Nightside 10 - The Good the Bad and the Uncanny

me, throwing all my hopes and needs and secrets into sharp relief, so that anyone could see them. But bright as it was, I could still see clearly without squinting or blinking, for this was no ordinary earthly light. The source was a man, fuelled by heavenly fires but not consumed. The Lord of Thorns had come back into his power again.
    He was striding up and down and back and forth, his long white robes flapping about him, raging and raving and brandishing his bony fists. I’d never seen anyone look so purely angry in my whole life. His footsteps were like thunder, slamming on the bare stone floor, and his every movement sent shock waves across the air, as his bearded face contorted with rage. His eyes bulged, and his long grey hair swept about his head as he snarled and roared. His hands worked fiercely, as though eager, desperate, to get a hold on whoever had provoked this fury in him. His presence filled the whole church like an endless ongoing explosion.
    Larry and I stopped just inside the door. We both knew a real and present danger when we saw one.
    “Who or what is that?” said Larry, leaning close to speak right into my ear.
    “That is the Lord of Thorns,” I said. “The original Overseer of the Nightside, first and final dispenser of truth and justice for all who live here. Last I saw, he was a broken old man, stripped of his power, nothing but the self-appointed caretaker of St. Jude’s. He would appear to have got his mojo working again, and if you and I had any sense, we’d get the hell out of here before he notices us.”
    “The Lord of Thorns?” said Larry. “Really? I thought he was a myth, a legend.”
    “Anything can turn out to be true, in the Nightside.”
    “And you’ve met him before? What am I saying; of course you have. You’re John Taylor. All right; fill me in. The short version, preferably.”
    “The Lord of Thorns was appointed to be judge and protector of the Nightside,” I said patiently.
    “Appointed by whom?”
    “Who do you think?” I said, glancing about me.
    “Oh. Sorry. Carry on.”
    “He was to be Overseer of the Great Experiment; the one place in the world where neither Good nor Evil could intervene directly. The Lord of Thorns was to be our last chance for truth, justice, and revenge; but some centuries back he went down into the World Beneath and slept a long, long sleep. Until I woke him up.”
    “Of course,” said Larry. “It would have to be you.”
    “He reappeared in the Nightside just in time to go up against my mother in the Lilith War; and she slapped him down as though he was nothing. It broke his heart, and it broke his spirit; because if he wasn’t the divinely appointed protector of the Nightside and its people, then what was he? Who was he? He came here, looking for answers; and from the look of him, I’d say he’s finally found some.”
    “Don’t think he liked them much,” said Larry.
    The Lord of Thorns didn’t even know we were there. He raged back and forth inside the church, a giant of a man again, with eyes full of fire. So angry he couldn’t speak, only utter great cries and roars of rage. His white robes blazed like the sun, and with his long grey hair and beard, he looked very much like an Old Testament prophet, back from the desert to tell us all the bad news. Every now and again, lightning would strike down on the church, discharging harmlessly into the stone floor and sparking the air with the scent of ozone.

    The Lord of Thorns stopped abruptly and thrust out his right hand, and a long wooden staff appeared in it out of nowhere. I gaped with equal parts shock and amazement. This was no ordinary staff; supposedly it had been grown from a sliver taken from the original Tree of Life itself I had seen my mother, Lilith, take that staff from the Lord of Thorns and break it into pieces in her awful hands. Now here it was again, true and whole, powerful and potent; re-formed in the hand of the Lord of Thorns by his will alone.
    “I am the stone that breaks all hearts. I am the nails that held the Christ to His cross. I am the necessary suffering that makes us all stronger. I maintain the Great Experiment, watching over it, and sitting in judgement on all who would endanger it, or tamper with its essential nature. I am the scalpel that cuts out infection, and the heart-break that makes men wiser. I am the Lord of Thorns, and I am back; and God help the guilty!”
    His voice had the inhuman certainty of a man touched by