The Beyond (35 page)

“At least, if you are innocent, you found the evidence we needed when you took the box,” said Frabone.

“The veil as I have told you over and again,” said Emilia, “was not in the box.” She glared at the prosecutor. “I told you, I was coming through the ruins, and I saw it floating downward through the air. It drifted almost to my hand but the wind tried to grab it away at the last second. I was too fast for it. I put the veil in the box before leaving through the wall.”

“Emilia,” said Frabone, coming close to her, and laying his hand on her shoulder, “we know that is a lie.”

This was a defining moment for me. The urge to tear Frabone's head off was very great all throughout the trial, but when Emilia's composure crumbled and she began to cry, Feskin had to put his arm across my chest to hold me steady. They never got another word out of her. She cried for a half-hour in front of the town of Wenau, and when she was finally ushered out of the building, she was still weeping uncontrollably.

The allegations, as I have told you, are not true. Frabone wants to convince you that I murdered Cley. I have shown you Cley. Does he not live? He is remembering me, right now, somewhere in the Beyond.

Before I sat down to record these final thoughts for you, I heard a voice outside the back window of my cell. I pulled myself up on the bars and looked down. Emilia was standing there, looking up at me.

“I wanted to help,” she said.

“You did,” I told her.

“Are we still friends?” I asked, as my grip slipped and I fell back to the floor. When I managed to pull myself up again, she was gone.

I have also seen the hangman from my window. He has been overseeing the building of the gallows. I swear to you, the man bears an uncanny resemblance to Brisden.

Tomorrow, I will understand.

Acknowledgments

This book is for those stout-hearted readers who have accompanied me on the entirety of this three-part journey and also for those who gave me good directions along the way, especially Jennifer Brehl, who carried the compass, showed great courage, and, on this leg of the expedition, cleared miles of rancorous underbrush.

Special thanks to:

Pat Dean, tattoo guru, for lending me some interesting books.

Bill Watkins, Kevin Quigley, and Mike Gallagher for reading and commenting on various parts of this novel while it was growing.

Meems, Nauk, and Air for precious Time.

About the Author

Jeffrey Ford is the author of the novels
Vanitas
,
The Physiognomy
,
Memoranda
,
The Beyond
,
The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque
,
The Girl in the Glass
,
The Cosmology of the Wider World
, and
The Shadow Year
. His story collections are
The Fantasy Writer's Assistant
,
The Empire of Ice Cream
,
The Drowned Life
, and
Crackpot Palace
. Ford has published over one hundred short stories, which have appeared in numerous journals, magazines, and anthologies, from the
Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
to
The Oxford Book of American Short Stories
. He is the recipient of the World Fantasy Award, the Nebula Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, the Edgar Award, France's Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire, and Japan's Hayakawa's SF Magazine Reader's Award.

Ford's fiction has been translated into twenty languages. In addition to writing, he has been a professor of literature and writing for thirty years and has been a guest lecturer at the Clarion Writers' Workshop, the Stone Coast MFA in Creative Writing Program, Richard Hugo House in Seattle, and the Antioch Writers' Workshop. Ford lives in Ohio and currently teaches at Ohio Wesleyan University.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2001 by Jeffrey Ford

Cover design by Jamie Keenan

ISBN: 978-1-4532-9404-8

This edition published in 2015 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

345 Hudson Street

New York, NY 10014

www.openroadmedia.com

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