The Demon Collector (28 page)

Edgy never thought he’d be glad to hear that voice. He scrambled to his feet, wincing at the pain as he did.

Salomé stood, dressed in a flowing white summer dress, lace and bustles. Her broad sun hat looked incongruous in the ice-blue cavern. She twirled a parasol on her shoulder and flashed a white smile at Edgy. Janus lay at Salomé’s feet, glaring up at her, his knife on the floor a few feet away from him.

‘Salomé,’ Edgy panted. ‘It’s Janus – he wants to put my . . . my heart into . . . that . . .’ Edgy pointed at the demonic body that loomed over them. The ice that encased it had melted slightly, making it easier to see the green scales and the purple veins that wormed through its flesh. Edgy’s own body pulsed with pain. He touched his nose. A circle of blood darkened the finger of his glove. Salomé would help him. She was . . . what? He couldn’t think straight.

‘That’s not wise, Mr Janus, trying to bring Moloch back.’ Salomé shook her head. Edgy thought he saw a flash of contempt in those perfect green eyes as she looked down on Janus. ‘Here’s a riddle for you, Edgy Taylor. Who is worse, demons or men?’

Edgy shrugged, making his neck and shoulders throb. He wiped at the blood at his nose. The whole cave seemed more red than blue now and it swung back and forth as if the sea rocked it. His head burned. He blinked at Salomé, who giggled and swam in and out of his vision. ‘I don’t care,’ he slurred. Edgy fell to one knee.

‘Quite right too,’ Salomé smiled. ‘Personally, I don’t think there’s much to choose between them these days. Men might even be a little bit worse.’

Janus had slipped his hand into his pocket. Edgy opened his mouth to warn Salomé but Janus flicked his finger and a demon pearl bounced out on to the ground, cracking open in a flash of light.

‘Oh my,’ Salomé said as the flash enveloped her.

And then she was gone. Only a small black pearl remained, dark and round against the frozen ground.

Janus hauled himself upright and limped over to the dagger, picking it and the demon pearl up. ‘She couldn’t stop me, Edgy,’ he panted, smoothing his long hair back. ‘She even sent that stupid boy, Bernard, to be my servant. He was trying to stop me. Oh, I had my suspicions about the skull of Aldorath. That’s why the lad cut it up.’

Edgy’s legs gave way and he fell flat. Janus had betrayed him. Tears stung his eyes. The man he’d trusted had always been a killer.

‘Oh yes,’ Janus sneered, holding the pearl up between finger and thumb before tucking it in his breast pocket. ‘He was taking it to her when I caught him. And you thought he was running from Salomé when he died? It was me he was running from!’

Edgy saw Janus bend to pick up the knife. His left arm felt numb.

‘How do you think I found you? I followed you back to the tannery after your encounter with the boy and your chat with Salomé. Her interest in you piqued my interest. I knew all about her long before you met her. And you brought me all the clues I needed . . . and the heart, of course. The big fat pumping heart,’ Janus said, swinging the blade in his hand. ‘Scrabsnitch’s book just confirmed my suspicion – that you carried the heart.’ Behind him, meltwater trickled down the cracked ice that was slowly giving up the body of Moloch. ‘Thammuz knew what I’d come for. That’s why I had to kill him. Him and those gormless demons that worked for me. That’s right, Edgy, they weren’t Salomé’s demons – they were mine!’

‘But I trusted you,’ Edgy gasped. He peered around, looking for something to defend himself with. The mattock lay discarded a few feet away. Grunting with every movement, Edgy dragged himself along by one elbow towards it.

‘That made it so much easier, you foolish boy.’ Janus paced towards him, the blade loose in the hand by his side.

‘I saved your life,’ Edgy said, reaching for the handle of the mattock.

‘It’s true I didn’t expect the demon to turn on me like that, but it was perfect. It made a bond between us. A bond that brought you here.’

Janus strode nearer, his face grim and determined. Edgy’s hand closed on the handle of the mattock.
I’ve been tricked
. All these weeks, he’d idolised Janus, wanted to be like him, to be part of his ‘big discovery’. Tears stung Edgy’s eyes. It felt like the heart thundering within him would burst out.

‘The heart is trying to reach its master,’ Janus said, his face cold, his eyes steely. ‘Give it back.’

‘No,’ Edgy hissed weakly. He swung his arm in a wide arc. His sweaty palm slid along the handle of the pick and left his fingers plucking at the air.

Janus flinched, covering his head with his arms. But Edgy watched in despair as the mattock flew wide of its target. Janus glanced over his shoulder and then raised the knife. A metallic clang halted him as the mattock hit the wall of ice encasing Moloch. The tool bent up against the wall and rattled uselessly to the ground.

A second of silence followed, then the cracks in the weakened ice where the mattock had struck the wall began to open one by one, widening with snaps and fizzes. Larger fissures began to race across the wall, chasing each other, joining and growing, moving faster, groaning louder.

Janus swayed, hypnotised by the disintegration of the wall. Slivers of ice clattered down to the ground, shower­ing them. Edgy curled up into a ball as larger chunks bounced down, thumping him in the back.

Janus rolled Edgy over on to his back and raised the dagger. The shower of ice chunks grew heavier. Bigger pieces rained down around them, shattering on the hard ground. Edgy tried to shield his face but Janus pinned his aching arm with his foot.

‘I’m sorry to have to do this, Edgy,’ Janus said. ‘Really, I am. You were a good companion but this was always going to happen.’

And then the room exploded with a deafening boom as the whole ceiling collapsed. Edgy suddenly found his arm free and rolled aside as boulders of ice smashed down from above like fists. The cavern rumbled as meltwater poured down on Edgy, soaking and freezing him. The cold revived him too.

Glancing up, he saw the huge demon body, exposed now, standing frozen to the bare rock of the cavern. He threw himself towards it, hoping to shelter beneath its gargantuan form.

Janus stood, knife in hand, blocking his path. He’d taken a blow to his temple from the ice and blood trickled from his nose, but his mad grin remained. He raised the knife and let out a chilling scream of rage.

Edgy stumbled backwards, dodging more blocks of ice. But Janus charged forward, slashing with the blade. He closed on Edgy face to face. Edgy gave a last shove and sent him staggering back. A crack and a rumble made them both look up. Janus gave a final scream as a massive icicle speared down from the ceiling. It plunged down, piercing Janus’s shoulder, stabbing deep into his body. His fingers grazed Edgy’s jacket as he fell face down to the ground and lay still. Blood pooled around him, staining the icy water red.

The cave looked smaller now – the floor had risen and become a choppy ocean of ice and rock. Janus’s arm poked out of the icy blocks. The professor’s bag lay trapped under a rock the size of Edgy’s head. He rummaged in it and managed to pull out the ossifier. The long cylind­rical barrel was slightly dented but otherwise it looked in good order. The dial on the side told Edgy it had one more charge. He slung it over his shoulder. Not that it was any use. In fact, it was the cause of all the trouble, Edgy thought. If Janus hadn’t been so trigger-happy, so intent on ‘bagging’ Moloch, then none of this would have happened. Edgy shook his head. No, the ossifier wasn’t to blame – it was Janus himself. Edgy stared numbly at the pale hand sticking up out of the ice.
Who is worse
, he wondered,
demons or men? Maybe Salomé is right. Maybe there is nothing to choose between them.

Salomé! She didn’t want the heart after all. She had been trying to stop Janus all along.

Grimacing, Edgy rummaged in Janus’s breast pocket and pulled out the pearl. He smashed it down on the ice.

Salomé appeared in a flash of red light, slightly dishevelled. Her hair hung down under her skewed hat and dirt smudged her creamy cheek. She smoothed her dress down and shook her parasol open.

‘That wasn’t very dignified at all,’ she said, reminding Edgy of Sally in one of her more petulant moods. ‘You freed me,’ she said, a note of surprise in her voice.

‘Why not?’ Edgy croaked. ‘You’re the only one who can save me, I reckon.’

‘Save you?’ Salomé gave a little laugh and twirled her parasol. ‘Why, my dear little boy,
I’m
going to have to cut your heart out now!’

Pull off, pull off your woollen shirt,

And tear it from gore to gore,

And wrap it around this deathless wound,

And it did bleed no more.

‘Two Brothers’, traditional folk ballad

Chapter Thirty
-
Five

The Answer

Salomé stood gazing up at the frozen form of Moloch. Her parasol twirled to and fro.

‘I sometimes wonder what would have happened,’ she said, her voice distant and thoughtful, ‘if I hadn’t sided with Satan. Would Moloch have taken on the Hosts of Heaven?’

Edgy groaned and tried to stand but his legs folded beneath him, leaving him lying on his chest.

‘All in all, I think Satan’s done a better job than Moloch ever could have, don’t you?’ She flashed him a perfect smile. ‘After all, it was Satan who thought to corrupt mankind. Can you tell the difference, Edgy? The difference between man and demonkind? I can’t.’

‘You’re the one who cuts out children’s hearts,’ Edgy gasped, rolling on to his side and levelling the ossifier at her.

Salomé’s face hardened. ‘Now that’s not very friendly,’ she said through clenched teeth. ‘Anyway, don’t be such a silly boy. I have to cut your heart out. I have to show Satan that it’s safe.’

‘Then I’ll have to use this,’ Edgy gasped, raising the tube. His vision blurred. Two Salomés swam in front of him. He shook his head and staggered to his feet, leaning heavily on a boulder behind him.

‘You can’t ossify me,’ she sneered.

Edgy frowned, blinking sweat from his eyes. ‘Why not?’ he slurred.

‘Did you ever work out my riddle? The one I asked you all those months ago.’ She raised her eyebrows. ‘Remember? What is it that everyone is born with, some die with, but most die without?’

Edgy’s head swam. The cavern seemed to turn slowly. Salomé’s words rolled around in his mind.
What is it that everyone is born with, some die with, but most die without?
His heart thumped, punching at his ribs.
Why is she asking stupid riddles?
The blood roared in his head.
She’ll cut out my heart anyway. Like she does all her children. Think of all those kids down through the centuries. Murdered by her – their own . . .

Edgy fixed his eyes on Salomé.

His mind cleared a little as the realisation sank in.

He looked down at his ossifier and at Salomé again.

‘Well?’ Salomé asked, a frown of impatience creasing her face. ‘What is it that everyone is born with, some die with, but most die without?’

Edgy raised the ossifier, managing to smile at the look of discomfort on her face. The answer to the question that had been bothering him since he realised what Janus was up to flooded into his mind.

‘A mother,’ he said. ‘You’re my mother.’ He pulled the trigger and swung the gun to her left.

The last sludgeball in the ossifier flew over Salomé’s shoulder and splattered wetly on the thigh of the frozen Moloch. Edgy dropped the ossifier and fell forward into darkness. Salomé’s scream of rage echoed in his ears.

The cavern lay in a dim twilight when Edgy awoke. His head ached and every muscle protested as he pulled himself to his feet. Salomé sat on a pile of rubble, staring up at the grey, ossified body of Moloch – a massive gruesome statue. Edgy put a hand to his chest. His heart thumped gently, calmly.

‘When you ossified him, the heart became yours,’ Salomé said, resting her chin on her hand. Her hair hung loose and her hat lay discarded at her side. ‘If you knew the effort I’d gone to. The tricks and traps I’d laid to stop Janus. What a waste.’

‘But it’s sorted now. You don’t need to show Satan that the heart’s safe,’ Edgy said, ‘cos there’s no Moloch.’

‘No,’ Salomé sighed. ‘Very clever. I thought you were going to ossify me.’

Edgy shook his head. ‘I should’ve done. All those child­ren you must’ve killed over the years . . .’ Rage boiled up inside him.

‘It doesn’t matter now,’ she said flatly. ‘It’s over. You’ve spoiled the game.’

‘Game?’ Edgy spat. ‘Everyone that’s died, everyone who’s suffered cos of this an’ you call it a . . . a . . . game?’ He snatched up the ossifier that still lay buckled and dented by his side. ‘I wish I ’ad another shot. I’d let you ’ave it and not worry about ’ow I got ’ome.’

‘I wish you had another shot,’ Salomé said. For the first time, Edgy noticed tearstains on her cheeks. ‘Then you could end it all for me. It’s over, Edgy Taylor. The time of demons is finished. It’s mankind’s turn now. But I suspect he’s more than capable of destroying himself.’

‘What do you mean?’ Edgy frowned.
Is this some kind of new riddle?

‘Your precious stonemasons have hunted us to the verge of extinction. Either that or demons have become so earthbound that they’re virtually human. Who’s to say where demons end and humans begin?’