Speaks the Nightbird mc-1

by Robert R. McCammon

  Matthew couldn't help but think it was much more palatable than the trophy of a carved-out, horrible-smelling bear's head he'd been presented with at the celebration last night. Also a much more satisfying one.

  Johnstone winced as he stretched the leg out straight and briskly massaged the knee. "I was suffering a muscle cramp the other night that near put me on the floor. Had to wear a similar apparatus for a role I played... oh... ten years ago. One of my last roles, with the Paradigm Players. A comedy, actually. Unfortunately there was nothing funny about it, if you discount the humor of having the audience pelt you with tomatoes and horse-shit."

  "By God, I ought to strangle you myself!" Bidwell raged. "I ought to save the hangman a penny rope!"

  Johnstone said, "Strangle yourself while you're at it. You were the one in such a rush to burn the woman." This statement, delivered so offhandedly, was the straw that broke Bidwell's back. The master of dead Fount Royal gave a shouted oath and lunged from his chair at Johnstone, seizing the actor's throat with both hands.

  They went to the floor in a tangle and crash. At once Matthew and Winston rushed forward to disengage them, as Green looked on from his position guarding the door and Shields clung to his chair. Bidwell was pulled away from Johnstone, but not before delivering two blows that bloodied the actor's nostrils.

  "Sit down, " Matthew told Bidwell, who angrily jerked out of his grasp. Winston righted Johnstone's chair and helped him into it, then immediately retreated to a corner of the library as if he feared contamination from having touched the man. Johnstone wiped his bleeding nose with his sleeve and picked up his cane, which had also fallen to the floor.

  "I ought to kill you!" Bidwell shouted, the veins standing out in his neck. "Tear you to pieces myself, for what you've done!"

  "The law will take care of him, sir, " Matthew said. "Now please... sit down and keep your dignity."

  Reluctantly, Bidwell returned to his chair and thumped down into it. He glowered straight ahead, ideas of vengeance still crackling like flames in his mind.

  "Well, you should feel very pleased with yourself, " Johnstone said to Matthew. He leaned his head back and sniffled. "The hero of the day, and all that. Am I your stepping-stone to the judicial robes?"

  Matthew realized Johnstone the manipulator was yet at work, trying to move him into a defensive position. "The treasure, " he said, ignoring the man's remark. "How come you to know about it?"

  "I believe my nose is broken."

  "The treasure, " Matthew insisted. "Now is not the time to play games."

  "Ah, the treasure! Yes, that." He closed his eyes and sniffled blood again. "Tell me, Matthew, have you ever set foot inside Newgate prison?"

  "No."

  "Pray to God you never do." Johnstone's eyes opened. "I was there for one year, three months, and twenty-eight days, serving restitution for my debts. The prisoners have the run of the place. There are guards, yes, but they withdraw for their own throats. Everyone—debtors, thieves, drunks and lunatics, murderers, child fuckers and mother rapers... they're all thrown together, like animals in a pit, and... believe me... you do what you must to survive. You know why?"

  He brought his head forward and grinned at Matthew, and when he did fresh crimson oozed from both nostrils. "Because no one... no one... cares whether you live or die but yourself. Yourself, " he hissed, and again that vulpine, cruel shadow passed quickly across his face. He nodded, his tongue flicking out and tasting the blood that glistened in the candlelight. "When they come at you—three or four at a time—and hold you down, it is not because they wish you well. I have seen men killed in such a fashion, battered until they are mortally torn inside. And still they go on, as the corpse is not yet cold. Still they go on. And you must—you must—sink to their level and join them if you wish to live another day. You must shout and shriek and howl like a beast, and strike and thrust... and want to kill... for if you show any weakness at all, they will turn upon you and it will be your broken corpse being thrown upon the garbage pile at first light."

  The fox leaned toward his captor, heedless now of his bleeding nose. "Sewage runs right along the floor there. We knew it had rained outside, and how hard, when the sewage rose to our ankles. I saw two men fight to the death over a pack of playing cards. The fight ended when one drowned the other in that indescribable filth. Wouldn't that be a lovely way to end your life, Matthew? Drowned in human shit?"

  "Is there a point to this recitation, sir?"

  "Oh, indeed there is!" Johnstone grinned broadly, blood on his lips and the shine of his eyes verging on madness. "No words are vile enough, nor do they carry enough weight of bestiality, to describe Newgate prison, but I wished you to know the circumstances in which I found myself. The days were sufficiently horri-ble... but then came the nights! Oh, the joyous bliss of the darkness! I can feel it even now! Listen!" he whispered. "Hear them? Starting to stir? Starting to crawl from their mattresses and stalk the night fantastic? Hear them? The creak of a bed-frame here—and one over there, as well! Oh, listen... someone weeps! Someone calls out for God... but it is always the Devil who answers." Johnstone's savage grin faltered and slipped away.

  "Even if it was so terrible a place, " Matthew said, "you still survived it."

  "Did I?" Johnstone asked, and let the question hang. He stood up, wincing as he put weight on his unbraced knee. He supported himself with his cane. "I pay for wearing that damn brace, you may be sure. Yes, I did live through Newgate prison, as I realized I might offer the assembled animals something to entertain them besides carnage. I might offer them plays. Or, rather, scenes from plays. I did all the parts, in different voices and dialects. What I didn't know I made up. They never knew the difference, nor did they care. They were particularly pleased at any scene that involved the disgrace or degradation of court officials, and as there are a pittance of those in our catalogue, I found myself concocting the scenes as I played them out. Suddenly I was a very popular man. A celebrity, among the rabble."

  Johnstone stood with the cane on the floor and both hands on the cane, and Matthew realized he had—as was his nature— again taken center stage before his audience. "I came into the favor of a very large and very mean individual we called the Meatgrinder, as he... um... had used such a device to dispose of his wife's body. But—lo and behold!—he was a fan of the stagelamps! I was elevated to the prospect of command performances, and also found myself protected from the threat of harm."

  As Matthew had known he sooner or later would, Johnstone now swivelled his body so as to have a view of the other men in the room. Or rather, so they would have a full view of the thes-pian's expressions. "Near the end of my term, " Johnstone went on, "I came into the acquaintance of a certain man. He was my age or therebouts, but looked very much older. He was sick, too. Coughing up blood. Well, needless to say a sick man in Newgate prison is like a warm piece of liver to wolves. It's an interesting thing to behold, actually. They beat him because he was an easy target, and also because they wanted him to go ahead and die lest they fall sick themselves. I tell you, you can learn quite a lot about the human condition at Newgate; you ought to put yourself there for a night and make a study of it."

  "I'm sure there are less dangerous universities, " Matthew said.

  "Yes, but none teaches as quickly as Newgate." Johnstone flashed a sharp smile. "And the lessons are very well learned. But: this man I was telling you about. He realized the Meatgrinder's power in our little community, yet the Meatgrinder was... well, he'd rather kill a man than smell his breath, shall we say. Therefore this sick and beaten individual asked me to intercede on his behalf, as a gentleman. He actually was quite educated himself. Had once been a dealer in antiques, in London. He asked me to intercede to save him further beatings or other indignities... in exchange for some very interesting information concerning a wa-terhole across the Atlantic."

  "Ah, " Matthew said. "He knew of the treasure."

  "Not only knew, he helped place the fortune there. He was a me
mber of the crew. Oh, he told me all about it, in fascinating detail. Told me he'd never revealed it to a soul, because he was going to go back for it someday. Someday, he said. And I might be his partner and share it with him, if I would protect his life. Told me that the spring was forty feet deep, told me that the treasure had been lowered in wicker baskets and burlap bags... told enough to put a sea voyage in the mind of a poor starving ex-thespian who had no prospects, no family, and absolutely no belief in that straw poppet you call God." Again, Johnstone displayed a knife-edged smile. "This man... this crewman... said there'd been a storm at sea. The ship had been wrecked. He and five or six others survived, and reached an island. Pirates being as they are, I suppose stones and coconuts did the job of knives and pistols. At last, one man survived to light a fire for a passing English frigate." Johnstone shrugged. "What did I have to lose to at least come look for myself? Oh... he had an inscribed gold pocket watch hidden in his mattress that he also gave to me. You see, that man's name was Alan Johnstone."

  "What's your name, then?" Bidwell asked.

  "Julius Caesar. William Shakespeare. Lord Bott Fucking Tott. Take your pick, what does it matter?"

  "And what happened to the real Alan Johnstone?" Matthew inquired, though he already had an idea. It had dawned on him, as well, that the turtles—reed-eaters by nature—had probably loved feasting on all those baskets and bags.

  "The beatings ceased. I had to prove my worth to him. He survived for a time. Then he grew very, very ill. Sick unto death, really. I was able to get the coordinates of the waterhole's latitude and longitude from him... something I'd been trying to do for a month or more without seeming overly demanding. Then someone told the Meatgrinder that very night... someone... a little shadow of a someone... that the sick man coughing up all that blood over there in the corner... well, it was dangerous to everyone. Such disease might wipe out our little community, and we were so fond of it. By morning, alas, my partner had set off on his final voyage, alone and unlamented."

  "By Christ, " Matthew said softly, his guts twisting. "Little wonder you decided to invent the witchcraft scheme. You're on regular speaking terms with Satan, aren't you?"

  Johnstone—for want of a better name—laughed quietly. He threw his head back, his eyes gleaming, and laughed louder.

  There was a faintly audible click.

  And suddenly, moving with a speed that belied his stiff leg, Johnstone lunged forward. He pressed against Matthew's throat the pointed edge of a five-inch blade that had been concealed within the cane's shaft.

  "Be still!" Johnstone hissed, his eyes boring into Matthew's. Bidwell had stood up, and now Winston and Dr. Shields rose to their feet. "Everyone, be still!"

  Green crossed the threshold, pistol in hand. Johnstone reached out, grasped Matthew's shirt, and turned him so the thespian's back was to the wall and Matthew's back was in danger of a pistol ball should Green lose his head. "No, no!" Johnstone said, as if scolding a wayward pupil. "Green, stand where you are."

  The red-bearded giant halted. The blade pressed perilously near entering the flesh. Though he was quaking inside, Matthew was able to keep a calm mask. "This will do you no good."

  "It will do me less good to be sent to prison and have my neck stretched!" Johnstone's face was damp, a pulse beating rapidly at his temple. Blood still stained his nostrils and upper lip. "No, I can't bear that. Not prison." He shook his head with finality. "One season in Hell is enough for any man."

  "You have no choice, sir. As I said, this will do you no—"

  "Bidwell!" Johnstone snapped. "Get a wagon ready! Now! Green, take the pistol by the barrel. Come over here... slowly... and give it to me."

  "Gentlemen, " Matthew said, "I would suggest doing neither."

  "I have a knife at your throat. Do you feel it?" He gave a little jab. "There? Would you like a sharper taste?"

  "Mr. Green, " Matthew said, staring into the wild eyes of the fox. "Take a position, please, and aim your pistol at Mr. Johnstone's head."

  "Christ, boy!" Bidwell shouted. "No! Green, he's crazy!"

  "No further play at heroics, " Johnstone said tightly. "You've strutted your feathers, you've shown your cock, and you have blasted me with a cannon. So spare yourself, because I'm going out that door! No power on earth will ever send me back to a goddamned prison!"

  "I understand your rush to avoid judgment, sir. But there are the two men with axes waiting just outside the front door."

  "What two men? You're lying!"

  'You see the lantern on the windowsill? Mr. Bidwell placed it there as a signal to tell the two men to take their positions."

  "Name them!"

  "Hiram Abercrombie is one, " Bidwell answered. "Malcolm Jennings is the other."

  "Well, neither of those fools could hit a horse in the head with an axe! Green, I said give me the pistol!"

  "Stay where you are, Mr. Green, " Matthew said.

  "Matthew!" Winston spoke up. "Don't be foolish!"

  "A pistol in this man's hand will mean someone's death." Matthew kept his eyes directed into Johnstone's. Bloodhound and fox were now locked together in a duel of wills. "One bullet, one death, I assure you."

  "The pistol! I won't ask again before I start cutting!"

  "Oh, is this the instrument?" Matthew asked. "The very one? Something you bought in Charles Town, I presume?"

  "Damn you, you talk too fucking much!" Johnstone pushed the blade's tip into the side of Matthew's neck. The pain almost sent Matthew to his knees, and it did bring tears to his eyes and make him clench his teeth. In fact, his whole body clenched. But he was damned if he'd cry out or otherwise display agony. The blade had entered only a fraction of an inch, deep enough to cause warm blood to well out and trickle down his neck, but it had not nicked an artery. Matthew knew Johnstone was simply raising the stakes in their game.

  "Would you like a little more of it?" Johnstone asked.

  Bidwell had positioned himself to one side of the men, and therefore saw the blood. "For God's sake!" he brayed. "Green! Give him the pistol!"

  Before Matthew could protest, he heard Green's clumping boots behind him and the pistol's grip was offered to Johnstone. The weapon was instantly snatched into Johnstone's hand, but the blade remained exactly where it was, blood-deep and drinking.

  "The wagon, Bidwell!" Johnstone demanded, now aiming the pistol at Matthew's midsection. "Get it ready!"

  "Yes, do get it ready." Matthew was speaking with an effort. It wasn't every day he talked with a knife blade in his neck. "And while you're at it, fix the wheels so they'll fall off two hours or so down the road. Why don't you take a single horse, Johnstone? That way it can step into a rut in the dark, throw you, and break your neck and be done with it. Oh... wait! Why don't you simply go through the swamp? I know some lovely suckpits that would be glad to take your boots."

  "Shut up! I want a wagon! I want a wagon, because you're going with me!"

  "Oh ho!" With an even greater effort, Matthew forced himself to grin. "Sir, you're an excellent comedian after all!"

  "You think this is funny?" Johnstone's face was contorted with rage. He blew spittle. "Shall you laugh harder through the slit in your throat or the hole in your gut?"

  "The real question is: shall you laugh, when your intended hostage is on the floor and your pistol is empty?"

  Johnstone's mouth opened. No sound emerged, but a silver thread of saliva broke over his lower lip and fell like the undoing of a spider's web.

  Carefully, Matthew took a backward step. The blade's tip slid from his neck. "Your problem, sir, " he said as he pressed his fingers to the small wound, "is that your friends and associates seem to have short spans of life. If I were to accompany you in a wagon, my own life span would be dramatically reduced. So: I dislike the idea of dying—greatly dislike it—but since I shall certainly die somewhere if I follow your wishes, it would be better to die here. That way, at least, the sterling gentlemen in this room may rush you and end this hopeless fantasy of escape
you have seized upon. But actually, I don't think anyone would mind if you were to run for it.

  Just go. Out the front door. I swear I'll be silent. Of course, Mr. Bidwell, Mr. Green—or even Mrs. Nettles, whom I see there in the doorway—might shout a warning to the axemen. Let me think." He frowned. "Two axes, versus a knife and one bullet. Yes, you might get past them. Then you could go to... well, where would you go, Mr. Johnstone? You see, that's the thorny part: where would you go?"

  Johnstone said nothing. He still pointed both the pistol and knife, but his eyes had blurred like a frost on the fount in midwinter.

  "Oh!" Matthew nodded for emphasis. "Through the forest, why don't you? The Indians will grant you safe passage, I'm sure. But you see my condition? I unfortunately met a bear and was nearly killed. Then again, you do have a knife and a single bullet. But... oh... what shall you do for food? Well, you have the knife and bullet. Best take matches, and a lamp. Best go to your house and pack for your trip, and we'll be waiting at the gate to give you a fine farewell. Run along, now!"

  Johnstone did not move.

  "Oh, my, " Matthew said quietly. He looked from the pistol to the blade and back again. "All dressed up, and nowhere to go."

  "I'm... not... "Johnstone shook his head from side to side, in the manner of a gravely wounded animal. "I'm not... done. Not done."

  "Hm, " Matthew said. "Picture the theatre, sir. The applause has been given, the bows taken. The audience has gone home. The stagelamps are ever so slowly extinguished. They gave a beautiful dream of light, didn't they? The sets are dismantled, the costumes folded and retired. Someone comes to sweep the stage, and even yesterday's dust is carried away." He listened to the harsh rising and falling of Johnstone's chest.