The Bride Wore Black Leather

real prick,” I said.
    Julien actually winced. “I do wish you’d avoid such vulgar language, John. You are Walker now.”
    “Stick to the point,” I said, not unkindly. “I think the Entities spent all those years programming him, impressing their true purpose on him. Whatever that might be. So that when they finally released him back into the world . . . he’d follow their Dream instead of his.”
    “I don’t know,” said Julien. “Maybe. Perhaps . . .”
    “Should we try the Street of the Gods?” I said. “There’s got to be a whole bunch of Entities and beings on the Street who could give him a good run for his money.”
    But Julien was already shaking his head firmly. “The Sun King was always so much more than a living god, even back then. Damned if I know what he is now. Do we really want to start a god war in the Nightside? Particularly when we can’t be sure of the outcome?”
    “All right,” I said. “Should we go to the other real place of god power in the Nightside? St. Jude’s?”
    “You really want to bring the Lord of Thorns into this? There’d be smiting everywhere and nowhere safe to hide.”
    “All right, all right! You think of something! Where would the Sun King want to go next, in the Nightside? Who does he know here, apart from you?”
    “Ah . . . There was someone,” Julien said slowly. “Someone he knew, back in our Haight-Ashbury days. A woman . . .”
    “Of course!” I said. “There’s always a woman! Who is she?”
    “She was the Goldberry to his Tom Bombadil,” said Julien. “His first real love and his first true passion, back in the Summer of Love. She was called Princess Starshine then, when she walked alongside the Sun King. She had power, too, briefly, from being so close to him. But when the time came, the Sun King didn’t take his Princess Starshine into the White Tower with him. He left her outside, with the others. After the Tower vanished, she waited and waited for it to reappear. She was the last to give up hope and the last to leave.”
    “And she’s here, now, in the Nightside?”
    “Has been for years. She’s a doctor, at the Hospice of the Blessed Saint Margaret. I know that because the
Night Times
helps raise funds to keep it going. No National Health Service here, unfortunately. If the Sun King knows she’s there, I think he’d go there. For old times’ sake. If . . . there’s anything left of the man I remember.”
    “If you want to bring a man down, go through the woman he loves,” I said, rubbing my hands together happily. “Good thinking, Julien.”
    “I used to be such a good man, once,” he said sadly.
    “So did the Sun King,” I said. “And look where that got him.”

SEVEN
    All Kinds of Miracles
    When we finally stepped out of the alcove in the Garden wall and back into the Land of Down and Outs, I was surprised to see a long black limousine already there, waiting for us. It looked more than a little out of place in the kind of area where the words
appalling
and
disgusting
take on whole new and very extreme meanings. I took a quiet look around, but the locals had all disappeared, presumably to sleep off their recent feast. Julien Advent was already opening the back door of the limousine. I stayed right where I was and gave him my very best meaningful cough. Julien looked back and gave me his best urbane smile.
    “I called for the car. My stomach has had more than enough of travelling by Portable Timeslip, while many of my nerves are currently on strike for better working conditions. You represent the Authorities now, John, and are fully entitled to all the little perks that go with your new position.”
    “Fair enough,” I said. “But this goes on your expense account, not mine.”
    Julien smiled briefly. “You’re learning. Now get in, so I can shut the door. We’re letting all the ambience in.”
    I slid into the back seat, and Julien followed me in quickly. The door shut itself after him, hardly making a sound. I leaned back in the richly padded seat and let loose a great sigh of pleasure as my muscles were finally able to relax. Julien picked up the interior phone and told the driver where to go. A uniformed chauffeur, of course, though I quickly realised that
chauffeuse
was more correct. A tall and elegant young lady in a white leather uniform, complete with a peaked white leather cap, over a platinum blonde buzz cut. She nodded briefly to Julien, without looking back.
    “Sure thing,