Nightingale's Lament

  “The impudence of the girl!” said Mrs. Cavendish. “Of course, we couldn’t allow her to do any such thing. Not after all the money we’d already invested in her. And all the money we stood to make. We found her, we made her, we groomed her. We made Rossignol into a viable product. We had a right to protect our investment. Don’t think you’re fighting the good fight here, Mr. Taylor. This damsel in distress doesn’t need rescuing. From what, after all? Fame and fortune? We promised we would make her a star, and so we shall. But she is our property, and no-one else’s.”

  “What about freedom of choice?” I said.

  “What about it?” said Mr. Cavendish. “This is business we’re talking about. Rossignol signed away all such nonsense when she put her fate in our hands. Rossignol belongs to Cavendish Properties.”

  “Is that why you murdered her?” said Dead Boy. “Because she wanted to leave and run her own life?”

  The Cavendishes didn’t seem at all surprised by the accusation. If anything, they preened a little.

  “We didn’t actually kill her,” said the woman.

  “Not quite,” said the man.

  “She isn’t entirely dead,” said the woman. “The poison we gave her took her to the very edge of death, then the Jonah found and imposed the one chance in a million that held her there, at death’s very door, in an extended Near-Death Experience. And when she came back from the edge, and we revived her, the profound shock had reduced her will and vitality to such a malleable state that she imprinted on us and accepted us as surrogate parents and authority figures. We had to keep her isolated, of course, to preserve this useful emotional connection. But even so, she persisted in displaying annoying signs of independence … perhaps we need to poison her again and repeat the process, to put her back in the right frame of mind.”

  “You bastards,” said Rossignol.

  “Oh hush, child,” said the man. “Artistes never know what’s best for them.”

  “But the best bit,” said the Jonah, beaming happily, “the best bit is that only my will holds her where she is, on the very edge of death. My magic, my power. Her life is irrevocably linked to mine now. If you attack me, John, if you kill me, she goes all the way into the dark. Forever and ever. You don’t dare threaten me.”

  “That’s as may be,” Dead Boy said mildly. “But what can you threaten me with? I only just met this girl, and her life and death are a small thing to me. You, on the other hand, have dared to meddle in my province, and I won’t have that. I think I’ll kill you anyway, Billy boy.”

  “Don’t call me that! That’s not my name any more! I’m…”

  “The same irritating little tit you’ve always been, Billy.”

  “I’ll…”

  “You’ll what? Kill me dead? Been there, done that, stole the T-shirt. And you’re nowhere near powerful enough to break the compact I made.”

  “Perhaps not,” said the Jonah, and suddenly he was smiling again. I stirred uneasily. I really didn’t like that smile. The Jonah stepped forward to lock glares with Dead Boy. “You’ve done a really good job of stitching and stapling yourself together, down the years. All the wounds and damage you took, and never thought twice. Holding your battered and broken body together with superglue and duct tape. But… what if none of it had ever held? What if all your repairs just… failed?”

  He made a short chopping gesture with one hand, and it was as though Dead Boy’s body exploded. His back arched as black duct tape suddenly unwrapped and sailed away like streamers. Stitches and staples shot out, pattering softly to the stage, and his clothes were only tatters. No blood flew, or any other liquid, but all at once there were gaping wounds opening everywhere in Dead Boy’s death-white flesh. He collapsed as his legs failed him, pale pink organs and guts falling out of him, and he hit the stage hard. One hand fell away entirely, the fingers still twitching. Dead Boy lay still, wounds opening slowly like flowers. I’d never realised how much damage he’d taken. Rossignol gripped my arm so hard it hurt, but didn’t make a sound. And I just stood where I was, because I couldn’t think of a single damned thing I could do to help my friend.

  “Entropy,” the Jonah said smugly, “means everything falls apart. Look at you now, Dead Boy. Not so big now, are you? Can you still feel pain? I do hope so. You must have made a hell of a deal, to be able to survive so much punishment… Not that it’s done you any good, in the end. Tell you what, Mr. and Mrs. Cavendish, why don’t you come over here and do the honours. Send him on his way. I wouldn’t want to be accused of hogging all the fun.”

  The Cavendishes looked at each other, sighed quietly, then moved forward to indulge the Jonah. They stood over Dead Boy and studied his stubbornly existing body with thoughtful frowns.

  “We could always feed him into a furnace,” said Mr. Cavendish.

  “Indeed we could,” said Mrs. Cavendish. “I always enjoy it so much more when they’re still alive to appreciate what’s happening.”

  “But I think a more immediate end is called for here,” said the man. “Major players like Dead Boy have a habit of escaping their fates, if given the slightest chance.”

  “And we haven’t existed this long by taking unnecessary chances with our enemies, Mr. Cavendish.”

  “Quite right, my dear.”

  They both drew handguns from hidden holsters and shot Dead Boy in the heart and in the forehead. He jerked convulsively, pink-and-grey brains spraying out the back of his head. And then he lay back and was perfectly still, and his eyes looked at nothing at all. The Cavendishes turned to face me, and I gave them my best sneer.

  “Your guns don’t have bullets in them any more, you bastards.”

  The Cavendishes pulled the triggers anyway a few times, but nothing happened. They shrugged pretty much in unison and went back to stand behind their Jonah.

  “We’ve always believed in delegation,” said the man.

  “You wanted him, dear Billy,” said the woman. “He’s all yours.”

  The Jonah stepped forward, smiling his cocky smile like he had all the time in the world and wouldn’t have rushed this for anything. “Still got a few tricks left up your sleeve, eh, John? But then, tricks are all you ever really had. Your precious gift for finding things was never a real power, not like mine. There’s nothing you can do to stop me killing you and taking Rossignol back where she belongs. How shall I kill you, John? Let me count the ways … The cancers that lie in wait, needing only a nudge to swell and prosper. The arthritis that lurks in every joint, the bacteria and viruses to boil in your blood… Perhaps all of them at once might be amusing. You might even explode like Dead Boy! Or maybe … I’ll find that one-in-a-million chance where you were born horribly deformed and helpless, and leave you like that. So everyone can see what happens to anyone foolish enough to cross the Jonah.”

  He could do it. He had the power. And all I had was a gift I didn’t dare use again. Now my enemies knew exactly where I was, if I opened my mind to use my gift, they’d attack my mind directly. They’d take control of my mind and my soul in a second, then … there are worse things than death, in the Nightside. But without my gift, I didn’t have anything strong enough to stop the Jonah and save Rossignol. All I had … was myself. I smiled suddenly, and the Jonah’s grin faltered.

  “Billy, Billy,” I said, calm and easy and utterly condescending, “you never did understand the true nature of magic. It’s not based in the power we wield or the gifts we inherit. In the end, it all comes down to will and intent. And the mind and soul behind them.”

  I locked eyes with the Jonah, and he stood very still. The whole world narrowed down to just the two of us, eye to eye, will to will. All we were, brought out onto the brightly lit mental stage, peeling back the layers to show who and what we were at the core. And for all his power, and despite everything he’d done, Billy Lathem looked away first. He actually staggered back a few steps, breathing hard, his face pale and sweaty.

  “Who the hell are you?” he whispered. “What are you? You
’re not human…”

  “More human than you, you little prick,” said Rossignol. She stepped past me, and when the Jonah looked at her, she sang right into his face. Her voice was strong and true and potent, and she aimed it like a weapon right at him. I fell quickly backwards, clapping my hands to my ears. Beyond the Jonah, the Cavendishes were retreating, too, and protecting their ears. Rossignol sang, face to face with the Jonah—a sad, sad song of love lost and lovers gone, and all the secret betrayals of the heart. She sang directly at him, and he couldn’t look away, couldn’t back away, like a mouse hypnotized by a snake, like a fish on a hook. She held him where he was, with a merciless song of violation and isolation and the corruption of talent. Everything that had been done to her, she threw back at him. And the more she sang, the more it was the story of his life, too. Of poor little Billy Lathem, who might have been a Power and a Domination like his father, but had never been anything more than a hired thug.

  The Cavendishes huddled together for comfort, as far away as they could get. I had my hands pressed so tightly to my ears I thought my skull would collapse under the pressure, and still the edges of the song ripped and tore at me, till my heart felt it would tear loose in my chest. Tears were running down my face. And Billy Lathem, forced to face the truth at last, whispered, Daddy, I only wanted you to be proud of me… and disappeared. Air rushed in to fill the space his body had occupied, as Billy turned his power on himself and selected the one chance where he was never born.

  Rossignol stopped singing, though the power of her voice still seemed to reverberate on the air. She swayed suddenly on her feet, then collapsed. I grabbed her before she hit the floor, but caught off-balance, her weight carried both of us down. I sat on the stage, holding her in my arms, and only then realised she was dying. Her breathing was slowing, and I could feel her heart counting down to zero. Only the Jonah’s will had kept her from death’s door, and with him gone her long-delayed destiny was finally catching up with her. Vitality drained out of her, as though someone had opened a tap. I held her to me fiercely, as though I could stop it going through sheer force of will, but that trick never works twice.

  “I promised I’d save you,” I said numbly.

  “You promised me the truth,” said Rossignol, with pale lips that hardly moved. “I’ll have to settle for that. Not even the great and mighty John Taylor can keep all his promises.”

  And just like that, she was gone. She stopped talking, she stopped breathing, and all the life went out of her. I still held her in my arms, rocking her quietly, still trying to comfort her.

  “Oh dear,” said Mr. Cavendish. “What a pity. Now we’ll have to start all over again, with someone else.”

  “Never mind, Mr. Cavendish,” said the woman. “Third time lucky.”

  I looked up at them, and there was murder in my eyes. They started pushing bullets into their guns, but their hands were trembling. And then we all looked round, startled, as Dead Boy spoke. It was just a whisper, with most of his lungs gone, but it was still and quite clear in the quiet.

  “It’s not over yet,” he said, staring blindly up at the ceiling. “Rossignol is dead, but not actually departed. Not yet. There’s still time, John. Still time to save her, if you’ve got the will and the courage.”

  “How is it you’re still with us?” I said, too numb to be properly surprised. “Half of your insides are scattered across the stage. They blew your brains out, for God’s sake!”

  He chuckled briefly. An eerie, ghostly sound. “My body’s been dead for years. It doesn’t really need its internal organs any more. They don’t serve any purpose. This body is just a shape I inhabit. A habit of living. Like eating and drinking and all the other things I do to help me pretend I’m still alive. You can still rescue Rossignol, John. I can use your life force to power a magic, to send both of us after her. Into the dark lands, the borderlands we pass through between this life and the next. When I died and came back, the door was left open a crack for me. I can go after her, but only a living soul can bring her back again. I won’t lie to you, John. You could die, doing this. We could all go through that final door and never return. But if you’re willing to try, if you’re willing to give up all your remaining years in one last gamble, I promise you, we have a chance.”

  “You can really do this?” I said.

  “I told you,” said Dead Boy. “I know all there is to know about death.”

  “Ah, hell,” I said. “I never let a client down yet.”

  “An attitude like that will get you killed,” said Dead Boy.

  “What if the Cavendishes attack us while we’re gone? Destroy our bodies, so there’s nothing left to come back to?”

  “We’ll be back the same moment we left. Or we won’t be back at all.”

  “Do it,” I said.

  Dead Boy did it, and we both died.

  Powered by all the remaining years of my life, Dead Boy and I went into the dark together, and for the first time I discovered there is a darkness even darker than the Nightside. A night that never ends, that never knew stars or a moon. The coldest cell, the longest fall. It was the absence of everything, except for me and Dead Boy. I was just a presence, without form or shape, a scream without a mouth to limit it, but I calmed somewhat as I sensed Dead Boy’s presence. We spoke without voices, heard though there was no sound.

  There’s nothing here. Nothing …

  Actually there is, John, but you’re still too close to life to be able to appreciate it. Think yourself lucky.

  Where’s Ross?

  Think of the darkness as a tunnel, leading us to a light. A way out. This way…

  Yes… How can there be a direction when there’s nothing…

  Stop asking questions, John. You really wouldn’t like the answers. Now follow me.

  You’ve been this way before.

  Part of me is always here.

  Is that supposed to make me feel better? You’re a real spooky person, you know that?

  You have no idea, John. This way…

  And we were falling in a whole new direction. It did help to think of the darkness as a tunnel, leading somewhere. We were definitely approaching something, though with no landmarks it was impossible to judge our speed or progress. I should have been scared, terrified, but already my emotions were fading away, as though they didn’t belong there. Even my thoughts were growing fuzzy round the edges. But then I began to feel there was something ahead of me, something special, calling me. A speck of light appeared, beautiful and brilliant, all the colours of the rainbow in a single sharp moment of light. It grew unhurriedly, a great and glorious incandescence, yet still warm and comforting, like the golden beam from a lighthouse, bringing ships safely home through the long lonely nights. And then there was another presence with us, and it was Rossignol.

  Are you angels?

  Hardly, Ross. I don’t think they’re talking to me any more. This is John, with Dead Boy. We’ve come to take you home.

  But I can hear music. Wonderful music. All the songs I ever wanted to sing.

  For her it was music, for me it was light. Like the warm glow from a window, the friendly light of home after a long hard journey. Or perhaps the last light of the day, when all work is over, all responsibilities put aside, and we can all rest at last. Day is done. Welcome home, at last.

  Oh John, I don’t think I want to go back.

  I know, Ross. I feel it, too. It’s like… we’ve been playing a game, and now the game’s over, and it’s time to go back where we belong …

  There was a sense of taking her hand in mine, and we moved towards the light and the music. But Dead Boy had been there before. Kindly, remorselessly, he took us both by the hand and pulled us away, back to life and bodies and all the worries of the world.

  I sat up sharply, dragging air deep into my lungs as though I’d been underwater for ages. The lesser light of the world crashed in around me. I’d never felt so clearly, starkly alive. My skin tingled with a hundred sensations, th
e world was full of sound, and Ross was right there beside me. She threw herself into my arms, and for a long moment we hugged each other like we’d never let go. But eventually we did and got to our feet again. We were back in the real world, with all its own demands and priorities. Dead Boy was standing before us, complete and intact again, resplendent in his undamaged finery. The only difference was the neat bullet hole in his forehead.

  “Told you I know all there is to know about death,” he said smugly. “Oh, I used some of your life energy to repair the damage the Jonah did to my body, John. Knew you wouldn’t mind. Trust me, you won’t miss it.”

  I glared at him. “Next time, ask.”

  Dead Boy raised an eyebrow. “I hope very much there isn’t going to be a next time.”

  “Just how much of my life force did we use up on this stunt anyway?”

  “Surprisingly little. It seems there is more to you than meets the eye, John. Mind you, there would have to be.”

  “You were dead!” said Mr. Cavendish, just a little shrilly. He sounded like he might be going to cry. “You were all dead, and now you’re alive again! It just isn’t fair!”

  “That’s the trouble with the Nightside,” Mrs. Cavendish said sulkily. “You can’t rely on people staying dead. Next time, do remember to bring some thermite bombs with us.”

  “Quite right, Mrs. Cavendish. Still, they all look decidedly weakened by whatever unnatural thing it was they just did, so I think it’s back to the old reliable bullet in the head. Lots of them, this time.”

  “Exactly, Mr. Cavendish. If we can’t have Rossignol, no-one can.”

  They aimed their reloaded guns at her. I moved to put myself between her and the guns, but that was all I could do. My time in the dark had taken everything else out of me, for the moment. I looked at Dead Boy, who shrugged.