Read Drinking Midnight Wine Online
Authors: Simon R. Green
Drinking Midnight Wine (36 page)
He was hoping for the mystical equivalent of a tactical nuke. What he got was Surtur’s Tooth. Just a bloody big tooth, yellowing into brown, easily ten inches long, that culminated in a jagged broken end from where it had been ripped out of something’s jaw. There were no runes, this time, just the tooth. Toby cursed dispassionately and reached for the tooth anyway, only to jerk his hand back at the last moment as the mirror on the wall screamed at him.
“Don’t touch it with your bare hand! It burns!”
Toby tried again, with the hand still wearing one of Thor’s Gauntlets, and gingerly picked up the tooth. It was surprisingly heavy, but it didn’t burn him. A dead man came out of nowhere to go for his throat, and Toby reacted instinctively, jamming the tooth deep into the zombie’s chest. The dead body burst into fierce yellow flames. It fell to the floor, kicking and arching its back, and then was still as the leaping flames consumed it. Toby allowed himself a sigh of relief, and then went to meet the dead as they came crowding in around him. Whenever the tooth touched dead flesh, the bodies burned, and soon the floor of the great Norse hall was littered with charred and blackened forms with no movement left in them.
Hob’s unwilling army was at rest again, all his unnatural life burned right out of it.
Toby was soon able to rescue Jimmy, and with the somewhat battered and bloodied thunder godling at his side, quickly finished off the rest of the dead. No more new dead came popping out of nowhere to attack them. Hob had clearly seen the futility of losing any more of his dead servants to Surtur’s Tooth. When it was finally over, Toby and Jimmy stood together, both grinning fiercely. Toby felt good, pleased, at having finally achieved something. And, for the first time, he didn’t feel intimidated by the big thunder godling’s presence.
Jimmy clapped him on the shoulder, staggering him for a moment. “Not bad, Toby Dexter. Not bad at all, for a mortal.”
They shared a smile, and then Toby looked down at the great tooth in his gloved hand. “What is this thing, anyway?”
“My ancestor Thor had a run-in with Surtur, back in the old country. Surtur was a major fire demon. Still is, as far as I know. Certainly if he ever turns up here wanting his tooth back, I plan on giving it to him with all the politeness at my command. Nasty things, fire elementals.”
They went back to dismantle the barricade around Gayle and she emerged to hug Toby tightly. She was shaking, but it took Toby a moment to realize that it was from laughter, not fear. She pushed herself away from him and grinned at him.
“My brave hero. I’m sure it was all very perilous, Toby, but you have to understand that all I could see was you and Jimmy charging back and forth, attacking empty air. I couldn’t see the dead until you burned Hob out of them, and they were just everyday bodies again. Poor souls.”
“Wonderful,” said Toby. “My big moment, and I’m the only one who saw it.”
Gayle looked around her, at the dozens of smoldering corpses scattered across the hall floor. “None of this was their fault. They didn’t ask for their rest to be disturbed. But that’s Hob’s way, to let the innocent suffer, rather than put himself at risk.”
Toby looked around him, and for the first time saw his recent enemies simply as men and women, their final peace desecrated in the name of Nicholas Hob’s ambition. He felt ashamed. He’d enjoyed fighting them, cursing them, destroying them.
“What am I going to do with all these bodies?” said Jimmy, just a bit plaintively. “I can’t keep them. I don’t have the cupboard space. Besides . . . they’re really creeping me out.
Hate
liches.”
Hate
liches.”
“They’re all going to have to be properly identified and returned to their proper resting places,” Toby said firmly. “We have to do the right thing by them. None of them wanted to be here. They’re just more of Hob’s victims. The death-walkers can probably help.”
“Yeah, well, those people give me the creeps, too,” said Jimmy. “But I suppose you’re right.”
“First,” said Gayle, “we have to stop Hob.”
“Damn right,” said Toby. “I won’t stand for this. He has to pay. I think it’s time we took the fight to him. No more reacting to whatever he does. We have to go to him, catch him wrong-footed. We have to go to Blackacre.”
“Now you’re talking!” said Jimmy Thunder. “No more messing about. Just barge right in and bust everything up. It’s what I do best. I’ll take care of Angel. Once we’re both in Mysterie, I’ll really kick her arse.”
Gayle looked at Toby. “Like I said, limited.”
“I think we need a plan first,” said Toby, diplomatically. “I’ve been thinking. First we need to talk to the Mice. . . .”
Ten
Unexpected Encounters
O
N THE EDGE OF TOWN, isolated and abandoned, stood Blackacre. The trees rose still and tall, though life had left them long ago, and no animal or bird or insect disturbed the suffocating silence. But in this place where nothing lived, something moved. A thick fog, blue green and shimmering with its own unearthly light, came stealing through the trees, billowing slowly out from the ancient farmhouse that was the foul and rotten heart of Blackacre. The fog pulsed and heaved like a living thing as it progressed, swallowing up everything in its path, until it reached the boundary of the dead wood on every side, and then it stopped abruptly and was still, waiting for some poor damned fool to come and disturb its domain.
N THE EDGE OF TOWN, isolated and abandoned, stood Blackacre. The trees rose still and tall, though life had left them long ago, and no animal or bird or insect disturbed the suffocating silence. But in this place where nothing lived, something moved. A thick fog, blue green and shimmering with its own unearthly light, came stealing through the trees, billowing slowly out from the ancient farmhouse that was the foul and rotten heart of Blackacre. The fog pulsed and heaved like a living thing as it progressed, swallowing up everything in its path, until it reached the boundary of the dead wood on every side, and then it stopped abruptly and was still, waiting for some poor damned fool to come and disturb its domain.
Night had fallen by the time Toby Dexter, Gayle, and Jimmy Thunder came to Blackacre. A focal point, a God For Hire, and a woman who was so much more than just a woman. It was a clear night, but no stars were out, leaving only a ghostly silver light from the full moon to show their way. If anything, the evening seemed even hotter than the day had been, and the night air was close and sweltering. Toby pulled his sweaty shirt away from his chest as he played the beam of his flashlight ahead of him. He felt increasingly uncomfortable, and not just from the unrelenting heat. He’d never been to Blackacre before, even though it lay only just outside the town where he’d spent most of his life. No one went to Blackacre, not even in calm and reasonable Veritie. Everyone knew the stories. Now here he was in Mysterie, where such stories had power, approaching the last redoubt of the Serpent’s Son to face the dragon in his lair; and suddenly all Toby’s plans and preparations seemed as nothing, compared to such ancient, established evil. If Bradford-on-Avon really was the secret heart of the world, then Blackacre was the hidden canker in that heart.
Toby still wasn’t at all sure what he and his companions were going to do, once they finally came face-to-face with Nicholas Hob and Angel. He only knew, on some deep, instinctive, primal level, that direct confrontation was the only strategy left to them that had any chance of success.
They had come to Blackacre because they were meant to be there.
Gayle had insisted they wait for darkness before setting out. And so they watched the enemy sun sink slowly down the sky, as the sky turned as red as blood, and then disappear into the dark purple of evening. Darkness would hide them from the Serpent’s sight, and the watchful, sorcerous gaze of his Son. Toby still had a hard time accepting that the familiar sun that shone every day, the giver of life and light, was actually the home of Humanity’s most ancient and awful Enemy; but he had to admit, a night attack made sense. The element of surprise was practically the only thing they had going for them.
He led the way up the long, gradual hill that culminated in the old forbidden wood, glaring into the dark and shining his torch ahead of him like a weapon. The moonlight helped, but the blue-white glow made everything seem unreal, like walking through a dream. Toby had the only flashlight. Apparently thunder godlings didn’t need such things, and Gayle stuck close to Toby. She’d grown ever more silent as they left the town behind them, and she seemed to stumble more in the dark than Toby and Jimmy put together. She was holding on to Toby’s arm, and it seemed to him that the growing pressure of her fingers was more for comfort than support. Jimmy Thunder was quiet, too, only cursing under his breath from time to time as earth turned unexpectedly under his great weight. And so, in silence and with uncertain courage, they came at last to the dead place, the scorched land, and stood at the boundary of the dead wood, looking in.
The thick fog enveloping the trees came as a surprise to them. It hung about the trees like a shroud, thick and impenetrable. Toby shone his light into the fog, and the glowing mists swallowed it right up. He looked back at the town, laid out below in a patchwork map of glowing amber lights, and there was not a trace of fog anywhere in the slow, hot summer night. He turned back to the eerie glow of the blue-green mists, and swallowed hard. He didn’t need to be told that there was nothing natural about this fog that shone with its own unclean light and stopped impossibly abruptly at the edge of the dead wood. Just looking at it made his skin crawl. Whatever Hob was up to in there, he really didn’t want it seen. Suddenly Toby realized that Gayle was clinging tightly to his arm, breathing heavily, and actually shuddering as she looked at the fog before them. Toby didn’t blame her. He had an unpleasant feeling that if he stood and looked into the fog long enough, something would come out of it to look back at him. Something he wouldn’t want to meet at all.
“Are we going to stand here all night?” said Jimmy Thunder, and Toby all but jumped out of his skin.
“I don’t know,” he said sharply. “Maybe. Are you telling me this fog doesn’t disturb the hell out of you, too?”
The thunder godling shrugged. “I’ve seen stranger shit than this in my time. The fog’s actually a good sign, if you think about it. It means that Hob’s fallen back on the defensive. He can feel things are coming to a head, and he’s worried someone might come to stop him. This fog might look impressive, but it’s really only a protective shield. According to the Waking Beauty, the real defense here is the small army of walking dead Hob has staked out around his farmhouse, ready and waiting to slice up any uninvited visitors. And since none of my artifacts is of any use this close to Hob’s seat of power, we’d better hope your plan to get us in is going to work.”
“It’ll work,” Toby said immediately, trying at least to sound confident. “I’ll get us to Hob. Hopefully by then you and Gayle will have worked out what the hell you’re going to do to him. Because if you haven’t, I am going to start running and I won’t stop until I’m in a different time zone. Mice! Where are you?”
They came tumbling up the hill toward him, a whole crowd of large furry animals, leaping and pirouetting and jostling each other, laughing breathily from high spirits. Toby felt better immediately, just from looking at them. Life blazed so brightly, so freely, in the Mice. They piled up before Toby, pushing and shoving each other and grinning broadly. Toby grinned back as he took in four familiar Mouse faces.
“Is this all of you?”
“Oh, yes,” said Bossy importantly. “I made sure no one was left out. Always up for a bit of organizing, me. We’re here, all twenty-three of us.”
Toby raised an eyebrow. “I thought there were only—”
“There are always more of us than you think,” said Sweetie, leaning languorously against Toby’s hip and batting her big eyelashes at him. “For you, we’ve called out all the reserves. We are the Mice. Fear our playfulness.”
“It looks like you’re going to need all of us,” said Tidy, studying the fog just a little doubtfully. Other Mice joined him, their noses twitching unhappily. Tidy snorted loudly and turned back to Toby. “Nasty stuff. Stinks of bad magics. Going to be hell getting the smell out of our fur later. Still, anything for the Lady. And you, Toby. Don’t worry; we can handle this. Dreamy, you’re about to say you dreamed of this, I can tell. Don’t you dare.”
“I dreamed something,” said Dreamy doubtfully, her eyes very wide. “But I can’t remember what. I’m sure it was very important. . . .”
“Yes, well, we can talk about that later,” said Toby diplomatically. “Now, in you go, all of you. Spread yourselves wide and cause as much trouble and distraction as you can, but
don’t
risk getting caught.”
don’t
risk getting caught.”
Bossy sniffed dismissively. “There isn’t anything in there that can catch us. Mice! Forward! Tally-ho!”
The Mice charged forward, laughing and hallooing, and streamed into the thick, enveloping fog, bounding along and eager for fun. Toby tried hard to remember that they were perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. Jimmy Thunder watched the last of them disappear into the mists and nodded approvingly.
“Hob can have as many dead guards in there as he likes; those Mice will run them ragged all night long.”
“One of your better ideas, Toby,” said Gayle. She sounded tired, washed-out. She realized Toby was looking at her worriedly, and managed a reassuring smile for him. “This place . . . upsets me. There’s nothing natural here, nothing of life and the natural order. It’s a setting dedicated to death, carved out of the living world. I don’t know how long I can operate, or even survive, in such a place.”
Toby frowned. Gayle looked fragile, vulnerable. Weak. He wasn’t used to seeing her like that. He didn’t like it. “Maybe you should stay here, while Jimmy and I—”
“No,” Gayle said flatly. “You’re going to need me when you finally get to Hob—my dear little nephew. Come on. Let’s get moving before I change my mind.”
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