Timekeepers: Number 2 in Series (20 page)

‘Why’d you do that, Mr Lucifer, why’d you do that? Just a doddery old man, Mr Lucifer, nowhere to go, no family, not even a hill to march up with my ten thousand men, why… why’d you do that?’

‘I’ll free you, if you tell me who Brian wants revenge against.’

‘Oh, that, that’s obvious, what a silly question, and such a nice young man too.’

‘Tell me, Loki. I’ll set you free.’

‘He wants Jehovah, of course. Big brother Jehovah, little Jehovah, big Jehovah, Jehovah the medium, Jehovah, size sixteen, shoes size eleven, height six foot —’

‘Why? Why does he want revenge against Jehovah?’

‘Never get into religion, boy, it’s never healthy, medium height, average size, normal colouring —’

‘Loki! Listen to me!’

Loki’s eyes flickered past Sam, and his face broke into a grin. ‘Brian, is this man nice?’

Sam turned, reaching for his dagger. The fist caught him across the jaw and he fell back, hitting the ground. Tinkerbell loomed, possibly the most looming figure Sam had ever seen, dark in every sense, an axe drawn in one hand. Sam tried to crawl away but Tinkerbell slammed a foot down on Sam’s chest, knocking him backwards. Sam raised his hands to call magic and froze as the axe sliced through the air. He closed his eyes.

Death failed to come. He opened his eyes, and wondered whether that had been such a great idea. The axe was hovering a short distance from his neck. His heart raced, his stomach churned. He heard Loki say, ‘Oh. So he’s not nice?’

Tinkerbell’s eyes didn’t leave Sam’s face. ‘He’s nice, pups. He’s just slightly over-enthusiastic.’ To Sam he said, ‘We shouldn’t have come to Asgard. You could have told me, I would have talked you out of it.’

‘At least I keep you on your toes,’ Sam answered, eyes not leaving the axe.

‘We’re leaving.’

‘Already?’ asked Loki. ‘You’ve only just arrived! Keep grandpa company a bit longer.’

Sam’s eyes narrowed. ‘A Son of Night, not a Son of Chaos,’ he breathed. The axe wavered a little bit closer to his throat, but Sam ignored it. ‘No wonder you lie about your grandfather. Your grandfather murdered Balder.’

‘And he’s suffered for it.’

‘You have followers within the Ashen’ia, I was told as much by the master. You led them here. You destroyed the guards, killed everyone, but left your grandfather alive. Because you want to free him?’

‘He’s suffered enough,’ said Tinkerbell through gritted teeth.

‘You need me to breach the wards.’

‘Yes.’

‘Then killing me might not be such a great idea.’

Tinkerbell smiled. ‘This axe won’t kill you, Lucifer. It’ll put you in a regenerative trance for a week after I slit your throat; and when you wake up, all cold and scared and drained, I’ll slit your throat again. And when you wake up again, I’ll kill you again, and again, and again, because that’s the advantage of being a Waywalker. You can suffer, you just never die.’

‘I’d free him anyway,’ said Sam flatly. ‘I’d do it now.’

‘No. Not now. Not yet.’

‘Why?’

‘He gave his blood to Cronus. That’s the kind of bond that can’t be broken by Time. If you freed him now, it would be Cronus, not Loki, who came out of that cell.’

Sam felt ice start to creep through his blood. Tinkerbell smiled a sad smile and nodded very faintly. ‘For the bond to be broken, Cronus must die. For Cronus to die, he must be freed by one he trusts. By Seth, to be exact. For Seth to believe that he is doing the right thing, he must have opposition when he tries to free Cronus, otherwise he won’t believe that what he does is his own action, rather than that dictated by Time. Opposition is provided in the form of the Ashen’ia. The Ashen’ia will die. Cronus will be freed. You will destroy him. The bond between him and my grandfather will be broken. Loki goes free. Who’s the master, Sebastian?’

Sam let his head fall back against the floor. He put his hands up to cover his eyes and said, ‘This is such a bad millennium.’

‘Jehovah’s the master, isn’t he?’

Sam nodded, feeling weak and wretched.
Everyone seems to be trying to free Cronus for some reason or the other. Except me.

‘I thought it would be so. I wanted proof, you see. If the Ashen’ia really are just a part in Time’s conspiracy then Time will want someone to guarantee that they get destroyed and Seth achieves his aims. Jehovah seemed the obvious candidate to play that double game. Send Seth his to fate and the Ashen’ia to theirs. Jehovah is the master. Jehovah will ensure that Cronus is freed.’

‘You did better than me,’ said Sam sourly. ‘You saw the truth, and I didn’t.’

‘You’re trying to survive. I understand that.’

‘If I do destroy Cronus, I’ll probably be killed in the process.’

‘No. You’ll simply go mad, lose your mind, lose your identity, lose everything that makes you who you are. You won’t die.’

‘Forgive me if I don’t find that a reassurance.’

Tinkerbell shrugged, pulled the axe away, offered his hand. Sam glared it at, but reluctantly let Tinkerbell help him up. Loki was staring at the pair of them. ‘Cronus is coming? Cronus is going to be free?’

‘It’s all right, pups. Lucifer will stop him.’

‘But… but he’s coming! He’s everywhere, he’s coming!’

Sam frowned. He could hear something in Loki’s voice, something like…’Erm… Tinkerbell?’

And there it was, the translucent film spreading across Loki’s eyes, the grating quality entering his voice as he turned to Sam and said, ‘Hello again, little light and little fire.’

‘Hello, cowardy Cronus.’

Loki’s hands lashed out, striking the bars. Sparks flew from them but still he gripped, grinning as the wards fluctuated up and down. ‘Little light and little fire is going to die,’ he said.

‘Cowardy Cronus is thick.’

Tinkerbell said nothing, edging away from Sam, as though afraid he might catch something from the man who dared talk to one of Cronus’s possessed.

‘Have you ever considered what it would be like to serve me?’ LokiCronus said.

‘Excuse me? Little light and little fire, the guy who you tried to kill while possessing Thor,
serve
you?’

‘You can’t be happy serving Time.’

‘Who said anything about serving anyone? I’m
me
. I believe very firmly in the independent spirit.’

‘Little light and little fire is just a pawn.’

‘Little light and little fire will find his own path, thanks anyway. Now bugger off, because you know as well as I that it’s nigh on impossible for a Greater Power to sustain possession for more than a few minutes. Let alone a Greater Power who’s been behind bars for a few million years.’

‘I destroyed Balder. I can bring you down too.’

‘Delighted, I’m sure. But you haven’t brought me down, have you? I’m still up and running and waiting for something interesting to happen. And pal, I don’t think you
are
going to bring me down. I’m going to kick Seth hard in the arse and leave you to rot, because I don’t like you any more than you like me.’

‘I will destroy you.’

‘And I’ll become a great cook.’

Almost grudgingly, the film faded from Loki’s eyes and he staggered back, clutching at his face and wailing, ‘Doddery old man, leave a doddery old man alone!’’ Sam watched him with pity on his face, but didn’t move.

‘You just faced down the former master of the universe,’ said Tinkerbell.

‘Look, either he remains locked up, in which case he’s no threat to me, or he gets freed. In which case I either get driven stark raving mad destroying him, or die in the attempt. Whatever happens, he can’t touch me.’

‘Have you realised what happens if you use the Light against him? To destroy a Greater Power you must touch the mind of everything that lives – and even Cronus, to a small degree, shows signs of life. You’ll touch his mind too.’

‘And yours, and the mind of Time and the minds of everyone else in the universe – but, you know, I don’t think I’ll be in a fit state to take notes, do you?’

‘I’m sorry it has to be like this, Lucifer.’

Sam sighed, brushing off dust that wasn’t on his clothes. ‘Tinkerbell, I need a favour.’

‘What?’

‘Five minutes alone with an Eden Portal.’

Tinkerbell’s eyes narrowed faintly. ‘Who are you double-crossing now, little light and little fire?’

‘The whole goddamn universe, pal.’

But Tinkerbell gave him his five minutes, which was more than enough.

I
n the tunnels of Asgard, the Eden Portal looked like any other. But then it always had, since the wards were written on the inside.

Sam slipped his mind into it, recognised the wards. After all, he was the one who’d written them. Seeing his own handiwork, he marvelled at its strength. So much power, tapped from so few minds, to create wards that if anything were even thicker than those made by Light herself. They lay across the Way of Eden like a giant blanket across the horizon so that, whatever way you turned, still they were there. Grey and unobtrusive, but as hard as rock. You couldn’t puncture wards like that. They’d just absorb the attack. There was nothing extreme here, and nothing extreme would tear the wards, yet at the same time anything less would be a drawing pin against a blue whale.

He called, nonetheless.

She answered instantly. She must have been waiting for him to speak.

Silence. Then,

She was gone.

Sam sat in front of the Portal and marvelled. He got to his feet and began to smile all over. He walked down the corridor.

Tinkerbell stood at the far end. ‘Lucifer,’ he said in a low voice, ‘who’ve you double-crossed?’

‘Like I said, the entire goddamn universe.’

‘You seem very happy about it.’

‘Tinkerbell, you would not believe. Come on. I need to scry.’

A simple target. They went to Trafalgar Square, and Sam sat on the edge of a fountain, looking down into the clear, toxic water. True to tradition, a hundred pigeons scurried towards him for food, then sensed, with better instinct than humans, who he was and hastened off in the other direction.

He stared into the water. Simple scry, no need for precautions. Just one mind to another.

Silence. Silence. Silence.

And the water that Sam stared at rippled, shifted, and exploded in his face. He staggered back, wiping the water from his eyes. Tinkerbell had leapt to his feet with a cry of ‘Shit!’ and now followed his look of surprise with a wry smile. ‘That, I take it, wasn’t what you meant to do.’

‘I think I’ve pissed someone off,’ said Sam.

‘Anyone I know?’

‘Oh, just the ruler of the universe. Come on, let’s leave.’

‘You’ve screwed Time?’

‘Only in a polite little way.’

They walked briskly towards the river, past busy Charing Cross and along the Embankment.

‘Why exactly have you done this? I thought you and he were getting along fine.’

‘He said he’d kill someone very dear to me unless I did what he wanted. I’ve now removed that option from him. One of his Queens is offering her protection.’

Tinkerbell stopped, and seized Sam by the arm. ‘Oh no,’ he said. ‘I know about this. You get Day involved and Night tries to kill her. You get Fire involved and Water tries to kill him. You get any Greater Power other than Time involved and —’

‘The Queen of Eden, Light Incarnate, is protecting her. When I sealed the Way of Eden I removed the reason for my brothers to summon Darkness. Darkness is Light’s opposite, but she is weak, not acknowledged as a Queen of Heaven, and Light hides herself away in Eden, where no other is allowed to set foot. For preventing Darkness being summoned, Light owed me a favour. I’ve just called on it. Time will not move against one of his Queens, nor will the other Greater Powers, because Light is Queen of Eden in her own right and greater by far than any of her sisters.
That’s
why Time had Balder by her – the greatest, golden child by the greatest, golden Power. No one will act against someone who is under Light’s protection.’

No one except things like Cronus.
 

‘Let me guess. They’ll act against you, who arranged the entire business?’

‘Yeah. That’s the only real drawback.’

Tinkerbell’s smile was beginning to look painfully taut. ‘So. You’ve won?’

‘Not yet.’

‘But… you might not have to destroy Cronus? Time has lost his hold on you?’

Sam saw. Slow and deliberate, he interlaced his fingers and began twiddling them. A tiny, tiny gesture that might just be attributed to nervousness, but could be something more. People on the busy street gave them no attention as he stopped and looked at Tinkerbell. A tourist boat on the Thames passed, the loudspeaker commentary declaring, ‘And here we see the fascinating…’ and passed out of earshot. Sound carried well across water.

‘You’re a strange man, Brian Hunter. Tinkerbell. You told me I should try to save the lives of thousands. Potentially, that’s what I’ve now done. I’m free to stop Time in his plans, where these same thousands die.

‘Yet though you seemed to put the lives of the many before the one, still you’d see many destroyed – for one. For a doddery old man who murdered the Son of Light, sold his soul to the enemy of his father, lied and tricked his way through his youth and finally lost his mind. For him, you would not care that I died. Why? Because he’s your grandfather?’

‘If Time’s lost his hold on you, Sebastian, you no longer have any need to destroy Cronus.’

Sam seemed to not hear him. ‘You spoke of revenge. Revenge against a Waywalker? Who? Who do you want to see destroyed?’

‘If Cronus isn’t going to be killed, then Loki will not be freed.’

‘It must be connected to Loki. A Waywalker connected to Loki.’

‘Lucifer.’ Something in Tinkerbell’s voice caught Sam’s attention. He looked up, frown still on his face, fingers still twiddling. ‘I can’t let you ruin this,’ said Tinkerbell.

‘I thought you’d say that.’

Tinkerbell hesitated. And as Sam threw the coiled magic, unwinding from his fingers like a spring snapping open, Tinkerbell smiled. He knew, Sam realised. He
knew
about the magic in Sam’s fingers, and hadn’t done anything to prevent it from building up. Even as it struck him across the side, and spun him round in a circle just in time to hit Sam’s counter-spell and get shoved to one side, he knew. Even as he hit the edge of the wall that lined the side of the Embankment, pivoted off it and fell into the river below, he knew. He knew that Sam was going to hit him with the spell, and hadn’t done anything.

As Sam leant over the edge of the wall and looked down to see Tinkerbell surface from the river and pull desperately at the harsh yanking of the tide, he wondered why.