Flesh-&-Bone(89)

She paused a beat and looked at the others.

“Did I say that any of you have sinned?” She drew the kneeling woman to her feet and kissed her on both cheeks. “No, my beloved, we have all passed through that fire together, and in its heat we have been purified.”

The last word hung in the air like the clear note of a church bell. Even Benny felt a chill.

“Each of us here in this sacred place has passed through the fire many times. Each of us has stayed true even when we thought that our god had withdrawn his grace from us. Each of us has proven our faith beyond all doubt. And thus, the lord of the darkness has revealed to me that this—all of this, our struggles, our doubts, our pain, our longing, our faith—has made us the chosen of Thanatos.”

There was another beat.

“Henceforth we will rise to be worthy of that choice. We will sing out in joy for the glory of God’s grace. We will no longer fear life and flee like sheep into the darkness of the grave.” Mother Rose raised her arms in triumph. “We have been reapers at work in the fields of the Lord. This task we have done well and faithfully. The fields are clear of vermin and pests. They are clean, and they welcome us to put down our tools of reaping and set about our new work.”

The woman who had been kissed cried out, “What is our purpose, Mother Rose, beloved of Thanatos?”

Mother Rose turned so that her upraised hands indicated everything. Not just this field, Benny knew . . . but everything.

“The chosen will go out into the world and reclaim it.”

Although Benny didn’t really understand the nature of this church, he thought he had the gist of it. It felt like a weird slant on something Charlie Pink-eye used to say: Kill ’em all and let God sort ’em out.

Except that now this woman seemed to be changing the rules.

“Is she talking about double-crossing Saint John?” asked Nix, once more proving that she was reading his thoughts.

“I think so.”

“Better her than me,” said Nix. “That guy freaked me out.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not having fuzzy puppy love about Mother Nut Job down there.”

“How many sides are there in this fight? I thought it was Eve’s family against these reapers.”

Benny nodded. “Sorry to make a bad joke, but from what we just heard, I think there’s trouble in paradise.”

“Ugh.” Nix looked around the cockpit. “Whose side do you think they were on?”

“I haven’t the slightest idea. The good guys’ side, I hope.”

“Okay, but who are the good guys? Eve’s dad tried to shoot us.”

“Wait, something’s happening,” Benny said.

Down in the clearing, the reapers were arguing among themselves. However, one by one they broke from the group and knelt before Mother Rose.

“Praise be to the mother of us all,” yelled one man. “Praise be to the mother of the chosen!”

Suddenly they were all kneeling and crying out, repeating those words like a chant as Mother Rose stood above them, arms up and out, drinking in their cries. The reapers crawled forward to kiss the bloodred streamers tied to Mother Rose’s clothes. Benny saw, however, that one of the reapers hesitated longer than the others before joining the group. He was a barrel-chested Latino with twin knives thrust through his belt. And Benny saw Mother Rose flick a covert glance to the giant and then to that reaper.

“He’s a dead man,” said Nix before Benny could say it. “He’s not buying any of this, and he’s freaking dead.”

“Sucks to be him,” agreed Benny.

As they watched, the gathering broke up. Mother Rose said a few words to each of them, mostly telling them to spread the word to the other reapers. At no point did she tell them to keep Saint John out of the loop, but it was the impression Benny got.

The man who had been the first to drop to his knees lingered for a moment, as did a few others, and Benny noted that these reapers were the ones who had first “seen the light.” It confirmed his suspicions that they were plants in the gathering, just like the friends of Mr. Hopewell who yelled out the first bids and kept driving up the sale price. These people clustered around Mother Rose and received additional instructions that Benny and Nix could not hear. When Mother Rose nodded in the direction the Latino man had taken, one of the reapers smiled, nodded, and hurried silently into the woods to follow.

Afterward, Mother Rose and the giant stood in silence until the sounds of the quads and the shouts of the “chosen” faded into silence.