Drinking Midnight Wine (16 page)

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Authors: Simon R. Green

BOOK: Drinking Midnight Wine
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“Oh, hell,” said Gayle. “As if things weren’t complicated enough. Look; individually, you have free will. Everyone does. But sometimes the worlds that be get a nudge, from Upstairs. And then it’s up to us how we cope with it. For example, you are a focal point, but you could still choose to forget everything, and walk away from it.”
“And then . . . someone else would be the focal point?” said Toby.
“Damned if I know,” said Carys. “Focal points are tricky things. I don’t think the town would actually get hit by earthquakes, volcanoes, and swarms of killer bees, all at once, but I wouldn’t rule it out either. Once you start mucking about with fate, you have to be prepared for a backlash, and there’s no telling where the psychic bricks would fall. It’s like pulling one can of beans from the bottom of the pyramid; it might collapse or it might not.”
“If you believe in fate,” said Gayle.
“I’d say it’s more to the point whether fate believes in you,” said Carys. “It doesn’t matter anyway. Toby won’t walk out on you. His feelings for you won’t let him.”
Toby could feel his face growing warm. “My feelings are my own business, thank you very much.”
“Not anymore they’re not,” said Carys. She smiled knowingly at Gayle. “I don’t know why you’re making such a fuss. You’ve had mortal paramours before.”
“And every single one of them came to a bad end,” said Gayle. “They might start out loving me, but they all end up worshiping me, and I hate that. I haven’t taken a mortal lover in more years than I care to remember. I got tired of them dying on me. I hope you’re paying attention to this, Toby.”
“Hell,” said Toby. “I’m taking notes.”
Gayle shook her head. “We are going to change the subject, right now. Let us talk instead of Nicholas Hob.”
“If we must,” said Carys. “Nasty little toad. The Serpent’s Son is back in Bradford-on-Avon, and has taken up residence at Blackacre. Only fitting, I suppose. It’s the only place in town that’s as corrupt as he is. No one knows what’s brought him back after all these years, but he’s taken the woman Angel as his companion.” She paused, and looked at Toby. “Nicholas Hob is the Serpent’s only living offspring, a product of rape and horror in the early days of the world. Hob’s almost as bad as his father, but luckily he’s trapped in human form, which limits the damage he can do. Angel used to be an angel. The whole wings-and-halo bit. Demoted to the material worlds for a crime the likes of which you and I can only guess at. So we’re now faced with two beings, both powerful enough to tear this town apart at the seams on a whim, even before they joined forces. And you’re still not convinced fate is stirring things?”
“I don’t think I feel very well,” said Toby. “Every time I turn around the odds get worse. I could shoot an albatross and not get luck like this.”
“Aren’t I worth it?” said Gayle.
Toby sniffed. “I’m thinking about it. Trust me, I’m thinking about it.”
“There’s more,” said Carys.
“Surprise, surprise.” said Gayle. “Hit me with it.”
“You’ve seen the news. There are stirrings in the sun, solar flares leaping out to caress the world. The Serpent is flexing his muscles. He’s planning something. Hob and Angel are his chosen instruments. And all we have to stop them is a focal point who doesn’t understand his own purpose . . . and you. If I had anywhere else to go, I’d be packing. I have a horrible suspicion this town has been designated ground zero for something truly appalling, something that will crack open all the worlds and let the blood run out. You have to intervene, Gayle, and soon, before it’s too late for all of us.”
“Do you know that for a fact?” said Gayle.
The Waking Beauty sighed and sank back in her chair. She looked suddenly tired and older. “No,” she said reluctantly. “I can see the pieces but not the pattern.”
“Sometimes you need to be reminded of that.” Gayle considered the matter in silence for a while. “All right; something’s going on. And Toby isn’t just another focal point, or he wouldn’t be linked so closely to me. Could he be the next in line to be Humanity’s Champion?”
Carys looked startled for the first time, studying Toby with new eyes. “I don’t know. He could be, I suppose. It’s been so long since Humanity needed a Champion . . . You know, it does make a kind of sense.”
“Yes,” said Gayle. “Unfortunately, it does.” Both the women looked at Toby in a curious but unsettlingly speculative way.
“If I am Humanity’s Champion,” Toby said firmly, “then we are all in really deep trouble.”
“You should be honored,” said Gayle, and Toby couldn’t quite tell whether she was mocking him or not.
“True Champions are few and far between. They are heroes, warriors, legends, defenders of Humanity against the forces of darkness. Of course, most of them end up dying horribly, but . . . Toby! Toby, sit down! You’re not going anywhere and you know it.”
“Every time I think it can’t get any worse, it does,” said Toby, slumping back into his seat. “I’d just got my head round being a focal point, and now you want me to be a hero and a warrior? Trust me: you have got the wrong guy.”
“Not even for me?”
“Not even for Kate Bush dipped in honey.”
“If you won’t do something,” Carys said suddenly to Gayle, “I will.”
“If you do,” said Gayle, “I can’t protect you. You’re long-lived and you know a lot of things, but at the end of the day you’re still only human, Carys, while Hob and Angel are so much more. You sit tight and leave this with me. Let me think on it.”
“Time is running out. . . .”
“It always is.” Gayle smiled suddenly. “You know; I think I’ll go and see the Mice. They’re bound to have noticed something.”
“Mice?” said Toby ominously. “You want to talk with a bunch of mice?”
“Oh, you’ll like them, Toby. They’re very charming. A bit rough and ready, but then, that’s Mice for you.”
“They’re newcomers to the town,” said Carys, frowning. “What could they possibly know that I don’t?”
“Outsiders are often better suited to seeing the big picture,” said Gayle. “And besides, they have the advantage of not being human. Which should, if nothing else, at least guarantee a fresh perspective. As Mice, they’re closely attuned to the natural world. Whereas I have allowed myself to become rather distant, over the years.”
Toby gave Gayle a hard look. “If they start singing about Cinderella and dragging in a pumpkin, I’m going to lay traps and put down poison.”
“They’re not that kind of Mice, dear,” said Gayle. “You’ll like them, provided you’re not too judgmental. Good-bye, Carys. Do the sensible thing for once and stay out of this. If even half of what you and I suspect is true, the whole town is currently trapped between a rock and a very hard place. Not a good time to be drawing attention to yourself.”
“Are you going to do anything?” said Carys.
“Perhaps. There’s always the chance this will all sort itself out without me. But just in case . . . Come along, Toby.”
Toby scrambled to his feet as Gayle rose gracefully to hers, and just had time to nod a quick good-bye to Carys before Gayle was sweeping out of the Dandy Lion. Toby sighed and hurried after her. It had started out as a weird day, and the general strangeness factor showed no signs of decreasing. Surely it was only yesterday when his life still seemed to make sense? Of course, it had been a pretty bloody boring life, and he hadn’t actually met up with Gayle then . . . so it all really came down to whether Gayle was worth the candle or not. Toby grinned. On the whole, yes, she was.
He got outside to find that Gayle was already striding off down the street, and he had to run to catch up with her. On the one hand, Toby was beginning to feel just a little pissed off at being dragged around by Gayle like a dog on a leash, but on the other hand, she had quite definitely called him “dear” just now. Probably a slip of the tongue on her part, but an encouraging one. Toby liked to think he was making progress. He needed to do something, something big and memorable that would impress her, help her to see him as an equal partner in . . . in whatever the hell it was they were currently caught up in.
A hero, a warrior, a legend
... Toby scowled and bit his lower lip. He’d never seen himself as a man of action. In pub fights, he was always the one bravely fading into the woodwork. But whatever Humanity’s Champion was supposed to be, he was pretty damn sure it involved more than being Gayle’s lapdog.
 
As Toby accompanied Gayle through the middle of the town, he couldn’t help noticing that an awful lot of people were openly staring at him. Not just because he was a new face in Mysterie, but because he was with Gayle. Most were curious, some were intrigued, a few actually looked impressed. But there were some who looked scared, as though he were a new, unpredictable factor in the equation, someone who might either change or ruin everything. Presumably these were the ones who knew a focal point when they saw one. Toby began to feel increasingly nervous. It was bad enough having to come to terms with the fact that great things were expected of you, without being forced to admit that you didn’t have a damned clue as to what those things might be. What if he was supposed to kill a dragon, or something? No, forget the something, what if it actually
was
a bloody dragon? Toby had always visualized a dragon as being something very like
Tyrannosaurus rex,
only bigger and faster and with more teeth, probably breathing fire, too. Maybe he’d be allowed to start on something smaller first.
Like a dog with a bad attitude.
They were crossing the old bridge across the River Avon when the Howling Thing scared the crap out of Toby. He’d been walking along, lost in his own thoughts, vaguely aware of a sound like an angry siren growing steadily louder, and then just as he passed the old stone Chapel, something inside it threw itself against the confining walls. The whole structure shuddered and the Howling Thing’s voice rose like a damned soul in torment. Toby all but jumped out of his skin, and grabbed Gayle by the arm.
“What the hell was that?”
“It’s all right, Toby,” Gayle said reassuringly, prising his fingers from her arm. “It can’t get out.”
Toby began to get his breathing back under control, though his heart was still thudding painfully in his chest. “What’s it doing in there anyway?”
“It’s doing penance,” said Gayle. “Every town has its monsters, and its bad seeds. This one is doing time. Every damned bit of it.”
That was when something even worse emerged slowly from the dark waters under the bridge, reeds and river water falling away from its pallid gargantuan bulk. It was huge, easily thirty feet tall, all bone and thick slabs of muscle, with an elongated skull like a horse. Its pockmarked skin was the dead white of things that live far underwater, rarely leaving the unending dark to venture to the surface’s light. Its eyes were black, bulging painfully from wide sockets. The mouth was long and narrow, with great square teeth that looked as if they did a lot of chewing. Its shape was more human than not, and it just seemed to get bigger and bigger as it leaned over the bridge.
One huge weed-wrapped hand rested on the wall beside the old Chapel and the Howling Thing was suddenly quiet. The long head came sweeping down for a better look at Toby and Gayle, and it was all Toby could do to keep from falling back. Hell, anywhere else and he’d have run like fun for the horizon; but he couldn’t abandon Gayle. She was standing very still, staring at the huge creature as though mesmerized. Toby put a hand on her arm to pull her away, but she wouldn’t move. Toby glanced around, but everyone else had disappeared. He didn’t blame them.
Every town has its monsters . . .
The huge bony hand tightened on the bridge’s wall, and the ancient stonework cracked and shattered under the pressure of that awful grip.
Oh hell,
thought Toby.
I should have settled for a dragon. Maybe if I run, I can decoy it away from Gayle . . .
“Don’t move,” Gayle murmured, as though guessing his thoughts. “It’s faster than you can imagine.”
“What the hell is it?”
“That is a troll. All really old bridges have trolls underneath them in Mysterie. Their presence holds the bridge together, against the ravages of time. In return for which, they demand a toll. . . . Now would you please let go of my arm? You’re cutting off the circulation.”
Toby reluctantly tore his gaze away from the lowering troll and saw that his knuckles were white where he had Gayle by the arm. He made himself let go, and then took a deep breath and moved to put himself between Gayle and the troll. Even that was enough to bring cold beads of sweat popping out on his forehead. The troll was a killer. You just had to look at it to see that. But he couldn’t let Gayle be hurt. Stood to reason it was after her. Someone as important and as long-lived as Gayle was bound to have made enemies. And by accompanying Toby back into Mysterie, she had made herself vulnerable to them. That thought put a little steel into Toby’s bones, though his legs still felt decidedly shaky. He couldn’t let her be hurt because of him.
He tried frantically to think of something he could do, but given the sheer size of the troll . . . He wished he had a gun. Hell, he wished he had a bazooka. It came to him then that there was only one useful thing he could do and that was to try to keep the troll occupied, buy some time, so that Gayle could get away. The creature would almost certainly kill him, but Gayle would escape. The thought chilled him, but didn’t deter him.
Am I really ready to die for her? For someone who doesn’t even like me much?
He seemed to have all the time in the world to consider that, but the answer was never in doubt.
Love, you’re a cold cruel bitch,
he thought calmly.
I wanted a great romance in my life; I just never thought it’d be this short. Guess now we’ll never get to find out whether I was Humanity’s Champion. Ah well; it was worth it in the end. To be in love, really in love, for the first time in my life.

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