The Legacy of Erich Zann and Other Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos
Page 22
The panes shattered, and fell. I doubt that the shards of glass did much damage, but the snow that had piled up there wasn’t just snow. It came down like avalanche, to begin with, followed by a gentle rain of clustered flakes.
The snow was melting even as it fell, even though the temperature was declining rapidly, and the unsnow seemed to be melting with it, perhaps becoming harmless as it did so—but while it was hiding among the snowflakes, it was deadly to the creatures from the Other Antarctica. It had to be a dedicated toxin: a weapon, or a pesticide. It had probably been in storage for billions of years, but it still worked.
I thought about Sir John Franklin, and all the Arctic explorers who had gone to search for him, and all of those bodies had never been found. Perhaps some of them had fallen into crevasses, and perhaps one of the crevasses had been a trap, and perhaps something billions of years old—far older than legendary Hyperborea—was still lurking, underneath and in parallel with the ice of the various Arctic islands.
One thing that was certain was that the colonial war hadn’t ended. Its warriors weren’t mayflies. They took a much longer view than Earl Haig and Ludendorff.
The webs on the dead banana tree began to shrivel—not for want of blood or heat, but because they’d been blasted, gassed, shell-shocked...killed. The writhing thing was still writhing, but the hectic movements were its death-throes. It wasn’t going anywhere
But the story wasn’t over, even then.
I looked at Oates, who looked up from his lacerated but almost-intact torso and the blood that was no longer flowing in such profusion. I looked into his eyes, and I could see that he wasn’t going to fall over, that the light of intelligence wasn’t about to go out. He was still at least partly alive, still Captain Lawrence Oates, still a hero—but he was still connected to the Other World. He wasn’t free. He was still a prisoner of war, but he was no puppet. Not any more. Perhaps he could have talked, if there had been time—but there wasn’t.
“They weren’t ready,” he whispered—and this time he added: “Thank God.”
He looked into my eyes, and all I could see was his eyes, looking into mine with a expression that combined affection, and longing, and apology....
We had been disconnected from the kind of chill that might freeze us at a moment’s notice, but we had reconnected in a far more familiar and infinitely better way
“I’m just going to step outside, Linny,” he said, with a quiet and heroic dignity, carefully deleting any expletives that might have sprung to mind. “I might be gone for some time.”
I never saw him again, but I was infinitely glad that I had seen him that once, for a few brief weeks. It had been worth the price, and the risk.
I picked Mercy up just as Helen arrived in the doorway through which Oates had gone—chasing after her daughter, as usual, but way too late, as usual, to prevent her from going where she wanted to go.
I was weeping, but it wasn’t conduct unbecoming, given the circumstances. Quite the opposite, in fact.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brian Stableford was born in Yorkshire in 1948. He taught at the University of Reading for several years, but is now a full-time writer. He has written many science-fiction and fantasy novels, including The Empire of Fear, The Werewolves of London, Year Zero, The Curse of the Coral Bride, The Stones of Camelot, and Prelude to Eternity. Collections of his short stories include a long series of Tales of the Biotech Revolution, and such idiosyncratic items as Sheena and Other Gothic Tales and The Innsmouth Heritage and Other Sequels. He has written numerous nonfiction books, including Scientific Romance in Britain, 1890-1950; Glorious Perversity: The Decline and Fall of Literary Decadence; Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia; and The Devil’s Party: A Brief History of Satanic Abuse. He has contributed hundreds of biographical and critical articles to reference books, and has also translated numerous novels from the French language, including books by Paul Féval, Albert Robida, Maurice Renard, and J. H. Rosny the Elder.
BORGO PRESS BOOKS BY BRIAN STABLEFORD
Alien Abduction: The Wiltshire Revelations
Balance of Power (Daedalus Mission #5)
The Best of Both Worlds and Other Ambiguous Tales
Beyond the Colors of Darkness and Other Exotica
Changelings and Other Metaphoric Tales
The City of the Sun (Daedalus Mission #4)
Complications and Other Science Fiction Stories
The Cosmic Perspective and Other Black Comedies Critical Threshold (Daedalus Mission #2)
The Cthulhu Encryption: A Romance of Piracy
The Cure for Love and Other Tales of the Biotech Revolution
The Dragon Man: A Novel of the Future
The Eleventh Hour
The Fenris Device (Hooded Swan #5)
Firefly: A Novel of the Far Future
Les Fleurs du Mal: A Tale of the Biotech Revolution
The Florians (Daedalus Mission #1)
The Gardens of Tantalus and Other Delusions
The Gates of Eden: A Science Fiction Novel
The Golden Fleece and Other Tales of the Biotech Revolution
The Great Chain of Being and Other Tales of the Biotech Revolution
Halycon Drift (Hooded Swan #1)
The Haunted Bookshop and Other Apparitions
In the Flesh and Other Tales of the Biotech Revolution
The Innsmouth Heritage and Other Sequels
Journey to the Core of Creation: A Romance of Evolution
Kiss the Goat: A Twenty-First-Century Ghost Story
The Legacy of Erich Zann and Other Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos
Luscinia: A Romance of Nightingales and Roses
The Mad Trist: A Romance of Bibliomania
The Mind-Riders: A Science Fiction Novel
The Moment of Truth: A Novel of the Future
Nature’s Shift: A Tale of the Biotech Revolution
An Oasis of Horror: Decadent Tales and Contes Cruels
The Paradise Game (Hooded Swan #4)
The Paradox of the Sets (Daedalus Mission #6)
The Plurality of Worlds: A Sixteenth-Century Space Opera
Prelude to Eternity: A Romance of the First Time Machine
Promised Land (Hooded Swan #3)
The Quintessence of August: A Romance of Possession
The Return of the Djinn and Other Black Melodramas
Rhapsody in Black (Hooded Swan #2)
Salome and Other Decadent Fantasies
Streaking: A Novel of Probability
Swan Song (Hooded Swan #6)
The Tree of Life and Other Tales of the Biotech Revolution
The Undead: A Tale of the Biotech Revolution
Valdemar’s Daughter: A Romance of Mesmerism
War Games: A Science Fiction Novel
Wildeblood’s Empire (Daedalus Mission #3)
The World Beyond: A Sequel to S. Fowler Wright’s The World Below
Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction
Xeno’s Paradox: A Tale of the Biotech Revolution
Zombies Don’t Cry: A Tale of the Biotech Revolution