“Don’t!” said Sinner. He started forward, then stopped abruptly as Pretty Poison set her sharp teeth directly against Penny’s throat, the points just dimpling the skin. Sinner raised his hands calmingly. “Please. Don’t kill her.”
“She has to die,” Pretty Poison said reasonably, her lips brushing Penny’s throat. “You heard her, Sidney; she’s under orders to kill anyone who might talk to us. Either I rip her throat out, or the case stops here.”
“No case of mine has ever been worth the sacrifice of an innocent life,” I said.
Pretty Poison raised an eyebrow. “You think this is an innocent?”
“Maybe not technically, but yes. Kill her, and you’re my enemy. Forever.”
Pretty Poison grinned. “Never threaten a demon, John Taylor. We have long memories.” She looked at Sinner. “Besides, you wouldn’t let him hurt me, would you, Sidney?”
“You’re trying to confuse the issue,” said Sinner. “All that matters is that you can’t kill this woman now that she’s helpless. It may be that she deserves it, but we are not like her. We have to be better than that. So let her go. For me.”
Pretty Poison considered this for a long moment, while Bad Penny barely dared breathe, then the demon succubus abruptly dropped her victim to the ground and strolled unhurriedly back to Sinner. Bad Penny rose to her feet, brushed herself down, and gave me a smile that was only just a little shaky.
“I knew you wouldn’t let her kill me, John. You always were a soppy, sentimental sort. But I will find you again. And I will kill you.”
“Not on the best day you ever had,” I said calmly. “I’m getting very close to my mother now, Penny. Get in the way of that, and someone will quite definitely kill you.”
Bad Penny looked startled, then turned and walked quickly away, moving quite rapidly for someone in a clinging dress and high heels, and soon she was lost in the shadows at the end of the street. I watched her go and allowed myself a small smile. I couldn’t kill her in cold blood, but I wasn’t above putting a good scare into her. Sentiment only goes so far. And I wasn’t too worried about her following us. It felt like we were getting near the end of the quest. I knew where we had to go next.
“Where are we going next?” said Madman, joining us in spirit at least. “Anywhere fun?”
“Not really,” I said. “I’m pretty sure we need to go and see the Lord of Thorns.”
Sinner gave me a hard look. “Correct me if I’m wrong, John, but I thought we’d agreed that was a really bad idea? I mean, ten out of ten for ambition, courage, and lateral thinking, but minus several thousand for self-preservation. The Lord of Thorns…Possibly the oldest Being in the Nightside who still inhabits this level of reality, and the most powerful. I only mentioned him in Rats’ Alley because Herne brought him up. I didn’t really expect to be taken seriously.”
“The Lord of Thorns,” said Pretty Poison. “We know of him in Hell. They say he knew the Christ. They say angels and demons are forced to kneel in his presence.”
“And if anyone should know the beginnings of the Nightside, it will be him,” I said. “He was here before the Romans made Londinium into a city. And just maybe, Walker had Penny kill Herne for a reason; so he wouldn’t point us in the direction of the Lord of Thorns.”
“This is a really bad idea,” said Madman, and we all looked at him sharply, but he had nothing more to say.
EIGHT
I Am the Stone That Breaks All Hearts
I had a lot on my mind as I led my companions back through Freak Fair, not least trying to remember whether I’d updated my will recently. I’d always meant for Cathy to inherit my business if, or more likely when, something happened to me, but I’d never actually got around to putting it in writing. Changing your will is one of those things you always put off because you don’t like to be reminded of your own mortality. You always think there’s plenty of time…until you find yourself on your way to a meeting with the Lord of Thorns. Part of me wanted to phone Cathy, talk to her one last time, but the sensible part of me overruled it. What could I say, except Good-bye?
My companions didn’t seem too worried. Sinner and Pretty Poison were strolling along hand in hand, giggling like teenagers again, and Madman was off in his own private world. I had tried to explain to them just how dangerous this was going to be, and they’d smiled and nodded and said they quite understood, but they didn’t. Not really. Or they would never have agreed to accompany me to the World Beneath. Part of me wanted to forbid them to come, for their own protection, but another more practical part over-ruled it. I was going to need their help if I was to survive this last part of my journey. Was I really prepared to sacrifice them, to learn the truth about the Nightside, and my mother?
Maybe. It wasn’t like they were my friends or anything. Perhaps that’s why I’d chosen them for this case—because it wouldn’t matter to me so much if I had to throw them to the wolves.
The cold-bloodedness of that thought shocked even me, and I looked around for something to distract me. And that was when I finally noticed that all of Walker’s watchers had reappeared, gathered together at the far end of the street and staring at us openly, not even trying to conceal themselves. They huddled together for comfort as I and my companions approached, but looked ready to defend themselves at a moment’s notice. The combat magicians actually traced protective sigils on the air between them and us. They blazed brightly, sparking and dripping eldritch fires. I came to a halt a respectful distance away and considered the watchers thoughtfully.
“Told you we should have killed her,” said Pretty Poison. “Bad Penny always was a tattle-tale. She’s told them where we’re going.”
“They’re upset, scared, and demoralised,” I said. “Just how I like Walker’s people. Now watch, and learn.” I took another step forward, and they all flinched visibly. I gave them my best enigmatic smile. “Hi, guys, I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The bad news is yes, we did just kick Bad Penny’s arse and send her home crying; and yes, we did just destroy the Lamentation; and yes, we are off to see the Lord of Thorns. The really bad news is that I lied about there being any good news. Any questions?”
Pretty much as one, the watchers decided that they really needed to return to Walker to ask for fresh instructions, and within moments they were all gone. The Jesuit demonologists actually departed running.
“Now that is worrying,” said Sinner.
To meet with the Lord of Thorns, you have to go underground. There’s a whole system of extensive catacombs, tunnels, canals, and sewers deep under the streets of the Nightside, usually referred to as the World Beneath. It is inhabited by people, and others, who can only exist and move in darkness, away from the open skies and hot neon of the streets above. You can be born, live your whole life, and die in the World Beneath, and countless have down the centuries. The dark tunnels and canals also provide a means of getting back and forth in the Nightside without being observed. They’re not much used for general travel, because those who live in the World Beneath tend to discourage it, by killing and often eating those who annoy them. And they’re easily annoyed.
But, it was the only way to reach the Lord of Thorns’ domain. I’d never been there myself. Didn’t even know anyone who’d been crazy enough to try. But sometimes I make it a point to be paid in secrets as well as hard currency, because you never know when even the most obscure piece of information will come in handy while working a case. The man who told me about the Lord of Thorns, and the World Beneath, no longer had any eyes. They’d been bitten out. He told me in a harsh whispering voice of a darkness deeper than the night, of tunnels that went on forever, and silent folk who passed through arching catacombs like worms in the earth.
There are no advertised entrances to the World Beneath. Either you know where to find them, or you don’t need to know. I led my people through a series of increasingly narrow and ill-lit streets, where people scuttled away to hide in the shadows when they saw us coming, to the nearest
entrance I knew of—a small private garden, held inviolate behind heavy stone walls accessed only by a securely locked gate. I studied the garden through the spiked iron bars; it seemed a pretty enough place, lit by flaring gas jets. Like finding a single perfect lily floating on a cesspit. There were trees and flowering shrubs and rich blooms laid out in attractive displays. A thick, heady perfume drifted through the gate to me. Pretty Poison snuggled in close beside me.
“What’s a pretty place like this doing in an area like this? And why is this gate absolutely crawling with protective spells?”
“The Nightside is full of surprises,” I said. “And mysteries are our food and drink.”
“You mean you don’t know,” said Sinner.
“Got it in one,” I said. “But I do have a key. Part payment from an old case.”
“Which you’re not going to tell us about,” said Pretty Poison.
“The world is not ready to know,” I said solemnly.
“You are so full of it,” said Madman. We all turned sharply to look at him, but he had nothing more to say.
I took the key off my key-ring, and turned it in the gate’s lock. It didn’t want to turn, and I had to put some muscle into it, but finally it lurched into place, and I pushed the gate open. I could feel the protective spells deactivating, like a sudden release of tension on the air. I stepped aside to let the others go in first. Not entirely out of courtesy; I didn’t trust the garden. When nothing immediately awful happened, I followed them in and shut and locked the gate behind me.
Blue-white light from the impossibly huge moon overhead gave the garden an unreal, ghostly look. The trees were tall and spindly, stark silhouettes against the butter yellow glow of the old-fashioned gas jets set high on the walls. A single narrow path of beaten earth curved back and forth through the garden, between hulking bushes and shrubs and past intricate displays of night-blooming flowers. Everything in the garden was moving slowly, though there wasn’t a breath of breeze. Even the petals of the flowers opened and closed, like pursing mouths. The flowers were mostly white and red, and something about them made me think White for bone, red for meat. I once heard a rose sing, and it was the most evil thing I’ve ever heard.
“Nice place,” said Sinner, stooping to sniff a flower. He then pulled his head back quickly, wrinkling his nose.
“No,” said Pretty Poison. “I don’t think so.”
“Top marks for insight to the demon from Hell,” I said.
“Everything here has really deep roots. You don’t want to know from what they draw their nourishment. Now let’s all head for the statue in the middle of the garden; and don’t touch anything.”
The narrow path wound back and forth, to make sure everything in the garden got a good look at us, but finally it brought us to the statue of an angel, kneeling and weeping over its torn-off wings. The features on its face had been eroded away, by wind and rain and time, or perhaps just by tears. Behind the angel was a moon-dial, showing the exact right time. I took hold of its pointing gnomon with a firm hand and turned it slowly through one hundred and eighty degrees. The whole moon-dial shuddered violently, then slid jerkily to one side to reveal a dark shaft, just big enough to take a man, falling away deep into the earth. A black metal ladder clung to one side of the shaft. We all took it in turns to stare dubiously down into the darkness, then Pretty Poison summoned up a handful of hell-fire. She held the leaping flames out over the shaft, but the light didn’t penetrate far. In the end, we made her go down first, so she could carry the light ahead of us. None of us liked the idea of descending blindly into that dark.
So she went first, then Sinner because he wouldn’t be parted from her, then Madman, and finally me to keep Madman moving. The heavy rungs of the metal ladder were hot and sweaty under my hands, and the narrow circle of light above soon disappeared into the distance. The light below, now dancing at Pretty Poison’s shoulder, was barely enough to let us see each other. I didn’t like the colour or the texture of the hell-fire; it made me feel…uneasy. I made myself concentrate on the ladder. The rungs had been set uncomfortably far apart, as though not designed or intended for human use. My shoulders bumped against the sides of the shaft as I descended, and the ladder seemed to fall away forever. Down and down we climbed, until my arms and legs ached from the strain, and still there was no sign of any bottom to the shaft. I would have liked to change my mind and go back up, but I didn’t think I had the strength to climb up that far, so all that was left was to keep going down. We were all breathing hard, the harsh sounds loud on the quiet.
When Pretty Poison suddenly announced that her feet had hit bottom, we all cried out in relief, even Madman. He seemed more with us, of late. Perhaps he just needed shared company and events to ground him; or perhaps he sensed some danger coming, so great he needed to be more focussed to deal with it. I wasn’t about to ask. I just knew he would say something that would make my head hurt. One by one we climbed down out of the end of the shaft and emerged onto a bare path beside a canal; dark waters in a dark place. The stone wall on the other side of the canal showed huge claw marks, gouged deep into the stone by something monstrously large. There was no sign of anyone or anything for as far as Pretty Poison’s leaping flame could carry, except for a small silver bell hanging from a tall support. The four of us stood together on the narrow bank, huddled close for comfort. We could all tell we’d come to a really bad place. The air was hot and sweaty, like a fever room, and it smelled bad. Spoiled.
“Now what?” said Sinner. His voice didn’t echo, or carry.
“I suppose we ring the bell,” I said. “This is as far as my knowledge takes us. From now on, it’s all unknown territory.”
“Ring the bell?” said Sinner. “How do we know it doesn’t just announce to the local nasties that lunch has arrived?”
“We don’t,” I said. “Feel free to chime in with any other ideas you may have. Besides, what have you got to be worried about? You’re supposed to be invulnerable.”
“Not exactly. Just very resistant to punishment. I’m not sure even I could survive being eaten, digested, and excreted by something sufficiently large and determined. I am a unique case, but even I have my limits.”
“Now he tells me,” I said.
“Boys, boys,” said Pretty Poison. She was kneeling at the edge of the canal, holding her flame-covered hand out over the dark waters. “I’m pretty sure I saw something move in here…Do you suppose they have alligators down here? You hear stories, about pets being flushed away…”
“I have a strong feeling that whatever lives in these waters would probably consider alligators an appetiser,” I said firmly. “I’d back away if I were you. Slowly and very carefully. This is where all the things too nasty for the Nightside end up.”
“Ring the bell,” said Sinner.
I gave it a good hard ring, and the sharp, almost painfully intense sound travelled up and down the canal, without any trace of echo or distortion. We all braced ourselves, ready for whatever attack might lurch forth out of the darkness, but nothing happened. The sound died away, and all was still and quiet. We all slowly relaxed again. I realised that Madman’s personal sound track had shut itself down sometime back. Presumably because it couldn’t come up with anything appropriate. And then, from out of the darkness to our right, further down the canal, came the sound of something moving. The slow steady sound of some craft ploughing through the dark waters. We all stared, straining our eyes against the gloom, until finally a low-bottomed barge appeared, in a warm golden glow that surrounded it from stem to stern. It headed unhurriedly towards us, a single human figure standing amidships, poling the barge along with a solid silver staff. The barge was a good twenty feet long, painted a cheerful pastel blue, with big black eyes delineated on either side of the pointed prow. The human figure propelling the barge with his efforts wore a concealing scarlet cloak and a featureless pale cream mask that covered all his face. Disturbingly, the mask only had one eyehole, the left. The barge s
lid to a halt before us, and the cloaked figure gave us a deep, formal bow.
“Welcome to the World Beneath, you poor damned fools,” he said, in a deep resonant voice with more than a hint of a French accent. “Where do you wish me to take you? Not that there is a lot of choice, I’ll admit. Upstream is bad, downstream is worse, though at least the Eaters of the Dead have been quiet lately. Someone tried putting poison down a while back, but the rotten buggers positively thrived on it. I hope you’ve got a specific destination in mind, because I don’t do tours. I’d go back up, if I were you. It doesn’t get any better, the deeper in you go.”
“Pretty much the kind of welcome I’d expected,” I said, when I could finally get a word in edgeways. “Can you take us to the Lord of Thorns?”
“Is life really that bad?” said the bargeman. “There are easier ways to kill yourself, and most of them are a lot less painful.”
“The Lord of Thorns,” I said firmly. “Yes or no?”
“Very well, my friends. Climb aboard. Don’t fall in the water. The natives are restless, and very hungry.”
We all boarded his barge very carefully, and it hardly rocked at all under our weight. The bargeman pushed his silver pole into the water and started us on our way with one long, effortless movement. There was more to him than there seemed, but then, there would have to be. Surrounded by the golden glow of the barge, Pretty Poison doused her hell-fire, and we all relaxed a little. The barge moved silently and easily on into the enveloping dark. The bargeman stared straight ahead, but whatever he saw with his single eye, he kept to himself.
“Don’t get many tourists down here these days,” he said, his voice quite distinct behind the pale mask. “Not that we ever did have many visitors, and for the most part we like it that way. Peace and quiet’s a wonderful thing, you know? Are any of you famous? I don’t keep up on the gossip like I used to.”
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