‘Yes.’
‘Okay, then.’ He took a deep breath and sliced the air in front of him, concentrating hard. Stiles and Cindy looked at each other perplexed and then they saw it. As Denny withdrew the Athame, a strange sigil appeared in the air apparently written in fire.
Then the world spun.
‘What happened?’ asked Stiles.
‘We are now in a different destiny,’ said Death.
‘Huh?’
‘He means that we’re back where we bloody started from,’ said Denny. ‘I just hope you know what you’re doing.’ This last addressed to Tamar.
‘And I just hope that you’ve sent us to the right place,’ she retorted.
‘Back on the farm,’ he said lightly. ‘I’m certain,’ he added more seriously.
‘Okay,’ snapped Stiles, now thoroughly fed up. ‘Will someone please explain what the hell is going on?’
‘Oh, sorry,’ said Tamar. ‘We’re in another dimension …’
‘That much I got,’ interrupted Stiles waspishly. ‘Why? And what dimension?’
‘Basically, one where we didn’t destroy the Fates. We’re going to need them, you see.’
‘So we are back where we started from?’
‘No, not exactly.’ She shot a look at Denny. ‘It’s more like, where we would have been, if we hadn’t done it.’
‘For every decision you make,’ Denny continued, seeing Stiles’s confusion, ‘two possibilities occur. So, when we decided to destroy the Fates, the possibility existed that we wouldn’t destroy them. That we would decide differently. And everything that can happen, does happen – somewhere, see? This is the world where we didn’t destroy the Fates. Why am I explaining this to you, you know this stuff.’
‘Yes,’ agreed Stiles. ‘Sort of, but … So this isn’t the universe that Askphrit mucked about with?’
‘Yes, it is, and so is the one we just came from, ‘said Denny. ‘The difference is, in that one, we fixed it, and in this one, we didn’t.’
‘They were the same place right up until that point,’ supplied Tamar.
‘Until we destroyed the Fates?’ said Stiles. ‘Okay, but why are we here, what do we need them for?’
‘Buggered if I know,’ said Denny. ‘Tamar?’
Tamar winked. ‘I’m going to fix Askphrit once and for all,’ she said.
‘Beware,’ said Death, ‘that in doing so, you do not destroy your own destiny.’
Tamar rounded on him. ‘And what’s that supposed to mean?’ she demanded ‘do you know something I don’t?’
Death inclined his skull. ‘Many things,’ he said.
‘Well, it doesn’t matter anyway,’ decided Tamar. ‘I’ll take that risk if I have to, it’ll be worth it. That’s the mistake he always made. He always tried to get rid of me without making a mess of his own fate, and he couldn’t do it. I’m not even going to try.’
‘If this is the universe where we didn’t fix the Fates’ interference,’ said Cindy suddenly. ‘Then how come we can remember doing it?’
‘That’s a good question,’ said Denny.
‘It is?’ Cindy was startled.
‘It’s not important,’ said Tamar. Which meant, to anyone who knew her, that she did not have an answer for it. Denny smiled. And Cindy looked almost relieved. The world was back to normal again.
‘Okay,’ said Tamar briskly. ‘How do we get back into Hell?’ she looked around fiercely. ‘No one is to suggest dying,’ she ordered menacingly. ‘We already had that joke.’
‘Death is not a joke,’ said Death.
‘Depends on where you’re standing,’ said Pestilence languidly, giving Death a wry look.
Death ignored this. ‘Ask the Athame,’ he told Denny.
‘You’re kidding!’ blurted out Stiles. ‘Do you mean to tell me, that we could have been doing that all along, instead of all that messing about?’
‘Death does not make jokes either,’ intoned Pestilence in a fair imitation of Death’s usual manner.
‘Be quiet,’ said Denny ‘I’m trying to concentrate.’ He squinted ahead of him as if he was trying to make something out. ‘Ah, yes,’ he said. ‘I see it.’
‘See what?’ hissed Tamar. But Denny did not often have the advantage over Tamar like this, so he just winked and looked mysterious. ‘You mean you don’t see it?’ he asked in mock surprise.’
‘Denny!’
He sighed. ‘Well, I’ll just have to lead the way I suppose. Take my hand and … it might be better if you close your eyes.’
‘Why?’ she asked, startled.
‘It’s bright,’ he said.
Death nodded.
Tamar had a strange sensation of being dragged by the hair through a long tunnel, she could see the brightness Denny had mentioned through her eyelids and then suddenly it all went dark, and she was falling. She opened her eyes for a moment and then decided to close them again. It was a long way down.
* * *
‘Huh,’ said Charon huffily. ‘You again, I don’t suppose you remembered the boat fare this time? Thought not, oh well, s’pose I’ve got no choice. I ain’t messing with you again, in you get. Come on come on, I haven’t got all day, who’s this?’ he poked Denny with a contemptuous finger.
For answer, Denny held up the Athame. ‘We’ve met,’ he said dryly.
Charon was not impressed. ‘Nice bit of metal work,’ he said. ‘Looks pretty sharp, done by the same chap who made the scythe for the big chap was it? Looks like his work, or similar anyway. I remember you now. You didn’t have the bleedin’ fare either. Sodding heroes!’
‘Where are the others?’ asked Tamar.
‘It’s just us,’ said Denny. ‘It was hard enough bringing you with me this way. The tunnel is only supposed to carry one person,’
Tamar was shocked when she realised what this meant. She covered it quickly. ‘Where’s Death?’ she asked to fill the silence.
‘Death can’t come down here,’ said Charon. ‘Metaphysical impossibility! You see what I mean?’
Tamar nodded ‘I suppose so. So we’re on our own?’ she turned to Denny.
‘Alone at last,’ he grinned.
Tamar rolled her eyes. ‘Not exactly,’ she pointed out, indicating the long queue for the ferry.
‘Ah,’ said Charon chattily. ‘Been very busy lately, what with the Apocalypse and everything. This lot can wait,’ he laughed croakily. ‘It’s not as if they’re in any hurry.’
Neither Tamar nor Denny thought this very funny.
* * *
‘I said find them,’ howled Crispin tearing at his head, which was bald (because he thought it made him look dignified).
‘I don’t want to hear your excuses, I want them found, I … what?’
‘I said I’ve found them sir, all except the girl and her sidekick.’
‘All except them?’ said Crispin.
‘Yes sir, they’ve dimension hopped sir, but …’
‘I don’t care,’ shouted Crispin, threatening to take right off again. ‘Find her. Never mind about the others, and I … wait. Did you say dimension hopping?’
‘Yes sir.’
‘Hmm,’ Crispin calmed down suddenly. ‘I wonder if … is it possible. Even she wouldn’t do that, would she?’
‘Sir?’
‘Get me a communicator; we need to tell the top floor about this.’
‘Um, sir, we are the top floor.’
Crispin gave him a wry look. ‘That’s what you think,’ he said.
* * *
The Fates were not easy to find. Tamar, remembering her mythology, knew that they were likely to be well guarded, by a giant spider woman, if memory served. She decided not to impart this particular piece of information to Denny just yet, forgetting that he was considerably better informed on these matters than she was and probably already knew. In fact, it was Denny who found them in the end. A large cave entrance decorated with large cobwebs suggested itself.
Denny inclined his head toward it. ‘In
there?’ he muttered.
Tamar shrugged wryly. She should have known.
‘Watch out for Arachne,’ said Denny.
‘Thank you!’ breathed Tamar. ‘That’s been driving me crazy – Arachne!’
‘Got any bug-bomb?’
Click, click, click.
‘Pardon?’
Click, click! Clickclickclickclickclick!
‘Uh oh!’
Tamar turned in exasperation. ‘Say “oh shit!” like a normal person will you!’
Clickclickclickclickclick!
‘Oh shit! There, happy now?’
‘Uh oh.’
It was not exactly a spider. Neither was it a woman, but the term “spider-woman” was not totally accurate either. It was more of a woman-spider-scorpion. Spider body, but with an outrageous sting at the back, woman’s head, but, on closer inspection – and only Tamar would have had the nerve at this point to make a closer inspection – the face was kind of spidery. But the main point about her, the thing you really noticed, was that she was absolutely gargantuan.
Denny felt his knees actually knocking together. Nevertheless he whipped out the Athame. ‘I’ll deal with this,’ he said, trying to hold his voice steady. ‘You go and find the Fates.’
‘Oh?’ said Arachne, sarcastically. ‘A hero!’
This was almost too much for Denny, if it had not been for his recent training, he would have cut and run. Never, since he had met Tamar, had he felt so much like his old, frightened self.
Arachne sighed. ‘I’m getting too old for this,’ she said.
‘I know what you mean,’ said Tamar.
‘I mean I’m not a monster, you know,’ whined Arachne. ‘Just because I look – how I look. Can I help it?’ she looked at Denny plaintively.
‘Er…no?’
‘Right! I mean you look like an upended broomstick,’ she said unflatteringly. ‘S’not your fault though. I don’t hold it against you.’
Tamar was starting to laugh. Wasn’t it always the way? You enter a scary cave expecting to do battle with a horrible monster and end up holding a counselling session. She filed the broomstick remark away for future use.
‘Oh well,’ sighed Arachne. ‘Better get on with it, I suppose. What’s the password?’
This was unexpected. Denny floundered. ‘Swordfish?’ he hazarded and shut his eyes.
‘Probably,’ said Arachne surprisingly. ‘Sounds right, doesn’t it? Sounds like a proper password to me. Okay then that’ll do.’ She laughed at their stunned faces. ‘I can’t remember what the password is,’ she confided. ‘I’ve been here for a – a – well a very long time anyway. What do they think I am, an elephant? I mean nobody’s ever challenged me before, not that I can remember anyway – so …’ she shrugged multiple shoulders expressively.
Tamar and Denny looked at each other in bewilderment.
‘So … we can just go in?’ asked Denny. ‘And you won’t – you won’t …?’
‘Won’t what?’
‘Let’s go,’ said Tamar firmly, ‘before she changes her mind,’ she added sotto voce. And she dragged Denny past Arachne into the inner cave.
* * *
‘Where’d they go?’ asked Cindy bewilderedly.
‘Into Hell of course,’ Death told her.
Stiles narrowed his eyes shrewdly. ‘To find the Fates,’ he said. ‘And you know why, don’t you? And you know something they don’t too, don’t you? Are you going to tell us or what?’
Death looked a little puzzled at Stiles’s dictatorial attitude. He had never been subjected to a suspect interrogation before. Stiles only wanted a table to thump intimidatingly to be completely in his element.
‘I suppose they’ve gone to try and change Askphrit’s fate, like he did to us,’ mused Stiles. ‘But it’s not that simple is it?’ he added challengingly. ‘Why? What’s going to happen?’
Death shook his head, but it was a gesture of sympathy rather than negation.
Stiles was subtle; he recognised the difference and was alarmed. ‘Tell us,’ he implored. ‘What harm can it do now?’
‘They can only move him into another destiny which was already his,’ Death explained. ‘And by doing so, they will alter their own fate – quite dramatically I’m afraid. I can say no more.’
‘But – that can’t be right,’ objected Stiles. ‘He invented a whole new fate for Tamar – didn’t he? I mean, that whole thing about her being – normal, and only being twenty odd years old and all that, it’s impossible! Unless …’ He stopped. Death was shaking his head.
‘I don’t get it,’ said Stiles. ‘It’s impossible,’ he repeated stubbornly. ‘She never could have had that fate.’
‘She could, if she chose it,’ said Death.
‘But she wouldn’t choose it,’ said Stiles.
‘The possibility existed,’ said Death.
‘How? Who would offer her such a choice?’
‘I did,’ said Death.
* * *
The Fates greeted Tamar and Denny equably enough. ‘We have been expecting you,’ said Atropos, the eldest and the one who deals with the future.
‘Of course you have,’ said Tamar impatiently. ‘And I expect you know why I’m here.’
‘Of course.’
‘You destroyed us,’ said Clotho a little resentfully, she deals with the past.
‘You’re looking well,’ said Tamar brusquely.
‘I see your point,’ said Clotho.
‘And now to the present,’ said Lachesis. ‘You wish us to find that fate where the Djinn Askphrit, did not find Pandora’s Box?’
‘And combine it with all other of his destinies to make them as one,’ said Atropos. ‘You wish for the Box to remain lost.’
Denny whistled through his teeth. ‘Bloody hell, that’s clever,’ he muttered. The Fates shared a strange smile between them.
‘Can you do it?’ asked Tamar.
Again, the Fates shared that strange smile. They were beginning to get on Tamar’s nerves. Sooner or later, everybody got on Tamar’s nerves.
‘Can you?’ she reiterated.
‘We can, of course,’ said Clotho. ‘But! You must understand the consequences of your choice, before you make it. Askphrit obtained the Box a long, long time ago.’
‘I thought you found it for him,’ said Denny.
‘That does not change the fact that he has had the Box in his possession for many thousands of years,’ said Clotho. We are the Fates. Perhaps you do not understand our power.’
‘I understand,’ said Tamar. ‘This changes things a bit.’
‘It does indeed,’ agreed Atropos.
‘We will show you the destiny that you propose to harness all of his destinies to, and you will see all the ramifications thereof. And then you will make your choice.’
* * *
Tamar was clearly in shock Denny could see that.
‘As long as that?’ she whispered. ‘He’s had it all that time?’
‘It was the only way for him to secure possession,’ said Clotho. ‘Before the Box was lost forever you see.’
Tamar nodded miserably. ‘I see.’ She was avoiding looking at Denny for some reason and this was making him nervous.
‘And,’ she faltered, ‘this is the only way?’
The Fates nodded.
‘I see,’ she said again, numbly. ‘He was clever,’ she surmised. ‘He was protecting himself against me doing this very thing. How did he know?’ She laughed bitterly. Of course,’ she said. ‘You told him. Well, he’s misjudged me,’ she said fiercely. ‘If he thought that I wouldn’t pull his house down just because I’d have to pull down my own at the same time, he was wrong!’
She looked at the Fates, still avoiding Denny’s eye. ‘But you knew that too, didn’t you?’
The Fates nodded.
‘We surmised it, yes,’ said Lachesis.
‘Okay,’ Tamar squared her shoulders. ‘What do I have to do?’
‘Just pull the thread,’ said Atro
pos.
Tamar grasped the proffered thread in her hand and hesitated for a second.
Now she looked at Denny. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said and pulled.
* * *
Jamie faced his enemy, who was looking at him with an air of bewilderment.
‘What are you?’ it asked.
‘What you made me,’ said Jamie and pulled a dagger from his belt. ‘But I can change that,’
‘I haven’t made anything,’ protested the creature.
‘Not yet,’ said Jamie, ‘and I aim to see that you never do.’
‘You can’t kill me with that.’
‘Oh yes I can, one god can kill another you know.’
The creature hesitated. It was the last thing it ever did, as Jamie, with a cold fury in his heart plunged the dagger into its breast, and Ran-Kur died instantly before he ever had a chance to create his race of vampires. Thus did the prophecy made by Askphrit come true, and vampires become nothing more than a story to frighten children – and adults too, if they were of a susceptible nature. Because everything that has ever existed or could possibly exist has to continue to exist somewhere, even if it is only in the mind. And mainframe had another deleted file to clutter up its hard drive.
Two deleted files. Jamie smiled contentedly as he ceased to exist.
~ Chapter Thirty ~
Tamaria sat under a tree, slipped off her sandals and dangled her feet in the cool water. ‘Ahhh – OUCH!’ She jumped up. Something extremely solid and heavy had crashed into her ankle.
‘By Zeus!’ She cursed and then clapped her hand over her mouth and waited for the thunderbolt. Her mother had warned her about blasphemy, ‘You can’t be too careful,’ she had said, ‘seems like there’s a god behind every tree these days.’
When nothing happened to her, she said it again. Then she bent over the water. ‘Rather like Narcissus,’ she thought, although with, she had to admit, little chance of the same result. Her own face having what is charitably called an “unfortunate aspect”.
She fished out what turned out to be a large, unusual looking bottle, (unusual to Tamaria that is). In the Far East, where it had come from, it was a perfectly ordinary oil bottle such as you would find a dozen of in every household.
The Day Before Tomorrow Page 20