reason. Apart from the many already fragmenting Christian churches, there were also temples dedicated to Dagon, the Madonna of the Martyrs, the Carrion in Tears, and Lucifer Rising. (This last usually known as the Hedge Your Bets church.) There were also any number of Pagan and Druidic shrines, based around grotesque wood carvings and distressingly large phallic symbols. Religion was very up front and in your face in the sixth century, with preachers of every stripe haranguing, the crowds from every street corner, preaching fire and brimstone and any number of variations on My god will be back any time now, and then you 'II be sorry! The better speakers got listened to respectfully, and everyone else got pelted with... well, shit, mostly.
'Jesus is coming back a week this Saturday!' bellowed one preacher as we passed. 'Repent now and avoid the rush!'
There were other, darker, forces abroad in the Night-side. Beings and Forces hadn't been forcibly segregated to the Street of the Gods yet. And so they walked in glory down the same streets as the rest of us, often surrounded by
unearthly glows, radiating power and otherness. People hurried to get out of their way, and the slower- moving ones were often transfixed and sometimes physically transformed, just from sheer proximity to the Beings. One figure, a huge blocky shape with a great insect head, headed straight for us, only to turn aside at the last moment, actually stepping out into the road to avoid getting too close to me. It regarded me solemnly with its complex eyes, the intricate mouth parts moving slowly in what might have been a prayer.
'It sensed something about you,' said Tommy.
'Probably that I'm in a really bad mood,' I said. 'I could have sworn the Londinium Club was around here somewhere, but it seems we're not necessarily where I thought we were.'
'You mean we're lost?' said Tommy.
'Not lost, as such,' I said. 'Just... misplaced.'
'We can't keep walking at random,' Suzie said quietly. 'Even with Old Father Time's glamour protecting us, you're still attracting attention, Taylor. Use your gift. Find the Londinium Club.'
'You know I don't like to use my gift unless I have to,' I said, just as quietly.
'Your Enemies aren't going to be looking for you in the sixth century,' Suzie said sternly.
'We could ask people for directions,' said Tommy.
'No we couldn't,' said Suzie. 'We want our arrival there to have the element of surprise. Use your gift, Taylor.'
I thought about it. My Enemies had no reason to suspect I was here, sixteen hundred years in the Past, unless the future Suzie had told them about this little trip... but I couldn't keep thinking that way, or I'd go mad. So, I powered up my gift, opening the third eye deep in my mind, and Saw the world around me. There were ghosts everywhere, walking through the crowds and the buildings, pale, faded figures trapped in their temporal fugues, repeating
the same endless circle of action and mourning. There were huge spirit forms, bigger than houses, striding through the material world as though they were all that was real and the rest of us only phantoms. Massive, winged things that were neither angels nor demons flapped overhead in great clouds, holding rigid formations. Unknowable forces moving on unguessable missions. I pulled my drifting thoughts together, concentrated on the Londinium Club, and found it in a moment. We weren't as far from it as I'd thought, only a few minutes' walk. Which made me think: did Lilith know that? Had she chosen where as well as when to drop me back into the world? Was I supposed to go to the Club, to meet someone or learn something? More questions with no answer.
I shut down my gift, carefully pulling my mental defences back into place. Just at the end there, I'd felt... Something, starting to take notice of my presence. Not my Enemies. Something of this time, big and dark and brutally powerful. Just possibly ... Merlin Satanspawn.
I didn't mention this to the others. Just led them down the street, heading for the Londinium Club. But almost immediately our way was blocked by a ragged bunch of street thugs who appeared out of nowhere and had us surrounded in a moment. Ten of them, big and bulky swords for hire in scrappy chain mail and battered leather armor, with scarred faces and nasty smiles. They carried short-swords and axes, and long knives with blades so notched they were practically serrated. None of them topped five feet, but they all had barrel chests and arms bigger than my thighs. None of this lot had ever gone hungry. They were, however, filthy dirty, and they smelled awful. The leader was a swarthy man with a roughly cut mane of black hair. He smiled nastily, revealing several missing teeth.
'Well, well,' he said easily. 'Not often we gets nobility
in our part of town, do we, lads? So... clean, and well dressed. Slumming, are we, gents and lady? Looking for a bit of rough trade, perhaps? Well, they don't come much rougher than us, and that's a fact.' His fellow thugs all laughed unpleasantly, some of them already looking at Suzie in a way I didn't like. If she killed them all, it would be bound to attract unwelcome attention. At least she hadn't drawn her shotgun yet.
'What do you want?' asked Suzie, and the leader looked at her uncertainly, taken aback by the cold, almost bored tone in her voice.
'What do we want, lady? What have you got? Just a toll, a little local taxation, for the privilege of passing through our territory.'
'Your territory?' I said.
'Our territory, because we control it,' said the leader. 'Nothing and no-one moves through here, without paying us tribute.'
'But...'
'Don't you argue with me, you tosser,' said the thug, prodding me hard in the chest with a filthy finger. 'Give us what we want, and we'll let you walk away. Piss us about, and we'll mess you up so bad people will puke just to look at you.'
'How much is this going to cost us?' said Tommy, already reaching for his purse.
'Whatever coin you've got on you. Any goods we happen to take a liking to. And some quality time with this lady.' The chief thug leered at Suzie. 'I likes them big.'
I winced on his behalf. I could feel Suzie's icy presence beside me, like the ticking of an activated bomb.
'That is a really bad idea,' I said, in my best cold and dangerous voice. I relaxed a little as the thug turned his attention back to me. I could handle scumbags like him. I gave him my best hard stare. 'You don't know who we are.
What we can do. So do the sensible thing and step aside, before we have to show you.'
He laughed in my face, and his fellow thugs laughed with him. I was a bit taken aback. It had been a long time since anyone dared laugh in my face.
'Nice try, Taylor,' said Suzie. 'But they don't know your legend here. Let me deal with them.'
'You can't kill them all,' Tommy said immediately. 'Kill them, and you kill all their potential future descendants. Who knows how many cumulative changes that could cause, back in our Present? Let me try my gift on them.' He gave the leader his best winning smile. 'Come, let us reason together.'
'Shut your face, pretty boy,' said the leader. He spat right into Tommy's face, and Tommy recoiled with a cry of disgust, his concentration shattered.
'So much for diplomacy,' said Suzie, and she drew her shotgun with one easy movement.
The leader regarded the gun interestedly. 'Whatever that thing is, it won't do you any good, lady. Me and the lads are protected, against all edged weapons and magical attacks. None of them can touch us.'
Suzie shot the man in the face, blowing his head right off his shoulders. The body staggered back a few steps and collapsed. The other thugs looked at the body twitching on the ground, then slowly and reluctantly looked back at Suzie.
'Run away,' I suggested, and they did. Suzie looked after them thoughtfully for a moment, then put her shotgun away again.
'There really wasn't any need for that,' I said. 'I could have dealt with them.'
'Of course you could,' said Suzie.
'I could!'
'You can deal with the next ones,' said Suzie, as she set off down the street.
'I never get to have any fun,' I said, following after. 'He's going to sulk now, isn't he?' said Tommy, hurrying
