you care. And all because of us.'
'We never meant for any of this to happen,' said Suzie.
Tommy looked at her briefly, taking in her scarred face, but his cold gaze returned almost immediately to me. 'And that makes it all right, does it?'
'No,' I said. 'But what's done, is done. We can't help them, but we can still help ourselves. We don't need Merlin; we still have his heart.' I leaned over the wrapped bundle on the table and pulled back the cloth to show that the heart was still slowly beating, even though there was no blood left in it. 'Merlin put enough of his power into his heart that it still continues, still holds a large portion of his magic. We can tap into that magic and use it to send us further back into the Past.'
Tommy put Nimue to one side, arranging her tenderly in a chair like a sleeping child, then he stood up to face me. 'Did you know this all along, Taylor? Did you plan for this?'
'No,' I said. 'I Saw it with my gift, when I studied his defences.'
'Why should I believe you?' said Tommy, and Suzie stirred at my side, picking up on the anger burning in the man.
'I've never lied to you, Tommy,' I said carefully. 'I'm sorry about Nimue, and even about Merlin, but I came into the Past to stop Lilith, and that's what I'm going to do.'
'Whatever it takes? No matter who gets hurt?'
'I don't know,' I said. 'Maybe.'
'If we take the heart with us, further back into the Past, no wonder no-one could ever find it,' said Suzie. 'They were always looking in the wrong place, the wrong time.'
'We'll take Nimue's body along with us,' I said. 'Dump it somewhere in the Past. So that when Merlin returns from the dead, he'll never have to know that Nimue died trying to save him.'
'You pick the strangest ways to be thoughtful, Taylor,' said Suzie.
'If you were to put the heart back,' Tommy said slowly, 'there's a real chance the magic stored in the heart would be enough to bring him back.'
'We don't know that,' I said. 'And we need the magic in the heart...'
'We can't let him die!' Tommy said fiercely. 'Not if there's even the smallest chance of saving him! Otherwise, we're as good as killing him ourselves.'
'Think it through,' I said. 'If it doesn't work, we waste the magic, and we're stranded here. And if Merlin should wake up, and discover what we persuaded Nimue to do, and that she died as a result of it... he'd kill us all. Slowly and hideously painfully. This is Merlin Satanspawn we're talking about.'
'So we do nothing?' said Tommy. There was a dangerous cold light in his eyes.
'Yes,' I said. 'He dies here, without his heart, as we know he did, and he'll be buried in the cellars under the bar. That's a part of our Past, our Present, our time-line. We just helped to bring about what we know happened anyway.'
'You cold-hearted son of a bitch.' Tommy was so angry his face had lost all its colour, and his hands were clenched into fists at his sides. 'Just how far will you go, to get your precious revenge?'
I didn't look at Suzie. At her familiar, disfigured face. 'I only do what I have to do,' I said, keeping my voice as calm and reasonable as I could. 'Let's get out of here, before Kae wakes up. I don't think you can stop a warrior like that for long just by hitting him over the head.'
'No,' said Tommy, still looking at me, and his eyes were cold, so cold. I don't think I'd ever seen him so angry. 'This stops here, Taylor. You've done enough damage on your insane quest. Suzie's face. Nimue's death. Merlin ... all for your petty, vindictive vendetta. To hell with Lilith, and to hell with you, too, you lying sack of shit. You'd sacrifice anyone and anything, just to get back at your mother. I don't see why ... After all, you've made yourself into just as vicious and cold-hearted a monster as her. You're every inch your mother's son.'
'Don't,' I said. 'Don't say that, Tommy.'
'It's not true,' said Suzie. 'Don't do this, Tommy. Taylor knows what he's doing. He always knows what he's doing.'
It was like a hand clenched around my heart then, squeezing it painfully, to hear her trust and faith in me, even after... everything that had happened. I wasn't worthy of trust like that. I would have said something, but I couldn't get my breath.
'Oh yes,' said Tommy. 'I think he knows what he's doing, all right. I simply don't trust his motives any more.'
'I never meant for anyone to get hurt,' I said finally. 'I don't want anyone to get hurt. I've seen the future that's coming, if Lilith isn't stopped. I still have nightmares ... And I am ready to die, to prevent it. But... I don't have the right to ask that of anyone else. What do you think we should do, Tommy?'
'I say we put Merlin's heart back,' Tommy said stubbornly. 'It could work. We save his life, and I'll use my gift to talk him out of killing us. You know how persuasive I can be. With his heart back and his power restored, he'll be able to repair Suzie's face and bring Nimue back from the dead. Don't look at me like that! This is Merlin; he could do it! I know he could. And then, with the right guidance and advice, he will restore the glory that is Camelot and make a better world, a better future!'
'Oh Jesus, are we back to that?' said Suzie. 'Tommy, we've been through this. We daren't change the Past, because of what it could do to our Present. And there's no telling what kind of a future you and a half-mad Merlin might bring about anyway.'
'Lilith still has to be stopped,' I said.
'Why?' said Tommy. 'Because of what she might do? Don't worry; Merlin will handle her.'
'Merlin Satanspawn?' I said. 'The Devil's only begotten son? For all we know, he'd help her.'
'I can use my gift...'
'Against Merlin?'
'You're Lilith's only son,' said Tommy. 'You'd let the dream of Camelot die, just to further your own ambitions. I see right through you, Taylor. And I'll see you die first!'
He raised his gift, but I was already raising mine, and the whole bar shook as our powers manifested and clashed head-on. I used my gift to try and find his weaknesses, and he used his to try and reinforce a reality where I never reached the sixth century. My gift dealt with certainties, his with probabilities, and neither was really strong enough to overcome the other. We both put all our strength into this clash of wills, and reality itself became hazy and uncertain around us, until it seemed the whole bar might unravel, leaving us the only fixed and real things in the world.
There was no telling where that insane and dangerous struggle might have gone if Suzie hadn't put a stop to it by simply hitting Tommy round the back of the head with the butt of her shotgun. He cried out and fell to his knees, his gift snapping off as the pain in his head kept him from concentrating. He still tried to come up off his knees fighting, and Suzie calmly and dispassionately beat the shit out of him. He finally collapsed into unconsciousness, and I used my gift to find Old Father Time's touch on him and remove it. Tommy disappeared immediately, swept back to our Present.
(And that was when I finally remembered when I'd seen Tommy Oblivion before. He'd appeared out of nowhere in Strangefellows, during the Nightingale case, some months previously. He'd been badly beaten, and yelled threats at me before he was thrown out. Now I knew why. He'd obviously arrived back in the Nightside before he left. Still, it did beg the question of why, if Tommy knew what was going to happen on this trip, he didn't search out his younger self, and inform him... Unless something happened to the older Tommy to prevent it... That's why I hate Time travel. Just thinking about it makes your head hurt.)
I sat down in a chair while Suzie checked my head wound, then cleaned the blood off my face. I sat looking at Merlin's heart on the table before me, planning what I was going to do next. Even after everything that had happened, I was still determined to press on. I had to succeed in my mission to justify all the suffering and damage I'd caused.
'If nothing else,' said Suzie, 'we have discovered the answer to one of the great mysteries of the Nightside-who stole Merlin's heart? We did. Who would have thought it... Can it really take us further back into the Past?'
She was speaking calmly and professionally, so I did the same. 'I don't see why not. The power's definitely there; I have to tap into it and guide it.'
'And you're not worried about your Enemies locating you here?'
