Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth Part 11

Walker stirred for the first time. "Bad? Those were my people!"

Harper didn't even look at him. "Not now, Walker. I'm talking."

"If not now, then when?" said Walker, and his voice was colder than I'd ever heard it before. "How many years have I and my people served you here, protecting your interests in the Nightside? Is this how you reward us-by throwing us to the wolves?"

Harper finally looked at him, but only to smile condescendingly. "You mustn't take it personally, Walker. It's just business."

"You look nervous," I said suddenly. "All of you. Uncomfortable. Sweating. You don't like being here, do you?"

"As you said, the Nightside has become a dangerous place." Harper took a long draw on his cigar. "Before Walker contacted us with your name, we had been preparing to seal off the Nightside, closing every entrance and exit until all this... unpleasantness has run its course."

"You're abandoning us?" I said.

"Why not? You're only a business interest. A cash cow, from which we squeeze every penny we can. We are aware of the powerful men and women who come to your little freak show, to indulge in the pleasures and excitements they can't find anywhere else, but we... We have only ever cared about the profit they made us. For us, the Nightside is simply a commodity, that we exploit. Correct, Walker?"

"Don't look at me," said Walker, surprisingly. "I see things differently, these days."

I looked at him for a moment. There was something in his voice... but that would have to wait. I turned back to Harper.

"If the Nightside falls to Lilith, then so does the rest of the world. You can't hope to contain a Power like her. She will break out, then there'll be nowhere far enough or safe enough for you to hide."

"So we have come to believe," said Harper, reluctantly. He glared at his cigar, as though it had failed him in some way, and stubbed it out in an ashtray with quick, angry movements. "So, it seems we have no choice but to make a deal with Lilith. Very well. We can do that. We're good at making deals. It's what we do, after all. That is why we agreed to meet with you here, John Taylor. Lilith's son. You will be our agent, our representative, in these negotiations. Talk to your mother and promise her... whatever it takes, to reach an accommodation. We have already revealed our presence to her and summoned her here to talk with us."

Walker stood up straight, pus.h.i.+ng himself away from the wall he'd been leaning on. "What? Why didn't you consult me first? Do you know what you've done, you b.l.o.o.d.y fools..."

"Not now, Walker!" Harper didn't even look at him.

He was still doing his best to intimidate me with an imperious stare. "We are rich beyond the nightmares of avarice, Taylor. We can afford to be flexible, if we have to. Better to share the wealth of the Nightside with your mother than risk seeing it destroyed. It's just a matter of finding out what she wants... We're all reasonable people, after all. I'm sure we can come to an understanding with Lilith, with your help."

"Lilith isn't reasonable," I said. "She isn't even people. You have no idea what you're dealing with. She isn't interested in money, or even in power, as you understand it. She just wants to wipe the whole slate clean and start again. And replace Humanity with something more suited to her needs."

One whole wall of the private room suddenly disappeared, ripped away by an outside force. We all looked round, startled, to discover that the room now looked directly out onto the Nightside. Nothing stood between us and the dark, the blazing buildings, and the streets filled with smoke and screams. And there before us stood Lilith, naked and magnificent, with all her monstrous Court ranked behind her. The Authorities rose to their feet, stumbling and awkward, staring with wide horrified eyes.

The two former angels surged forward, to stand between the Authorities and Lilith, their power s.h.i.+mmering on the air around them like a heat haze. Lilith smiled at them and said Go home, and the light and dark figures both disappeared in a moment, banished from the material planes by the sheer force of her will. I had a good idea where she'd sent them, and I doubted either of them could expect much of a welcome back.

"So," said Lilith, stepping gracefully forward into the private room, her voice light and teasing, "you're the Authorities. The Secret Masters of the Nightside, the Big Men... We meet at last. Only, I have to say, you don't look very big to me. You look much more like little boys, way out of their depth. Come to me. Come to Mommie..."

Her presence ignited, filling the whole room, vast and overwhelming. I had to look away, retreating behind my strongest mental s.h.i.+elds, while the ten most powerful men in the Nightside, and therefore the world, fell to their knees and went to Lilith on all fours, like swine before a G.o.ddess. Walker started forward. I grabbed him by the arm and hustled him towards the invisible door. He found the key and opened the door, his hand steady even though his face was torn with conflicting emotions. I looked back, briefly.

Lilith laughed, to see the high-and-mighty Authorities cringe and fawn at her colourless feet. "Why, you're so cute! I could eat you up... but I think you'd probably make me sick. Fortunately, my children have far more robust appet.i.tes..."

She laughed again, as her horrid offspring surged forward. I pushed Walker through the door, following him into the relative safety of the Club's lobby. As the door swung slowly shut behind us, I looked back one last time. And saw Lilith's monstrous children fall upon the screaming Authorities and tear at them hungrily, like wolves let into the fold.

Ten.

A Chance for Revenge

I ended up having to drag Walker back through the lobby and out onto the steps of the Londinium Club. His eyes weren't tracking properly, and he was mumbling to himself. Once we were safely outside, I glanced quickly around to be sure we were alone, then sat down on the steps to get my composure back. With the invisible door shut again, Lilith shouldn't be able to come after us. For a while, anyway. Walker sat down suddenly next to me, all his usual poise and confidence gone. I suppose it's not an easy thing, to see the lords and masters you've followed all your life revealed as cowards and sc.u.mbags, then turned into monster food. The night seemed relatively quiet, and no-one came by to bother us. I looked at Walker . A pain in my a.r.s.e for most of my life, I'd often wanted to see him brought down, but not like this. He was staring out into the night as though he'd never seen it before. ended up having to drag Walker back through the lobby and out onto the steps of the Londinium Club. His eyes weren't tracking properly, and he was mumbling to himself. Once we were safely outside, I glanced quickly around to be sure we were alone, then sat down on the steps to get my composure back. With the invisible door shut again, Lilith shouldn't be able to come after us. For a while, anyway. Walker sat down suddenly next to me, all his usual poise and confidence gone. I suppose it's not an easy thing, to see the lords and masters you've followed all your life revealed as cowards and sc.u.mbags, then turned into monster food. The night seemed relatively quiet, and no-one came by to bother us. I looked at Walker . A pain in my a.r.s.e for most of my life, I'd often wanted to see him brought down, but not like this. He was staring out into the night as though he'd never seen it before.

"The Authorities are dead," he said abruptly. "What do I do now?"

"Be your own man," I said. "You can still give the orders that need giving, kick the a.r.s.es that need kicking. Get things done. Someone's got to lead the resistance. Who's got more experience than you? You're needed, Walker; now more than ever."

Walker turned his head slowly to look at me. "You're Lilith's son," he said finally. "You're the King in waiting. You're the legendary John Taylor, who always s.n.a.t.c.hes victory from the jaws of defeat. Maybe you should be in charge."

"No," I said. "I've never wanted that. I have enough trouble being responsible for myself, never mind anyone else. And I've got other things to do. Don't ask what. It would only upset you. You've always been The Man, Walker. So suck it up and solider on."

He smiled briefly. "You sound very like your father sometimes, John." He stood up, and just like that all his old poise and confidence were back again. "I suppose someone's got to turn you rabble into a disciplined fighting force. So, I'm going back to Strangefellows. Where will you go?"

"In search of some heavy-duty backup," I said, getting to my feet. "We need more big guns on our side."

"And if there aren't any?"

I grinned at him. "Then I'll improvise. Suddenly and violently and all over the place."

He nodded. "It's what you do best."

He took out his Members.h.i.+p Card, activated it, and stepped through into the relative safety of Strangefellows bar. The Card disappeared with a soft sucking sound and a brief flurry of sparks, and I was left standing alone on the steps of the Londinium Club. I pushed my hands deep into the pockets of my trench coat, and looked out into the night. All the buildings around me were wrecked or burned out. Bodies everywhere. Screams in the distance, strange lights flaring on the horizon. The Nightside was going down for the third time, and I was running out of ideas. There had to be someone else, some Power or major player who still owed me a favour, or could be fooled into thinking they did... but I couldn't think who. I couldn't do this on my own. I needed someone powerful enough, or tricky enough, to stop this War in its tracks before it got out of hand. Before it led to the terrible future that was becoming more real, more inevitable, by the minute. Unfortunately there was only one name left on my list, the one I'd been trying so hard not to think of. Because he scared the c.r.a.p out of me.

The Lord of Thorns. The Overseer of the Nightside, appointed directly by G.o.d to keep an eye on things.

Mostly, he didn't intervene personally. He was the last judge of all disputes, the Nightside's court of last resort, the one you only went to when everything else had failed and you were tired of living anyway. I'd been half-expecting him to turn up and start smiting everything in sight for some time now. Since he hadn't, it looked like I was going to have to give him his wake-up call. Lucky old me. The Lord of Thorns lived in the World Beneath, the miles and miles of caverns, catacombs, and stone galleries that lay deep below the Nightside. The place where you went, when the Nightside wasn't dark enough for you. The Lord of Thorns slept his sleep of centuries in a crystal cave in the deepest, darkest part of the World Beneath, and G.o.d help anyone who disturbed him unnecessarily.

I had only met him once, and that was more than enough. I am the stone that breaks all hearts, he'd said. I am the nails that bound the Christ to his cross. I am the necessary suffering that makes us all stronger. .. G.o.d's power flowed through him, the power over life and death and everything between. He could save or d.a.m.n you with a word or a glance, and his every decision was binding. I was pretty sure he didn't approve of people like me, even though he'd been friendly enough, in a distant sort of way, at our last meeting.

Why hadn't he come forth to confront Lilith?

I wasn't at all keen on descending into the World Beneath, to talk to him. It was a foul and dangerous place, and a h.e.l.l of a long way to travel, besides. Especially if he had already surfaced somewhere, to show Lilith the error of her ways... I pushed the thought back and forth for a while, but I was only putting off what I knew I had to do, so in the end I just sighed heavily, took the risk, and raised my gift. Wherever the Lord of Thorns was, in or under the Nightside, my gift would find him.

My inner eye, my third eye, opened wide and soared up into the night sky, my Sight spreading out for miles in every direction, till the whole of the Nightside lay sprawled below me like a twisted and convoluted map. Whole areas were burning, out of control, while monsters roamed the streets and panicked mobs ran this way and that. I forced my Sight to focus in on the one individual soul I was searching for, and my mind's eye plummeted down, narrowing in on a single speck of light in the dark. I'd found the Lord of Thorns. Just as I'd thought, he had left the World Beneath for the surface; but much to my surprise, the most powerful man in the Nightside was currently hiding out in St. Jude's, the only real church in the Nightside.

I quickly shut down my Sight, and dropped back into my head. I took a few moments to make sure all my mental barriers were safely in place again. I really didn't want Lilith to know where I was till I was ready to face her. I considered what to do next. St. Jude's wasn't anywhere near the Street of the G.o.ds, because it was the real deal. An ancient place of wors.h.i.+p, almost as old as the Nightside itself, older by far than the Christianity that had given it its present name. (St. Jude is the patron Saint of lost causes, in case you were wondering.) It was the one place in all the world where you could go to speak with your Maker and be sure of getting a reply. Which is why most people didn't go there. Unless they absolutely had to.

St. Jude's was located way over on the other side of the Nightside, a long way from anywhere, and separated from me by miles and miles of very dangerous territory. Walking was not an option. I wished I'd told the Harley to stick around. I took my Members.h.i.+p Card out of my pocket, fired it up, and called for Alex Morrisey in a loud and demanding voice. There was a pause, just to keep me from getting above myself, then his face appeared, glowering out of the Card at me.

"Taylor! About time you turned up again. If only so you can pay your bar bill before the world ends. And what have you done to Walker? He showed up here a few minutes ago looking like someone had put the fear of G.o.d into him. I don't think I've ever seen him so p.i.s.sed off at the world. He's currently charging round my bar yelling orders at everyone like Captain Kirk on crack, and organising everyone within an inch of their lives."

"Probably just a midlife crisis," I said. "Put Tommy Oblivion on, would you, Alex? I need to ask him something."

Alex sniffed loudly, just to remind me he was no-one's servant, and his face disappeared from my Card, which then played me a tinny Muzak version of Prodigy's "Firestarter" while I was on hold. Tommy's face finally peered out of the Card at me, frowning suspiciously.

"What do you want, Taylor?"

"You," I said.

And I reached into the Members.h.i.+p Card, grabbed him by the front of his ruffled s.h.i.+rt, and dragged him through the Card to where I was. The Card expanded hastily to let him through, but even so it was a tight squeeze for a moment. Tommy sat down suddenly on the Club steps as his head spun from the sudden transfer, and the Card shrank back to normal size and shut itself off, possibly in protest at such rough handling. I put it away, and helped Tommy to his feet.

"Son of a b.i.t.c.h!" he said.

"Yes," I said. "That just about sums me up."

He glared at me. "I didn't know you could do that with a Card."

"Most people can't," I said. "But I'm special."

Tommy sniffed. "I suppose that's one way of putting it." He brushed himself down here and there, repairing his appearance as best he could, then looked at the headless Doorman, lying on the steps beside him. He moved fastidiously a little further away from the blood. "Been busy, I see."

"For once, not my fault." I filled him in on what had been happening, or at least as much of it as I thought he could cope with, and explained my need to get to St. Jude's in a hurry. He really wasn't keen on the idea, but I can be very persuasive when I have to be. Not to mention downright threatening. I only had to mention a certain video that had come into my hands, featuring him and a very athletic exotic dancer, who happened to be married to someone exceedingly scary, and suddenly he was only too willing to help me out. (I didn't actually have the video. I'd just heard of it and run a bluff. The guilty flee...) Tommy Oblivion's gift manifested subtly on the air around us, and everything became uncertain. Tommy was an existentialist, and his gift allowed him to express his uncertainty about the world in a real and very physical way. The more he thought about a thing, the more possibilities he could see, and he fixed on the reality he preferred and made it solid. By concentrating hard enough, Tommy was able to convince the world that not only were we not where it thought we were, but actually we were somewhere else entirely.

And so, in the blink of an eye we left the Londinium Club behind us and materialised outside the Church of St. Jude. A dodo wandered past, hooting mournfully, a flock of pa.s.senger pigeons flapped by overhead, and an ostrich with two heads looked confusedly at itself, but they were only a few odd possibilities generated by Tommy's gift. He concentrated on shutting his gift down, while I looked around us. Everything but the church had been razed to the ground, for as far as the eye could see. It stood alone, an old squat stone structure in the middle of a wasteland. A wide-open plain of ash and dust, where thick curls of glowing ground fog surged this way and that under the urging of a fitful wind. It was very dark, with just the blue-white glare of the oversized moon s.h.i.+ning off the church walls. In the distance, fires leapt up briefly, screams rang out, but it was all very far away. The War had come and gone here, and left nothing behind but the church.

"I'm trying very hard to be existential about this," Tommy said finally, "But this really is a G.o.d-awful place. I'd like to say something like... from the ashes of the old shall arise a brave new Nightside... but my heart isn't in it."

"If a new Nightside does arise, I doubt it would be anything you or I would recognise, or would want to," I said. "Not if Lilith has her way."

"G.o.d, you're depressing to be around, Taylor. My brother's more cheerful than you, and he's dead. Who are we here to see, anyway?"

"The Lord of Thorns."

"Right," said Tommy. "I am leaving now. Good-bye. Write if you get work. I am out of here..."

"Tommy..."

"No! No way in h.e.l.l! There is absolutely nothing you can say or do or threaten me with that would persuade me to have anything to do with Him! I would rather eat my own head! The Lord of Thorns is the only person who actually scares me more than Lilith! She only wants to kill me; he wants to judge me!"

"You could leave," I said. "But it's a really long walk to anywhere civilised. All on your own, in the dark. And if you try to teleport back using your gift... I'll just have the Lord of Thorns drag you back again."

"You know the Lord of Thorns?"

"I know everyone," I said airily.

Tommy kicked at the dusty ground. "Bully," he muttered, not looking at me.

"You're my ride home, Tommy," I said, not unkindly. "You don't have to come into the church with me, if you don't want to. You can guard the door."

"It'll all end in tears," said Tommy.

I tried the church's only door, and it opened easily at my touch. I left Tommy sulking outside, and went in. The bare stone walls were grey and featureless, with only a series of narrow slits for windows. Short stubby candles that never went out burned in old lead wall holders, casting a cold judgemental light. Two rows of blocky wooden pews, without a cus.h.i.+on in sight. The altar was just a great slab of stone, covered with a cloth of spotless white samite. A single silver cross hung on the wall over the altar. And that was it. You didn't come to St. Jude's for frills and fancies.

This was a place where prayers were answered, and if you didn't like the answers you got, that was your problem.

A single ragged figure sat slumped on the cold stone floor, leaning against the altar, embracing it with desperate arms. It was the Lord of Thorns. He looked like he'd been crying. He also looked like he'd been dragged through h.e.l.l backwards. Instead of the grand Old Testament Prophet I remembered, he looked like one of the homeless, like a refugee. The Overseer of the Nightside had been reduced to a man in torn and bloodied robes. His long grey hair and beard had been half-burned away. He didn't look up as I walked down the aisle towards him, but he flinched at the sound of my footsteps, like a dog that's been kicked once too often. I knelt before him, took his chin in my hand, and made him look at me. He trembled at my touch.

"What are you doing here?" I said. I didn't mean for it to come out as harshly as it did, but that's St. Jude's for you.

"It's all gone," he said, in a distant, empty voice. "So I'm hiding. Hiding out, in the one place where even Lilith's power can't touch me. I believe that. I have to believe that. It's all I've got left."

I let go of his chin, and made an effort to soften my voice. "What happened?"

His eyes came up to meet mine, and a Vision appeared in my mind's eye, showing me Lilith's descent into the World Beneath. She came in force, with all her monstrous Court, smas.h.i.+ng through ancient defences and protections as though they weren't even there, and set her people to destroying everything and everyone. As above, so below. Just because she could. She wiped out the Eaters of the Dead, the Solitudes in their cells, the Subterraneans in their sprawling city of catacombs. A warning went out ahead of her, echoing from gallery to gallery, and some came out to fight and some dug themselves in deeper; but none of it did any good. Lilith and her terrible offspring pushed relentlessly on, destroying whole nests of vampires and ghouls and Elder Sp.a.w.n, and even the worms of the earth in their deep deep tunnels.

The Lord of Thorns came forth from his crystal cave, wrapped in power and a cold, awful anger, to set his faith and authority against Lilith. For he was the Voice of G.o.d, and she was but a name out of the past. He had his staff of power, its wood taken from a tree grown from a sliver of the original Tree of Life itself, brought to Britain long and long ago by Joseph of Arimathea. The Lord of Thorns stood in Lilith's way, and she slapped him aside contemptuously. She took his staff and it shattered into pieces in her grasp. She walked on, leaving him lying helpless in the dirt, and not even the least of her offspring would deign to touch him. The killing continued, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He made himself watch, as a penance. And when it was all over, the Lord of Thorns made his way up from the World Beneath and came to St. Jude's. To hide.

"You have to understand," he said, as the Vision faded from my mind. "When Lilith appeared, I thought I'd finally discovered my true purpose, my reason for being in the Nightside. That this was my destiny-to stop Lilith when no-one else could. But I was wrong. I was nothing, next to her. After so many years of judging others, I was judged... and found unworthy."

"But... you're one of the greatest Powers in the Nightside!"

"Not compared to her. I forgot... in the end I'm just a man, blessed with G.o.d's power. And my faith... was nothing compared to her certainty."

"All right," I said. "We need backup. Can we use St. Jude's to call for Heavenly help? For direct divine intervention?"

"What do you think I've been doing?" said the Lord of Thorns. "The Nightside was expressly designed from its first conception so that neither Heaven nor h.e.l.l could intervene directly. And it was decided long ago in the Courts of the Holy that this Great Experiment would be allowed to continue, to see where it would lead. I was placed here to Oversee the Experiment, to keep it on track. But now that the Nightside's creator has returned, it seems my time and my purpose are at an end. There will be no outside help. The Nightside must save itself. If it can."

"There is a resistance," I said. "Come with me. You can be a part of it."

But the Lord of Thorns just sat where he was, shaking his grey head. "No. I am not who I thought I was. So I will stay here and pray for guidance."

I tried to argue with him, but I don't think he really heard me. Lilith broke him when she broke his staff. So I left what was once the most feared man in the Nightside, sitting mumbling to himself, in the one place he still felt safe.

I went outside and found myself facing a crowd of hard-faced and heavily armed individuals. Their expressions lit up at the sight of me, and not in a good way. At their head stood Sandra Chance, resplendent in her thick crimson swirls of liquid latex and not much else. Though the old-fas.h.i.+oned pistol holstered on her bare hip was a new addition. She grinned at me, very unpleasantly. I looked at Tommy Oblivion, who was standing very very still, with his back pressed against the wall of the church.

"Sorry, old sport," he said miserably. "Didn't even hear them coming. Just popped out of nowhere."

"Have you at least asked them what they want?" I said.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure they want to speak to you, John. In fact, they were most insistent on it being a surprise."

"It's all right, Tommy," I said, trying to hide the fact that internally I was hyperventilating. "I know who they are. They're bounty hunters. How did you find me here, Sandra?"

"I can get answers from the dead, remember?" She was still smiling, not at all pleasantly. "And there are a lot of dead up and about just at the moment. The dead know many things that are hidden from the living. They have... an overview. And I can get them to tell me anything."

"Yes," I said. "And I know how. It's one thing to love the dead, but you take it far too literally. You coffin chaser, you."

"Am I understanding this correctly?" said Tommy. "You mean she actually..."