The Compleat Crow Page 2

  And he had done it! All of his skill went into it, and a deal of luck, too — and for what? No treasure at all, and only the tiny vial in his pocket to show for his trouble. And what trouble! Even now he shuddered, thinking back on those corpse-laden catacombs under the desert.

  Straight back to Tunis he'd taken the vial, to Erik Kuphnas where he waited. And: 'Do you have it?' The black magician had been frantically eager.

  'I might have it,' the fugitive had been tantalizingly noncommittal. 'I might even sell it — if only I knew what it was. But the truth this time, Erik, for I've had it with lies and tales of priceless treasure.'

  And Kuphnas had at once answered:

  'No use, that vial, to you. No use to anyone who is not utterly pure- and completely innocent.'

  'Oh? And are you those things?'

  How Kuphnas had glared at him then. 'No,' he had answered slowly. 'I am not — but neither, am I a fool. I would use it carefully, sparingly, and so dilute as to be almost totally leeched of its- power. At first, anyway —until I knew what I was dealing with. As to what it is: no man knows that, except perhaps a certain Sanusi wizard. The legends have it that he was a chief three hundred

  years ago — and that now he's high-priest of the cult of the Undying Dead!'

  'What?' the fugitive had snorted, and laughed. 'What? And you believe such mumbo-jumbo, such utter rubbish?' Then his voice had hardened. Now for the last time tell me: what is it?'

  At that Kuphnas had jumped up, strode to and fro across the fine rugs of his study 'Fool!' he'd hissed, glaring as before. 'How may any mere man of the 20th Century "know" what it is? If s the essence of mandrake, the sweat on the upper lip of a three-day corpse, six grey grains of Ibn Ghazi's powder. It's the humor of a zombies iris, the mist rising up from the Pool of All Knowledge, the pollen-laden breath of a black lotus. Man, I don't 'know" what it is! But I know something of what it can do . .

  'I'm still listening,' the fugitive had pressed.

  To one who is pure, innocent, unblemished, the Elixir is a crystal ball, a shewstone, an oracle. A single drop will make such a man -- how shall we say? -- AWARE!'

  'Aware?'

  'Yes, but when you say it, say and think it in capitals — AWARE!'

  Ah! s a drug — it will heighten a man's senses.' 'Rather, his perceptions — if you will admit the difference. And it is not a drug. It is the Elixir.'

  'Would you recognize it?'

  `Instantly!'

  'And what will you pay for it?'

  If s the real thing -- fifty thousand of your pounds!' 'Cash?' (Suddenly the fugitive's throat had been very dry)

  'Ten thousand now, the rest tomorrow morning.' And then the fugitive had held out his hand and opened it. There in his palm had lain the vial, a tiny stopper firmly in its neck.

  Kuphnas had taken it from him into hands that shook, held it up eagerly to the light from his window. And the vial had lit up at once in a golden glow, as if the occultist had captured a small part of the sun itself! And: 'Yes!' he had hissed then. 'Yes, this is the Elixir!'

  At that the fugitive had snatched it back, held out his hand again. 'My ten thousand— on account,' he'd said. 'Also, we'll need an eye-dropper.'

  Kuphnas had fetched the money, asked: 'And what is this about an eye-dropper?'

  'But isn't it obvious? You have given me one fifth of my money, and I will give you one fifth of the Elixir. Three drops, as I reckon it. And the rest tomorrow, when I'm paid.

  Kuphnas had protested, but the fugitive would not be swayed. He gave him three drops, no more. And five minutes later when he left him, already the occultist had been calculating the degree of dilution required for his first experiment. His first, and very likely only experiment. Certainly his last.

  For when with the dawn the fugitive had returned and passed into Kuphnas' high-walled courtyard and up the fig-shaded marble steps to his apartments, he had found the exterior louvre doors open; likewise the Moorishly ornate iron lattice beyond them; and in Kuphnas' study itself —

  There on the table, effulgent in the first bright beams of day, a bowl of what appeared to be simple water — and the empty eye-dropper beside it. But of Erik Kuphnas and the fugitive's forty thousand pounds, no sign at all. And then, in the corner of the occultist's study, tossed down there and crumpled in upon itself, he had spied what seemed to be a piece of old leather or perhaps a large canvas sack; except it was the general shape of the thing that attracted the fugitives attention. That and the question of what it was doing here in these sumptuous apartments. Only when he moved closer had he seen what it really was that it had hair and dead, glassy, staring orb-like eyes — Kuphnas' eyes — still glaring a strange composite glare of shock, horror, and per- manently frozen malignance!

  Innocence and purity indeed!

  That had been enough for the fugitive: he had fled at once, with nightmare gibbering on his heels, and with something else there, too. For to his knowledge that was when he had first become the fugitive, since when he had always been on the move, always running.

  Nor could he scoff any longer at the idea of an undead guardian of that Sanusi temple hed robbed; for indeed the thing which had followed him, drawing closer every day, and certainly closer with each passing night, was not alive as men understood that word. Oh, he'd seen it often enough — its burning eyes and crumbling features — in various corners of the world, and now here in London finally it had tracked him down, forced him to earth. . .

  His eyes had grown accustomed to the tunnel's darkness now, where the nitrous walls with their foxfire luminosity sufficed however faintly to light his way, so that matches were no longer required. A good thing, too, for his box was severely depleted. But he had come perhaps, oh, one hundred and fifty yards along this ancient passage from the river, and knew that it would soon open out into a series of high-vaulted cellars. There would be stone steps leading up, and at their, top a dark oak door standing open. Beyond that a high-walled, echoing room — five-sided, containing round its walls five wooden benches, and at its centre a pedestal bearing a stone bowl – would wait within a greater hall which, for all that it remained unseen, the fugitive had always known must be vast. And here a second oaken door would be locked, permitting no further exploration. Or at least, the door had always been locked when he was a boy.

  As to what the place was: he had never known for sure, but had often guessed. A library, perhaps, long disused; or some forgotten factory once powered by the river? And the tunnel would have served as an exit route for refuse, with the tidal Thames as the agent of dispersal. Whichever, to him it had always been a refuge, a sanctuary. And now it must play that role again, at least until the dawn. His pursuer was least active in daylight, so that with luck he should make a clean getaway for parts further afield. Meanwhile —

  He was into the vaults now, where ribbed stone ceilings rose to massy keystone centres; and there, beyond this junction of bare subterrene rooms, he recognized at once the old stone steps rising into gloom. Crossing echoing flags to climb those steps, at last he arrived at the door and shouldered it open on hinges which had not known oil for many a year And as the squealing reverberations died away, so he gazed again into that dusty, cobwebbed pentagon of carved stonework, whose walls partitioned it off from the unseen but definitely sensed far greater hall of which it must be the merest niche.

  The light was better here, still faint and confused by dust and ropes of grey cobwebs, but oh so gradually gathering strength as night crept toward day. And there were the benches where often the fugitive had lain through long, lonely nights; and there, too, central in the room; the pedestal and its bowl, but draped now with a white cloth; and over there, set in the farthest of the five walls, the second oaken door . . . ajar!

  Hands shaking so badly he could scarce control them, the fugitive struck another match and held it high, driving back the shadows. And there on the stone flags of the floor -footprints other than his own! Fresh prints in the dust of — how many years? The
clean sheet, too, draped across the stone basin . . . what did these things mean?

  The fugitive crossed to the basin, turned back a corner of the sheet. Fresh water in the bowl, its surface softly gleaming. He scooped up a little in his hand, sniffed at it, finally drank and slaked his burning thirst.

  And as he turned from the pedestal, so he almost collided with a slender, polished wooden pole set in a circular base, whose top branched over the basin. Shaped like a narrow gallows, still the thing was in no, way sinister; depending from its bar on a chain of bronze, a burnished hook hung overhead.

  The fugitive began to understand where he was, and knew now how to prove his location beyond any further doubt. Quickly he went to the door where it stood ajar, eased it open and stepped through. And then he knew that he was right, knew what this place was and wondered if he really had any right being here. Probably not.

  But in any case he could not stay; the dawn would soon be breaking, when once more he would be safe; he had far, far to go before night fell again. He re-entered the five-sided room, crossed its floor, paused at the pedestal and bowl to adjust the sheet where he'd disturbed it. And that was when the idea came to him and fixed itself in his mind.

  He took out the vial and held it up in the gloom, and feeble though the light was, still the Elixir gathered to itself a faintly roseate glow. Was this really what the follower sought? Was this truly the purpose of the pursuit? Yes, it must be so. And which was that worm-ravaged ghoul compelled to track: flesh and blood thief, or the object of his thievery? Could the creature be thrown off the trail? And in any case, what good to anyone was the Elixir now?

  A good many questions, and the fugitive knew the answers to none of them, not for certain. But there might be a way to find out.

  Again, quickly, he turned back the corner of the sheet, unstoppered the tiny bottle, held his face well away and poured the contents out into the stone bowl. Glancing from the corner of his eye, he saw a faint glimmer of gold passing like a stray beam of sunlight over the surface of the water, watched it fade as those smallest of ripples grew still.

  There, it was done. He sighed, stoppered the vial, replaced it in his pocket and moved on.

  Back through the door at the top of the steps he went, and down those steps to the vault, and so once more tothe claustrophobic passage under the earth. Dawn must be mere minutes away; surely by now the pursuer had

  given up the chase, hidden himself away for the day tocome? With his footsteps ringing in his ears, so the fugitive retraced his steps, clambered over the fallendebris close to the entrance, finally stuck his head out ofthe embrasure in the wall and gazed out over the river.Not quite dawn yet, no, but there on a distant horizon,on grey roofs a pinkish stain which heralded the risingsun; and already the mist settling back to the river, whereit curled like a thick topping of ethereal cream. There was a riming of frost on the stonework now, perhaps the first of winter, but the fugitive ignored the cold as he put up a groping hand to blindly discover and clutch an iron paling. Then, without pause, he swung himself out of the embrasure and began to climb -

  - Only to freeze in that position as irresistible fingers grasped his wrists and drew him effortlessly up!

  The pursuer! There beyond the palings, clinging like a great black leech to the wall! And when their faces were level, when only the iron palings separated them — how the fugitive would have screamed then. But he could not; for transferring both of his trapped wrists to one black and leathery and impossibly powerful claw, the pursuer had shoved his free hand between the bars and into his forehead!

  The fugitive knew what was happening. He could feel this monstrous undead creature's fingers groping in his brain, fumbling among all his secrets. Also, he knew he was a dead man. The black zombie's fingers had gone into his head effortlessly, flowing into flesh and bone and painlessly mingling —but they need not necessarily come out the same way. And it could be just as slow as the monster wished it. What was that for a way to die?

  Hope does not always spring eternal — not when you gaze into eyes like coals under a bellows, worn by a creature spawned in hell.

  The fugitive filled his mouth and spat straight into those blazing eyes.

  The fingers at once shifted their position in his head, solidified, were withdrawn through his eyes, taking the eyeballs with them. Blood and brains spouted in twin jets. Still clinging to the palings like a leech, the thing jerked the fugitive's head up and quickly back down, impaling it on one of the spikes. His arms and legs flew outwards, jerked spastically, fell back loosely. And he twitched. Not life but death.

  The cursed thing sniffed his corpse with tattered nostrils, found nothing. It plucked him from the palings and tossed him down. The mist parted for a moment as he struck the water, then rolled back and eddied as before .. .

  Dawn was only a minute or two away and the dead thing knew it. He also knew where the fugitive had been, or at least where he had come from. Like treacle his body dissolved and flowed through the bars on top of the wall, and down into the embrasure where he quickly reassembled. And following the fugitive's old route, the monster flowed forward in darkness, along the passage to the vaults, through them to the upward-leading steps.

  Here the thing paused as it felt the first waves of some unknown force, the presence of a Power. But dawn was coming, and the Elixir remained to be found. It flowed forward up the steps, flowed like smoke through the open door and into the five-sided room — and paused again.

  Yes, the Elixir was here. Somewhere. Here! But something else was here too. The Power was stronger, unbearably strong .. .

  Moora Dunda Sanusi crossed the floor to the second door, leaving no footprints. But at the door he paused a third time before something which angered him to a frenzy of hate, something he could not see, something in the air and in the stone and filling the very ether. And in that same instant the sun's first rays struck on high, dusty windows and penetrated them, falling in splintered beams within — beams with all the colours of the rainbow!

  Dawn and the light it brought increased the unseen Power tenfold. Moora Dunda Sanusi's magic began to fail him. Unwanted solidarity returned and gave him weight, and faint prints began to show in the dust where he staggered backwards, driven back into the five-sided room and across its stone paving. He reeled against the pedestal and displaced the bowl's sheet, and a flailing hand fell for a moment into the gleaming water.

  Agony! Impossible agony! The thing which Dunda was should feel no pain for it had no life as such — and yet there was pain. And Moora Dunda Sanusi knew that pain at once, and knew its source — the Elixir. The Elixir, yes, but no longer contained, no longer safe.

  The thing snatched its mummied claw from the water, reeled toward the steps which led down into darkness and safety. But the place was sanctuary no longer. Not for such as Moora Dunda Sanusi, dead for more than two hundred and seventy years. Striking from above through many high-arched, stained-glass windows, the sun's rays formed a fiery lattice of lances, stabbing down into the five-sided room and converging on the undead thing, consuming it even as the Elixir consumed its arm.

  Clutching that melting member to him, the zombie crumpled in reeking silence to the flags, foul smoke billowing outwards and bearing his substance away. In a moment the fires in his eyes flickered low, and in the next blinked out, extinguished. The final, solitary sound he made was a sigh of great peace long overdue, and then he was gone.

  A breeze, blowing in under the doors of the ancient church, scattered what was left and blended it with the dust of decades.

  * * *

  The sun came up and London's mists dispersed. Dawn grew into a bright December day.

  A local vicar, hurrying along the riverside streets, paused to glance at his watch. 10:00 a.m. – they would be waiting. He made his legs go faster, clucked his tongue against his teeth in annoyance. It was all so irregular. Very irregular, but hardly improper. And of course the family were well-known church benefactors. And maybe it wasn't so
irregular after all; for all of the line's children had been christened in the old church for several centuries now. A matter of tradition, really...

  Turning a corner away from the river, the vicar came in view of the church, saw its steeple rising against the sky, where many slates were loose or missing altogether; its beautiful windows, some broken, but all doomed now to demolition, along with the rest of the fine old structure. And they called this progress! But it was still consecrated, still holy, still a proper house of God. For a few weeks more, anyway.

  He saw, too, his verger, sneaking along the street with his collar up, coming away from the church – and the vicar nodded grimly to himself. Oh, yes? But he'd told him to see to the old place a full week ago, and not leave it until the last minute.

  Approaching, finally the verger saw him, saw too that he was identified. His frown turned to a smile in a moment; he came directly forward, beaming at the vicar. 'Ah, vicar! All's prepared; I've spent the better part of two whole hours in there! But the dust and cobwebs –incredible! I did come round earlier in the week, but such a lot to do that—'