Nightside 11 - A Hard Days Knight

taking his iron throne with him. I let my breath out in a long gasp and leaned back against the bar for support. My legs were shaking so badly they could hardly support me. It’s not every day you outbluff the Devil’s only begotten son ... Suzie slipped her shotgun into the sheath on her back and took a long drink from her bottle. Her face was cold and calm as always, her hands entirely steady. Alex was busy pouring himself a large drink and spilling most of it. The sense of evil and oppression was gone, but some harsh sense of it still lingered, like a psychic stain. The great jagged crack in the floor wasn’t there any more—if it ever really had been. Sorcerers deal in illusion as often as not. If only because it costs less magic.
    Betty got Lucy back onto her feet and led her away. Lucy’s death and rebirth could have been an illusion, too; but I didn’t think so. The reality of it was still clear in Lucy’s face, in her eyes. She was shaking all over, her hands clasped together on her chest where the wound had been. And this from a woman who’d never backed down from anyone, in all the time I’d known her. Betty looked almost as shocked as Lucy. I had to wonder if either of them would ever get over what had happened.
    “I will see that smug bastard hauled down off his long throne, trampled underfoot, and fed to the pigs, for what he did to my girls,” said Alex, in a worryingly matter-of-fact voice. I turned to face him.
    “Don’t,” I said. “I mean it, Alex. He is way out of your league. Maybe even out of mine. Dead Merlin was dangerous enough; this version is seriously scary. I’m going to have to do a lot of hard thinking and planning, before I’m ready to go after him.”
    “But you will go after him?” said Alex.
    “Yes,” I said. “He threatened me, and my friends, and no-one gets away with that.”
    “He said he was the anti-Christ,” said Suzie.
    “Our Merlin rejected his father’s plans for him,” I said. “He could have been the anti-Christ, but he declined the honour. If only because he wouldn’t take orders from anyone. Of course, that was before he met Arthur, and everything changed. The Merlin we just met ... is every inch his father’s son.”
    “I’m going to have to get a bigger gun,” said Suzie. “Something heavier, and more ... spiritual.”
    “Got to be more useful than an angel’s feather,” Alex said pointedly.
    “We’re still here, aren’t we?” I said. “Now, we have work to do, and not a lot of time to do it in. It won’t take Merlin long to find someone who can take him straight to the missing Artur. There’s always someone, in the Nightside. Hell, there are probably already people lining up to sell their souls to him. After speaking to the London Knights, I’m pretty sure Artur came here looking for this world’s Excalibur. His Merlin doesn’t want him to have it because the sword could give Artur power over him. The Lady of the Lake from Sinister Albion wouldn’t give Artur her sword because he wasn’t worthy. So all that’s left to him is to steal some other world’s Excalibur. Which makes him Stark’s best buyer.”
    “Who’s this Stark?” said Suzie.
    “Rogue London Knight. Currently allied with Queen Mab’s elves. The man who stole Excalibur from me.”
    “I hate him already,” said Suzie. “Let me kill him for you.”
    “A nice thought, but not until we’ve got the sword back from him,” I said.
    “You really think you can find Stark before Merlin does?” said Alex.
    “Of course,” I said. “I have a gift; and I know the Nightside better than he ever will.”
    “Yes, but ... he’s Merlin !” said Alex. “Alive and in his prime, after fifteen hundred years of practicing his craft! With all the powers of the anti-Christ! He could probably pull the Moon down out of the sky and crash it into the Nightside for laughs! And I’m not sure there’s anyone in the Nightside who could stop him!”
    “Do I need to get you a paper bag to breathe into?” I said. “Of course there are people here who could stop him! Off the top of my head, there’s the Lord of Thorns. And Hadleigh Oblivion, the Detective Inspectre. And Jessica Sorrow, the Unbeliever.”
    “You really do know some scary people,” said Alex. He made an effort to calm himself. “And there’s the whole Street of the Gods, of course. Sorry. It’s hard to think of anyone else, when that oversized piece of shit is floating right in front of you,