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

by Tony Rattigan

  ‘Oh tosh, you old grumpy-guts,’ said Harlequin. ‘Well, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go and talk to King Victor.’

  ***

  Cobb’s deal with Jeremy only applied to ‘dead’ Elves. No one considered what would happen to the ones that Arthur’s army had let live. As a consequence, the ones who had been routed by Arthur and escaped into the surrounding countryside were left to fend for themselves on an alien world. This left Bazo free to seek revenge on the man who had brought about their downfall.

  Bazo stopped at the crossroads outside the Town Hall. No one paid him any attention; he had killed a traveller on the road and taken his cloak and hat. The hat covered his pointed ears and as long as he kept his staff under his cloak pointing downwards, nobody noticed it, held against his leg.

  Everyone around him in the square was getting too intoxicated to spot anything out of the ordinary about him anyway, simply taking him for another reveller, albeit one slightly taller than most. He had followed the trace spell on Arthur and it had brought him here, to the Town Hall. He made his way into the building, following the trace. The doors had been thrown open to anyone in the town who wanted to enter and join the celebrations, the guards were long past caring who went in or out and had abandoned their posts to join in the fun.

  The Elf weaved his way through the drunken mob until he reached the Situation Room. Entering he scanned the room for his prey. Spotting him talking to a woman, he made towards him. He knew not who he was, he was not their leader for he had met Victor, their king. Their studies of this world had given no indication of the existence of this warrior, but Bazo was determined that he would end this man who caused the downfall of his people. He was probably responsible for cutting the Elven forces off from the Home world and then, he had seen it with his own eyes, had led the armed assault on their foothold in this world. Bazo knew it would cost him his own life but it would be worth it to get his revenge on the one who had defeated them.

  As he crossed the room he took off his hat and threw his cloak back over his shoulder revealing his staff weapon. He shoved people aside as they blocked his path, seeing the weapon they fell back out of his way, a woman in the crowd screamed. The room came to a stop as he raised his staff weapon and pointed it at Arthur.

  As the scream echoed around the room, everything seemed to go into slow motion, the woman talking to Arthur, who was Adele, turned when she heard the scream and now she stepped in front of Arthur, to protect what she had come to consider ‘her’ king.

  Cobb and Jim, who were chatting to the marines, filling them in on what happened after they were put out of commission, heard the scream. Cobb’s first impulse was to go to Adele; Jim’s was to head towards Bazo, but neither of them was able to make their way through the crowd in time.

  Arthur reached out to push Adele aside just as Bazo fired. From across the room Harlequin saw the danger that Adele was in and acted instinctively. Given more time to think about it logically he would have no doubt acted differently, but when he saw she was a second away from death, he acted on instinct. Clicking his fingers, he disappeared from where he stood and re-materialised in front of Adele, shielding her. He took the force blast full in the chest and fell slowly backwards. Arthur stepped out from behind Adele, caught him as he fell and lowered him gently to the floor.

  Won Lungh, who was probably the most sober man in the room as he had been serving instead of drinking, calling upon his skill as an assassin, stepped up behind Bazo. He drew his weapon (somewhat like a meat cleaver which he habitually carried in a sheath hanging down between his shoulder blades) and with a few well placed blows, quickly dispatched Bazo before he could threaten his mistress any further.

  Arthur looked up at Adele as she stared down at Harlequin and shook his head. He’d seen enough dead men in his time to know that he was looking at one now. The blast had burnt a charred hole about a foot wide in his chest, any internal organs (who knew if Harlequin had internal organs?) had been vaporised.

  Cobb forced his way through the crowd and put a protective arm around Adele. The crowd parted to let King Victor through. He was just about to speak when suddenly several people just appeared out of thin air to surround the small group. Leading them was Columbine, Harlequin’s wife, dressed in a similar costume to his except hers consisted of black and white diamonds instead of red and white. Cobb and Adele had met her before but the others were all strangers. There were six of them, all dressed differently. One was dressed as a pirate, another as an Arab, what looked like a Viking warrior, a Cantonese Mandarin, yet another wore some kind of military uniform and last a bearded, turbaned Sikh warrior. It was obvious to Cobb, as they accompanied Columbine, that they were also agents of the Gods and had come here still in whatever disguise they were currently wearing to carry out their missions.

  His wife stared down at Harlequin for a moment then looked around and spotted Cobb and Adele. Bowing deeply she asked them, ‘What happened here? How did he die?’

  Adele pointed at Bazo’s body. ‘That monster tried to kill King Arthur and I but Harlequin deliberately stepped in the way. He died to save us.’

  Columbine nodded as if it was what she expected from him. She knelt down beside his body and stroked his hair.

  ‘How did you know he had died?’ asked Adele.

  ‘I’m his wife, we have a bond. I heard his psychic “Death Cry” and alerted some of my colleagues to assist me.’ She leaned forward to kiss his lips. Up till then she had maintained her composure but now she broke down in tears, hunched over his body.

  The pirate stepped forward and gently helped her to her feet. Wordlessly his companions joined him around Harlequin and picked his body up. Columbine bowed once more to Cobb and Adele, nodded to her companions and they all faded away, off to Gods knew where to give Harlequin his last rites.

  Victor pointed to two army officers, then to Bazo’s corpse and waved his hand away in a dismissive gesture. Taking his meaning they grabbed a leg each and dragged his remains out of the room.

  ‘Ist it always this exciting around here?’ asked Arthur.

  ‘Thankfully no,’ replied Victor.

  The room was quiet now, the two deaths had produced a sombre mood amongst its occupants and they began to drift away to other parts of the building where the jollity still continued. Only the original army staff and the king’s entourage remained.

  It was then that Eloise arrived. ‘They are ready,’ she informed the two kings.

  ‘And now, I’m afraid, the time has come for me to take my leave of thee,’ said Arthur.

  ‘Oh no,’ cried Adele.

  ‘Alas yes. Sir Rufus, may I show thy betrothed a gesture of my affection?’

  ‘But of course, Your Majesty.’

  Arthur gave Adele a hug. ‘I thank thee for thy counsel and guidance, Melina. Thou made a difficult task somewhat easier. But now my task has ended and my duty fulfilled. It is time to return from whence I came.’

  ‘Will you go back to your long sleep or will you go to heaven, where you can be with Guinevere and Lancelot?’

  ‘That is in the lap of the Gods. They may hold me to my vow and keep me once more in waiting until Albion is threatened again, or they may consider my oath fulfilled and release me, to go on to a better place, we shall see. I must go now but there ist one more thing I shall do before I go. Come and watch, it will gladden thee.’

  Putting on his cloak and making sure he had Excalibur by his side, he shook hands with Victor and Cobb then kissed Eloise’s hand. Then he led the way down the stairs and out into the street. Waiting there was Morgan le Fay and her team of carers. Arthur had known he didn’t have much time left and had requested that she be brought up from the train.

  With a final nod to Adele, Arthur strode over to Morgan and said, ‘Well, thou old witch. Thou hast lived thy life for too long on this planet. It is time thou moved on to a new adventure. I forgive thee for all the sins thou didst commit against me and my kingdom. Take my hand now and receive my
forgiveness.’

  He reached out his hand and as she took it her body was suffused with a golden glow. When it subsided, she had transformed into the young, beautiful woman that she had been in her prime. She rose from the bath chair and tearfully thanked him for his mercy.

  ‘It is right, thou art my sister.’ Still holding her hand he turned to look up at the sky. ‘I am ready,’ he called.

  As happened at Glastonbury, a bright beam of light shone down from the heavens. With a final glance at Adele and company, Arthur and Morgan stepped into the beam of light and it slowly faded, taking them with it.

  Everyone stood there silently until Cobb broke the ice by saying, ‘Now that’s a story to tell your grandchildren!’

  ‘Colonel Sumner, I trust I can leave you to clear things up here,’ said Victor. ‘The admiral and I must return to Londum to prepare the celebrations of the new heroes. Sir Rufus, Sir James, I trust you and your team will accompany us on the Royal train?’

  Cobb looked at Jim and the marines who all nodded eagerly. ‘We would be delighted to, Your Majesty.’

  ‘Good, that’s settled then. Colonel Frost, start packing everything up and herd everyone down to the train, would you? And make sure we take a couple of cases of alcohol with us, would you? We may not have enough on board.’

  The crowd broke up as everyone went off to gather their things and prepare for their triumphal return to Londum.

  And that was that, the war was over and Albion was once again safe. The enemy had been defeated, the heroes rewarded and, with the unfortunate exception of Harlequin, the dead were alive once more.

  Epilogue

  As the weeks went by the country healed itself. The major loss to any nation in a war is its casualties, but Cobb’s deal with Jeremy had eliminated that problem. Mind you the sudden re-appearance of thousands of dead people, who were now alive again, did cause some issues amongst those who had been left behind (especially for the ones who had leapt at the opportunity and remarried) but King Victor spoke to the nation through the papers and public proclamations urging everyone to accept what had happened, to welcome their return as a “gift from the Gods” and to embrace it as a miracle. So in time even that awkwardness was resolved.

  The Elf bodies had disappeared when Jeremy made the deal with Cobb and didn’t need to be dealt with and so the country moved on. All that was left to deal with was the physical damage to property which, due to the scarcity of population centres in the Lake District, was not as big an issue as it would have been if the incursion had happened in the industrial Midlands, for example. Luckily the Elves had adopted a policy of occupation rather than destruction, so even the need to rebuild was kept to a minimum.

  To honour King Arthur his remains were removed from Glastonbury and along with Guinevere’s, reburied in a fine tomb at Westminster Abbey, by a grateful nation.

  Thanks to the combined efforts of Cobb and King Arthur, Albion had escaped lightly and sooner than could have been hoped, the country returned to some semblance of normality.

  Part of that return to normality was that Cobb carried out the promise he made to Adele when he gave her the engagement ring, by marrying her. It was a quiet ceremony in a local temple. Cobb was not the religious type (in fact, after having actually met the Gods and realising what a bunch of arrogant fools they were, there was no way he was ever going to worship them). Adele however was Wiccan and they worshipped the Great Mother Goddess, so the ceremony was carried out in one of her temples.

  In accordance with Cobb’s wish to remain out of the public eye, King Victor did not attend as that would have drawn the attention of the newspapers, though he did send a present. Queen Eloise did attend but that was easily explained away by the fact that it was one of her witches, a member of the Royal Society of Science and Magick no less, who was getting wed.

  Won Lungh, as the closest thing that Adele had to a father, gave her away. Jim was the best man and several witches acted as Adele’s bridesmaids. Thornton Wells was there of course and Inspector George Benton came along with his police squad in uniform. They formed an archway with their truncheons through which their old boss passed with his new bride, as they left the temple.

  As the wedding party posed for photographs outside the temple, a crowd of passersby stopped to watch the celebrations. Amongst them was one tall one, his appearance concealed by a cloak and hat. Lorus, ex-War Chief of the defeated Elf army, watched coldly as the man he held personally responsible for their downfall, celebrated with his new bride. He did not know how the man Cobb had accomplished it, but even from before The Return, the Soothsayers had been warning that this human was a danger to the Elves plans. It was incomprehensible to Lorus how one man could have caused their ruin, but as he had no other target for his anger, he had sworn an oath to the Dark, Elf Gods that he was going to seek retribution against Cobb.

  After the photographs were done, Sir Rufus Cobb and Lady Adele Cobb climbed into their wedding coach and drove the few streets to the hotel where they had hired the banqueting room. Everyone else walked the short distance, discreetly followed by Lorus.

  The reception went on into the evening when Cobb and Adele, accompanied by Won Lungh, returned home to prepare for their honeymoon, which would be starting the next day.

  Lorus followed them and waited for an opportunity to strike.

  ***

  Next day, Cobb and Adele caught a train to the south coast. Lorus followed them on the same train. Upon arrival they hired a cab to take them to their honeymoon lodgings, a small cottage on the beach, hidden amongst the sand dunes, a couple of miles out of town. Lorus stayed close enough to them to hear the instructions they gave to the cabbie, so he knew their destination. He could have killed Cobb there and then but he wanted to take his time and make him suffer.

  He purchased a local map and identified their location. It was ideal for his purposes. No other buildings around for miles. During the day there might be people on the beach or fishermen plying their trade, but Lorus intended to attack them at night so by then, he hoped, the area would be clear.

  He purchased some food and drink and decided to walk the few miles to their cottage and rest among the sand dunes to await nightfall.

  ***

  Cobb and Adele went to bed early as they had had a busy couple of days. There was plenty to do at the seaside over the next two weeks but for today, best to have an early night and start fresh in the morning.

  Lorus watched the last oil lamp be extinguished in the bedroom of the cottage. He would wait half an hour to let them get to sleep then he would enter the house. He checked his knives. Regrettably he’d had to ditch his sword, it was too obvious and made him stand out, but the knives would suffice for his purpose.

  He wanted to make Cobb suffer. First he would bind them both, so they were helpless and then he would torture the woman to death, slowly and painfully. Cobb could watch everything he did to her and they could both scream and cry for help as much as they wished, no one would hear them. The fool, Cobb, had brought about his own downfall by choosing to holiday in such an isolated location. Then Lorus would torture Cobb, painfully but not fatally. No, he would just let Cobb bleed out slowly, as he stared at the mutilated corpse of his dead wife.

  Judging the time was right he made his move. He stood up and approached the cottage through the sand dunes. There was a small, picket fence with a gate surrounding the cottage and as Lorus stopped to open the gate, Jim Darby suddenly popped up behind him and wrapped an arm around his neck then clamped his other hand across Lorus’ mouth.

  Won Lungh stepped out in front of him and taking a long knife plunged it upwards under his ribcage, deep into Lorus’ heart. Jim held Lorus firmly as he jerked in his death throes. Once he was done and Jim was sure that all life had left the body, he lowered him to the sandy ground and between them they carried the body off.

  Jim had spotted Lorus (not knowing it was the Elven War Chief, but just a rogue Elf) watching them from amongst the crowd on the da
y of the wedding. He had tried to get close to him but Lorus had moved away and lost himself in the crowd. Realising that the chances of the police finding him in a city the size of Londum were slim, he decided to keep an eye on Cobb and deal with Lorus himself if necessary.

  Not wanting to ruin Cobb and Adele’s big day, he had said nothing until they reached the reception, where he had confided in Won Lungh. They resolved to watch Cobb’s back until such time as they could take Lorus out of the picture. That night, Won Lungh remained on guard in the house.

  It had been a little tricky getting on the same train as Cobb and Adele without them realising it, but as they knew in advance their destination and which train they would be catching, it allowed Jim and Won Lungh to get to the station ahead of them, unburdened by luggage as they were. Both Jim and Won Lungh, as an ex-assassin, had both had previous experience of this sort of thing and managed to remain unseen. They didn’t spot Lorus but as long as they had eyes on Cobb, they knew that he would be nearby.

  Once they had spotted Lorus out in the sand dunes surrounding the cottage, it became apparent what his plan was. Won Lungh remained to keep an eye on him and watch over Adele and Cobb, while Jim went into town and hired a row-boat.

  They carried Lorus some way down the beach until they came to the boat that Jim had stationed there. It contained a tarpaulin and some heavy rocks. They wrapped the body in the tarpaulin, stuffed it with rocks and tied it with rope. Then they rowed out to sea until the land was just visible on the horizon and quietly slipped the body over the side, where it quickly sank into the inky blackness.

  ‘Remember,’ said Jim. ‘They are never to know about this, you know how it would upset Adele and Cobb would never agree with our actions. Let’s call it one final wedding present from us.’

  ‘It will be as you say, Missa Darby. And thank you for helping me save Missee Adele. I forever in your debt.’