Lucy's Blade

by John Lambshead

  Inside on the floor was a trapdoor. William reached forward to raise it. Lucy saw him move as if in slow motion. "Nooooo," she screamed, crossing the floor in a single leap. Lucy seized William and threw him back against a wall.

  "Steady, milady, steady. I have to breathe as well," he said.

  "There is great danger down there. Trust me," said Lucy. "I must go first."

  "I trust your intuition of danger," said William. "That is why I shall lead, milady. You promised to obey me. Remember."

  "I promised to obey the orders of my captain," said Lucy. "Not the wilful behaviour of a stubborn boy. You must let me go first, William, for I am the best choice. Let me do what God has ordered for me."

  William stood silent while his head argued with his heart.

  "She is right, Captain," said the boatswain.

  "You are silent, Master Tunstall," said William.

  "I was just thinking that I wish I had half your courage, William. I do not envy you in this but—Lady Dennys is right. I will not take cover in equivocation."

  William ground his teeth. "Devil take you all. Very well. You lead, milady. I shall follow close behind you."

  "Close behind me, Captain," said Gwilym. "I guard 'er 'ighness' back."

  "Behind you then, damn you all." William flung down his cutlass.

  "Thank you, Captain." Lucy kissed him on the cheek. "You may catch me if I fall but remember that I have to breathe."

  "I am keen that you continue to breathe, milady, and I shall always catch you if you fall." William failed to see any humour in this.

  "I shall also come," said Simon.

  "You most certainly will not," said William, savagely. "You instructed me on duty, Master Tunstall, now I tell you that yours is to stay here safely. You are to get my men out and make sure Sir Francis has a full report if we do not return. I want no rescue missions, understand?" Then his voice softened. "No one doubts your courage, Simon. Now you must do the most difficult job of all."

  'Are you ready, Lilith?' thought Lucy.

  Lilith was more than ready. She was waiting expectantly.

  'Yes, Lucy, I will switch you to dark vision as soon as the light fades. Remember that you must allow for the lack of colour and perspective.'

  Lilith suspected that they were all in grave danger. She had not liked the look of the things revealed as shadow echoes by the magic spell, things that could not have originated in this world. She suspected that there was a portal nearby. If so, it would have to be eliminated.

  Lucy stood for a moment holding her dagger. Her skin glowed and her hair rustled as if in a wind. The glyphs on her dagger glowed deep red. She bent down and flipped open the heavy trapdoor with one hand.

  A set of wooden stairs descended steeply into the dark. Lilith extended her senses to maximum as Lucy walked down carefully. She also piggybacked through Lucy's senses to get maximum coverage of the electromagnetic and mechanical spectrum. The stairs had no guardrails but were essentially sound. The girl stopped at the bottom and looked around the cellar carefully. On the riverside of the cellar was a bricked-up archway. Lucy walked over to it and ran her hands along the brickwork.

  'It feels old and solid to me, Lilith. These bricks have been here for years. What do you think?'

  Lilith extended the lobes of her gravitonic senses. 'I agree and the tunnel beyond the bricks appears to be choked with mud. I think this is a dead end.'

  Lucy nodded in the dark. 'One final test.'

  She pulled her hand back and rammed the heel of her wrist hard into the brickwork with a loud thud. Dust flew and bricks cracked but the wall was unmoved. Lilith immediately ran diagnostic routines on Lucy's body. The results were most gratifying. The energy fields had protected Lucy completely. I am, Lilith thought to herself, getting good at this.

  Candles appeared on the stairs. Gwilym and William joined her on the cellar floor.

  "Do you not need a candle, milady?" asked William.

  "No, I can see better if I keep my night vision," she said.

  William thought her answer odd, as no one had any night vision in the complete absence of light, no one who was not possessed, that is. He noticed that she avoided looking at the candle directly but, nonetheless, silver reflected from her eyes. They looked hard and faceted, almost crystalline, almost like an insect's. He shuddered, then was ashamed. She deserved better from him than ignorant fear but it was difficult to accept her condition, especially as most of the time she looked most wonderfully human.

  Lucy carefully studied her surroundings then she cleared away dirt from one corner. William helped her. Another trapdoor lay hidden under a thin layer of floor rushes. It was stiff and awkward. Lucy needed both hands to lift it so she sheathed her blade. A foul smell emerged, like a slaughterhouse in summer.

  'Careful, Lucy,' thought Lilith. 'I suspect that there is a portal nearby.'

  'I know, Lilith.'

  "A cellar under a cellar. I suspect that this was used for stashing smuggled contraband. They would bring it in by the river tunnel then hide it down here," William said.

  Lucy knelt and stuck her head down the hole. "I can't see any steps but the drop is less than two yards."

  Before any one could object, she dropped down.

  "'Ere 'old my candle," said Gwilym to William. He dropped down after her. William handed the candles down then followed. The ceiling was so low that the two men had to stoop.

  "Christ's blood, what a smell," William said, holding his nose. "What are those?"

  Small objects lay scattered around, half buried in mud. The under-cellar floor must be very close to the water table.

  'Lucy, I have analysed DNA residues in the air as you breathe. They come from mammalian tissue and bone,' said Lilith.

  'And that means?' asked Lucy.

  'Animals,' said Lilith, 'including humans.'

  "Bones and body parts," said Lucy to William, in a matter-of-fact way. "I think some of them are human."

  "It's a charnel house." William was horrified. "Was this Packenham's lair?"

  "I don't think so," Lucy said. "My location spell put him in north London. I don't think he travelled very far from his daytime rest to hunt victims by the time that we found him. The demonic possession was very strong within him by then and his hunger for blood was all-controlling."

  "So something else lives 'ere. Careful, 'ighness." Gwilym moved close in behind her.

  "There's an archway over there," Lucy said, and moved towards it before one of the men could object. Inside the arch was a brick-lined tunnel that was so low even Lucy had to stoop. Gwilym and William followed as best they could. The light from their candles threw Lucy's shadow forward but she could not see it. She saw instead the monochrome world of shades of heat. The wet floor was dark but the bricks stood out as they radiated thin sheets of warmth that had leached down from the morning sun.

  'Lucy, I can sense a source of power up ahead,' thought Lilith. 'Halt.'

  Lucy stopped so quickly that the men bumped into her.

  "Are you alright, 'ighness,' said Gwilym.

  "Yes, just a moment," she said.

  'What's it doing? Is it a monster?' thought Lucy.

  'No, I sense a device. I don't think it's functioning at the moment. It appears powered-down,' thought Lilith.

  Lucy inched forward, slowly, followed by the men. The tunnel opened out into another brick-lined cellar. At the far end was a table with various religious paraphernalia on top.

  "There's a passage way above that altar. I can see lit candles," William said, softly.

  Lilith, and hence Lucy as their senses were merged, saw a flat rectangular panel vibrating with gravitational energy. Lilith was instantly on her guard. She probed the device but could not penetrate the surface.

  "Move your candle up and down, Gwilym," Lucy said.

  The man did so and the light at the far end faithfully followed him.

  "It's a mirror," said William in wonder. "I have never seen such a large mirror."
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  "Yes, a mirror," said Lucy. "And mirrors are windows to the Other World."

  Lilith thought that Lucy was probably right. They had found the portal. The girl moved forward slowly towards the altar. To the men, the mirror was a source of flickering light reflected from their candles. In Lucy's dark sight, the mirror was a black rectangle against the grey bricks. To Lilith's gravitonic senses, ripples of energy passed backwards and forwards, distorting the mirror's surface.

  Lucy reached a hand out towards the mirror and touched it with her finger. It was like pushing against a membrane of semisolidified pitch or an animal's body. Her finger made an indentation. She pushed harder and met resistance. Lucy pulled her finger out and the surface sprang back, setting of an oscillation of ripples. The vibrations bounced of the edges of the mirror crisscrossing each other until the surface heaved like a turbulent sea. Energy leaked from it. Lilith detected electromagnetic energy at the various frequencies Lucy's body could detect. Probably, other wavelengths were also involved. That worried Lilith, as some wavelengths could be very destructive to human bodies. She set up a subroutine to monitor molecular ionisation damage.

  Something else that was much worse emanated from the mirror, gravitons. That implied crossdimensional activity.

  To Lucy's dark sight, the mirror began to glow. To Lilith's gravitonic senses, the surface was shot through with lightninglike gravitational energy. The men said nothing so Lilith assumed that to them it was still just a mirror. The energy continued to build up.

  'Lucy, this is dangerous,' thought Lilith. 'Something is about to happen.'

  "Captain, Gwilym, back up. I think I have done something foolish," Lucy said, urgently.

  The men's large bodies fitted the narrow tunnel like bottle stoppers. They moved clumsily to turn around. Lucy faced the mirror. She drew out her dagger and its fiery warmth filled the tunnel with dull red light as her body energised the blade. The mirror vibrated with power and then disgorged energy with a thud that could be felt as power slammed the air. A tentacle poked through the mirror. It waved around, its tip seeming to smell the room. The tip orientated on Lucy.

  'The mirror's a portal; something's coming through. Danger, Lucy, danger.' Lilith was extremely agitated.

  "I can see that, Lilith." Unnerved, Lucy vocalised her thoughts. "For God's sake, hurry, gentleman. We soon won't be alone in here."

  The tentacle struck like a cobra. It shot forward and curled around Lucy's ankles, whipping her legs out from under her. She crashed back into Gwilym, starting a chain reaction that had them all on the ground. The tentacle curled around her leg and gripped hard, pulling her towards the mirror. The men grabbed at her. Lucy slashed the tentacle with her knife. Lilith rammed power into the metal. The blade cut easily through the flesh, burning it away with a hiss of smoke. A terrible gurgling scream sounded from the Other World.

  Gotcha, thought Lilith. I'll bet you never expected a gravitonically powered weapon, demon.

  Lucy's blade had cut clean through and the tip of the tentacle flopped to the ground, twisting and coiling like a snake with the head cut off. Green slime pumped out. The injured tentacle thrashed the air and grabbed her around the legs. More tentacles slid through the mirror. One grabbed Lucy around the waist. Another entangled her right arm, so that she couldn't use her blade.

  Lilith was horrified. She had underestimated the monster. The strains on Lucy's small body were immense. Lilith poured gravitonic power into Lucy's cells at a level she would not normally have dared. Lucy's body crackled with the energy fields that held her together. Without those fields, the tentacles would have ripped her apart. Lucy stuck her left hand into the brickwork to get a handhold and her companions held her tight. But it was no use, the pull of the tentacles was too strong and, inch by inch, they dragged her towards the mirror. Her companions clung desperately to her and were dragged along with her.

  A head of horror thrust through the mirror. It was too large but it seemed boneless and able to distort its shape. The snout had a round mouth surrounded by sharp feeding palps that clacked against each other in endless rhythms. Inside the mouth, serrated grinding plates rotated. As the head oozed further through, a large bulbous eye popped out from over the mouth and stared at the girl with evil sentience. The demon stank. Waves of foul air arose off it every time it moved.

  Lilith tried directing a stream of gravitons at the monster but it shrugged them off. She was completely helpless; she couldn't free Lucy.

  Gwilym got his dagger under his right arm and sawed on the tentacle holding her right arm. It was like cutting wood. The sharp knife was barely able to knick the skin but the man was immensely strong and he pushed hard. His dagger slipped and peeled off a layer of the monster's skin. It screamed in pain and snatched the tentacle back, freeing the girl's right hand. Gwilym had given Lucy back an offensive option. Now she could fight.

  The tentacle whipped back in at her again. This time she was ready and met it with an immaculately timed slash. The glyphs on the blade glowed bright red as it lopped off another tentacle tip. More screams and gurgles.

  Lilith analysed the pattern of the graviton stream bouncing back off the monster. One useful result had emerged. 'It has an intricate structure behind the eye, Lucy. That's the weak point.'

  "Let go of me. I need room to fight," Lucy said to the men.

  Gwilym understood immediately and released her. William was more reluctant and Gwilym had to slap his hand away. As soon as the men released her, Lucy let go of the wall. The creature pulled her towards its mouth. Instead of resisting, she twisted to throw herself over the tentacles straight at the demon's head.

  'Go deep, Lucy. Reach the nerve centre,' thought Lilith.

  Lucy focussed all her energy into her right arm and punched through the demon's eye, sinking her hand wrist deep. The point of the dagger snagged momentarily on the shell around the demon's brain before cutting through. Lucy was sprayed in slime. The monster convulsed, flinging the girl from it like a horrified man might flick a poisonous spider off his face. She crashed back into the men, who broke her fall.

  'The demon's dying. It's losing control of the portal,' thought Lilith.

  The portal shut with an almost physical clang. Tentacles and body parts sprayed over the three before dissolving into dust.

  'Get the mirror off the wall. We have to move it in space before something else opens it,' thought Lilith.

  Lucy staggered back onto her feet and moved to the mirror. Her knife lay on the floor. It was unlit now but she saw it clearly in dark sight by its residual heat. Lucy put her left hand under it and flipped it up into her right.

  'See that, Lilith.'

  'Get the mirror down, Lucy.'

  'How will this help?' Lucy thought.

  'Moving the mirror will detune it from whatever it is linked to at the other end of the portal.'

  'I see,' thought Lucy, in the tone that meant she had not got a clue what Lilith was rabbiting on about.

  A nail in each corner held the mirror to the brickwork. She inserted her blade behind a nail and levered it out. After the third nail was removed, the polished steel fell of the wall under its own weight. Lucy casually put the mirror under her arm and walked down the tunnel to where her companions still sat.

  "Upsidaisy, lazybones," she said.

  Lucy extended him one hand to William to help him up and he shrank back from her.

  William saw shock and hurt in her expression. Then she turned and walked away from him, face carefully blank. He sat there, shocked at his own reaction. A candle lay on its side, still burning. Gwilym picked it up and followed Lucy. He contrived to stand on William's hand as he left. William gasped but Gwilym ignored him.

  "'Old up, 'ighness. I 'ave to guard your back, remember," Gwilym.

  "So you do, Gwilym," she said warmly. "Thank you for what you did back there. We would all be dead if you had not got my hand free."

  "I 'ad every confidence in you, 'ighness. We will 'ave to spar again tomorrow
when me bruises fade."

  The voices faded into the dark leaving William wondering just how much damage he had done.

  "Up you come, milady," said the boatswain, as he hauled her through the trapdoor. "What have we here? A mirror? I have never seen one so big."

  Gwilym had to climb out on his own, followed by William.

  "We had better make the place secure," said William. "Sir Francis has plans for it."

  "No, Captain," said Lucy. "Your orders are changed. I want this place burnt to the ground. Fire will cleanse it. I will take responsibility."

  "You can't take responsibility, milady. Sir Francis doesn't know you're here." William frowned.

  "I am tired of games, Captain. I intend to tell him. Now burn it," Lucy said with finality.

  They stood in Billingsgate dock and watched the building blaze. Tudor houses were firetraps and the roof fell in when the wooden framework caught alight. The Swallows contained the fire, stopping it spreading to other buildings. Eventually, only smoking ashes were left.

  "Take us back to the Tower, please, Captain. We will all use your barge," Lucy said, her voice carefully neutral.

  She sat on a bench staring at the river as they sailed downstream. Gwilym sat behind where he could watch anyone approaching her. William waited for some time before going up to her. "Lady Dennys. I want to apologise for my behaviour back in the tunnel. I was in shock."

  "No apology is necessary, Captain. You performed your duties adequately. My uncle will be satisfied." She turned her head back to the river. He had been dismissed. She had treated him the way a lady treats a servant that she doesn't particularly like but who has given no fault. He slunk away. In his heart, he believed her fully justified for her opinion of him.

  Act 15

  Conferences and Questions

  "You did what?" asked Walsingham.

  "I killed the London monster, not Captain Hawkins."

  "What the hell did you think you were playing at, Captain?" Walsingham glared at the man.