A Game of Ghosts (Charlie Parker, #15)

by John Connolly

Indeed, as things stand for the present, the Land of Spirits is a kind of America . . . filled up with Mountains, Seas, and Monsters. —Joseph Glanvill, A Blow at Modern Sadducism (1668)

He thought of the old commonplace about how giving up vices didn’t make you live longer, but just made it feel as though you were living longer. Nights like these made him feel as though he had been in pain all his life.

Then again, maybe nostalgia was an understandable response to a world that appeared to be going all to hell, as long as everyone remembered that the past was a nice place to visit but nobody should want to settle in it.

adroitly

In a clever or skillful way

“Whose work do we do?” she asked, dredging up the question from their shared childhood. The response came automatically, even though he had not used it in years. “Our father’s work.” His sister came to him, and kissed him softly on the lips. His mouth opened, and her tongue found his. From the shadows the Brethren watched, and smiled their approval.

biobehavioral

the interaction between biological processes and behavior. It's a field of study that examines how biological factors like genetics and physiology influence behavior, and how behaviors, thoughts, and emotions, in turn, affect biological functions and health. The term is used to describe a comprehensive approach to health that considers the interconnectedness of the mind and body.

convivial

Friendly, lively or enjoyable

“I know what you’re going to say. You’ll tell me about being careful, and people listening, and I understand all that. But I’m still your father, and I can’t protect you if I can’t talk with you about stuff.” Rachel extricated herself, and began moving toward them. Only when she was almost—but not quite—within earshot did Sam speak again. “But you’re not protecting me, Daddy. I’m protecting you. “And,” she added softly, “the ones who are listening aren’t people

He thought of himself as a good man, but truly good men never think of themselves in that way at all.

We can hide our children away, and lock our doors, and close our ears, but they’ll just go after easier prey instead.” “But she’s your child,” said Frank. “They’re all someone’s children.”

Perhaps other souls than human are sometimes born into the world, and clothed in human flesh. —Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Uncle Silas (1864)

The only thing worse than attracting the scrutiny of a cop while you were sitting in a parked car was attracting the scrutiny of a cop while you were sitting in a parked car doing nothing. Cops had a natural suspicion of people who appeared to be doing nothing, as it usually meant that they were in actuality doing something, and often something they shouldn’t have been doing.

I should have known, the Collector thought. No matter how far I fly, it seems I must always return to Parker’s glove.

Parker had been in Philip’s company for less than an hour, but he was already pretty certain that the man was insane.

parsimonious

Stingy or frugal

Kushiel,

I haven’t met a mother yet who’d admit her child was out where the buses don’t run, not without a fight.”

unprepossessing

not particularly attractive or appealing to the eye

bijou

Small and elegant

If you’re getting fucked, then you’re getting fucked. But if you’re getting fucked by someone who’s smiling, then you’re really getting fucked.”

By the end, Webb was being fed oxygen through a mask, and was conscious for only a few minutes each day. Death would be a final small step, a simple transition from being to nothingness. So Philip helped him on his way. A simple pinch of the oxygen line. A gasp. A spasm. Gone.

solipsism.

the view or theory that the self is all that can be known to exist.

That was why the Brethren generally married distant cousins, with no secrets to be kept. When they did marry outside their own—and it was good for the bloodlines, at least—they tried to keep the truth from their spouses. Untold generations of those who married into the Brethren had spent their entire lives ignorant of what would befall them at the moment of death, unaware that they had cursed themselves from the moment of consummation, just as their children were cursed, and their children’s children.

gawping.

stare openly in a stupid or rude manner

obeisance

a gesture expressing deferential respect, such as a bow or curtsy

A man is a very small thing, and the night is very large and full of wonders. —Lord Dunsany (1878–1957)

but like all duplicitous, unreliable men, Philip saw his own moral imperfections reflected in every face he met.

eschatology,

the part of theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind.

daguerreotype

a photograph taken by an early photographic process employing an iodine-sensitized silvered plate and mercury vapor.

It depicted a tall, thin man dressed in the black suit of a preacher, his hands hanging loosely by his sides. His hair was long and red, and his skull was misshapen and pitted, a consequence of the violent existence that he led. In the photograph, the Magus was facing the camera, his distinctive beard disguising the weakness of his chin, and the angle of the lens hiding the flattened profile of which contemporary records spoke. The Magus’s left eye bulged,

frogspawn.

The eggs of a frog

“My employer cares only about Jaycob Eklund,” said Parker. “You could say he sees the bigger picture, and Eklund is part of that. You and your son are not. Neither was Caspar Webb. Like him, you’ll die, and your son will die, and you’ll all be forgotten. Your pond is going dry, but your son isn’t smart enough to spot it. He’ll only realize it when he’s gasping in the mud, but I won’t be there to see it. If you’re lucky, neither will you. But it won’t matter in the end, not any of it.”

There are so many of them, and you don’t want them to get into your head, because they’ll drive you mad. You have to keep moving, and not acknowledge them, but it’s hard because they’re in so much pain. Most of them are just lost, but some . . .” He was trembling. His wife reached out, placed her hands over his, and calmed him. “Some of them are hiding. That’s what the Brethren are doing: they’re hiding.” “From what?” asked Angel. “From judgment.”

“It makes you sick, being in that place,” said Thayer. “It’s not for the living. It’s not even for the dead. It’s a kind of limbo, a crawl space between worlds. It’s full of cracks and crevasses and dark, dark corners, all places to conceal and be concealed. That’s where the Brethren have sequestered themselves. They’ve made a lair there, far from the ones who’ve just gone astray. It’s a fortress, and it’s theirs. They emerge only if they have to, when there’s killing to be done in their name, and that’s when I catch flashes of them on this side. But they had no idea I could see them, not at first. They’re almost blind in our world, but not in theirs. That was the mistake I made. I shouldn’t have gone looking for them. Eklund was wrong to ask. “Because they sensed my coming, and now they know.”

“The name spoken by the girl. Read it again.” She put a finger to the screen and pinpointed the reference. “Belial,” she said.

promontory,

a point of high land that juts out into a large body of water; a headland

The falcons have no love for the hunter, he thought. He is simply a provider.

It seemed impossible that the Collector should be dead, and Parker was surprised at the sadness he felt. In death, the ogre was diminished, but also humanized. Whatever he was, or whatever he might have believed himself to be, he had died alone and in pain.

Belial: according to Eldritch, this was the name of the entity with which Peter Magus had claimed to commune. Belial, the fairest of all who fell from heaven, fairer even than Lucifer himself; Belial, the angel of hostility, the demon of lies. Peter Magus promised his followers that he had made a compact with a spirit, and as a consequence they would not be punished in the next life for their sins. All that was required in return was sacrifice. They would buy the safety of generations with the lives of others. But the deal was struck with a being that thrived on deception, and so was based on deceit. Whether the creature Belial existed or not was inconsequential. What mattered was that Peter Magus managed to convince his acolytes of its objective reality, and their descendants had been killing to protect themselves and their forebears ever since.

equanimity

Mental calmness

rictus

A fixed grimace or grin

Peter Magus stood alone in the ruins, surrounded by the Hollow Men. Above them all circled the angel, so huge that it could only be glimpsed in parts as it moved across the gap in the clouds. As Thayer watched, Peter Magus lifted his arms to the sky and cried out the name of the entity that had betrayed him at the last, even as the Hollow Men tore at him and his spirit began to burn.

susurration,

whispering, murmuring, or rustling