“Hildegard, please! Never mind. You came here. Then you had a vision. Let’s please stick to the Rap Sheet, if you don’t mind. I’ve been charging all over central Grotum, warning everybody about it.”
“Well, I should hope so! Such horrible things, those Rap Sheets. But we won’t have to worry about this one they sent to Grotum.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s been taken away from them, dear—from the horrid Ozarines.” Hildegard looked at me, an apologetic expression in her face. “Please don’t take that personally, Benvenuti.”
I waved it away.
“How?” demanded Gwendolyn. “And how do you know that?”
Hildegard looked confused. “Well, I don’t actually know how it was done. But I imagine we’ll find out from my nephew when he gets here. I expect him any day now.”
“Who? Wolfgang? He’s in Prygg—at least, that’s where he said he was going.”
“Oh, yes. He’s just leaving there today.”
Gwendolyn sighed. “Hildegard, Prygg is hundreds of miles away—as the crow flies. It’ll take Wolfgang weeks to get here.”
“Oh no, dear. Not Wolfgang.”
Gwendolyn sighed again. “Never mind. But if you don’t know how it was taken, how do you know that it was taken at all?”
“I told you—I had a vision. Last night, at midnight, I suddenly saw a monster. Two monsters, actually. There was a little monster inside a big monster, although the little monster was actually bigger than the big monster. And then there was another little monster and he was suddenly inside the big monster too, except that he wasn’t bigger than the big monster the way the other little monster was. Oh no, not at all! Instead, the second little monster got smaller and smaller until he disappeared. And then I heard a great wailing in the sky, and a great singing in the earth, and I knew.”
“Knew what?”
Again, Hildegard looked confused. “Why—so many things. I knew the Rap Sheet was taken away from people who shouldn’t have it, and I knew the time was here. Sooner than I’d expected. I had so hoped I could convince the Old Geister to set things right beforehand. But one has to look facts in the face. He refused to listen to me, and now things will be unpleasant. Very unpleasant, I’m afraid.”
Gwendolyn shook her head. She spoke between gritted teeth.
“Hildegard, you are making no sense at all! What is this ‘time is here’ you’re talking about?”
Hildegard looked away. For a long moment, she stared out the window. When she turned back, the expression on her face was a strange mix of serenity and fatalism.
“Joe’s time, dear. He’s coming back.”
Gwendolyn frowned. She started to say something, but Hildegard suddenly reached out and placed her fingertips on Gwendolyn’s lips. If the gesture hadn’t been done so gracefully, it would have been grotesque, so incredibly long was her arm.
“Hush, Gwendolyn. I know you don’t like to hear about Joe, but just this once, listen to me. Don’t say anything, just listen. Because he is coming back, and whether you like it or not, you’ll have to deal with it. We all will.”
She took her hand away. “Actually, it’s not that simple. Joe—the old Joe, I mean—is gone forever. So he can’t actually just come back. But he’s—well, returning. Let’s put it that way. It’s perhaps a fine distinction, but it’s important to me.”
Suddenly she laughed, that amazing musical laugh.
“Of course, it’s not an important distinction for some people! God’s Own Tooth, for instance—not to mention that whole pack of Popes.”
Gwendolyn walked away a few steps. She radiated frustration and impatience. Hildegard stood up and went over to her. I could now see that she was almost as tall as Wolfgang. She stroked Gwendolyn’s great mane of black hair.
Gwendolyn smiled.
“I don’t know what is it about you, Hildegard. But I can never stay angry with you.”
“Well, I should hope not! I am, after all, the Abbess of the Sisters of Tranquility.”
A moment later they were both laughing. When they stopped, Gwendolyn looked up at Hildegard with a rueful expression.
“Just tell me this, Abbess. I can’t make sense of the rest of it—but are you sure the Rap Sheet’s been taken from the Ozarines?”