“Try,” said Suzie. “It’s messy enough in here as it is.”
Merlin looked at her. “One more interruption, and I’ll turn you into something amusing. Where was I ... ? Ah yes; the elves. I’ve often wondered whether I was right to let them stay dead ... I think they would have appreciated what I’ve done with the place.”
“No,” I said. “The elves, for all their differences, have always understood honour.”
“And taste,” said Suzie. She grinned nastily at Merlin. “Go on. Try something. I’ve always wanted to be amusing.”
I looked directly at Stark, who was staring out across the bloody Court, ignoring us all. “Do you still think you can make a deal with Merlin? After everything you’ve seen here? This was Camelot, the birth of a wonderful dream. And look what he’s done to it.”
Stark turned his empty gaze on me. “I’m only waiting because Merlin said he wouldn’t close the deal until you two were here to witness it. You fascinate Merlin. He lusts to see you broken.”
“Nasty man,” said Suzie. It wasn’t immediately obvious whom she meant.
“Enough,” said Morgan Le Fae. She leaned forward on her throne, her face ugly with anticipation. “Break them, my King, with pain and horror and despair. Tear away their insulting pride and make them grovel before us. Make them love us and plead to serve us.”
Suzie laughed in Morgan’s face. “Not a hope in hell, bitch. We don’t do that.”
“But you will,” said Merlin. “Anyone can be broken. And the more defiant you are, the sweeter my triumph will be.”
“Don’t shoot him, Suzie,” I said quietly. “Not yet.”
“Why not?” said Suzie, in a perfectly reasonable tone of voice.
“Because that’s Merlin Satanspawn, the anti-Christ, and the most powerful sorcerer, ever. And I don’t have nearly as much faith in your cursed and blessed ammo as you do. And because I haven’t finished with Stark yet. He has to have his chance, to do the right thing.” I turned back to Stark. “You were a London Knight. You led their armies into war against the powers of evil. Did you ever think you’d end up in a place like this, begging to make a deal with the anti-Christ? You swore an oath, upon your life and upon your honour, to fight things like him. How can you see what’s happened here and turn your head away?”
“I am sickened by what I have seen,” said Stark. “I never knew such corruption, such evil, was possible. But I swore an oath to myself that I would do whatever I have to to get my love back.” He turned away from me, to address Merlin. “Your witnesses are here. You can have Excalibur—after you’ve given me what I want. My wife, alive again, for the sword. So do it. Do it now.”
“You have hidden the sword well, Sir Jerusalem,” said Merlin. “All my power, and I can’t see it anywhere. And that’s one of the reasons why I want it. I don’t like the idea of anything existing that can defy my power. Let us make our deal. Because nothing can stop us now.”
Suzie lifted her shotgun, and I was readying myself to do something. Then we all stopped dead and looked about us because something had changed in the Court. Something was coming. We could all feel it; something coming to Court from a direction I could sense but not name. Merlin sat up straight on his throne, looking round him with a look that was part apprehension and part anticipation. I gathered it wasn’t often anything happened in his Court that he didn’t expect. Morgan Le Fae had sunk back on her throne, a pale hand pressed to her pale mouth. She was an elf, and Saw more clearly than any of us. And then, Julianne Stark was standing in the bloody Court of Camelot, a ghost come to stand before the throne of Merlin, unsummoned and unafraid. She had fought her way here from the land of the dead because the man she loved was in danger. Because he needed her.
“You can’t be here,” said Merlin. “I didn’t call you. Be gone, little ghost, or I’ll show you even the dead can be made to suffer.”
“Hello, Jerry,” said Julianne, ignoring Merlin with magnificent disdain. “Glad to see me?”
“Always,” said Stark. “But the sorcerer is right. You shouldn’t be here. I didn’t want you to know there could be a place like this. How can you be here when I didn’t summon you?” He looked down at the preserved heart in its spun-silver cage at his belt. His hand was nowhere near it, but Julianne looked solid and very real. He smiled at her, and she smiled at him, and the whole atmosphere in the Court changed, as though the sun had finally risen after a long night.
“How could I stay away,” said Julianne, “when your very soul is in peril? It was easy to come here, Jerry. This is a world of ghosts.”
“Julie, you have to let me do this. I’m doing it for you, for us ... because I can’t bear to go on living like this. Without you.”
“I don’t want to live again,” said Julianne, holding his gaze with hers. “Not at such a cost. To you, and to this world. Listen to me, Jerry. This world can still be saved, the people set free to live their own lives again ... but not if you give Excalibur to Merlin Satanspawn. With its power he could raise all the dead of this world and torment them forever. And then come to our world to do it all again. I couldn’t bear to have that on my conscience; and neither could you. I swear to you, Jerry. If you make me live again, at such a cost, I will kill myself.”
“Julie, don’t ... I can’t lose you again.”
“‘I could not love thee, dear, half so much, Loved I not honour more,’” said Julianne.
She reached out with her ghostly hands and took his living ones in hers; and Stark didn’t flinch a bit. “I said that to you once,” he said finally.
“I know. That was when I first knew I loved you.”
Stark smiled at her, a real smile, the first I’d ever seen from him. “I’ve missed you so much, Julie. So much, I couldn’t see anything else. You always were the sensible one in this relationship.”
“How sickeningly sentimental,” said Merlin. “I sense your resolve is weakening, Sir Jerusalem, and I can’t have that. So give me Excalibur or I’ll destroy the heart that hangs at your belt and take control of this whining little spirit for myself. Just because she’s dead, don’t think I can’t hurt her. Don’t think I can’t make her scream and suffer while you watch helplessly. Haven’t you seen enough here to know that even the dead aren’t safe from me?”
He gestured sharply, and every broken, mutilated, and skinned corpse nailed to the walls and ceiling came suddenly alive. They raised their flayed faces, strained their wet-muscled arms against the pins that held them, and screamed in agony. The horrid sound was deafening. Bodily fluids rained down from still-working organs exposed to the air, and a thousand raw and desperate voices called out for rest and mercy and death. And Merlin Satanspawn and Morgan Le Fae sat on their iron thrones and laughed.
Stark strode forward to stand before the two thrones, Julianne drifting along beside him; and something in Stark’s face stopped the laughter.
“You really shouldn’t have threatened my wife,” he said.
He reached over his shoulder and drew Excalibur from the invisible scabbard on his back. The sword flashed suddenly into existence, the long, golden blade shining supernaturally bright, its golden glow forcing back the murky light of the Court. Merlin and Morgan both flinched away from the sudden new light and raised their hands to protect their eyes.
“You had the sword all the time!” said Merlin. “How could you keep it from me, here in my place of power?”
“It’s Excalibur,” said Stark. “What else do you need to know?”
Merlin jerked his fat hand down and made himself glare into the golden light. “Artur might have had power over me with that sword, but he was the rightful born King of this land. That gave him authority. You’re only a thief with a magic sword. And I have killed so many of those in my time.”
“You might be right,” said Stark. “I’m Knight Apostate. Not worthy to bear Excalibur. But luckily, I know a man who is.”
And he turned and threw Excalibur to me. The sword seemed to hang on the air, turning end over golden end, and I had all the time in the world to reach out and grasp the hilt as it came to me. I snatched the blade out of mid air, and the blade blazed up even more brightly, a terrible, piercing light that filled the whole Court from end to end. I swept the sword back and forth before me, then looked Merlin full in the eye. He stood up abruptly from his iron throne and shoved one hand out at me. Magic blazed and crackled on the air, rewriting reality itself as it forced its way towards me ... and the sword absorbed every single bit of it. Sucked it right out of the air. I grinned at Merlin and cut suddenly at his extended hand. The golden blade flashed through the air, and Merlin snatched his hand back barely in time to avoid losing it. I stepped forward and thrust Excalibur straight at his heart; but the blade couldn’t reach him. It slammed to a halt a few inches short. I cut at him again and again, grunting with the effort I put into every blow, but brightly as the sword blazed, it still couldn’t pierce his protections.