Carter had few cross streets. Large frame houses, so familiar in the New England states, lined the road through town, their faded paint and vaguely shabby air giving them a look of genteel poverty. The B&B/general store combination across the street from the church, however, had clearly been recently bought by someone with money, its red-and-green trim fresh and gleaming. From the way the nearer displays of carvings, paintings, and quilts seemed to be funneling people into the store, Charlie suspected the owners were the driving force behind the fair.

Charlie turned right, toward the music. And froze.

The three-story, gray frame house was classic Vermont. The windows full of teddy bears, not so much. Little plush faces stared out from every window on all three floors, their eyes locked on Charlie.

“Optical illusion,” she muttered, heading for the stage. She didn’t have time for this. A dozen steps later, when she glanced toward the house again, the bears were still staring. And not only the bears facing the front of the house, but the bears who’d been facing the graveyard a moment before. “Oh, come on, guys. I’m here to talk to Gary. That’s all.”

Polyester fur faded from the sun, noses pressed against grubby glass, the bears stared. A large powder-blue-and-white bear, slumped on the sill in the third-floor dormer, looked almost exactly like a plush toy Charlie’d owned as a child. It also looked depressed, but there was always a chance she was reading too much into its expression.

“Ashokan Farewell” ended, and she could hear a bouzouki laying in a harmony line to “The Factory Girl.” Gary’s sure touch was nearly drowned out as her personal soundtrack played “Cardiac Arrest” by the Teddybears. Odds were high shake your bonemaker was meant to be more metaphysical in this case as the windows full of depressed teddy bears were full-out disturbing.

It was the Baltimore cemetery all over again. Only with more polyester.

The bears weren’t Gales, it therefore wasn’t Gale business. Walking past, leaving the bears staring out at the world, would not result in large-scale death and destruction by the Dragon Queen and it would not assist one of the old gods to rise. Walking past would take her to the man who had the answers she needed in order to put the phrase millions will die into context because those millions would definitely include Gales. Standing at the point where the front path met the sidewalk, ready to walk past, Charlie could see the small crowd watching in front of the stage, the pole lights shining down . . .

The bears stared down at her.

The hair lifted off the back of Charlie’s neck.