The Time War Ch. 11&12

"What are you going to do?" her assistant, Alyssa Purnell-Alesjandro asked.

"Reason with them," said Writhlin-Desjardins said. She approached the angry mob by the main desk. The desk clerk cowered behind the partition. Sally couldn't help but notice that the men all had curved swords. She steeled herself to be brave.

"What is this all about?" Writhlin-Desjardins asked.

"A woman?" their leader scoffed. "I wish to speak to the man in charge!"

"I am the man... I mean, I am the one in charge," said Sally.

"Laquinta demands that you do not allow unmarried people to fornicate in this hotel!" the man roared.

"You do not set policy here," said Writhlin-Desjardins, her voice quaking slightly.

"I do not set policy, the Great God of Blood does! What is your answer?"

"Then my answer is no," said Writhlin-Desjardins.

"And here is Laquinta's answer for that!" said the man. He swung his curve blade, and decapitated Writhlin-Desjardins in one smooth move. As her decapitated head fell to the ground, Writhlin-Desjardins' head bounced and landed right next to a holiday pumpkin. The desk clerk screamed hysterically, even as the followers of Laquinta yelled, "Blood! An offering, for the Great God of Blood!"

The World Government police were called in. They surrounded the hotel, and brought in a cultural sensitivity negotiator. But all attempts at negotiation proved fruitless. When the police finally moved in, the Laquintans, stationed all over the hotel, detonated suicide vests they had hidden under their robes.

Mohonk was blown to pieces.

When Calle returned to Mohonk, nearly two years after Marion had died, he found it an entirely different place. A manske was rising out of the ruins of the Mountain House, complete with minarets. He heard the call to prayer over one of the many loudspeakers. Women dressed from head to toe in black were walking around the lake in groups. Big bearded men with hard eyes stared at him suspiciously and fingered their curved swords as he walked the grounds.

The gardens were gone, of course, along with the Mountain House itself. And it seems all the gazebos had been torn down. Even the ladders were gone from the Labyrinth; perhaps rock scrambling was deemed immodest by the followers of Laquinta. It was at that moment that Calle realized that Mohonk, like Marion, was gone forever, and he never went back again.

[Note: The original version of this story has photos]