The Londum Omnibus Volume Two (The Londum Series Book 12)

by Tony Rattigan

  ‘Sure, anything.’

  ‘Don’t leave me here. I don’t want to spend eternity in this place, promise me you’ll take …’ his voice tailed off. Cobb looked down but only saw his blank eyes staring up at him. He felt his neck but could find no pulse. Jim Darby was dead, the gypsy’s prophecy fulfilled.

  Cobb took the cigarette out of Jim’s mouth and threw it away. Then he closed his friend’s eyes. As he cradled Jim’s head in his lap, a line from an old prayer he remembered from childhood popped into his head and he quoted it aloud, ‘We will meet again in happier days.’ Then the dam broke and the tears rolled down his cheeks.

  After a few moments, he wiped his face dry on his sleeve. He checked his pocket to make sure he still had the Dark Matter and then gathering up the bomb and holding on tight to Jim he said, ‘Come on Jim, let’s go home.’ Then he jumped them both out of there.

  The Once and Future King

  The Situation room was quiet. People stood about chatting in corners in subdued tones, some were eating, one or two dozing off, when the telegraph began to clatter. One of the staff officers wandered over and read over the signallers shoulder as he wrote the message down.

  He turned to the room and announced, ‘The flares are going up!’ Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at the officer. They held their collective breath as they waited to see if the first flares were fired by accident or even worse fired by the enemy to lure them into a trap, but the telegraph continued to clatter as more reports came in from various locations of further flares being spotted.

  Admiral Collins checked all the messages then spoke loudly to the room, ‘Your Majesty, gentlemen, it’s confirmed, the portal has closed. Now is the moment to make our move.’

  King Victor strode up the room to where Arthur was sat, idly polishing Excalibur with a rag, while chatting with Adele. ‘We’re ready Arthur, now’s the time for you to strike.’

  Arthur just nodded and continued polishing his sword.

  ‘Arthur? Did you hear what I said?’

  Arthur nodded again.

  ‘Well ... this is the moment we’ve been waiting for. Why are you just sitting there?’

  ‘I’m giving time for the fear to sink in.’

  ‘Pardon?’

  ‘Merlin always taught me that before thou beats a foe on the battlefield, it’s necessary to defeat them in their minds first. Up to now they have had the portal behind them as an escape route, have they not? Now it is closed and they are trapped. I want the word to spread amongst them that they have their backs to the wall and nowhere to run. Instil fear in them.’ Arthur stood up and slid Excalibur into its scabbard. ‘Now then, shall we go?’

  The room began to empty as Victor’s entourage and the senior officers piled outside to the waiting coaches. Adele grabbed Harlequin by the arm and demanded, ‘If the portal has gone down then that means Cobb and Jim were successful. So what’s happened to them? Are they all right? Have they returned?’

  ‘Alas dear Adele, I’m afraid I cannot answer that, I can’t see them in any dimension. They are completely out of my view, somewhere I cannot look. I’m sure they’re all right. But for now we must go or we’ll miss all the excitement.’ He took her arm and led her outside where they joined the others and climbed into the waiting coaches.

  Arthur mounted his horse and led the procession at a leisurely pace down to Scar Wood fields.

  He halted the caravan at the edge of the open fields. ‘It wouldst be best if thee remain here, where thou can watch from safety,’ he said to King Victor. ‘No one must come any further forward, it might be dangerous.’

  Taking off his cloak he leaned down into their coach and handed it to Adele. ‘Wouldst thou take care of this until I return, M’Lady?’

  ‘What’s going to happen now?’ asked Victor.

  ‘I am going to call upon the soul of Briton ... or should I say “the souls of Briton”.’

  ‘Watch this closely,’ said Harlequin. ‘I think you’ll like it.’

  Arthur walked his horse forward into the open fields and as he did so he “shimmered”, going out of focus, and when it cleared he was wearing a suit of highly-polished, silver armour, his horse was similarly armoured and wore a tabard bearing his coat of arms. Adele felt a thrill run through her as she witnessed this unprecedented event.

  He stopped in the middle of the field and raising his sword high above his head, called out, ‘I am Arthur Pendragon, High King and Protector of Briton. With the power of Excalibur I call on the soul of every fighting man that ever was, or ever will be, that swore an oath to defend Briton.

  ‘I doth hereby summon thee this day, whether thou art from the days of yore or from the times that are yet to happen, to come forth, to stand with me now to protect this country in its hour of need. I command thee to honour thy oath and present thyself now for battle.’

  He lowered his sword and for a moment there was a deathly silence, even the wind in the trees and the birds fell silent. Adele and the others watchers thought that the summoning had failed, but then the witches amongst them felt the Magick swirl around them as the sky slowly darkened and a mist began to form around the hooves of Arthur’s horse. It rose until it completely covered Arthur, even raised up on horseback as he was, and then it spread to cover the entire field facing Scar Wood.

  Gradually the mist began to separate into individual forms, some of them man shaped and others strange machines. As they solidified Adele saw Arthur surrounded by knights in armour, on horseback. Then, as the mist dissipated further, she saw more warriors, from other times, appearing. She watched fascinated as fighters from different times in Albion’s history materialised. There were men covered in furs, wielding wooden spears and axes. Beyond them she saw men dressed in woollen clothing, carrying metal swords. Next to them there were soldiers in uniforms that she recognised, the familiar “redcoats”, both from her time and the previous few hundred years. But even stranger were the uniforms and weapons she didn’t recognise, men in patterned uniforms, wearing strange helmets and carrying short, stubby rifles. Their clothing was mottled and it made them difficult to be seen against the backgrounds of the woods. It wasn’t just the soldiers though that were confounding, there were strange, metal contraptions with long cannons at the front, that moved on tracks instead of wheels. From throughout time Arthur called forth the souls of fighting men from the past, the present, and the future, to aid his cause.

  Everyone watching recoiled in shock as several “somethings” swooped overhead. Adele was familiar with the concept of man-made machines that could fly. It had been a dream of man’s for centuries. She had seen the drawings of such a machine drawn by Leonardo Da Iti. But here, drawn from some future time, was evidence that it was possible as the ghostly machines flew over their heads. There were many sorts, from stick and canvas devices such as in Leonardo’s sketches, to two winged machines that swooped and swirled over them, other machines that just hovered in position as they hung beneath whirling blades. Then there were the large, circular machines, which reminded her of saucers or dinner plates. Silently they crept into view as the lights on them blinked and dazzled the watchers.

  Arthur had truly summoned the cream of Albion’s fighting men and machines from both the past and the future, here today to save their beloved country.

  Once the army had assembled the sky lightened again. The crowd of warriors parted to show Arthur facing Victor and the others. He raised his sword in salute to them and then wheeled his horse about to face Scar Wood. Holding Excalibur high, he pointed it towards the wood and the armed horde began to move towards it, slowly at first then faster until the entire field was empty of the army in under a minute.

  ‘Ye Gods,’ said Victor. ‘That was frightening; I wouldn’t like to have to face that army. Did you see those things in the air? I wonder what they could have been. How do we get ourselves some of those?’

  ***

  The army led by their commander, Arthur, moved quickly towards the Elve
n strongholds. They were constrained by no earthly limitations, the ground army moved as fast as the airborne fleet, even Arthur’s horse seemed imbued with mystical speed and stamina, and soon they were upon their enemy and engaging them in battle. They swept over them like a Tsunami, the flying machines destroying the larger Elf plasma weapons with lasers and bombs, strafing their positions, the tanks rumbled over their fortifications, crushing them to rubble, before the ground soldiers and mounted knights engaged the Elves in close quarters combat involving hand-to-hand fighting, and overwhelmed their positions.

  The Elves had no chance, many ran in panic and were mown down as they fled. Those that stood their ground were no match for this ghostly army of warriors pulled out of time. Whenever the Elves fired a staff weapon or swung a blade at their attackers, the soldiers faded back to mist and fog and the Elven blades just sliced through them, causing no damage. But then they solidified again and the blows they returned were just as solid and destructive as if it had been dealt by one of Victor’s living soldiers.

  With Arthur leading the charge they swept through all the parts of the Lake District occupied by Elves. They only attacked anything Elven, the humans being held captive were freed and left unmolested. From Coniston to Penrith, Windermere to Keswick, the ghost army overran the Elves and wiped them out. All day they fought but the Elf warriors had no chance. A few managed to escape into the surrounding counties but Arthur let them go as the Elven army was smashed. The modern day army of Albion could hunt them down and capture them later, he reasoned.

  One such Elf was Bazo, the personal Magician of the Elf King. At the king’s request he was visiting the forward positions to assist in strengthening their fortifications. As he saw the ghostly horde bearing down on them, realising how dangerously outmatched and outnumbered they were, he quickly cast a “cloaking spell” to conceal himself and took cover in a culvert. He became invisible to the spectral warriors as they washed over him and wiped out their opponents before moving on, leaving no one left alive except Bazo.

  As he crept out from his place of concealment and saw the devastation around him, he realised that the safest course of action was to head away from the ghost army towards the direction they had come from.

  By the end of the day the Elves were completely routed. Arthur, at the head of his army, swept back through the Lake District looking for pockets of resistance which were quickly smashed. Crossing what had been the Elven front lines, Arthur halted the horde on open ground before they reached Kendal. Their work was done; it was time to let them return to their well-deserved rest.

  Arthur turned to face his men.

  ‘Thou hast made all Briton proud today. As her fighting men thou came when thou were called upon and thou didst thy duty. I salute thee!’ He held Excalibur high for all to see. ‘I thank thee, Briton thanks thee. Thou may now return to thy rest, those who have already given thy lives for their country, and those yet to be born can return to thine own times safe in the knowledge that Briton remains free and I wouldst charge thee to ensure that she remains that way in the centuries to come.

  ‘May the Gods bless thee one and all and I now release thee from thy service, to return from whence thou came. Farewell, my brothers-in-arms.’

  A huge roar came up from the assembled horde as they acknowledged Arthur’s gratitude, which slowly died away as they began to disappear. They turned back into the mist and fog from which they came and then a breeze blew that scattered it to the wind, until just Arthur remained, with his horse.

  Bazo watched this with interest from his place of concealment. Still covered by his cloaking spell, he had quickly sought cover as Arthur’s army came thundering towards Scar Woods where he had sought refuge.

  Once Arthur was alone, Bazo quickly conjured up a “tracing spell” and threw it at Arthur. Wherever the recipient of the spell went, it left a faint trace that was only visible to the caster of the spell. With it Bazo could follow Arthur anywhere without having to worry about keeping him in sight.

  Arthur saluted his absent army once more with Excalibur then turned his horse around and headed back to Kendal, followed unseen by Bazo.

  ***

  Arthur rode into the crossroads in front of the Town Hall. He called over the young groom he had detailed to take care of his horse. ‘Give him some oats and a good rub down. He has served his country well today and deserves to be treated well.’ He patted his neck to say farewell, he wouldn’t need him again.

  ‘Is it true, sir?’ Is the war over?’

  ‘Indeed it is lad. The Elves are vanquished and we are victorious.’ He turned on his heel and entered the Town Hall.

  As he walked up the stairs to the Situation Room, all those who saw him began to applaud. Cheers rang out as they welcomed the conquering hero back from his victory. King Victor and the rest of the room swarmed round him, shaking his hand, clapping him on the back and generally showing their appreciation.

  ‘So, it’s true? We have won?’ asked Victor.

  ‘Thine enemy is defeated. I told thee, thou wouldst have nothing to worry about. Most of them fell to my forces, so there will be a lot of clearing up to do, but we showed mercy to some stragglers. Thou will needst to be on thy guard until they have all been located, but hopefully they will merely be an inconvenience, not a threat.’

  ‘Colonel Frost! Colonel Sumner! Get the word out to all our troops, tell Londum to inform every town and village in Albion to ring their Temple bells, the war is over ... and we won! Once you’ve done that, go to every ale-house and liquor store in the neighbourhood. Give them promissory notes drawn on the Royal Treasury and buy out their entire stock. Bring it back here and distribute it amongst all the troops and locals that care to join us. It’s time to celebrate!

  ‘And now, Arthur, is there anything we can do for you?’

  Arthur drew Victor and Eloise to one side and spoke to them quietly for a moment. They listened closely and then Victor spoke to Eloise. She nodded and then slipped away, without further discussion.

  Arthur and Victor split up and Arthur came over to where Adele was talking to Harlequin. ‘Still taking care of my cloak?’ he asked her.

  They both stood up. ‘Of course,’ Adele replied. ‘I had Won Lungh give it a brush and a sponge down,’ she said holding it out to him. ‘Sit down, you must be tired. Won Lungh, fetch the king some wine.’

  Harlequin gave up his seat to Arthur and wandered off to talk to King Victor. ‘It has been a long day but I am bolstered by my victory ... and several bars of Mint Cake,’ he joked, taking the proffered seat.

  ‘Never mind, you deserve a drink to celebrate,’ she told him, as Won Lungh handed him his wine.

  He took it thankfully, swallowed it down in one go and handed it back for a refill. ‘Any word on thy betrothed?’

  ‘Nothing yet, we don’t know how long it will take them to get back, if he’s capable of returning, that is.’

  ‘Fear not M’Lady, it has been a day of miracles so far and we may yet see more before the day is through.’

  ‘Do you believe that?’

  ‘Why not? Perhaps the fates will be kind. After all, I am here so anything is possible.’

  Adele nodded in agreement. They sat quietly in the corner as around them the noise began to pick up as the celebrations started. The drinks were broken out, the doors of the Situation Room were thrown open and the rest of the occupants of the building started to wander in as everyone began to make merry.

  ***

  Cobb groaned and rolled over onto his back. He waited for the pain from his injuries to wash over him but nothing happened. In fact he felt surprisingly good. He sat up. He winced automatically in anticipation but there actually was no pain. He felt his chest and it seemed to be fine. Next he bent his legs and felt his shins, everything seemed to be in order. He noticed as he did so that the scar from the laser, across the back of his hand, was gone.

  He confirmed that he still had the Dark Matter stored safely in his coat pocket. Looking ar
ound he saw that Jim was sitting up too. Between them was the canvas backpack containing the bomb.

  ‘I thought you were dead,’ said Cobb, mightily relieved.

  ‘So did I,’ replied Jim, puzzled. ‘I don’t know what happened there. Maybe I just nodded off.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I don’t know, you explain it because I can’t.’ Jim opened the backpack and checked to see that it still contained the Sunburst Weapon, which it did. He got to his feet and looked around. ‘Where are we?’ he asked.

  ‘I think it’s Limbo,’ replied Cobb as he stood up.

  ‘Limbo? What, where they do the dancing?’

  ‘No, the other Limbo.’

  ‘You mean the place between Earth and heaven? What makes you think this is Limbo?’

  ‘Because I’ve been here before.’

  ‘And there was me thinking that you didn’t get out enough,’ commented Jim. ‘How did you get here last time?’

  ‘I died.’

  ‘You died?! Oh. Does that mean we’re dead now?’

  ‘I’m not sure. How are you feeling?’ Cobb asked him.

  ‘Surprisingly not dead. In fact I feel great.’ He felt his side and then checked the skin underneath his clothes. His clothing was as good as new, the skin beneath it was healthy and unbroken. ‘And my wound has gone.’

  ‘Mine too,’ confirmed Cobb.

  ‘I thought we were gonners there, what happened?’

  ‘I jumped us out of there. We were supposed to be going home but we seem to have arrived here instead.’ They looked around them. They were in a wide open space with no visible boundary. Covering the floor was a white mist, just about covering their ankles.

  ‘So what happens here, in Limbo?’ asked Jim.

  ‘This is where you come when you die, while the Gods decide whether you should go onto the next level ... heaven or hell.’

  ‘Just let me be clear about this ... you’re saying we’re dead?’