Free DAEMONOMANIA: Book Three of the Aegypt Cycle by John Crowley Page A

out the demons that were inside those people
. That is what they were told to do, and that is why they were called laborers in the harvest and at the same time sheep among
     wolves. That’s whythey came back and said—they didn’t say, Lord we laid hands on these people or Lord we gave these people a pill or Lord we
     put these people through the talking cure like you told us. They said that the demons of illness are subject to us in your
     name. And Jesus told them they can drive those spirits out, and the Enemy will not be able to hurt them. That’s it.”
    He closed the book but did not put it down. “Now I’ve said this before and I will say it again. There is sickness and unhappiness
     around you, all around you here in this place and in other places you might go into on a daily basis. And you’ve heard me
     talk about how you can have this power against illness and suffering. And in order for you to have this power it’s first needful
     for you to assent to one thing. One thing. You have to believe that this is now.”
    He held the book before them.
    “You have to believe that
this is now
, just as much as it was then, and that the kingdom of God has come near. That’s all. If you believe that this is now, you
     will know who it is that’s being spoken to on every page and every line of this old book, and what you are being promised,
     and what you are commanded to do.”

5
    O nly after she had crossed the bridge at Fair Prospect over the misty river did Rosie Rasmussen remember that she had promised
     Mike that she would call this morning, so he could talk to Sam before they left. Too late now. She drove on toward Cascadia
     and the interstate; Sam in the back seat played with the furnishings, turning on and off the reading lights, opening and closing
     the never-used ashtrays, and Rosie replayed her last talk with Mike: made more clear what she had meant, listened more closely
     to him; sometimes altered, in her replaying, what he had said, and what she had answered.
    Mike—Mike had said—didn’t really want to press for custody. Yes he had had his bantam lawyer make that call, but actually
     all he wanted from it was to get Rosie’s attention. He needed to talk, about him and her and Sam, and it was important she
     hear him out. So many things were clear to him now, so many things that weren’t clear before.
    Like what things, for instance?
    For instance (and here he moved his hand toward her across the stone table where they sat, a table on whose surface a chessboard
     was inlaid, beside a path up at The Woods) for instance that in many ways he had been a real shit where she was concerned.
     He couldn’t have said that or even
thought
that a while ago and now he could.
    And his eyes were big and clear in a way she had not seen before, and she said nothing though a couple of smart things had
     occurred to her then and more now.
    He’d come to see, he said, that a lot of what had happened between them had been his fault. He’d been very stupid; he laughed,
     shamefaced, and shook his round head to think of it, how stupid he’d been. He noticed and picked up a fallen maple leaf (why
     should she rememberthese details, the whole interview had a psychedelic clarity in her memory, what was she supposed to have learned or done
     there?) and spun it by its stem and watched it flail. He wanted to have her back, and Sam. That’s what he wanted to talk about.
    She said nothing then, abashed by this, but now she wanted to say
Stupid how, Mike? Stupid about exactly what? What if it really didn’t have all that much to do with you, Mike, no matter how
     stupid you’d been? What if it had to do just with me? What if, Mike, I just stupidly wanted to do what I wanted?
    “Mom, I have to go pee.”
    “No you don’t, hon. We just went.”
    “I do.”
    “Okay. I’ll start looking for a place.”
    You can’t do all this alone, he’d said, you can’t face it all alone. You shouldn’t have to. This was when