Oh Pretty Bird by Seanan McGuire

Author:Seanan McGuire [McGuire, Seanan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-05-13T15:00:00+00:00

Main Street was as deserted as their first glance had led them to believe. Alexander and Enid strolled along, trying to make the action seem nonchalant, while glancing into windows and taking quick looks down the narrow alleys between the various businesses. In each storefront they saw at least one person—generally the proprietor, only sometimes accompanied by a clerk—standing frozen behind the counter or near the register, like actors preparing for the play to begin.

“This is incredibly unnerving,” murmured Enid, voice pitched low to keep it from carrying to any listening ears. “Just how powerful is this woman? Can she really have seized control of an entire town?”

“No one in Colorado questioned her as a music teacher, even when her students were spending their time sitting in an empty room,” Alexander replied. “There’s no telling how many little changes she could have made in people’s minds, if she’d had reason and time to do it in. Stay alert.”

“You don’t have to tell me that,” said Enid. “We’re walking through a trap shaped like a city. The day I take that calmly is like to be the day I die.”

“Indeed.” Alexander stopped walking, looking thoughtfully at the storefront beside them. It showed a handsome display of hardcover books and stationary, all of them carefully laid out to catch and keep the bibliophile’s eye. “Let’s stop in here.”

Enid followed his gaze. “Dear, this is not a good time to go shopping for books.”

“Perhaps not, but the fact that I’m a librarian and you’re a librarian’s wife will justify the visit if anyone asks unpleasant questions, and perhaps we can learn more about what we’re facing.”

“I really prefer situations that can be more quickly resolved with gunfire,” muttered Enid, and stepped back, allowing him to open the door.

The bookstore smelled, as all good bookstores do, of leather and fresh ink and gently aging paper. The distinct acidic tang that would have indicated a text-eater infestation was missing—if the nasty little bookworms had ever been present, they had been cleared out, possibly by the town’s current dictatrix. Alexander made a mental note to start monitoring the movement of other types of insect, to determine whether it was the thought-transference or some pheromonal tag or territorial marking that was causing the Apraxis to migrate. Knowing the what didn’t necessarily provide the why, and the why could be very important in this matter.

The woman behind the counter was about Enid’s age, but softer, without the muscle definition that came from a lifetime of farming, hunting, and self-defense. She looked up at the jingle of the bell above the door, offering the pair a polite, if somewhat vague, smile. “Good morning, and welcome to Whiting Books,” she said. “How may I help you?”

“We’re in town with my son and his wife—they’re looking into possibly settling down here, if Johnny gets that job at the refinery, and we thought we’d come along, since it’s a nice drive from Chicago,” said Enid smoothly. All traces of her normally Welsh accent were gone, swallowed deep into her throat.

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