The Bride Wore Black Leather

“I want to warn them, John, about so many things; but I can’t, and I know I won’t, because I didn’t.”

“This is why I hate Time travel,” I said. “Nothing good ever comes of it. This is the only truth that ever comes out of the Past—that nothing lasts.”

“But sometimes, people make comebacks,” said Julien. He moved in beside me, maintaining his grip, and looked thoughtfully at the crowd behind him. “Can any of you hear me? Do you know I’m here? Do you know what’s happened, or what’s about to happen? Come on, you’re all ghosts; if anyone’s not fixed in Time, it’s you. Help us to help you.”

But there was no response. No-one said anything, or even turned a head to look. It was only an echo of the Past, after all.

“Did you really expect anyone to answer?” I said.

Julien shrugged. “It’s the Nightside. Normal rules do not apply.”

And then we both looked round sharply as the Hawk’s Wind Bar & Grille began to shake and shudder. All around us, people jumped to their feet, shouting silently at each other. The young girls stopped dancing and rattled their golden cages, screaming noiselessly to be let out. A great light seemed to burn in from all directions at once, a fierce, consuming light that ate up everything it touched. People started to fade away, to disappear. The walls of the Bar began to break up as thick beams of light punched through them like battering rams.

Let the sun shine in . . . A few people ran for the door. Most of them didn’t make it, fading softly and silently away, often in midstep. A few tried to fight. The younger Julien Advent tried to protect his Juliet, holding up a large golden amulet with an unblinking eye set in it. They still disappeared, clutching each other’s hands so they wouldn’t be separated. Zodiac the Mystical surrounded himself with a shield of coruscating energies, silently chanting and stabbing his hands in all directions; but the light sneaked up on him when he wasn’t looking and snatched him up, and he was gone in a moment. The English Assassin got his sister to the door, fighting his way through the incandescent light beams, and threw her out the door. He stopped in the doorway to glare about him, sonic pistol in hand; but there was nothing he could shoot at. The light blazed up, dazzling, blindingly bright, then it snapped off; and the Hawk’s Wind Bar & Grille was gone.

I let go of the Past, and we were back where we’d started, looking down into the hole. It looked much the same. Some of the Tantric Troops started towards us, but Julien stopped them with a look. Showing rather more sang-froid than I would have shown, in the face of so many naked people. Julien beckoned to one naked woman, and she came forward to stand before him. I concentrated on her face.

“Right at the end there,” Julien said brusquely. “What did you see?”

“Light burst in from everywhere,” said the naked woman. “Forcing back the night. And then it was as though the two of you were there, and not there, at the same time. Strobing back and forth . . . and then the light was gone, and you were back.”

“You didn’t see the ghost building?” said Julien. “The Hawk’s Wind?”

“No,” said the naked woman. “Only you and Walker.”

“Thank you,” said Julien. “I want this whole area sealed off. No-one in or out until I tell you otherwise, or the Hawk’s Wind returns.”

“Is that likely?” asked the naked woman.

Julien gave her a hard look. “It’s the Nightside. Who knows anything?”

“Good point,” said the naked woman, and she hurried back to join the other naked people and started shouting at the watching crowd to back the hell off. And they did. Julien looked sharply at me.

“You felt the strength of that light, didn’t you? It could have taken us, along with the Bar. So why didn’t it?”

“Perhaps because we weren’t really there,” I said. “We were walking in the Past, not part of it. So what do we do now?”

“There is a place we could go,” Julien said slowly. “Somewhere that might provide answers. Green Henge.”

“Of course,” I said. “The Nightside’s very own Ring of Standing Stones. Where better to look for an old hippy?”

SIX The Very Righteous Sisters Meet the Sun King

I have seen many impressive walls, in the Nightside. Everything from the Great Wall of Porcelain China, down by the Desolation Docks, to the Moebius Wall of Murder Mile, which surrounds itself. But the huge stone wall that surrounds the Garden of Green Henge is still one hell of an impressive sight in its own right. My gold watch dropped Julien and me off outside the wall, in one of the shabbier areas of the Nightside. Either the trip was getting easier, or Julien and I were getting used to it, because after a few moments of deep breathing, silent cursing, and carefully not looking at each other, we were both back in command of ourselves and ready for business.

The massive stone wall before us rose some forty to fifty feet into the air, constructed from great stone slabs fitted expertly together, without the need for mortar or cement. Each slab was set so tightly in place, you couldn’t fit a knife blade between them; and given the major magical protections I could sense built into the wall, that would probably be a really bad idea anyway. There was no obvious door, and the wall stretched away in each direction for as far as I could see. As though someone had decided long ago, This far into the Nightside shall ye go, and no further. Where the wall met the ground, old blood stained the stones in a regular pattern, like a bloody tide-mark soaked deep into the stone so long ago that no shade of red remained in the dark stains.

Julien studied the blood-stains thoughtfully. “Is this what happened to the last people who tried to get in, do you think?”

“No,” I said. “This is what’s left from human sacrifices. When they were building the wall, men and women were butchered right here, so their blood and deaths would strengthen the magics protecting the wall and so that their ghosts would remain here, bound to the wall, to hold it up against any forces that tried to bring it down. Old Druidic tradition. Very practical and unpleasant people, the Druids.”

“You’re saying the ghosts are still here?” said Julien.

I looked up and down the wall. “No. No ghosts here. Somebody screwed up.”

Julien sighed quietly. “You can be really spooky sometimes, John. You know that?”

“Only sometimes?” I said. “I must try harder.”

Julien was giving rather more of his attention to the less than salubrious surroundings we’d arrived in. The buildings were dark and decrepit, with boarded-up windows and gaping doorways, and most of the street-lights had been smashed. Dark shadows everywhere; with ragged people lurking in them. A few of the braver ones were already shuffling out into the uncertain light to get a better look at whoever had been foolish enough to venture into their territory. Other things, that might or might not have been human but gave the impression of being just as hungry, moved in the shadows and alleyways.

“It’s times like this make me wish I still carried my old sword-stick,” said Julien. “Couldn’t you have materialised us inside the Garden?”

“Possibly,” I said. “But I didn’t want to upset the Righteous Sisters who run the place. There’s always the chance they’re old school Druids, the kind who would burn you alive in a giant wicker man, or nail your guts to the old oak tree, then chase you round it, as soon as look at you. We’re going to need their cooperation, so I’m being polite. I never used to bother much with that, back when I was only a private investigator, but now that I’m Walker . . . it’s that much harder to do appalling things to people in public and not get noticed. And anyway . . .”

“The wall has protections?” said Julien, keeping a watchful eye on the local wildlife.

“Like you wouldn’t believe,” I said. “You can’t sacrifice this many people in one place and not get something for your trouble. I’m sensing defensive magic here that could tie your insides into square knots and send your balls back up the way they came down. Over and over again. So I think we’re going to be very patient and polite . . . right up to the point where I don’t give a toss any more. There’s supposed to be an alcove here somewhere, with a bell . . .”

“Can’t you use your gift to find it?” said Julien.