Basilisk (32 page)

The basilisk swiveled its head back toward him, and Nathan held up his mirrors again. He deflected the light from the basilisk’s eyes to Patti’s mirror, and she shone it toward the mirror over the fireplace. The shaft of light came back to her, at an angle, and this time she shone it to Denver, and Denver shone it back to Nathan.

Nathan had to guess where to aim his second mirror, because he didn’t dare to look straight into the basilisk’s eyes. He jiggled it slightly from side to side, hoping that it would flash the basilisk’s glare directly back to it, even if only for a split second.

The basilisk let out a deafening screech, and lurched toward him. He heard a splintering, crackling sound, and he was showered by dozens of sharp black bone fragments. The blinding light from the basilisk’s eyes swiveled all around the room, from one wall to the other, from the ceiling to the carpet, and it felt as if the floor were tilting.

Still shielding his eyes, Nathan looked quickly to each side of his mirror. Denver was crouching down in the corner, behind one of the armchairs, and Patti was backing away from the basilisk with both hands held over her face.

The basilisk screeched again, in rage and pain. Nathan lowered his mirror and saw that it was swaying and staggering. Its horns shattered, and its entire body seemed to be collapsing, like a huge black tent.

We’ve done it
, he thought.
We’ve destroyed it, and Doctor Zauber with it
. But at the same time he thought:
how am I going to save Grace now
?

At that moment, however, the basilisk turned toward him. Its glare was nothing like as dazzling as it had been before, but it was still intense enough to make Nathan lift his hand up in front of his face. There was no mistaking the creature’s fury. Its teeth were bared – three rows of sharp, barbed spines, with a thin, snakelike tongue lashing between them, and it was groping at the air with both of its front claws, as if it wanted to rake him open from head to foot.

He backed away until he could back away no further, because the couch was right behind him. But the basilisk’s breathing was becoming increasingly labored, whining and whistling through slowly collapsing lungs, and its eyes were growing dimmer and dimmer. As it did so the room grew darker, too, and after a while Nathan thought it was probably safe for him to lower his hand.

‘Patti,’ he said. ‘How about switching on the lights?’

Patti went across and found the light switch by the door. A wrought-iron chandelier with five branches was hanging from the ceiling, like a large dead spider. Only three of its light bulbs were working, but that was enough to illuminate the living room with a harsh, unflattering light.

Nathan watched the basilisk struggling for breath. He realized that he was probably witnessing the end of his dreams. It was clear to him now that it took much more than genetics to breed mythological creatures successfully. It took a high degree of sophisticated sorcery, too; and as Doctor Zauber and his basilisk came closer to death, the knowledge of that sorcery was dying with them. Nathan didn’t feel at all triumphant that they had managed to defeat this creature. He felt only frustration, and sadness, and regret.

‘Pops?’ said Denver. He was kneeling on the floor next to Rafał. ‘He just said something. I don’t know what it was, but he’s still alive.’

Nathan was about to turn around when the basilisk’s eyes suddenly flared up again, blindingly bright, and it let out one last hate-filled scream. It was a shrill, throaty scream, like a turkey-vulture, but it had a sharp hiss to it, too, like a deadly poisonous snake. It also had a human resonance: the angry shout of a man who knows that his life is nearly over, without having achieved his life’s ambition.

Nathan closed his eyes tight shut, but he still felt as if he had been slammed into a solid concrete wall. He fell backward, just as Rafał had done, and toppled over the corner of the couch. He lay on the carpet – blinded, deafened and breathless, unable to move.

‘
Pops
!’ Denver shouted.

TWENTY

Eye for an Eye

N
athan blinked, and blinked again. Gradually his vision began to return, and he could see Denver’s face leaning over him, although at first he looked like a photographic negative, with white eyes and gray skin.

‘Pops, are you OK?’

‘
Can’t – move
–’ Nathan whispered. He couldn’t feel his arms or his legs, and he still had a high-pitched singing noise in his ears.

Denver stood up. The basilisk’s eyes had dimmed again now, and it was standing in the middle of the room, swaying, as if it had used up almost all of its remaining life-energy. Underneath its scaly skin, its skeletal structure was gradually collapsing, joint by joint. It made an intricate pattern of snapping noises, like somebody breaking branches. But it was still huge, and its shattered horns still scraped the ceiling as it swayed.

‘
You goddamned monster
!’ Denver screamed at it. ‘
You goddamned murdering piece of lizard shit
!’

He picked up the long brass poker that was hanging beside the fireplace, and approached the basilisk with it, prodding and feinting at it as if he were a swordsman.

‘You want a fight? You want to try and murder me, too? Come on, then, you ratty black bag of mythological crap!’

The basilisk snarled and spat, and tried feebly to claw at him. Its eyes began to light up again, too.

Patti said, ‘Denver – its eyes!’ But Denver said, ‘Oh, no! There’s no way you’re doing
that
to me, dude!’

He grasped the poker in both hands, and stabbed it into the basilisk’s left eye. There was a bursting sound, and a large glob of optic fluid rolled down the basilisk’s cheek, clear and transparent, but lambent, too, with its own pale-yellowish light.

The basilisk screeched, and wildly threw its head from side to side, but Denver stabbed it again, in its other eye.

There was a moment of terrifying fury, when the basilisk screamed and thrashed and beat its black umbrella-like wings. It hurled itself around the room, colliding with the chairs and the side tables, and smashing into the glass-fronted bookcase. Denver pulled Patti behind the door and held her tight. The basilisk crashed into the other side of the door, and Patti squealed, but then it spun around and dropped down on to the couch, quivering and twitching.

Nathan, still lying on the carpet beside the couch, looked up. The basilisk’s horse-like face was staring down at him, but both of its eyes were blinded, and if it wasn’t dead yet, it was very close to it.

As he lay there, a long glistening string of the basilisk’s optic fluid dripped down on to his cheek. It had lost most of its glow, and it felt like cold, runny jelly. He felt it slide into his ear, but he couldn’t move his arm to wipe it away.

‘Denver?’ he whispered. ‘Denver, Patti, are you OK?’

He listened, but he still had a high-pitched singing in his ears. ‘Rafał?’ he said. ‘Rafał, are you still hanging in there?’

He listened again, and as he did so, a large gobbet of optic fluid dropped down on to his lips. He tried to spit it away, but he couldn’t even shake his head to get rid of it. It tasted faintly of oysters, and its consistency was disgusting – not only gelatinous, but stringy, too. He tried to keep his lips tight shut, but after nearly a minute he couldn’t breathe, and he had to open his mouth and swallow the fluid that ran down his throat.

‘
Blecchh
,’ he said, and almost retched. It was then that Denver and Patti appeared, staring down at him like two anxious ghosts.

‘Pops? How are you feeling?’

‘Just get me out of here,’ Nathan whispered. ‘This damn thing’s dripping glop all over my face.’

Together, Denver and Patti dragged him out into the middle of the floor.

‘How’s Rafał?’ he asked.

Patti went across and said, ‘Raffo? Can you hear me? Are you OK?’ She knelt down and put her ear close to Rafał’s face. ‘I can’t feel him breathing.’

‘Try his carotid pulse,’ said Nathan. ‘Two fingertips, on the left side of his neck, next to his windpipe.’

Patti waited for a moment, and then she shook her head and said, ‘No. I think he’s dead.’

‘Shit. We should call an ambulance.’

‘You need an ambulance more than he does. Poor Raffo. I can’t believe it.’

Nathan suddenly realized that the tinnitus in his ears had faded, and that he could hear Patti quite clearly. He reached up to touch his left ear and that was when he also realized that he could move his arm.

‘Hey,’ said Denver.

He looked at his left hand and flexed his fingers. Then he lifted his right hand, and flexed the fingers of that hand, too.

‘Denver,’ he said, ‘help me to sit up.’

Denver took hold of both of his hands and pulled him up into a sitting position. He found that he was breathing more easily now, and that his vision had brightened. He looked around at the basilisk, hunched up over the couch. One of its wings was still shivering, but he guessed that was nothing more than the last unraveling of its central nervous system.

He reached out for the arm of the nearest chair, and heaved. He dropped back the first time, but when he heaved again, he was able to stand. At first, the living room swam around him as if he had been taking Ecstasy, but after a few moments he regained his balance. He could see himself reflected in the mirror over the fireplace and he looked surprisingly normal, even if his hair was sticking up.

‘How are you feeling, Professor?’ Patti asked him. ‘You look so much better already. Like, you have your color back.’

‘I’m not too bad,’ said Nathan. ‘Not quite a hundred per cent. But let me check Rafał out.’

Rafał’s face was gray and his lips were pale blue. Nathan checked his breathing and his heart rate. ‘I’m not sure,’ he said. ‘He could have a very faint pulse. The basilisk only looked at him for a split second, didn’t it? Same with Grace.’

‘But how come
you’re
OK?’ asked Denver.

Nathan looked across at the dead or dying basilisk. Two shining strings of optic jelly were dangling from its eye sockets.

‘I swallowed some of its optic fluid,’ he said.

‘What?’

‘The stuff that came out of its eyes. I swallowed some. I couldn’t help it.’

‘You’re kidding me. Do you really think that might have cured you?’

‘I don’t know. But it could be like snakebite antidote, which has snake venom in it. Maybe it produces antibodies, which overcome the effects of shock.’

He took off Rafał’s blackened spectacles and gently lifted one of his eyelids with his thumb. ‘His pupils are dilated and fixed, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s dead. The same thing happens when you get concussed, or you’re in a coma. Denver – why don’t you bring me that mug from the kitchen? And maybe a spoon, too, if you can find one. Quick as you can.’

Denver returned with the mug and a large metal spoon. Nathan held the mug underneath the basilisk’s eye sockets, and carefully scooped out as much of its optic fluid as he could. As he pushed the spoon deep into the second socket, the basilisk shuddered, and made a clicking noise in the back of its throat, and he froze. But it was nothing more than rigor beginning to set in, and the last exhalation of a creature that was already dead.

Denver blew out his cheeks and said, ‘
Phewf
’, in relief.

Nathan managed to save almost a third of a mug of jellylike optical fluid. It was wobbly and clear but it no longer shone with any inner light. He carried it across to Rafał, lifted his head, and spooned a little of it down his throat.

‘You really think this is going to work?’ asked Patti. ‘Like, what a story this could make, if it does.’

Nathan looked across at her. ‘You can’t fool me, Patti Laquelle. You’re not just in it for the story any more.’

Patti gave a little shrug. ‘Sometimes, when you go through really scary situations with somebody, you get close, don’t you? I love Raffo. And I love you guys, too.’

Nathan checked his watch. ‘I’m going to give this five minutes. If Rafał doesn’t show any sign of life by then, I’m going to call for an ambulance.’

‘Oh, yes?’ said Denver. ‘And how do we explain to the paramedics what happened to him? I mean,
think
about it, Pops. And how do we explain this dead monster-thing lying on the couch? Not to mention that
live
monster-thing down in the cellar?’

‘Denver—’

‘Yes, but we’re totally in shitsville, aren’t we? What about the people who lived here? That artist, and that family? Doctor Zauber said he took their life-energy, didn’t he? I mean, that’s like killing them, right? And I bet the bodies are hidden in the house someplace. Suppose they accuse
us
of killing them?’

‘Denver, let’s worry about all that if and when we have to. Let’s just see if we can wake Rafał up first.’

With a sudden rustle, one of the basilisk’s wings dropped sideways on to the floor, and they all turned around to look at it.

‘Don’t worry,’ said Nathan. ‘It’s absolutely dead, I promise you.’

‘You’re sure of that?’ croaked a feeble voice.

They turned back. Rafał had opened his eyes, and was trying to focus on them. He reached up with one hand and felt his nose. ‘
Gdzie są moje okulary
?’

Patti held up his blackened spectacles. ‘Sorry, Raffo. They got kind of incinerated.’

Between them, Nathan and Denver helped Rafał to sit up. ‘What happened to me? I felt as if I fell off a tall building and hit the ground very hard.’

‘It was the basilisk. It put you into total shock. But I think we’ve found the cure for it, thanks to Denver here.’

He held up the mug of optic fluid. ‘You know what it says in the Bible, about an eye for an eye.’

They gave Rafał a few minutes to recover. Then Nathan said, ‘We’d better get out of here and think of the best way we can explain all this to the police.’