Wizard of the Pigeons Read Online Free Page B

chance at ruining a perfect memory. ’Sides, I wasn’t invited. Kinda lady she is, she does all the asking. All a man can say to her is “yes, please” and “thank you kindly.” That’s all.’
    Wizard shifted uncomfortably on the bench. This kind of talk made him uneasy, stirring places in him better left dormant. ‘So you’re looking for Cassie,’ he commented inanely, looking for a safer topic.
    Rasputin gave a brief snort of laughter. ‘Did I say that? Stupid way to put it. No sense looking for her. No, I’m just waiting to be found. She’ll know I got something for her, and she’ll come to find me. Don’t you know that about her by now? Think on it. You ever been looking for Cassie and found her? No. Just about the time you give up looking and sit down someplace, who finds you? Cassie. Ain’t that right?’
    â€˜Yeah.’ He chuckled slightly at the truth of it. ‘So what you been doing lately?’
    â€˜I just told you. Getting laid, and listening to jump rope songs in the park. How ’bout you?’
    Wizard shrugged. ‘Not much of anything. Little magics, mostly. Told a crying kid where he’d lost his lunch money. Went to visit Sylvester. Saw an old man hurting on a street corner. Asked him the time, the way to Pike Place Market, and talked about the weather until he had changed his mind about stepping in front of the next bus. Was standing in front of the Salvation Army Store and a man drove up and handed me a trenchcoat and a pair of boots. Boots didn’t fit, so I donated them. Trenchcoat did, so I kept it. Listened to a battered woman on the public dock until she talked herself into going to a shelter instead of going home. Listened to an old man whose daughter wanted him to put his sixteen-year-old dog to sleep. Told him “Bullshit!” Old dog sat and wagged his tail at me all through it. That’s about it.’
    Rasputin was grinning and shaking his head slowly. ‘What a life! How do you do it, Wizard?’
    â€˜I don’t know,’ the other man replied in a soft, naive voice, and they both laughed together as at an old joke.
    â€˜I mean,’ Rasputin’s voice was thick and mellow as warm honey, ‘how you keep going? Look how skinny you getting lately! Bet Cassie don’t appreciate that in the sack; be like sleeping with a pile of kindling.’
    Wizard shot Rasputin a suddenly chill look. ‘I don’t sleep with Cassie.’
    The big man wasn’t taking any hints. ‘No, I wouldn’t either. No time for sleeping with something that warm and soft up against you. You don’t know how many timesEuripides and I sat howling at the moon for her. Then you come along, and she falls into your lap. Her eyes get all warm when they touch you. First time she brought you to me, I saw it. Oh, oh, I say to myself, here come Cassie, mixing business with pleasure. Now you telling me, oh, no, ain’t really nothing between us. You sure you wouldn’t be telling me a lie?’ An easy, teasing question.
    â€˜I don’t do that.’ Wizard’s voice was hard.
    â€˜Don’t do what?’ Rasputin teased innocently. ‘Screw or tell lies?’
    â€˜I tell lies only to stay alive. I tell the Truth when it’s on me.’ Ice and fire in his voice, warning the black wizard.
    â€˜Say what?’ Rasputin sat up straight on the bench, and his fingers suddenly beat a dangerous staccato rhythm on the bench back. Wizard felt his strength gather in his shoulders and watched the play of muscles in the black hand and wrist on the bench back. He felt the edge and dragged himself back from it. This man was his friend. He forced his voice into a casual scale.
    â€˜Remember who you’re talking to, Rasputin. I’m the man who knows the Truth about people, and when they ask me, I’ve got to tell them. I have my own balancing points for my magic. One of