Water is Thicker than Blood Read Online Free Page B

at
Lula’s house.
    Rue couldn’t stand being in the house anymore. She expected
to wake up one mo r ning to find Hank taking the roof
apart to sell the planks. She took a job at the bookbinder’s shop
cleaning and fixing meals for him while he made paper and worked on
his book restorations. Since he was a mute, they didn’t talk. Which
suited Rue fine. It was only a few hours a day, but it gave her
some money to stash away in the event Hank finally left her for
good.
    She left the shop one evening to find Joseph heading
inside.
    “ Good evening, Ms. Rue. Didn’t expect to find you
here.”
    “ Oh, I been helping Mr. Max around his shop.”
    “ That a fact? Mama said you found a job, but didn’t tell me
you were working for old Maximillian. He been treating you
fair?”
    “ Oh yes. Been real fair. I even learned a little of how to
prepare the pulp for his paper.”
    “ Now ain’t that something? You get good at it, you just
might eventually be able to get work with the Historical Society.
Now that is where some money is. Archmage said he heard some big
plans about starting public schooling again in a few years. Gonna
need plenty of paper for that!”
    “ Well, it be a while ‘fore I think Mr. Horton be interested
in my skills.”
    “ Don’t doubt yourself, Ms. Rue.” Joseph pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the back of his neck.
“Ms. Rue, you in a hurry to get home?” Rue shook her head. “I’m
just picking up a blank grimoire for my studies. Would you mind
waiting a spell? I’d like to talk to you a bit.”
    Rue waited for Joseph, who made quick work of picking up
his grimoire. He waited until they hit a stretch of the road with
nothing but swamp water on either side before speaking. “Ms. Rue,
my mama been real worried about you.”
    “ I told your mama not to be telling you stuff.”
    “ No, no. She ain’t betrayed your confidence. But I know my
mama. And you don’t need to be no mage to see what has been going
on with Mr. Hank. It wounds me deeply to have to stand by and watch
what he is doing to you.”
    “ Well, ain’t no reason for you to be wounded, child. Ain’t
nothing you can do about him.”
    “ Ms. Rue, that is not entirely true.”
    Rue stopped walking and turned to face Joseph. “What
foolishness you talking? You got powers enough to change a man’s
mind for him?”
    “ Well, there do be powers that exist like that. But no, that
is not what I mean. Ms. Rue, you remember how Baron Samedi was
talking about people making sacrifices and doing without to help
their neighbors?”
    “ I do. I most certainly do.”
    “ Folks in Bywater are suffering.” He waved a hand toward the
pools of stagnant water on either side of the road. “All around us
is water, but none of it is life-bringing. All this water and can’t
drink it. It just attracts bugs and rot and sickness. You heard
tell about those two babies caught malaria?”
    “ Yes, those poor little angels. I can’t even imagine what
their mamas are feeling.”
    “ Malaria carried by mosquitos. And Mosquitos attracted to
all this stagnant water. And we can’t do nothing about it ‘cause
it’s everywhere and ain’t nowhere to route it. But if we can clean
it, then maybe no more babies be dying like that.”
    “ Oh child. I’d give anything to help make that happen. But I
don’t have no magic like you do.”
    “ You don’t need no magic. I just need you recognize the need
for sacrifices. Do you know the story of Jephthah?”
    “ Jephthah went out to face the Ammonites, and swore to God
that if He saw him victorious in battle, he would sacrifice to God
whoever met him first when he got home.”
    “ And it was his only daughter that met him first, and he
kept his word to God, ‘cause God had given him victory over his
enemies.”
    “ What are you asking of me?”
    “ The Archmage don’t understand why the generator don’t work.
But I performed a ritual and received a vision. And in that vision,
I learned