put my father together with my mother and made me possible!”
The Collector wouldn’t meet my eyes. “I was misled,” he said finally. “I thought I was doing the right thing.”
“Leave Mark alone,” said Walker, moving forward to stand beside the Collector. “We all thought we were doing the right thing, back then. Including your father. We never meant for any of this to happen… You’re looking at me strangely, John. What is it?”
“I’ve just had an idea,” I said. I could feel my smile spreading into a broad grin, and suddenly I didn’t feel tired any more. “I’m John Taylor, remember? I always have one more trick up my sleeve. And this one’s a beauty! There is a way to stop Lilith that doesn’t involve fighting. All we have to do is put together the three men who originally summoned Lilith through the Babalon Working, have them restart the spell, then reverse it, sending Lilith back into Limbo! The door you created with the Working is still open, isn’t it?”
“Well, yes,” said Walker. “We never got the chance to close it. By the time we realised the door hadn’t shut itself, the three of us had separated, determined never to work together again. It wasn’t as if the door mattered; it was only slightly ajar, undetectable except to the three of us. No-one else could use it. Lilith’s entrance had attuned it to her, and her only.”
“But the three of you working together could restart the magic,” I said. “Push the door all the way open, force Lilith through it, into Limbo, then close the door after her! It would work! Wouldn’t it?”
“Technically, yes,” said the Collector, frowning. “Though one of us would have to go through the door with Lilith, to make sure she couldn’t open it again from the other side, until we closed the doorway. And whoever went through… would be trapped with Lilith in Limbo, for all eternity. So you needn’t look at me. I have far too much to live for. And I never got on with her anyway, even when she was only Charles’s wife.”
“You never did understand about duty,” said Walker. “I’ll do it.”
“No,” I said. “I’ll go. You know it has to be me.”
“No it doesn’t!” said Suzie, almost savagely. “Why does it always have to be you, John? Haven’t you done enough?”
“This is all, unfortunately, quite irrelevant,” said Walker. “It’s a good plan, John, but there’s no way we can make it work. It took the three of us to establish the Babalon Working, and only the three of us could hope to restart it. And your father is dead, John.”
“Not any more,” I said. “Lilith raised the dead in the Necropolis graveyard, remember? Brought them all back to life and sent them out into the Nightside.” I could see the light of understanding dawning in everyone’s eyes. “He’s out there, somewhere. My father. Charles Taylor. And who’s better suited to find him than me?”
I forced my gift awake, and it showed me a vision of my returned father. He was doing research in the Prospero and Michael Scott Memorial Library, rooting through the ruins and collecting books from overturned stacks. He piled the books up on a desk, and searched desperately through each volume, looking for… something. I studied him for a while. He didn’t look much older than I was. In fact, he looked a lot like me. I took hold of Walker’s and the Collector’s hands, so they could see him, too.
“Typical Charles,” said the Collector, almost wistfully. “He never could abide taking orders from anyone. Including, it would seem, an ex-wife who brought him back from the dead. She should have known he’d go his own way.”
“I don’t think she knows about him,” said Walker. “She’s got other things on her mind, just now.”
“What’s he doing, burying himself in books when the world’s coming to and end?” said the Collector.
“Doing what he always does,” said Walker. “Research. He’s looking for answers.”
I looked back at Merlin. “Open a door for me, between here and there. I need to talk to my father.”
The dead sorcerer scowled at me. “If I remove my concentration from the bar’s defences, even for a moment, Lilith will know what’s happening here.”
“Let her,” I said. “All that matters now is getting these three old friends back together. So they can put right their old wrong.”
“God, you sound like your father sometimes,” said the Collector. “He could be a right pain in the arse on occasion, too.”
Merlin gestured angrily with an unsteady hand, and the Library vision became real as an opening appeared in space, linking the bar with the Library. My father was so immersed in his books he didn’t even notice. I stepped carefully through the opening into the Library and coughed meaningfully. My father scrambled up out of his chair and backed away from me, holding a heavy paperweight like a weapon. I slowly raised my hands, to show they were empty.
“Take it easy,” I said. “I’m not here to hurt you. I need your help.”
Charles Taylor studied me suspiciously, then put the paperweight down on the desk. “You look familiar. Do I know you?”
It hit me harder than I’d expected, to hear my father’s voice again after so many years. It made him real again, in a way just the sight of him hadn’t. I lowered my hands, and suddenly I didn’t know what to say. Too many things I wanted to tell him, needed to tell him, but I couldn’t find the words.
“How did you find me here?” he said. “You don’t have the look of one of Lilith’s creatures. Though I’m sure I’ve seen you somewhere before… but it doesn’t matter. I can’t help you. You’ll have to leave. I’m very busy.”
“You know me,” I said. “Though it’s been a long time. I’m John. I’m your son, John.”
“My God,” he said, and he sat down suddenly on his chair, as though all the strength had gone out of his legs. “John… Look at you… All grown-up. You look… a lot like my father. Your grandfather. Of course, you never knew him…”
“You went away,” I said. I tried to keep the anger out of my voice, but that only made it sound even colder. “Abandoned me to my Enemies, when I was just a child. You left me alone when I needed you the most. You drank yourself to death rather than raise me. Why?”
Charles sighed heavily. He looked at his books, as though for answers, and then he made himself look back at me. “You have to understand… I’d been betrayed so many times: by friends I thought I could trust, by the woman I believed loved me. Your mother… was my last chance. To be a man again, to be sane again. To do good work, work that mattered. She was my life, my hope, my dreams. I never loved anyone like I loved her. When Pew told me the truth, showed me the hard evidence… I almost killed him. I went looking for her, but she was already gone. Just as well. I don’t know what I would have done… And you, John, you’d meant so much to me, and now I was afraid you were a lie, too. Because if I couldn’t depend on my wife to be my wife, if she wasn’t even human… how could I depend on you to be my son? I was afraid you’d turn out to be a monster, like your mother.”
“No,” I said. “I’m nothing like my mother.”
He smiled, and it was like a hand crushing my heart. I remembered that smile, from long ago, though I’d forgotten it till that moment.
“I’ve been reading about you, son. Reports of your old cases, in the Night Times. Quite the adventures, I gather. Helping people who couldn’t help themselves, solving mysteries, bringing down the bad guys… I also read some of the editorial pieces, by Julien Advent. The great Victorian Adventurer. He doesn’t seem too sure whether he approves of you, but he approves of what you achieved, and that’s good enough for me. You’ve made yourself the hero I always meant to be, but life got in the way…”
“It’s not too late,” I said. “There is a way you can stop Lilith. Come with me. Two old friends are waiting to greet you.”
He got up from his chair and stood before me. We were exactly the same height. Two men of roughly the same age, but with far more than our share of experience.
“There is a way?” he said. “Really?”
“I believe so.”
“Then let’s do it.” He put a hesitant hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry I let you down, son. Sorry… I wasn’t strong enough.”
“Everyone else let you down,” I said. “They all lied to you. Betrayed you. That stops now.”
“I read everything they had on you here,” said Charles Taylor. “You’ve done well, in my absence. I’m proud of you, son.”
“That’s all I ever wanted,” I said.
I think he would have hugged me then, but I wasn’t ready for that. I still had to be strong. I led the way back through the opening, into the bar, and he came through after me. Merlin immediately shut the opening down. My
