What Song the Sirens Sang, page 17
‘They don’t look like they’ve got any silver on them, so they can’t do me any real damage. I’ll open up a corridor, and then you two should run like hell. I’ll rescue Lex, and we’ll catch up with you.’
‘We could fight the mummies, too,’ said Grace.
‘But could we win?’ I said. I nodded to Polly. ‘These things don’t look too bright. You keep them busy, and I’ll think of something.’
‘Of course,’ said Polly. ‘That’s what you do.’
She dropped on to all fours and charged the mummies, crashing through their ranks and sending them flying. She tore out throats with her powerful jaws and gutted mummies with her claws. She hit them hard and danced back out of reach, moving too quickly for the dead to lay a hand on her. But there were so many of them that Polly couldn’t keep dodging their reaching hands, and while she might be damaging the mummies, she wasn’t stopping them. She followed Lex’s lead and started ripping off heads, but the sheer effort involved slowed her down enough that the mummies were able to close in and hit her from every side at once. Clawed hands sank deep into her dark fur, opening terrible wounds, and the werewolf howled miserably as blood flew on the air. The wounds healed quickly, but the mummies tore Polly apart faster than she could put herself back together. They piled on top of the werewolf and dragged her down. She disappeared under a mass of vicious clawing figures, and her howls turned to screams.
There was nothing Grace or I could do for her. And nowhere we could run. Every exit was blocked off by a horde of malevolent blood, while more spilled into the street, filling it up. All Grace and I could do was move quickly over to the side of the street and set our backs against a shop window, so nothing could creep up on us from behind. Grace held her clenched fists out before her and waited for something to come within reach. I thought hard. Grace shot me a quick glance.
‘We need a plan, Gideon!’
‘I’m working on one!’
‘Work faster!’
I had my hand on my time pen, but even if I did stop Time and freeze the mummies where they were, it would be an impossible task to drag so many bodies off Polly and the Damned, against the stubborn resistance of the frozen world. I would run out of strength and breath, long before I accomplished anything. Now that the two most dangerous targets had been taken care of, the remaining mummies were advancing on Grace and me. Taking their time, because they knew we had nowhere left to go. Grace raised her fists defiantly and shot me a determined smile.
‘When there’s nothing left to do but die, die well.’
‘Things aren’t that bad. I think those leathers have gone to your head.’
‘Do you have a better idea?’
‘I’m thinking!’
‘Then think faster!’ said Grace.
Dead hands smashed through the shop window behind us, showering us with broken glass. We had no choice but to run back into the street and what little open space was left. Grace and I moved quickly to stand back to back. I could feel the tension in her back muscles as she braced herself for the attack, but if the Damned and a werewolf couldn’t stop the mummies, I couldn’t see us lasting long.
‘Use the time pen, Gideon,’ said Grace. ‘Make a run for it.’
‘I wouldn’t get far, dragging you with me.’
‘Then leave me,’ said Grace.
‘Not going to happen,’ I said. ‘And I won’t abandon Lex and Polly either.’
‘Maybe you could go find us some help.’
‘Who from?’ I said. ‘It’s not like we have any friends down here.’
I racked my brains, trying to remember everything I’d ever read about dead men walking and mummified bodies. A common denominator finally came to mind, and I laughed out loud.
‘You have a plan!’ said Grace. ‘Whatever this plan is, I want you to know that I love it and want to have its babies, and you should start it immediately.’
‘Mummies are vulnerable to fire!’ I said.
There was a slight pause.
‘That’s it?’ said Grace. ‘Neither of us smoke, so we don’t even have a lighter or matches! Wait a minute, these aren’t my clothes …’
She started searching quickly through her pockets, but I was already shouting at the pile of mummified bodies covering the Damned.
‘Lex! Stop lying down on the job and get your arse out of there! I have a plan to stop this, but I can’t do it without you. On your feet, Damned!’
The heap of mummies exploded, with broken bodies flying in all directions as the Damned rose up. Some of the mummies still clung to him, only to fall away as he shook himself like a dog fresh out of the rain. The Damned struck away the last few clinging hands and turned his armoured face in my direction.
‘You had better have a really good idea, Gideon.’
‘Mummies burn!’ I said. ‘They’re so dry they’ll go up like paper!’
‘Then it’s a shame my armour doesn’t come with a built-in flame-thrower,’ said the Damned.
‘Use the light from the street lamps!’ I said. ‘Magical fires, to burn magical mummies!’
The Damned strode across the street, slamming mummies out of his way with great sweeps of his arms. He tore a lamp out of the sidewalk and brought the top part slamming down on a mummy’s head. The lamp exploded, and shimmering light leaped out and set fire to the mummy’s face.
Flames engulfed the shrivelled head and then shot down the body in a roar of burning light. The mummy staggered back and forth, blazing fiercely as flames consumed the dried-up body like firewood. The mummy flailed its arms around, as though it thought it could shake the fire off, but the flames just rose even higher, before jumping to those mummies who were nearest. They went up in a moment, and more flames leaped to more dead bodies, racing up and down the street until the whole area was illuminated by burning figures.
I was worried the flames might jump to the buildings and set them alight, too, but it seemed the magical fires only had an appetite for mummies. One by one, burning shapes crashed to the ground, thrashing weakly as the fires ate them up. Mummies at the edge of the crowd turned to run, but the flames were quicker. Up and down the street, the mummies burned until finally there was nothing left but unmoving blackened bodies and guttering flames.
The Damned realized that Polly was still buried under a heap of charred shapes. He rushed over to her and tore the bodies away with his armoured hands. At the bottom of the pile, he found Polly lying curled up in a ball, smoke rising from her scorched fur. The Damned armoured down and beat out the last few flames with his bare hands, rather than risk hurting her with his armoured strength. Polly suddenly uncurled and jumped to her feet, bits of burnt hide falling away to reveal fresh new fur. She grinned broadly at Lex as he stood there, stunned.
‘Werewolves heal, remember? It’s what we do.’
Lex took her in his arms and hugged her tightly. Polly was too startled to hug him back, and Lex quickly let the werewolf go. Polly turned into her human form and stared at him.
‘What was that for?’
‘I was worried,’ said Lex.
‘Why?’
‘Because I talked you into coming with me.’
‘You couldn’t have kept me away,’ said Polly. ‘I always dreamed of fighting alongside the Damned.’
‘Yes,’ said Lex. ‘Another reason to feel guilty.’
‘Don’t,’ Polly said briskly. ‘I don’t do guilt, and neither should you.’
‘What else should the damned feel?’ said Lex. ‘It hurt me to see you hurt.’
‘That’s sweet,’ said Polly. ‘But really, you’re far too old for me.’
‘Well,’ said Lex, ‘that goes without saying.’
Polly looked around as Grace and I moved over to join the two of them.
‘I’m fine!’ she said loudly. ‘Don’t you start fussing.’
‘Wouldn’t dream of it,’ I said. ‘Just wanted to check you and the big guy were ready to move on. We still have a treasure house to find.’
‘And loot,’ said Grace.
‘I hadn’t forgotten,’ I said.
And then we all looked around sharply as someone started applauding. A man and a woman were standing at the entrance to a side street. The man was clapping loudly, and the woman was smiling. It didn’t seem to me to be a particularly pleasant smile. They walked unhurriedly over to join us, and my crew quickly moved to stand closer together. I glanced at Lex.
‘Why haven’t you put your armour back on?’
‘I want them to see my face,’ said Lex.
‘That would certainly scare the hell out of me,’ said Grace.
‘Thank you,’ said Lex.
I looked at Polly. ‘Can I just tactfully remind you that you are no longer a wolf and are actually standing around in your skin?’
‘Thought it was a bit draughty,’ said Polly.
She became a werewolf again and took up her most threatening stance.
The new arrivals came to a halt a discreet distance away, and the man stopped applauding.
‘Welcome to the undercity,’ said the woman. ‘I have to say, we’re amazed to see you here, and not a little impressed. Hardly anyone gets this far. But then most people aren’t the legendary Gideon Sable and his crew.’
Lex looked at me. ‘You’re legendary, but I’m just part of the crew?’
‘They don’t know you like I do,’ I said.
Lex turned his cold stare back to the newcomers. ‘That is about to change.’
‘I am Cleopatra Bones,’ said the woman. ‘This is my husband, a Mime Called Malice. Call him Mal.’
Cleopatra was tall and voluptuous, a mature woman with sharp gypsy features and dark curly hair. She wore a sky-blue catsuit with two large guns holstered on her hips and bandoliers of bullets crossing her considerable chest. She smiled easily, but her hands never moved far from her guns. Her husband stood calmly at her side, ready for anything. A good head shorter than his wife, he had the painted white face, striped shirt and dark trousers of the traditional mime, but his smile had no humour in it, and his eyes were cold.
Lex took a step forward, and both the man and the woman gave him their full attention. If his scowling face frightened them, they were doing a really good job of hiding it.
‘Where is Sally?’ said Lex.
I don’t think his voice had ever been colder, but Cleopatra just nodded easily.
‘Keeping my father company. She’s quite safe; he’s become rather fond of her.’ She gestured at the side street she and her husband had appeared from. ‘The centre is just around the corner. Which is why you ran into all those mummies. Thanks for getting rid of them for us. They seemed like a good idea at the time, but the numbers have risen over the years, and they did clutter up the place terribly.’
‘They were your idea?’ I said.
‘It was my idea to make use of them,’ said Cleopatra. ‘Now, since you’re Gideon Sable, this must be Annie Anybody.’
‘Call me Grace.’
‘No,’ said Cleopatra. ‘And that leaves the little wolf girl and the Damned. We know all about the Damned, because Little Miss Sticky Fingers won’t shut up about him.’
‘You’re talking about my wife,’ said Lex.
‘We know!’ said Cleopatra. ‘If she tries to show us the wedding photos on her phone one more time …’
‘Did I hear you right?’ I said. ‘Coldheart is your father?’
She nodded calmly. ‘My husband and I run security for him, because he’s so taken up with his current obsession that he tends to forget about practical things. And please, don’t call him by that name. Coldheart is just a label that got slapped on him by his new business partner. My father is Leland Stevens.’
‘Wait a minute,’ I said. ‘I know him! A minor collector, who used to hang around on the edges of the scene, picking up things no one else wanted and then finding specialized buyers who would pay through the nose for them. When did he become obsessed with hearing the sirens’ song?’
Cleopatra stirred unhappily. ‘Just recently. He’s an old man now, and his mind isn’t what it used to be. He is determined to become the first man in millennia to hear the song the sirens sang, no matter what it costs him.’
I looked at her thoughtfully. ‘By any chance … would Leland’s new business partner be Murray the Mentalist?’
‘Of course you’d know him,’ said Cleopatra. ‘He’s a thief and a cheat, just like you. My father needed someone to help him acquire state-of-the art sound technology, and since he won’t ever leave this place, he had to take on a business partner to help with the heavy lifting. Murray came with excellent recommendations, which I’m pretty sure now he wrote himself, but at the time he seemed exactly what my father needed.’
Grace tugged surreptitiously at my arm. ‘Why did Murray change the man’s name to Coldheart?’
‘Because it’s all part of his con,’ I said. ‘Coldheart was never real. Just a name and a reputation, a scarecrow designed to appear bigger and more menacing than Leland Stevens ever could. Murray needed a threat I would feel obliged to deal with. No wonder I’d never heard of Coldheart or his marvellous treasures.’ I nodded to Cleopatra. ‘So this is where Leland ended up. I did wonder what happened to him.’
‘You know my father?’ said Cleopatra.
‘Only by reputation,’ I said. ‘I have to say, I was expecting all manner of traps and guards, not just a bunch of walking corpses with serious moisture issues.’
‘My father used up all of his money buying the sound tech,’ said Cleopatra. ‘A lifetime’s savings, gone in less than a year. He even had to sell off most of his collection. After that, we didn’t have enough left to pay the guards, so we had to let them go. There never were any traps; we didn’t think we needed them after we moved this part of the undercity into our own pocket dimension.’
I fixed Cleopatra with my harshest stare. ‘On the way here, we met an old man who said he was sent here by Judi Rifkin … but she’s only been working on her own for a few years. So how could Michael Sharpe have aged so much in such a short time?’
‘A side effect from the dimensional machine that put us outside everything,’ said Cleopatra. ‘How do you think we acquired so many mummies in such a short period?’
‘You let them age to death,’ I said. ‘And then put them to work.’
‘It’s what they deserved,’ said Cleopatra. ‘For trying to steal from us.’
‘Why didn’t the machine age us?’ said Grace.
‘You had the Damned with you,’ said Cleopatra. ‘Just the proximity of his armour was enough to protect you.’
I nodded to Lex. ‘I always knew you’d come in handy for something.’
Lex hadn’t turned his cold stare away from Cleopatra. ‘I’m here to take Sally home.’
‘Well, you can’t have her,’ said Cleopatra. ‘My father still needs her, so you’ll just have to be patient. You can have her back when my father’s finished with her. And not before.’
‘I’m the Damned,’ said Lex. ‘I don’t do patient.’
He put on his armour, and once again Heaven and Hell made themselves manifest in the world. Cleopatra fell back in spite of herself. Her husband Mal mimed a large club, surged forward and brought the invisible weapon crashing down on the Damned. The impact bludgeoned him down on to one knee before he could even raise an arm to defend himself. Polly threw herself at Mal and slammed him to the ground, her bared teeth straining for his throat.
They rolled back and forth, while Mal mimed a knife and thrust it into Polly’s ribs again and again. But the wounds healed as fast as he could make them. Mal might be able to mime a knife, but apparently silver was beyond him. Polly’s jaws inched closer to Mal’s face.
The Damned was already back on his feet again. Cleopatra drew one of her guns and the Damned stopped where he was.
‘That’s right,’ said Cleopatra. ‘You recognize this gun, don’t you? Call off your pet, Lex. Do it now!’
‘Let the man go, Polly!’ said the Damned.
The werewolf reluctantly disengaged and trotted back to crouch beside the Damned. The mime rose quickly to his feet and moved over to stand beside Cleopatra, who was still covering the Damned with her gun.
‘Why did you call me off, Lex?’ said Polly. ‘I was having fun.’
‘It’s the gun,’ I said.
Polly looked at the weapon in Cleopatra’s hand. ‘What’s so special about that?’
‘I’ve never seen it before,’ I said. ‘But I’ve read a lot about it. That is the Iscariot Device. The gun Lex used to murder two angels. Its bullets are made from the thirty pieces of silver paid to Judas to betray the Christ.’
‘How many times can one weapon screw up my life?’ said the Damned.
‘My father acquired it from Old Harry’s Place,’ said Cleopatra. ‘A birthday present for me, back when he still remembered such things. For the girl who has one of every other kind of weapon … These bullets will quite definitely punch through angelic armour, Lex, so behave yourself.’
‘No,’ said the Damned. ‘I can’t do that. I have to rescue Sally.’
‘True love,’ said Cleopatra, nodding approvingly. ‘Somewhat rarer than it should be, these days. I salute you. But I can’t let you do anything that might hurt my father.’
She raised the Iscariot Device and shot the Damned in the face.
I already had my hand inside my jacket pocket, holding the time pen, and I hit the button the moment Cleopatra raised her gun. All sound cut off as everything crashed to a halt. The world became suffused in a crimson glow as light sank down into the infra-red, and the air was suddenly thick as treacle.
I was only just in time; I could see the bullet hanging in mid-air, well on its way to the Damned’s armoured face. It didn’t look like any normal bullet. It seemed somehow more real than its surroundings, more there than anything else, and it gleamed silver even in the crimson half-light. It was still straining forward, fighting the inertia of stopped Time in its eagerness to get to its target.
I reached out and carefully closed my fist around the bullet, but even though I tugged at it with all my strength, I couldn’t deflect the bullet from its intended target. I couldn’t even stop it edging stubbornly forward. I let go and moved over to the Damned. I put my arms around him, intending to carry him away from the line of fire. But the Damned in his armour was far too heavy to move.
