“I remember many things,” said Luna. “That’s always been my problem.” She looked at Hob sadly with her ice-blue eyes. “The Serpent raped me. Took me against my will, hurt me till I could no longer resist him, and then made me carry his seed. A metaphysical rape, but the horror was very real. Such was his power that I could not abort you, drive your unnatural presence from my body. And so I reduced myself to the human, gave birth to you in blood and suffering and inflicted you on Humanity. That was the Serpent’s curse, and my crime. Everything else since then has been your responsibility.”
“Aren’t relatives embarrassing?” Hob said to Toby. He smiled at Luna. “You know, humility suits you, Mother. You should try it more often.” Hob’s charming smile disappeared. “It didn’t have to be like that. You could have kept me, raised me, cared for me; protected me from my father. But you chose not to. You helped make me what I am.”
“I hated your father,” Luna said tiredly. “Hated what he did to me, hated the result—you. I let Gayle take you away because … I wanted to forget what happened, forget you. And we all know how well that worked out. I’m here now, Nicholas. We can talk.”
Hob showed his teeth in an unforgiving smile. “Too late, Mother dearest; far too little, and far too late.”
“Excuse me,” said Leo Morn diffidently. “What about me?”
“What about you?” said Hob, and Leo nodded quickly, shut his mouth and hoped not to be noticed again.
“Why Blackacre?” said Toby. “If you wanted a place of your own, why make it such an awful place?”
“Because I could,” said Hob. “It felt so good, to hurt the world as she hurt me. And because the Serpent demanded it. He would allow me a place of my own, but only on his terms. Typical father, I suppose. Still; I have power here. You’d be surprised at what I can do, here.”
“Then why did you leave?” said Jimmy Thunder.
“The Serpent again,” said Hob. “I have always been my Father’s servant; his weapon in the world of men. He had a use for me, and so he drove me out of here, with whips and scorpions, to do his bidding. He does so love to meddle. And it’s really so very typical of him, and of all my family. I’ve never been allowed to have a life of my own.”
“So what’s the plan?” said Gayle. She was sitting up a little straighter now, though she still looked very weak. “Why do you need me here, Hob?”
“You’re the key to everything,” said Nicholas Hob reasonably. “Through you, my father and I will change everything that is. Or, to be more exact, through your death. Soon the Serpent will send out a massive solar flare, the one he’s been building up to all this time. And I will call it down, target and channel it through me, and send it out to sear all the life from this town, the secret heart of the world. Not one living thing shall survive here, in Veritie or Mysterie. The Serpent’s natural and supernatural heat will scour the town clean from boundary to boundary, and Bradford-on-Avon will become just part of a much bigger Blackacre.
“And of course, as goes the town, so goes the world. Because here in my place, dear Gayle, you are only human. You have no power, no defences; you will die with all the others. The earth will live on, but you, the soul and heart and intelligence of Gaia, will be dead and gone. The Serpent will take control of the new, mindless Earth, and remake it according to his wishes. Without you to stop him, he will send out more solar flares, to scorch all the life from the world. And then he will combine Veritie and Mysterie by force of will into one world, which he will restock with creatures of his own choosing and design; new life, answerable only to him. And I will rule them, in my father’s name.”
“You are crazy,” said Toby, too taken aback to be anything but honest.
“You wish,” said Hob. “Let the old worlds die. They were never very kind to either of us, were they? It’s time for a change.”
Toby looked at Gayle. “Is it possible? Could he actually do that? He and his father?”
“Yes,” said Gayle. “The First-Born was always the most powerful of us. With Gaia gone, and perhaps Luna too …”
“The end of the old and the beginning of the new,” Hob said cheerfully. “We should be celebrating! The new, joined world will be far superior to what we have now. None of the deadly dull greyness of Veritie, none of the capricious madness of Mysterie. No more Powers and Dominations, screwing up people’s lives …”
“None of the logic and sanity of Veritie,” said Gayle. “None of the wonders and joys of Mysterie. Just the Serpent, to screw up everybody’s lives …”
“With you and your kind gone, the Serpent will have no reason to interfere,” said Hob. “No more gods and monsters, just … ordinary people. Something very like Humanity, I’m sure. To be frank, the Serpent isn’t very imaginative. I’m sure he’ll end up leaving a lot of the details to me. He usually does. The Serpent will be an absentee landlord. And I will be whatever I want to be. At last … Let the old worlds go. I never liked them anyway.”
“You don’t have to do this,” said Luna. “It’s not too late, even now, to turn and walk away. You can still stop this.”
“Can you protect me from my father?” said Hob.
“No.”
“Then I do have to do this. And I would anyway, because I want to. Payback can be so very sweet, Mother dearest.”
“I could die here too, with Gaia.”
“I know! Isn’t it wonderful! An unexpected but most appreciated bonus.” Hob sneered at her from his chair. “I owe you so much, for what you did to me. By choosing to give birth to me in your human form, in Veritie, you ensured I would be human too. So much less of a threat to you and your kind. You crippled me, Mother. Condemned me to a mere human vessel, when I could have been so much more. Denied me my true heritage, my real power. What might I have been, had I been born in Mysterie, a true son of Luna and the Serpent? I could have been greater than all of you. Instead you damned me to be human, with a human’s limitations, no match for my father’s power. And so I became his slave, never to be free of him, never to be my own person.”
“You could have been safe from him,” said Luna. “If you’d stayed in Veritie, where I put you.”
“And give up all my dreams of revenge? I needed the power I could find only in Mysterie. Not much power, compared to what I could have had, but enough to back my various little schemes. To make you and Auntie Gaia notice me and suffer, and regret your crimes against me. And let’s face it; Veritie’s a nice place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there.”
“Revenge?” said Jimmy Thunder. He’d finally got back onto his feet, with Leo’s help, but he still had to lean against the filthy wall to support himself. “Is that what all this has been about? Because Mummy didn’t love you? How very human of you, Nicholas. Get a life!”
The Hob snatched up a metal coffee pot from the table and threw it at Jimmy. It bounced off his skull, and his head rocked under the impact. Fresh blood ran down his face, but he still kept his feet.
“Speak when you’re spoken to,” said Hob. He turned back to Toby, suddenly all charm again. “Don’t listen to them, Toby. They’re just jealous. You can still be a part of this. You’re supposed to be here. You have a role to play, as a focal point. You were chosen, by Powers far greater than any here present, to help make all this possible. I know it’s a big thing, to give it all up and start anew in a brave new world; but was your old life really so special that you want to hang onto it? I’m offering you the chance to be a god, along with me, to rule over a wonderful new age. A new beginning, of wonders and miracles and glorious new life. What is there in your old life that you’d miss? A lousy job, rotten prospects, growing old, useless and forgotten? To be mortal, to age and die? You could be worshipped, in the world that’s coming.”
“You want to kill Gayle,” said Toby.
“So should you,” Hob said reasonably. “She’s used you and lied to you all along the way. She doesn’t love you. She can’t love you. Gayle is a lie. She has no real existence of her
own, no real personality, that could feel anything for you. She’s just a mask, a puppet. The shadow Gaia makes against a wall. Whatever you might think you feel for her is just an illusion; like the crush you might have on a film star on the big screen. She knew that, but she used that love to bind you to her. So that when your moment came, your short moment of power and destiny, you would do what she wanted. Toby, listen to me. I know what it is to be used by one of Them. My new world will be free of such lies, such influences. It might not be a strictly human world, but it will be much more humane. Make the big jump, Toby. Throw off your shackles and be free!”
“You can’t expect me to agree to the slaughter of all Humanity! To the extermination of the human race!”
“Why not? The Serpent will produce something very similar, to take its place. Every god needs worshippers.” Hob shrugged easily. “When you’ve lived as long as I have, Toby, and seen Humanity at its worst, the charm wears off pretty damn quickly. They’re a spiteful, vindictive bunch, with few redeeming qualities. I’m sure the Serpent and I can improve on them.”
“That’s not why the Serpent wants to kill off Humanity,” said Gayle, some of the old steel in her voice. “He’s afraid of them. He sees Humanity’s potential as a threat to him because they’re always evolving, growing, becoming more than they are.”
“Or were supposed to be,” said Hob. “Who knows what they might become, in time? They have no limits on them, in Veritie, to protect the rest of us from their ambitions. They’ve already learned how to leave this planet. Eventually, there might come a time when they won’t need the Earth, or the Sun, any more. They already seek to control this world, gutting it and poisoning it in the process. Given time, they’ll wear it out and move on, leaving this world and the Sun behind.”
“Finally,” said Luna. “Finally we come to the truth. To the Sun’s words, and motivation. He won’t allow Humanity to grow, because they might grow beyond him. Might learn to do without him. Might even go away and leave him alone, as he was in the beginning. He’d destroy them all first, and replace them with something that could never grow, and would never leave him.”
“Well, yes,” said Hob. “After the Sun’s wiped the Earth clean, with my help, he’ll subsume Veritie into Mysterie, and ensure that this fused world will remain weakened, for ever under his and my control. Everyone in the new world will know their place and their function, and will never again grow beyond their purpose, transcend what they were supposed to be.”
“No more choice,” said Gayle. “No more freedom of thought.”
“Why should they have what I’ve never known?” said Hob. He turned the full force of his charm and personality on Toby. “Join with me. Help bring about a new start, a new beginning. You can’t love her. She isn’t real. She isn’t a person. She’ll never love you.”
“You’re wrong,” said Toby. “Gayle may be only a small part of Gaia, but she’s real, she’s human. She made herself real, by living as a human among humans; by not just accepting her limitations, but learning from them. You spent so long regretting what you could have been and obsessing on revenge that you never learned to appreciate the simple joys and pleasures of the human condition. What might you have been, Hob, what might you have achieved, if you’d concentrated on being real? All these centuries you’ve lived, all the people you’ve met; didn’t you ever love any of them?”
“No,” said Hob. “For a long time I thought … maybe some day … but love isn’t in me. I don’t think I’m capable of it. How can you feel, how can you know what you’ve never had? There’s only ever been me, and the Serpent’s orders. All my life, others have only ever sought to use me for their own ends. From the highest to the lowest, from the Serpent down to foolish, limited humans. Open your eyes, Toby. You’ve been used, too. They made you a focal point, arranged for you to meet Gayle and fall in love with her, knowing she wasn’t a real person and could never return your love. All so you’d do what They want, when the time came. Don’t be a sucker all your life, Toby. Fight back. This is your chance for revenge; to make them pay for promising you a love you could never have.”
“You’re right,” said Toby. “You don’t understand love. They, whoever They are, probably did arrange our meeting yesterday. But I loved her long before that. I loved her from the first moment I saw her. I never expected anything to come of it; never expected her to love me. It’s enough that I love her. She’s real, she’s human and she’s very special. I won’t betray her, and I won’t agree to the death of all Humanity, just because you’re pissed off because you couldn’t get a date.”
“Ah hell,” said Hob. “It was worth a try. Angel! You can come in now!”
The door slammed open, and there was Angel. She strode into the room, her scarlet eyes bright and hungry. Hob indicated Jimmy Thunder.
“He’s all yours, Angel. Feel free to make a mess.”
Jimmy had only started to push himself away from the supporting wall when Angel was upon him. She snatched the hammer Mjolnir from his holster, raised it high and brought it smashing down with inhuman speed. The hammer tried to turn in her grasp, but her strength was relentless. The hammer slammed violently against Jimmy’s unprotected head, and there was a loud crack as it caved in the side of his skull. Jimmy fell limply to the floor like a steer in a slaughterhouse and lay there twitching. Angel hit him again with the hammer, just in case, and because she enjoyed it.
Leo Morn, who’d never thought of himself as any kind of hero, who knew he didn’t stand a chance against Angel, turned wolf in an instant and threw himself on Angel’s back. He’d always admired Jimmy Thunder, who was a real hero, and much to his surprise, he found he couldn’t just stand by and watch while Angel killed a real hero. He landed on Angel’s shoulders, and she cried out in shock and staggered away from Jimmy, as Leo’s claws sank deep into her pale flesh. He bit viciously at the back of her neck.
Leo! shouted his Brother Under The Hill. Get the hell away from her! You don’t stand a chance! You don’t have to do this!
“Yes I do,” said Leo. “I’m a Morn.”
His great wolf teeth savaged Angel’s flesh, and her hot blood sang against his tongue as his jaws piled on the pressure until his teeth grated against her neck bones. Angel dropped the hammer Mjolnir and spun round and round, screaming in pain and rage, while Leo clung grimly on, fighting to sever her spinal cord. But in the end he was just a wolf, and she was Angel. She forced her arms back until her hands could reach his hairy shoulders, and then her fingers sank into his flesh like knives. His bones cracked and broke as her grip tightened, and then she tore him away from her.
Leo kicked helplessly as she held him up before her with one hand, studying him with hot, angry eyes, and then she casually tore his left forelimb right out of its socket. Blood spurted clear across the room as Leo howled in agony, more like a man than a wolf. Angel pulled off his other legs, one by one, and only then tore off his head. She looked at the bloody pieces piled on the floor before her, her head cocked slightly on one side, as though puzzled by the extremity her rage had driven her to. Passions of all kinds were still new territory to her. Hob made tut-tutting noises.
“How many times do I have to tell you, Angel! Always clear up after yourself. Remember, we have to live here.”
Angel shrugged, and threw the pieces of what had once been Leo Morn out of the door, followed by Jimmy Thunder’s still twitching body.
Leo! NO! NO!
They all heard the Brother Under The Hill screaming, thundering through their minds, a harrowing scream of rage and loss and bitter intent. And they all heard the earth rumble and break, as just outside the town a hill began to open. On the side of that hill was an ancient drawing of a giant human form, carved out of the white chalk beneath the grass in centuries past, so long ago now that few indeed remembered by whom and why. There are chalk carvings on hillsides all across the country. Some say they mark the worship places of forgotten gods; others that they are fertility symbols. Only in Mysteri
e did a very few remember that chalk giants marked the resting places of dead or sleeping Nephilim, the giants in the earth. And under the carving on the hill outside Bradford-on-Avon a giant was stirring, his ancient blood awakened by a terrible loss. The hill shook and trembled and broke apart, the cold wet earth splitting open, and out came the Brother Under The Hill, roaring in his anger even as he wept for the last of the line of Morn.
He was twenty foot tall, a great and muscular figure of more than human grace and perfection. Entirely naked, wet mud still daubing his golden skin, the old wounds still showing on his back from where he’d torn away his wings long and long ago. He cried out, and his great voice filled the night. No longer resting in the earth, no longer bound by his ancient oath, the last of the Nephilim in the world of men headed for Blackacre with blood and vengeance on his mind.
Nephilim: human-angel hybrid. Sterile, like all hybrids, they adopted human families as their own. The Brother had adopted the Morns, watched and guarded them down the generations, had taken pride in their heroic deeds. Now they were all gone. The Brother came striding through the night with inhuman speed, to stop the Serpent’s plan in Leo’s name.