a terrible thing for a kid to have to go through," said Thumb.
"I can't stand it!" the red ski mask cried, and he bolted for the bathroom. Thumb got up to follow him
inside.
Rory heard a voice saying, "I told you I'm allergic to wool!"
"I told the guy polyester," Thumb's voice said.
"Look at my face! I look like a piece of steak!"
"Well try splashing some water on it. We'll pray about it later." Thumb came out and looked at Rory. "I
guess the masks weren't such a good idea."
"You really need them?" Rory asked.
Thumb sat down. "We're not from around here," he said.
"I figured that."
Thumb took a deep breath. "What would you say if somebody asked you, 'Why doesn't God come
down and stop all the bad things in the world?'"
"I don't know. You can't have miracles going all the time. It would be... a kind of anarchy."
Thumb nodded. "That's pretty good. But there's another answer. Godis in the world, and He's working
all the time. Through His Body. You know what His Body is?"
"The church."
"That's right. All real Christians.'Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.' 1
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
Corinthians 12:27. The Bible says we're all parts of Christ's Body  eyes, ears, feet  and hands 
and Christ is the Head."
"And you're the hands?"
"We are. Not the only hands He's got, of course. There's all kinds of hands  comforting hands, healing
hands, building hands. We're the hands that bear the sword."
"I thought Caesar bore the sword."
"Christ also said that he who has no sword should sell his cloak and buy one. Besides, our Caesar's no
help.
"Do you believe in Evil, Rory? Not just sad, mistaken people, but foul, hellish wickedness in the world
that's got to be stamped out?"
"Yeah, I do. I've seen it."
"That's our calling. We stamp it out. We fight Evil head on. It's not fun, and it can be pretty ugly, and a
lot of people just wouldn't understand. That's why we have to work in secret. Someday everything done
in secret will be shouted from the rooftops, Luke 12:3, and then everybody'll understand, but for now
we've got to keep our light under a bushel."
"And what is it you do, exactly?"
"I'm not sure you're ready for that knowledge, Brother Rory."
"Well, what brought you to Epsom?"
"Things are beginning to happen here. We've had a Word of Knowledge on it, and we know it to be
true. You know what a Word of Knowledge is?"
"I guess so."
"You've heard of the Way of the Old Wisdom?"
"That group on the old Tysness farm, out by TrollValley. The girl who inherited it gave it to her cult."
"Right. Well W.O.W. is nothing but a witch cult. They're Satan worshipers, although they probably
wouldn't admit it. Now who's gonna protect this community from the infection of these people?"
"You?"
"That's right."
"But you won't say how."
"We can give you a demonstration."
* * *
There were no ugly smells in the wolf's world.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
There were bad smells  smells of things that mustn't be eaten  and danger smells, like bear and man.
Especially man. But there were nougly smells. Smells brought precious information, keeping the wolf
healthy, keeping it far from danger, deep in the northern woods where the hunting was best and the men
fewest.
Its world was an ecstatic symphony of smells, fluent of news  around on the breeze, down from the
sky, up from the earth. The wolf could see, but paid little attention to sight. Vision was too colorless.
The wolf barely knew it was hungry, for hunger is a wolf's way of life. It had forgotten losing its place as
head of the pack, bloodied and run off, yipping, by a young rival. It felt vaguely its loneliness, an
incomprehensible thing without a smell.
But hunting alone was hard. And the wolf was slower than it had once been. It had not eaten in more
than a week. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]