Holmes grasped the lapels of his linen suit and stepped forward to stand beside the Doctor. His expression was calm, supercilious even.
"A number of books were stolen from a library in Holborn. A lady named Kate Prendersly was murdered in Deptford. A footman was also murdered in Euston. It is my intention to bring you to justice for those crimes."
Maupertuis leaned back in his throne. A faint sneer etched itself across that bone-white face.
"How petty. I offer a bountiful land of opportunities: new spices, new sources of power, whole continents to colonize, and what do you greet my beneficence with? A handful of minor grievances. There are no laws in this new land, Mr Holmes. You cannot touch me there. I will be king. I will be G.o.d"
His gaze moved on to Lord Roxton.
"And you, big game hunter and peer of the realm. What pitiful excuses do you offer?"
Roxton joined Holmes and the Doctor, standing proud before the dais.
"You talk of openin" up this alien world for the greater good of Britain. As a representative of the Queen, I repudiate your claims. The Empire is based upon fairness and incorruptibility. We will not have men of your ilk sourin"
our reputation."
"You claim to speak for Britain?" Maupertuis scoffed in a voice that grated like rats" feet over broken gla.s.s.
"I speak for the Diogenes Club," Roxton said triumphantly, "and they speak for Britain." _ Of course! I turned to Bernice and whispered, "Holmes"s brother Mycroft said that he had people in the area."
"Nice to know they"re doing as well as we are," she snapped.
Far below, Maupertuis turned his attention upon the fourth man, the meek O"Connor.
"And you, what pathetic reason do you offer for attempting to obstruct my plans?"
O"Connor put away his notebook and climbed to his feet, avoiding Maupertuis"s searing gaze.
"Your regiments, as you call them," he said hesitantly, "are drawn from the criminal cla.s.ses of England. You"ve taken away my thugs, my bullies, my bodyguards and my enforcers." His voice was growing stronger and more familiar. "You"ve created your own army by depleting mine, offering them more money and greater glory. Oaths were taken when they entered my employ. I intend to see that those oaths are honoured."
"And who are you?"
O"Connor straightened up from his cowering position and met Maupertuis"s gaze. He seemed thinner, gaunt even, and his head seemed to have developed a slight tremor. With a sudden movement he pulled the bright red wig from his head and cast it to the floor, revealing a large expanse of domed forehead. He stared malevolently up at Maupertuis with puckered, blinking eyes.
"I am Professor James Moriarty," he exclaimed. "The greatest criminal genius that the world has ever known!"
Holmes"s eyes widened in sudden shock. I felt unsteady on my feet, and Bernice clutched at my shoulder, afraid that I might fall into their midst.
A ripple of unease washed across those of Maupertuis"s troops who hailed from Britain as they recognized their erstwhile employer, the criminal genius who sat at the centre of a web of crime that stretched across the civilized world, the man whose lieutenants - men such as Mr Jitter and Mack "The Knife" Yeovil - were mere babes in arms when compared to him.
He gazed over them with a promise of retribution in his eyes. They quailed, but they did not break.
He turned to stare at Holmes.
"Dear me," he said quietly. "I had hardly expected to be standing by your side, Mr Holmes."
"Nor I yours," Holmes replied grimly.
"A common outlaw," Maupertuis scoffed. "To add to a spineless apologist for the weak, a small-minded detective and a secret agent for a government too blinkered to understand what I am offering."
Behind him, the chanting of the fakirs had continued unabated. Now it rose to a crescendo. The air itself seemed to throb in antic.i.p.ation.
"Not a patch on the Isley Brothers," Bernice murmured.
"Behold," Maupertuis screamed above the pandemonium. "Behold the gateway to glory!"
Bright light flooded the cavern. It issued from a rip that had appeared in the air to one side of the cavern, a rip that pulled itself apart into a rent, and then a hole.
And through the hole, another world.
Its sky was a pearly white colour, and was held up by purple mountains. It was like a tapestry suspended in midair, except that I could smell its dry, lemony odour and feel the cool touch of its air.
Warburton was issuing orders through a megaphone. The army, stunned by the sight of their objective but too stupid to let it bother them, prepared to march.
Maupertuis reached into his jacket.
"I have no use for you," he said to the small but defiant group of men before him. Removing a small whistle from a waistcoat pocket, he raised it to his lips and blew. I heard no noise, but felt a sudden stab of pain in the centre of my forehead. Bernice winced.
Fetid air ruffled my hair. I glanced about, but saw nothing. My stomach churned. Something was coming, something evil, but I could not tell from which direction it approached. I turned to consult Bernice, but she was gazing upwards in horror. I followed her gaze, and felt my bowels turn to ice.
The tiny circle of daylight at the top of the shaft was obscured by a shadow that was growing larger with every pa.s.sing second. Wings flapped. I could not move. It was almost on top of me.
I felt a leathery wing brush past me, saw a sudden flash of pebbled scarlet hide, and then it was past me, and I was looking down upon a creature from delirium as it plummeted towards the ground. I recognized it from Bernice"s description. It was one of the creatures that had abducted the Doctor.
Another one dropped past me, almost knocking me from the stairs with the wind of its pa.s.sage. Opening its wings to their widest extent, it circled around the dais. The spikes that comprised its face quivered in antic.i.p.ation of the kill. .
A third creature dropped from the shaft, and a fourth. They flocked for a moment like blood-soaked vultures around a carca.s.s. I pulled my revolver from my pocket, but Bernice grabbed my hand before I could fire.
"You"ll give away our position! Let"s see whether or not they need us first."
The first creature swooped for the Doctor.
He ducked as its mace-like tail swept through the air where his head had been. The wind from its mighty wings beat Holmes and Roxton back as it gained height again; then, folding those wings against its body, it plummeted towards the Doctor"s p.r.o.ne body. He rolled to one side. The tail smashed into the ground beside his face, its spikes drawing deep scratches down his cheek.
"What are they?" I hissed.
"The Doctor called them raksha.s.si. I guess they"re native to the planet through the gateway. They look barely intelligent to me. Maupertuis probably brought some back with him and trained them up as glorified p.e.n.i.s-subst.i.tutes."
"Glorified what?" I exclaimed.
"Go have a chat with Freud," she replied cryptically.
The vanguard of Maupertuis"s army were filing apprehensively into the gateway now. They gazed around, not sure whether to be more frightened of the alien world ahead or the alien creatures behind. Grizzled sergeant-types kept them moving.
The three other raksha.s.si had engaged Holmes, Roxton and Moriarty, harrying them from the air, lashing them with their tails and clutching at them with the talons on the ends of their wings. They hissed in antic.i.p.ation of the kill. It was all the men could do to keep out of their clutches. There was no chance of fighting back.
Smiling cruelly, Maupertuis leaned back in his throne to enjoy the fun.
Besides him, Tir Ram was looking a little sick.
One of the creatures had cornered Holmes by one of the pools of water. He had nowhere to back away to as the thing hovered above him, preparing to dash his brains out with its tail. Moriarty lurked behind it, unable or unwilling to intervene.
I didn"t even know I was going to fire until I felt the gun buck in my hand.
My, shot hit where one of its wings met the body, exploding the joint in a shower of bone and blood. The creature screamed shrilly and plunged to the ground. Moriarty was on in a flash, snapping the bony ribs of the wings and tearing at the membranes between them. The creature thrashed about, but Moriarty fought like a daemon. Taking a bunch of the sharp spikes of its face in each hand, he pulled sharply in opposite directions. Watery fluid sprayed up from the rent. The creature convulsed and was still.
"Oh well," said Bernice, pulling a tiny double-barrelled Derringer from her sleeve and searching for a target.
Maupertuis was up and out of his chair, gazing around and trying to find the source of the shot. His gaze flickered wildly around the cavern. He didn"t think to look upwards.
The Doctor managed to poke the ferrule of his umbrella into the th.o.r.n.y face of his raksha.s.sa opponent. The creature hissed at him and sprang into the air, spraying pink blood from the wound. The Doctor bounced to his feet and held the umbrella before him like a sword as the beast dived at him, neatly impaling it. Its death cry rang out across the cavern, almost drowning out the constant chanting of the fakirs and causing the rent between Earth and Ry"leh to wobble alarmingly. The onward marching regiments hesitated for a few moments, waiting for their destination to come back into focus.
Roxton was throwing rocks at the raksha.s.sa that had been harrying him. It flew higher and higher, striving to escape the persecution. As it came, within range of her weapon, Bernice fired. A small rent appeared in its wing. Its blind head snapped around, targeting her for death, but the rent suddenly opened out into a tear and its wing folded up. It fell into a spiral, screaming all the while, and hit the ground in a crumpled heap.
The shot had attracted Maupertuis"s attention. His face convulsed with rage. Gesturing to Surd, he shouted, "Kill them! Kill them!"
Surd lumbered towards the rocky stairway and began the long climb up to the apex of the conical cavern, and us.
The fourth raksha.s.sa was stalking Moriarty across the cavern floor. Holmes and Roxton were shadowing it, but it lashed its tail violently to discourage them from getting too close. It was gaining on the Professor as his stamina gave out. I would have been quite happy to see him perish, but I knew that for the moment we were all in it together, and so I shot at the back of its head. The wound would have been fatal in a human, but it just jerked slightly, then turned its head to fix me with a blind and baleful gaze.
Holmes took his chance. Springing on the back of the beast, he took hold of the shafts of its wings and jerked backwards, as one would pull the wishbone of a turkey. A distinct snap reached my ears. The spines of its face seemed to bulge, and it slowly fell forward into one of the pools that dotted the cavern floor. Holmes clambered off its back and kicked it a few times, but it remained still.
We had killed all four of the raksha.s.si.
I waved a triumphant hand at Holmes. He grinned and waved back. Nearby I could see Moriarty bending over one of the fallen creatures, examining the carca.s.s. The rank and file of Maupertuis"s army marched past them, still heading for the dimensional gateway. Maupertuis himself was standing on the dais gazing malevolently up at Bernice and I. Suddenly he switched his gaze to the section of stairway leading up to us, and smiled in triumph.
Without thinking, I flung myself backwards, hitting Bernice. We fell in a tangle of limbs onto sharp rock.
"What the..."
Fire exploded across the cavern wall where we had been standing. Hot air washed across us, blistering our skin. I threw an arm across my eyes to protect them. Bernice cried out in pain behind me.
When I lowered my arm, Surd was standing in front of us. The jigsaw of scars that made up his face were distorted into a leer. Pinp.r.i.c.ks of insane flame danced in his eyes.
I scrambled back slightly to shield Bernice as best I could. Her breath was warm against my neck.
"It"s been fun," she whispered.
"We must do this again," I murmured in reply. She laughed, bright and clear.
h.e.l.l reached out for us.
And then there was nothing but blessed coolness. Where Surd had been standing there was just an expanse of seared rock. A faint crack! drifted up from the cavern below.
Bernice twisted her body to gaze over the edge. I edged closer and looked out into the void.
Turning like a sycamore seed, Surd"s body fell away from us. For a long while he seemed to move very slowly, hardly getting any smaller, and then with a sickening rush his body shrunk to the size of a doll and crashed into one of the pools of stagnant water. Water sprayed everywhere, dousing several fires.
A few yards away, Lord Roxton lowered the rifle from his shoulder. One of Maupertuis"s soldiers was sprawled unconscious at his feet.
"One good turn, an" all that rot!" he yelled.
"Well," Bernice said, "if you ever hear me say that the aristocracy was a useless vestigal appendix on the body of society, you have my permission to spank me soundly on the bottom."
I turned my head, and found myself gazing into her eyes from a distance of less than six inches.
"Can I have that in writing?" I asked.
"Ask me again when this is all over."
There was a long moment of silence between us. Somewhere in the background a lone voice was raised in song. By the time I realized that it was one of Maupertuis"s fakirs, still chanting his incomprehensible chant, the voice had stopped and the cavern was suddenly a lot darker.
The dimensional portal had closed.
As we gazed around, the extent of our meagre victory became apparent.
We had won the battle, but the war was far from over. There were more dead bodies than live ones down on the cavern floor. Maupertuis had gone.
His troops had gone. His fakirs had gone. Warburton, his wife, his secretary and Tir Ram had gone.
And so had the Doctor.
Chapter 12.
In which Surd undergoes a hair-raising experience and a jolly travelling song is sung. song is sung.
Bernice and I descended the steps into the cavern, feeling remarkably like actors who watch the curtain rise only to discover that the audience has already left. Holmes and Lord Roxton were examining the ground where the gateway to Ry"leh had been. Professor Moriarty was some distance away, bent over the corpse of one of the raksha.s.si.
"Good work, Watson," Holmes said as we approached. The fires cast a flickering orange light upon his features, rendering them even more gaunt than usual. "I knew I could count on you."
"That was d.a.m.n good shootin", both of you," Lord Roxton agreed. "Remind me never to invite you up to my estate. The grouse"d never recover!"
I knew that he was jesting, but the compliment brought a blush to my cheek. Bernice also was pleased.
We gazed around in silence for a moment at the remnants of Maupertuis"s army. Wherever we looked we could see abandoned mess kits, churned ground and blankets. There was n.o.body left, though. n.o.body at all.
"So we"ve lost the Doctor again," I murmured. "This is getting beyond a joke."
"He"s always getting lost," Bernice replied. "It"s what he"s best at. Like a bad penny, he"ll turn up again."
"The little fellah?" Roxton asked. "Seemed like a plucky sort of chap. Didn"t see him go through that . . . that thing . . . though, whatever it was."