The Nimble Man (A Novel of the Menagerie) (43 page)

"From the moment its mind first touched my own, on that
long ago seventeeth century night, it has been coming this way, making its slow
but certain progress across eternity. It is coming here, Arthur. And if it
reaches the Earth, no force in all of Creation will stop it. The world will not
be overrun with monsters, it will not be cast into darkness, or its
civilizations crushed. It will be over, you understand? Over.

"For my own protection, and for the sake of this entire
damnable world, I hid myself away, shielded my magick and my presence, so that
the Demogorgon could not sense me anymore. It had lost interest once before. I
hoped I could make it lose interest again.

"But now . . . well, you've made a mess of it, haven't
you? You and your friends and your enemies alike. Not only have you woken me,
but you have done so with such flagrant use of my power that it can be nothing
but a beacon, a homing flare that will draw the attention of the Demogorgon and
bring it here. It has pinpointed us now."

And with this, Lorenzo Sanguedolce at last hesitated. His
eyelids fluttered and a look of pain and sorrow became etched upon his face. He
shook his head. "I can feel it even now. It may take years, decades,
perhaps a century or more. I do not know. But the Demogorgon is on its way.

"I will try to fight it. Just as I know you will. But I
fear that the end is inevitable. The clock is ticking toward the fate of the
world."

Sweetblood turned Conan Doyle's head in his hands, gazed
intently at him. "And I'm afraid that I'll be needing this more than you
will," he said, and then he plunged slender fingers into Conan Doyle's
face and plucked the Eye of Eogain from his skull.

Conan Doyle screamed, and darkness swallowed him.

He blinked. But only one eye moved. The other was so swollen
and crusted with gore that it only ached. There was nothing there. Not his own
eye, nor the Eye of Eogain.

He lay on his back on the floor. In the moonlight he could
see Ceridwen above him, her exquisite face drawn with concern. The ghost of Dr.
Graves hovered beyond her, standing sentinel over him.

"Arthur?" she ventured.

At the sound of her voice, other figures moved into the
circle around him. Conan Doyle could see the silhouette of Eve, though the dark
was merciful in not revealing her wounds. Clay was beside her, stoic and strong.
The shadowy form of Danny Ferrick shuffled nearer, the outline of his horns
almost elegant in the moonlight.

"My love?" Ceridwen whispered.

"I'm alive, dear Lady," he rasped. "I'm
alive."

They all were. It was nothing short of a miracle. But
Sweetblood's words had kindled a terrible dread in Conan Doyle's heart. He knew
that his allies, his agents . . . his friends . . . all had lives of their own.
Even the restless spirit of Dr. Graves had business to accomplish before he
would go peacefully into the soulstream, past the gate that separated this
world from the hereafter. They would want to return to those lives, to those
plans, now that the threat had been averted.

And, for a while, perhaps, he would let them.

But eventually . . . probably quite soon . . . he would
reveal to them the words that Lorenzo Sanguedolce had whispered to him. And
then they would realize that they must stay together. Even if the Demogorgon
was years away, they would have to prepare, to gather others like them, to
combat the darkness so that when the time came, they would be ready.

The clock is ticking toward the fate of the world
,
Sweetblood had said. Yet Conan Doyle did not believe that fate had already been
written. Destiny, he knew, could be decided by those who were willing to grasp
it in their hands and build their own fate from it.

The great darkness was coming. But he and his Menagerie
would be there to greet it.

Until then . . .

"Arthur," Ceridwen said, bending low over him,
blotting out his view of the others, of his friends gathered round him. He
caught her scent, of spice and vanilla, saw the blue-white hue of her skin
glisten in the moonlight. She kissed him gently, their lips barely grazing one
another.

"Rest now."

Yes
, he thought. He would rest.

But not for long.

END

CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN is the award-winning,
New York Times
bestselling author of such novels as
Of Saints and Shadows
,
The Myth
Hunters
,
The Boys Are Back in Town
, and
Strangewood
. He has
also written books for teens and young adults, including
Soulless
,
Poison
Ink
, and
The Secret Journeys of Jack London
, co-authored with Tim
Lebbon. His current work-in-progress is
Cemetery Girl
, a graphic novel
trilogy collaboration with Charlaine Harris.

A lifelong fan of the "team-up," Golden frequently
collaborates with other writers on books, comics, and scripts. He has
co-written three illustrated novels with Mike Mignola, the first of which,
Baltimore,
or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire
, was the launching pad for
the Eisner Award-nominated comic book series,
Baltimore
. With Thomas E.
Sniegoski, he is the co-author of the book series
Magic Zero
and
The
Menagerie
, as well as comic book miniseries such as
Talent
,
currently in development as a feature film. With Amber Benson, he co-created
the online animated series
Ghosts of Albion
for the BBC.

As an editor, he has worked on the short story anthologies
The
New Dead
,
The Monster's Corner
, and
British Invasion
, among
others, and has also written and co-written comic books, video games, screenplays,
and a network television pilot. Golden was born and raised in Massachusetts,
where he still lives with his family. His original novels have been published
in more than fourteen languages in countries around the world. Please visit him
at
http://www.ChristopherGolden.com
.

CONNECT WITH CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN ONLINE

Official Website

http://www.ChristopherGolden.com

Twitter

http://twitter.com/ChristophGolden

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/christophergoldenauthor

No Rest for the Wicked Blog

http://christophergolden.blogspot.com/

Join the Wicked Street Team

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wickedstreetteam/

THOMAS E. SNIEGOSKI is a
New York Times
best-selling
author of books and comics for children, young adults and adults. He is the
writer of the New York Times best-selling
The Fallen: Vol. 1 & 2
, as
well as the popular urban fantasy books featuring angel turned private
investigator, Remy Chandler. He is also the only writer ever invited to work on
Jeff Smith's international, award winning series Bone, working with Smith on
Bone:
Tall Tales
. Sniegoski has just finished writing the third in an original
Bone trilogy,
Bone: Quest for the Spark,
for Scholastic Books. The
newest addition to The Fallen series,
The Fallen: Forsaken
and the
latest Remy Chandler novel,
In the House of the Wicked,
was released in
August 2012.

CONNECT WITH THOMAS E. SNIEGOSKI ONLINE

Official Website

https://www.sniegoski.com

Twitter

https://twitter.com/TomSniegoski

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/ThomasSniegoski

THE MENAGERIE

The Nimble Man
[w/Thomas E.
Sniegoski]

The Tears of Furies
[w/Thomas
E. Sniegoski]

Stones Unturned
[w/Thomas E. Sniegoski]

Crashing Paradise
[w/Thomas
E. Sniegoski]

THE BODY OF EVIDENCE SERIES

Body Bags

Thief of Hearts

Soul Survivor

Meets the Eye

Head Games

Skin Deep

Burning Bones
[w/ Rick
Hautala]

Brain Trust
[w/ Rick Hautala]

Last Breath
[w/ Rick Hautala]

Throat Culture
[w/ Rick
Hautala]

Strangewood

Straight On 'Til Morning

The Ferryman

The Boys Are Back in Town

Wildwood Road

The Secret Backs of Things

The Shell Collector

Bloodstained Oz
[w/James A.
Moore]

The Seven Whistlers
[w/Amber
Benson]

The Ocean Dark
[As Jack
Rogan]

The Collective
[As Jack
Rogan]

Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin
Soldier and the Vampire
[w/Mike Mignola]

Joe Golem and the Drowning City
[w/Mike Mignola]

Father Caetano's Puppet Catechism
[w/Mike Mignola]

SLEEPY HOLLOW HIGH

Horseman
[w/Ford Lytle
Gilmore]

Drowned
[w/Ford Lytle
Gilmore]

Mischief
[w/Ford Lytle
Gilmore]

Enemies
[w/Ford Lytle
Gilmore]

THE VEIL

The Myth Hunters

The Borderkind

The Lost Ones

THE HIDDEN CITIES

Mind the Gap
[w/Tim Lebbon]

The Map of Moments
[w/Tim
Lebbon]

The Chamber of Ten
[w/Tim
Lebbon]

The Shadow Men
[w/Tim Lebbon]

THE SHADOW SAGA

Of Saints and Shadows

Angel Souls and Devil Hearts

Of Masques and Martyrs

The Gathering Dark

Waking Nightmares

GHOSTS OF ALBION

Astray
[w/Amber Benson]

Initiation
[w/Amber Benson]

Accursed
[w/Amber Benson]

Witchery
[w/Amber Benson]

THE WAKING

Dreams of the Dead
[As Thomas
Randall]

Spirits of the Noh
[As Thomas
Randall]

A Winter of Ghosts
[As Thomas
Randall and Christopher Golden]

ADULT FICTION

THE REMY CHANDLER SERIES:

A Kiss Before the Apocalypse

Dancing on the Head of a Pin

Where Angels Fear to Tread

A Hundred Words for Hate

In the House of the Wicked

Walking in the Midst of Fire

THE MENAGERIE

The Nimble Man
[w/Christopher
Golden]

The Tears of Furies
[w/ Christopher
Golden]

Stones Unturned
[w/ Christopher
Golden]

Crashing Paradise
[w/ Christopher
Golden]

TEEN FICTION

THE FALLEN SERIES

The Fallen

The Fallen: Leviathan

The Fallen: Aerie

The Fallen: Reckoning

The Fallen: End of Days

The Fallen: Forsaken

The Fallen: Armageddon

Force Majeure
[w/ Christopher
Golden]

Sleeper Code

Sleeper Agenda

Legacy

JUVENILE FICTION:

THE OUTCAST SERIES

The Un-Magician

Dragon Secrets

Ghost Fire

Wurm War

BILLY HOOTEN: OWLBOY SERIES: