Drinking Midnight Wine (33 page)

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Authors: Simon R. Green

BOOK: Drinking Midnight Wine
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The door to Jimmy Thunder’s place swung open even as they approached it, and there was the godling himself, large as life and twice as broad, this time dressed in black biker’s leathers, complete with gleaming steel studs and dangling chains. Toby couldn’t help feeling that Jimmy looked less like a Norse deity and more like the god of Harley-Davidson worshipers, the kind of people who probably recited braking distances under a full moon, and sacrificed a Kawasaki when they needed to beg a favor. The thunder godling looked more relieved than happy to see them again, and beckoned them in with an urgent wave. Gayle stalked right past him, not even looking round, and Toby was hard-pressed to manage more than a polite smile. Luckily, Jimmy was so excited and full of his news that he didn’t notice. He ushered them into his great hall, and the front door slammed shut by itself as he turned to address them.
“Damn, it’s good to see you two again! I was about to go out looking for you; I’ve been hearing stuff you wouldn’t believe! The whole town’s talking about you!” He finally took in Gayle’s forlorn, beaten-down expression, and the excitement leaked out of him like a burst tire. “Gayle? What’s happened? You look exhausted.”
“It’s been a long, hard day, Jimmy,” said Gayle, smiling wanly as she reached up to kiss him on his bearded cheek. “And I think I may have really screwed up, this time.”
“You? Impossible,” Jimmy said loyally. He offered her a huge, leather-clad arm to lean on, and she accepted it gratefully. All the certainty and arrogance had gone out of her and she looked somehow smaller, more vulnerable. Jimmy led her to the nearest door leading off the long corridor, and it swung smoothly open before him as he led her through, murmuring soothing words like an adult with a hurt child. Toby went after them, quietly annoyed that Jimmy hadn’t thought to offer him an arm. Not that he would have accepted it, of course, but it would have been nice to be acknowledged, at least. He was just as tired as Gayle, and with more reason.
They were back in Jimmy Thunder’s huge medieval hall, that looked more like the inside of an old Viking long ship than ever. Toby couldn’t help visualizing it with two great ranks of oars, surging proudly up the River Avon to ransack the towns beyond, set fire to government buildings, and pillage the big corporations. He wondered if he was getting light-headed from fatigue.
Jimmy insisted Gayle sit down on the nearest wooden bench and conjured up from somewhere an oversize mug of his own home-brewed mead. It was a mark of how dispirited Gayle was that she accepted it without comment. Jimmy waved for Toby to sit on the bench facing Gayle and provided him with a mug of mead, too. Toby studied the thick golden liquid dubiously as he sat down. It had things floating in it. But he was tired, and it felt so good to be sitting down, and he was thirsty, so . . .
It was actually quite pleasant, in a thick, glutinous and oversweet sort of way. It warmed him nicely, and it wasn’t until the third gulp went down that the alcohol content hit him like a flying brick to the head. His eyes misted for a moment, and he was glad he was sitting down. He could practically feel the stuff putting a polish on his fillings. But once the shock had passed, he did feel decidedly perked up. He looked across at Gayle, and of course she was drinking the stuff with no visible reaction whatsoever. Jimmy Thunder sat down beside her with his own mug and put a comforting arm around her. She sighed, and leaned heavily against him, her eyes closing, and Toby tried not to bridle too obviously. Jimmy looked from Gayle to Toby and back again.
“So, is there any particular reason why you two aren’t talking to each other?”
“Ask her,” said Toby, not quite growling the words.
Jimmy nodded understandingly. “It’s a hard thing to be human and mortal, in a world of Powers and Dominations. Harder still to be a mortal in love with an immortal. It always ends, and it usually ends badly. You have to understand, Toby, Gayle’s concerns are always going to be so much larger than yours. She has responsibilities far beyond your comprehension. She can’t live for the moment, like you. In her life, you’re just the blink of an eye.”
“Responsibilities?” said Toby, too tired to disguise the anger and betrayal in his voice. “What about her responsibilities to me? To someone who loved her, trusted her?”
Jimmy shrugged. “I’m the wrong person to ask, Toby. Mortal women have never been more than passing fancies for me.”
“Yes, but that’s because you’re a bastard,” said Gayle. “I’ve been human, I’m supposed to know better. Tell me your news, Jimmy. I could use a good distraction right now. What’s happened that’s got you so excited? Is Hollywood planning a remake of
Girl on a Motorcycle
?”
“Even stranger!” said Jimmy, getting quite animated again. “Luna has left her home! She dismantled all her protections, left her sanctuary, and went walkabout! In Veritie!”
“That’s impossible!” Gayle said sharply. She sat upright, pushed herself away from Jimmy, and glared at him. “Luna hasn’t translated herself out of Mysterie in centuries! I’m not sure she even knows what the modern world looks like. Why in God’s name would she want to go traveling in reality, where she’s even more diminished?”
“Hey, don’t shoot the messenger,” said Jimmy. “I’ve been asking questions all over town, but no one knows where she’s gone, or why—not even the Waking Beauty. Once Luna became only human, she dropped off everyone’s radar. She could be anywhere by now. Could this be something to do with Hob and his plans? Could he have lured her out? Or developed some kind of influence over her?”
“Unlikely,” said Gayle, frowning deeply as she considered the matter. “I helped her set up her protections, long, long ago, and most of them were designed specifically to keep her safe from Hob, or anything he might send against her. I’d have known immediately if they’d been broken, even in my human condition. No, it’s much more likely this is all my fault. I took Toby to see her earlier today. She seemed agitated, though admittedly with her that’s hard to tell. It’s entirely possible that my visiting her after such a long absence stirred her up in some way. God knows, she’s capable of practically anything once she gets a bee in her bonnet.”
“Then why did you go to her?” said Jimmy, honestly baffled. “You must have known—”
“All right, it was a mistake, I admit it! I should have known better. But I was desperate. And so out of touch.” Gayle shook her head. “I’ve been human so long, and out of the loop for ages by my own choice, and I didn’t know who to talk to anymore. I don’t even know who the real movers and shakers are these days. It’s been centuries since I last took on my aspect, becoming my full self. I wanted, needed, to steep myself in being just human, and as a result I’ve become isolated, dangerously isolated. I didn’t even know Hob was back in town, and I should have known.”
“The answer seems obvious,” said Jimmy. “Take on your aspect again. Become who you really are. I don’t understand why you’re so reluctant to embrace your full domain.”
“Because . . . what if that’s what Hob wants? What if that is what this is all about, the object of his plans? I can’t believe all the changes, all the threats, all the provocation I’ve been put through are just coincidence. I think Hob wants me to take on my aspect and jeopardize all my hard-won humanity. I haven’t
become
in so long, that I’m no longer sure just
what
I might become. It took me so long to learn the simple, everyday human concepts of compassion and mercy . . . and love. I won’t give them up.”
“I’ve been searching for answers everywhere,” said Jimmy, tactfully changing the subject. “After your last visit, it seemed to me that I’d been missing a lot of things I should have noticed before now. I contacted all my usual sources, only to find that most of them had gone into hiding. So I barged into a lot of places where I’m not usually welcome, and threw my weight around a bit, but still nobody wanted to talk, except about Luna. Everyone’s talking about Luna. In the end, I came back here and put Scilla on the job. As a magic mirror, she has the most amazing and unsuspected links with all kinds of simulacra and sentient paraphernalia all over the town. Including quite a few objects whose owners don’t even suspect are sentient. Don’t praise her too much; she’s been insufferably smug all afternoon.”
“Thank you, Scilla,” said Gayle, nodding graciously to the mirror on the wall.
“It was me! All me!” said the mirror triumphantly, using Jimmy’s voice and image, just to rub the point in. “He couldn’t find out anything, but I did! I am wise and wonderful. I know so many things now, I’m thinking of applying to be upgraded to oracle. The whole town’s in an uproar, behind the scenes! You wouldn’t believe what’s going on out there!”
“
Thank you,
Scilla,” said Jimmy heavily. “I’ll tell them.” He glowered at Toby. “Nothing worse than a self-satisfied talking mirror.”
“I heard that! There’s nothing worse than an ungrateful thunder godling! And by the way, Toby, you look awful, like death warmed up. Have you been taking your vitamins?”
“Ignore her,” said Jimmy. “I do, as much as possible, but then, I’ve had practice. Anyway, the point is, all across the town the seers and soothsayers are crapping themselves. All of a sudden, no one can see the future anymore. And the skeins of fate have become so convoluted that none of the patterns make sense. It’s like both fate and the future have been put on hold ... until something significant has happened.”
He looked meaningfully at Gayle, and then at Toby, who pulled a face. “Yeah, I know,” he said heavily. “Focal point, Humanity’s Champion, all that bullshit. Haven’t any of your contacts been able to tell you something useful?”
“Maybe,” said Jimmy. “Something is happening in the sun, and I don’t just mean the solar flares. Apparently the sun has actually grown in size, just a little.”
“That can’t be possible,” said Toby.
“The Serpent is stirring,” said Gayle, hugging herself tightly, “The Serpent In The Sun, the Old Enemy. We were wrong all along; it was never Hob’s plans we were dealing with, but his ancient father’s. The Serpent, operating through his son, pursuing his old ambition, the utter subjugation of all living things to his will.”
Jimmy and Gayle looked at each other for a long time, their faces unreadable. Toby stirred uncomfortably on his bench and cleared his throat tentatively. “Just how dangerous could Nicholas Hob be, if he put his mind to it? Is he some kind of sorcerer? Does he have . . . powers?”
“He’s bigger than that,” said Jimmy. “He was born human, but he’s still the Serpent’s Son, and older than you can imagine.”
“Hob has always preferred to act through agents,” said Gayle. “Never puts himself at risk. But he has been responsible for a great many evils and atrocities, down the years. He’s supposed to have started the Great Fire of London, after one of his plagues got out of hand. The fires of the sun have always been his to command, for short periods.”
“You don’t have to tell me,” said Jimmy. “I saw him incinerate a whole crowd of refugees in one moment. There was nothing left of them but ashes floating on the wind. Scary.”
“The Hob’s always taken an interest in disease,” said Gayle. “Suffering and human mutability fascinate him. He’s known to have been responsible for at least two outbreaks of plague right here in Bradford-on-Avon, back in the seventeenth century. One in three died then, for his pleasure.”
“Why does he keep coming back here?” said Toby. “Someone as powerful as he is should be working in the centers of power, deciding the fates of nations. What’s the appeal for him of one small English country town?”
“I thought you’d have worked it out by now, Toby,” said Gayle. “Bradford-on-Avon is the secret heart of the world. What is decided here, decides how the world will go. If Hob, or rather, the Serpent working through Hob, can control and dominate the powers that operate here, the world is his for the taking. That’s why Hob has returned, following his father’s orders.”
“All right,” said Toby. “How are we going to stop him?”
Jimmy looked at him and raised an eyebrow.
“We?”
“Damn right,
we,”
said Toby, giving Jimmy a hard look in return. “This is my town, my home. I’m involved. I would be even if I wasn’t a bloody focal point. Hob has to be stopped, so what are we going to do?”
“Maybe there’s nothing we can do,” said Gayle. “If the Serpent is stirring . . . If the sun is growing . . .”
She sounded lost. She looked exhausted, as though she’d been running on reserves for too long and had finally given out. Her face was slack and empty, her eyes were dull, her shoulders slumped. Toby had never seen her look so ... small. Jimmy put his arm around her again, and hugged her to his broad chest. She nestled against him like a weary child. Toby tried not to be jealous.
“Big old bear,” Gayle murmured drowsily into Jimmy’s warmth, as though wanting only to escape into sleep and leave all her worries behind her.
“This is all your fault,” Jimmy said to Toby, scowling. “You’ve run her off her feet, dragging her all over town today.”
“
My
fault?” snapped Toby. “I got bloody shot! I have been through a Total Death Experience, up close and personal! I died and came back for that bloody woman, and I still can’t get a straight answer out of her about anything!”
Toby and Jimmy were both on their feet now, glaring at each other. The thunder godling was easily twice Toby’s size, but Toby was so mad he didn’t give a damn. After everything he’d been through, he was in no mood to take any shit from anyone, least of all one of Gayle’s old boyfriends. It still came as something of a surprise when Jimmy placed a hand flat on Toby’s chest, gave him a bit of a push and threw him ten feet backwards. Toby sailed over the bench he’d been sitting on and crashed to the floor some distance beyond it. He came down hard, the breath knocked out of him. He was still groaning and trying to get up on one elbow when Jimmy stepped over the bench and advanced on him grimly. Toby scrabbled backwards, common sense pushing aside his hurt feelings to make a sudden comeback. Toby had never been much for fighting, and especially not with bikers built like brick shithouses who carried a bloody big hammer on their hip. Toby kept retreating and Jimmy kept coming. He was smiling now, and it was a really unpleasant smile.

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