Nightingale's Lament

by Simon R. Green

  At the sound of the gun, the Ian Augers looked up sharply from their instruments. The backing singers huddled together, eyes and mouths stretched wide. Rossignol stared blankly down at the dead man. He was still standing there, because the press of the crowd wouldn’t allow him to fall, even though half his head was missing. And in the echoing silence, the crowd slowly came back to themselves. As though they’d been shocked awake from a deep dark dream where they’d all been drifting towards … something. I knew, because I’d been feeling it too. Part of me recognised it.

  Then the crowd went crazy. Screaming and shouting and roaring in what might have been shock or outrage, they all surged determinedly forward. They wanted, they needed, to get to the stage, get to her. They fought each other with hands and elbows, snapping like animals. People were crushed, dragged down and trampled underfoot. Those nearest the dead man at the front tore him apart, literally limb from limb, scattering the bloody body parts among them like sacrificial offerings. There was an awful feeling of… celebration in the crowd. As though this was what they’d all been waiting for, even if they didn’t know themselves.

  I’d already vaulted up onto the stage and out of the way. Rossignol snapped out of her horrified daze, turned, and ran from the stage. The crowd saw her disappear and howled their rage and disapproval. They started to scramble up onto the stage. The backing singers ran forward to the edge of the stage and kicked viciously at people trying to pull themselves up. The three Ian Augers came forward and reinforced the singers with large, bony fists. But they were so few, and the crowd was so large, and so determined. Hell’s Neanderthals waded into the crowd from the rear, slapping people down and throwing them in the direction of the exit, whether they wanted to go or not. I started after Rossignol. One of the Ian Augers reached out to grab me, but I’ve had a lot of practice at dodging unfriendly hands. I headed backstage, just as the first wave of the crowd boiled up over the edge.

  Backstage, no-one tried to stop me. Everyone there had their own problems, and once again as long as I moved confidently and like I had a purpose and a right to be there, no-one even looked at me. I saw the two combat magicians coming and ducked through a side door for a moment. They hurried past, dark sparks already sputtering around their fists as they prepared themselves for some magical mayhem. They should be able to hold off the crowd, assuming Stargrave and Chance didn’t get involved. If they did, there could be some serious unpleasantness. I waited until I was sure the combat magicians were gone, then headed for Rossignol’s dressing room.

  She was sitting there alone, again, with her back to the mirror this time. Her eyes were wild, unfocussed, as she struggled to cope with what had just happened. She was trying to scrub the blood and gore off her bare feet with a hand towel. And yet, for all her obvious distress, it seemed to me that this was the most alive I’d ever seen her. She looked up sharply as I came in and shut the door behind me.

  “Get out! Get out of here!”

  “It’s all right, Ross,” I said quickly. “I’m not a fan.” I concentrated and shrugged off the seeming Pew had placed on me. It was only a small magic, after all. Rossignol recognised me as the tattoos disappeared from my face, and she slumped tiredly.

  “Thank God. I could use a friendly face.”

  She suddenly started to tremble, her whole body shuddering, as the shock caught up with her. I took off my leather jacket and wrapped it gently round her shoulders. She grabbed my hands, squeezing them hard as though to draw some of my strength and warmth into her, then suddenly she was in my arms, holding me like a drowning woman, her tear-stained face pressed against my chest. I held her and comforted her as best I could. We all need a little simple human comfort, now and again. Finally, she let go, and I did, too. I knelt, picked up the hand towel, and cleaned the last of the blood off her feet to give her a moment to compose herself. By the time I’d finished and was looking around for somewhere to dump the towel, she seemed to have calmed down a little.

  I straightened up, sat on the dressing room table, and dropped the towel beside me. “Has anything like this ever happened to you before, Ross?”

  “No. Never. I mean, there have been rumours, but… no. Never right in front of me.”

  “Did you recognise the guy?”

  “No! Never saw him before in my life! I don’t mix with my … audience. The Cavendishes insist on that. Part of building the image, the mystique, they said. I never really believed the rumours … I thought it was just publicity, stories the Cavendishes put about to work up some excitement. I never dreamed…”

  “As if we would ever do such a thing, dear Rossignol,” said a cold, familiar voice behind me. I got to my feet and looked round, and there in the dressing room doorway were Mr. and Mrs. Cavendish. Tall and aristocratic, and twice as arrogant. They glided in like two dark birds of ill omen, ignoring their property Rossignol to consider me with a cold, thoughtful gaze.

  “You do seem in very rude health, Mr. Taylor,” said the man. “Does he not, Mrs. Cavendish?”

  “Indeed he does, Mr. Cavendish. Quite the picture of good health.”

  “Perhaps some of the stories about you are true after all, Mr. Taylor.”

  I just smiled and said nothing. Let them wonder. It all added to the reputation.

  “We did think you’d learned your lesson, Mr. Taylor,” said the woman.

  “Afraid not,” I said. “I’m a very slow learner.”

  “Then we shall just have to try harder,” said the man. “Won’t we, Mrs. Cavendish?”

  Rossignol was looking back and forth, confused. “You know each other?”

  “Of course,” said the man. “Everyone in the Nightside comes to us, eventually. Do not concern yourself, my dear. And most of all, do not worry yourself about the unfortunate incident during the show. Mrs. Cavendish and I will take care of everything. You must allow us to worry for you. That is what you pay us our forty percent for.”

  “How much?” I said, honestly outraged.

  “Our hard-won expertise does not come cheaply, Mr. Taylor,” said the woman. “Not that it is any of your business. Isn’t that correct, dear Rossignol?”

  She seemed to shrink under their gaze, and she looked down at the floor like a scolded child. “Yes,” she said, in a small voice. “That’s right.”

  “What’s happening out in the club?” I said.

  “The club is being cleared,” said the man. “It is a shame that the show had to be cut short, but we did make it clear on the tickets that there would be no refunds, under any circumstances.”

  “I am sure they will be back again, for the next show,” said the woman. “Everyone is so desperate to hear dear Rossignol sing.”

  “You expect her to go on again, after what just happened?” I said.

  “Of course,” said the man. “The show must go on. And our dear Rossignol only lives to sing. Isn’t that right, dear child?”

  “Yes,” said Rossignol, still staring at the floor. “I live to sing.”

  “People are dying!” I said loudly, trying to get a reaction from her. “Not just here, not just right now. This is only the most recent suicide, and the most public. People are taking their own lives because of what they hear when Rossignol sings!”

  “Rumour,” said the woman. “Speculation. Nothing more than tittle-tattle.”

  “And there will always be fanatics,” said the man. “Poor deranged souls who fly too close to the flame that attracts them. You are not to concern yourself, dear Rossignol. The club will be cleared soon, and all will be made ready for your next performance. We will have extra security in place and take all the proper precautions to ensure your safety. Leave everything to us.”

  “Yes,” said Rossignol. Her voice was heavy now, almost half-asleep. Just the presence of the Cavendishes had reduced her to the same dull state in which I’d first found her. There was no point in talking to her any more. So I shrugged mentally and took my jacket back from around her shoulders. She didn’t react. I put it on, a
nd the Cavendishes stepped back to make room for me to leave. I headed for the door like it was my decision, and the Cavendishes glided smoothly aside to let me pass. I was almost out of the room when Rossignol’s voice stopped me. I looked back. She had her head up again, and her voice was quiet but determined.

  “John, find out what’s happening. I need to know the truth. Do this for me. Please.”

  “Sure,” I said. “Saving damsels in distress is what I do.”

  All the News, Dammit

  Every good guest knows better than to outstay his welcome. Especially if he’s an uninvited guest, and his hosts want his head on a platter. So I slipped quietly away, passing unnoticed in the general chaos and hysteria backstage, and finally made my exit by a sinfully unguarded back door. The back alley was surprisingly clean and tidy, not to mention well lit, though I did surprise half a dozen of the cleaning monkeys caught up in a red-hot dice game. I murmured my apologies and hurried past them. Monkeys can get really nasty if you interrupt their winning streak.

  I moved quietly round the corner of the club and peered down the side alley that led back to the main street. It was empty, for the moment, but there were clear sounds of trouble and associated mayhem out on the street. I padded cautiously forward, sneaking the occasional quick look over my shoulder, and eventually eased up to the front corner of Caliban’s Cavern. Someone had already smashed the street-light there, so I stood and watched from the shadows as a riot swiftly put itself together outside the nightclub.

  Out in front of Caliban’s Cavern, a loud and very angry crowd was busily escalating a commotion into an open brawl. The recently ejected audience was feeling distinctly put upon and out of sorts at being cheated out of their show, and even more upset at the management’s firm no refunds policy. A few of the crowd, most definitely including the various celebrities, were not at all used to being manhandled in such a peremptory manner, and many had taken it upon themselves to express their displeasure by tearing apart the whole front edifice of the club. Windows were smashed, facia torn away, and anything at all fragile ended up in small pieces all over the pavement. The outnumbered security staff retreated back inside the club and locked the front doors. The increasingly angry crowd took that as a challenge and set about kicking the doors in. Some even levered up bits of the pavement to use as missiles or battering rams.

  An even larger crowd gathered, to watch the first crowd. Free entertainment was always highly valued in the Nightside, especially when it involved violence and the chance of open mayhem. On learning the reason for the riot, some of the new arrivals expressed their solidarity by joining in, and soon an army of angry faces were attacking the front of Caliban’s Cavern with anything that came to hand. And it’s surprising how many really destructive things can just come to hand, in the Nightside.

  A roar of rabid motorcycles announced the arrival of security reinforcements. The outer edges of the huge seething mob looked round to see a pack of almost a hundred Hell’s Neanderthals slamming to a halt on their stripped-down chopper bikes. They quickly dismounted and surged forward, howling their preverbal war cries and brandishing all sorts of simple weaponry. The mob turned to face them, happy and eager for a chance to have living targets to take out their fury on. The two sides joined battle with equal fervour, and soon half the street was a war zone, with bodies flying this way and that, and blood flowing thickly in the gutters. The watching crowd retreated to a safe distance and booed the newly arrived security for the spoilsports they were.

  It seemed to me that this was a good time to make myself scarce, while the Cavendishes’ attention would be focussed on more immediate problems. I skirted round the edges of the boiling violence, firmly resisting all invitations to become involved, and walked briskly back towards the business area of Uptown. I’d thought of someone else to go to in search of answers. When in doubt, go to the people who know everything, even if they can’t prove any of it. Namely journalists, gossip columnists, and all the other nosey parkers employed by the Night Times, the Nightside’s very own newspaper.

  It didn’t take long to reach Victoria House, the large and comfortably run-down building that housed the Night Times. It was a big and bulky building because it had to be. Within its heavy grey stone walls the paper was written, edited, published, printed, and distributed every twenty-four hours, all under the guardianship of its remarkable owner and editor, Julien Advent. The legendary Victorian Adventurer himself. Advent had to keep everything under one roof because that was the only way he could ensure the paper’s safety and independence. I paused outside the front door to look up at the gargoyles sneering down from the roof. One of them was scratching itself listlessly, but otherwise they showed no interest in me. I took that as a good sign. The gargoyles were always the first to make it clear when you were out of favour with the paper, and some of them had uncanny aim and absolutely no inhibitions when it came to bodily functions.

  The Night Times has prided itself throughout its long history in telling the truth, the whole truth, and as much gossip as it could get away with it. This had not endeared it to the Nightside’s many powerful movers and shakers, and they had all made attempts, down the years, to shut the paper down by magic, muscle, political and business pressure. But the Night Times was still going strong, over two centuries old now, and as determined as ever to tell the general populace where the bodies were buried. Sometimes literally. It helped that the paper had almost as many friends and admirers as enemies. The last time some foolish soul tried to interfere with the Night Times’s distribution, by sending out a small army of thugs to intimidate the news vendors, the Little Sisters of the Immaculate Chain Saw had made one of their rare public appearances to deal with the matter and made such a mess of the thugs it was three days before the gutters ran freely again.

  I stepped up to the front door very carefully, ready to duck and run at a moment’s notice. I was usually welcome at the Night Times offices, but it paid to be cautious. Victoria House had really heavy-duty magical defences, of a thorough and downright vicious nature that would have put the Cavendishes’ defences to shame. They’d been built up in layers over two hundred years, like a malevolent onion. A subsonic avoidance spell ensured that most people couldn’t even get close to the building unless they were on the approved list, or had legitimate business there. I’m not saying I couldn’t get in if I really had to, but nothing short of a gun at the back of my head would convince me to try. The last time some idiot tried to smuggle a bomb into Victoria House, the defences turned him into something. No-one was quite sure what, because you couldn’t look at him for more than a moment or two without projectile vomiting everything you’d ever eaten, including in previous lives. I’m told he, or more properly it, works in the sewer systems these days, and the rat population is way, way down.

  I pushed the front door open, tensed, then relaxed as nothing awful happened to me. I counted my fingers anyway, just in case, and then strode into the lobby, smiling like I didn’t have a care or guilty secret in the world. It’s important to keep up appearances, especially in front of journalists. It was a wide-open lobby, to allow for a clean line of fire from as many directions as possible, and the receptionist sat inside a cubicle of bulletproof glass, surrounded by a pentacle of softly glowing blue lines. It was said by many, and believed by most, that you could nuke the whole building and the receptionist would still be okay.

  The old dear put down her knitting as she saw me coming, studied me over the top of her granny glasses, and smiled sweetly. Most people thought of her as a nice old thing, but I happened to know that her knitting needles had been carved from human thigh-bones, and if she smiled widely enough, you could see that all her teeth had been filed to points.

  “Ah, hello there, Mr. Taylor. So nice to see you back again. You’re looking very yourself. Would I be right in thinking you’re here to have a wee word with the man himself?”

  “That’s right, Janet. Could you ring up and ask Julien if he’ll see me?”
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br />   “Oh, there’s no need for that, you wee scamp. News of your latest exploits has already reached Mr. Advent, and he is most anxious to get all the details from you while they’re still fresh in your mind.” She shook her grey head and tut-tutted sadly. “Such a naughty boy you are, Mr. Taylor, always getting into trouble.”

  I just smiled and nodded, though I wasn’t all that sure what she was talking about. Surely Julien couldn’t know about my part in the destruction of Prometheus Inc. already? Janet hit the concealed switch that opened the elevator doors at the back of the lobby. She was the only one who could open the doors from this side, and she took her responsibility very seriously. There were those who said she never left her cubicle. Certainly no-one else had ever been seen in her place. I walked across the lobby, carefully not hurrying in case it made me look too anxious, and stepped into the waiting elevator. The steel doors closed silently, and I hit the button for the top floor.

  Top floor was Editorial. I’d been there often enough before that my unexpected appearance shouldn’t ring too many alarm bells. I used to do occasional legwork for the editor, in my younger days, before I had to leave the Nightside in a hurry. My gift for finding things came in very handy when Julien Advent needed to track down witnesses or people in hiding. I hadn’t done anything for him recently, but he did still owe me a couple of favours… Not that I’d press the point. In the past, I’d always been careful to keep our relationship strictly business, because the great Victorian Adventurer had always been a man of unimpeachable and righteous morality, and such people have always made me very nervous. They tend not to approve of people like me, once they get to know me.

  I’d never been sure how much Julien knew about my various dubious enterprises. And I’ve never liked to ask.