The Emperor of all Things

by Paul Witcover

  ‘But it has been triggered,’ Quare interjected. ‘In Master Magnus’s study, when it killed his cats in the blink of an eye. And again, when it took Magnus’s life, and somehow spared my own.’

  Longinus nodded. ‘Unquestionably, the watch – how shall I put it? – intervened at those moments. I say intervened because it seems obvious to me that the hunter, like other, similar artefacts attributed to Wachter – and for all I know, they were in fact crafted by him, but, if so, at Doppler’s direction – at any rate, the hunter, too, is in some sense alive. Aware. It can choose how and when to act. Perhaps it can even decide the moment of its own detonation. But neither of the instances you have mentioned rises to that level. The proof of it is that the watch still exists … as do we, and everything around us. The world goes on, Mr Quare. Time passes as it always has. But in those effects, can we not see, in miniature, clues to the ultimate purpose and greater effect of the bomb? For what else could be the purpose of such an infernal device but the obliteration of every living thing in a sudden and catastrophic release of time? And yet that cannot be all, for it did, as you point out, spare your life. Therefore that, too, must be part of its design. The hunter is both a destroyer and a preserver of life. But which life will it destroy? And which preserve? I find it unlikely in the extreme that Doppler, whose will is supreme in a place where that is the measure of ultimate power, would create, or cause to be created, a device capable of causing his own death. No, it is far more likely, is it not, that he would instead create a weapon to cow his enemies – his allies, too, no doubt – and maintain his own pre-eminence. That, if my suppositions are correct, is the true purpose of the hunter. To destroy all life – not just mortal life, but immortal, too, for why else would Corinna and the others so fear it? – while preserving Doppler’s life. To return every living thing – save himself – to the primordial state from which it was born. Perhaps, after such an apocalypse, he might, as the sole survivor, begin again, crafting new worlds, new lives, out of the malleable stuff of the Otherwhere.’

  ‘You speak of him as if he were a god.’

  ‘What better word is there to describe him, or any of them? There was something that Corinna said to me as we were fleeing – a remark I little noted at the time but have had years to reflect upon. I confess it is behind all that I have told you.’

  ‘What remark?’

  ‘I referred to Corinna and her kind as fallen angels. She was quick to correct me, Mr Quare. “Not fallen,” she said. “Risen, rather.” She called it their crime, their original sin. Imagine, Mr Quare, that spontaneously, as it were, out of the primal stuff of the Otherwhere, creatures arose that possessed self-awareness, intelligence, and, most of all, will – that is, the ability to shape the Otherwhere to their own purposes. Now imagine that after untold eons of existence, in which each of these creatures was effectively equal to the rest, one of them, filled with ambition and desiring to rule over the others, to set himself above them and impose his will upon them, created something never before seen or even imagined: time. Thus, I believe, was our world brought into being, and every living thing in it, ourselves included. We exist to serve as receptacles for time.’

  ‘But what advantage would that give to Doppler?’

  ‘Why, the same advantage that accrues to any man in control of a substance prized or, indeed, required by others. Do you not see? I have told you that time is a drug, Mr Quare. I meant it as no mere metaphor! Doppler created time, and then addicted his fellow gods – to use your word, if I may – to that drug. No doubt it began with worship, with prayers and sacrifices. It must have seemed harmless enough! A new diversion amidst the stale pleasures of eternity. But now they are in thrall to it, to him. And, in a sense, to us as well, for we humans are, after all, the ultimate source of the drug. In us, it reaches its greatest potency, perhaps because we, of all mortal beings, possess self-awareness, the knowledge of our own inevitable death. Certainly that must confer an exquisite piquancy to the drug!’

  ‘But this is sheer speculation,’ Quare protested. ‘Pure fantasy … if not madness!’

  ‘If you can supply a more cogent explanation for the facts at hand, I should be glad to hear it,’ Longinus answered. ‘You have seen my prosthetic. You have seen the hunter – and experienced for yourself its uncanny power.’

  ‘I do not dispute any of that,’ Quare said. ‘But you go too far, surely, in your suppositions! What place is there for the Christian God in your system? Indeed, sir, you have turned Christianity upon its head, and made the Almighty into a very devil! I am no Bible-thumper, yet neither do I subscribe to rank atheism … or worse.’

  ‘Perhaps it is Christianity that has turned things topsy-turvy, not I. Yet some shred of the truth, however distorted, can be discerned in the gilded trappings of that religion, and of other faiths, or so it seems to me. But that is beside the point.’

  ‘And what is the point, if I may ask?’

  Longinus shook his head, a superior smile upon his face. ‘You have a long way to go, Mr Quare. You cling to your illusions.’

  ‘To my sanity, rather.’

  ‘That is merely another illusion.’

  ‘For a man who claims to require my help, you have a strange way of going about it.’

  Here Longinus seemed to come to an abrupt conclusion. ‘You asked for proof, Mr Quare. Very well. You shall have it, or as much as lies within my power to give. I had not intended a demonstration. I had hoped to convince you with words, with reason. But now I see that I lack the eloquence to persuade, and you the broad-mindedness to be persuaded, by words alone. I must warn you, however. There is some risk involved.’ He gestured about the room. ‘All these clocks, ticking at their various rates, weave a tangle of time that shields this place and those within it from the attention of Doppler and his kind. That is why I carry so many misaligned watches upon my person – so that I may safely leave this sanctuary, enclosed in a cloud of conflicting time that deflects their scrutiny like the magic ring in Plato’s myth, which cloaked its wearer in invisibility. Make no mistake – Doppler has been searching for me tirelessly in the years since my escape. He has bent every particle of his iron will towards finding me … and taking back the watch that Corinna stole from him and placed into my safekeeping. Now, in order to afford you visible proof that what I say is true, in order, as it were, to speak with actions rather than words, I must weaken the barrier, unlock it, for, just as it keeps Doppler out, so, too, does it trap me within.’

  ‘I require no more proof,’ Quare protested. ‘I have had too much already.’

  ‘Proof of my madness, you mean.’ Longinus gave him a wolfish smile. And proceeded to divest himself of the watches he carried upon his person, stopping each one before placing it atop the table that held the decanter of brandy.

  Soon quite a pile had accrued there; it would have been comical, thought Quare, were it not so bizarre. It almost seemed to him that he could feel a curious lightening of the room’s atmosphere as Longinus progressed. ‘Er, what did you say would happen if Doppler were to find us?’

  ‘I didn’t.’ Longinus moved about the room as he answered, stopping each of the clocks in turn. ‘No doubt it would be quite unpleasant. But if we are quick, and quiet, we should not draw his attention. Especially since the watch he seeks has been removed from my protection. The guild hall, with its cacophony of clocks, provides protection of a sort – I have made certain of that – but it is less complete, for I do not have total control over that establishment, as I do this one. You have been in the Old Wolf’s den. There the timepieces march in strict conformity to each other, like soldiers on parade. The temporal emanations arising thereby are not chaotic but regular. They do not result in an obscuring cloud, but instead an open window, a doorway – an opening through which Doppler can enter our world … or, rather, through which his influence may enter, for I have reason to believe that Doppler himself cannot cross whatever boundary divides the worlds, or at any rate chooses not to, perhaps to spare h
imself the addiction he inflicted upon his fellows. Or it may be that none of them has the power to visit our world in the flesh any more, as, to judge by myths and legends, they, or some of them, must once have done. Perhaps something prevents them, bars them from direct access to us. I have my theories about that, but I will leave them for another time. Whatever the truth, their agents are active here – men like Aylesford, corrupted to their influence, who may not even be aware of whom or rather what they truly serve. But no matter. I have strayed from my subject. My point is that the watch is no longer here, under my roof. The Old Wolf has it now, and thus it is no longer veiled from Doppler’s view. No doubt he has already located it. And all his attention is fixed upon it – upon retrieving it. He will not notice us.’

  ‘Why, if you know all this – or, I should say, are convinced of it, as it is plain to me that you are – would you give up the watch so easily to Grimalkin? And having done so, why would you not take it back from Master Magnus when it came into his possession?’

  ‘Good questions all.’ Longinus nodded approvingly. ‘I am glad to see you still have your wits about you, Mr Quare. You shall need them. As for Grimalkin, you were in no position to judge what took place in the attic that night, perched as you were upon the rooftop. The fact is, I did not give up the watch easily. The defence of it cost good men their lives. That I did not care to throw my own life away into the bargain cannot be counted against me. As it is, I am fortunate to have escaped alive; why, the brigand held a blade to my throat! You may see the scab, if it please you. As to your second question, the answer is simple. Once Master Magnus had his hands on a timepiece that interested him, there was no getting it away from him – I had ample experience of that, believe me. And so I could only watch helplessly as he turned his prodigious intellect upon the mystery of the hunter. Helplessly, yes … but also with hope, for surely if there were any mortal man equipped to solve its secrets, that man would be my old friend and master. Alas, it was not to be.’

  ‘So Grimalkin told me, when I took the watch from her.’

  Longinus’s eyebrows shot up. ‘ Her? ’

  ‘Yes. Grimalkin is a woman.’

  At this, Longinus burst into laughter.

  ‘You don’t believe me?’

  ‘Oh, I believe you, Mr Quare, as far as it goes. Which isn’t very far. That woman was not Grimalkin.’

  ‘Master Magnus was of the same opinion. He did not believe it possible that a mere woman could be such a dangerous and successful thief.’

  ‘A regrettable prejudice,’ Longinus said. ‘There is nothing a woman cannot do, as I know very well from personal experience.’

  ‘Then how can you be so certain that this woman was not Grimalkin?’

  ‘Why, because I am Grimalkin, of course.’

  Once more, Quare found himself shocked into silence. Lord Wichcote, Longinus, Michael Gray, now Grimalkin – was there anyone in the world whom his host had not been at one time or another?

  ‘I had not intended to reveal myself just yet,’ Longinus continued blithely, ‘but as you have raised the issue …’

  Quare shook his head. ‘No. This is entirely too much, sir.’

  ‘How better to pursue my researches into time than as a thief? How better to gain access to timepieces that would otherwise be beyond my grasp? After my return from Märchen, as I resumed my work with Magnus, I resumed as well my solitary search for other examples of Wachter’s work, creating the persona of Grimalkin to hide my efforts from Magnus. He never did learn or, as far as I know, suspect that Grimalkin was yet another of my aliases.’

  ‘I do not know what to think, what to believe,’ Quare said.

  ‘I dared not turn my attentions to the hunter Corinna had stolen from her father, for my speculations as to its nature and purpose had convinced me that it was best left alone, untouched, all but forgotten. Still less did I trust Magnus to respect its dangers. So I hid it away and looked elsewhere for enlightenment, using the skills of a regulator and, as Grimalkin, the abilities my new appendage had bestowed upon me. Abilities you are about to experience for yourself.’ He stepped towards Quare, extending his hand. ‘Your watch, Mr Quare, if you please.’

  ‘I beg your pardon?’

  ‘You have seen me divest myself of my own personal timepieces. I must ask you to do the same. Even if it is only the one. It may still misdirect us. Unlikely, but under the circumstances, it is better not to take the chance.’

  With misgivings, Quare handed over his watch. Longinus stopped it and placed it in the same pile with his own. Then he turned back to Quare and extended his hand once more. ‘Now, Mr Quare. Take my hand, sir. Come and walk with me.’

  Quare rose from his seat. But he did not take the proffered hand. ‘Lead on,’ he said cautiously, ‘and I will follow.’

  ‘You cannot follow where I would lead,’ Longinus answered. ‘To go where I go, you must place your hand in mine. Then, in a manner of speaking, I will carry you along with me.’ And he stretched his hand nearer to Quare, as if in emphasis.

  Quare felt giddy with confusion. Part of him wanted to leave the room, leave the house, deny all that he had heard and seen. But he knew too well what awaited him outside this sanctuary. Besides, for all his eccentricities, which verged on, if not crossed entirely over into, madness, Longinus – or whoever he truly was – had not harmed him, though it had lain within his power to do so at any time had he wished. It was this reflection, combined with a sense of rebelliousness that seemed to have no other outlet, that prompted him to grab hold of the older man’s hand.

  ‘Brave lad,’ said Longinus with a nod. He stared into Quare’s eyes. ‘Whatever you do, whatever you see, do not let go of my hand, or you shall be irretrievably lost. Say nothing, lest you alert Doppler or his allies. Save your questions until we are safe again. Do you understand?’

  Quare nodded, his mouth dry.

  ‘Very well,’ said Longinus with a smile. ‘It has been years since I travelled thus. I find that I have missed it more than I realized. They say that the longest journey begins with a single step, Mr Quare. Let us begin our journey.’

  15

  Tiamat

  BUT THOUGH QUARE stood ready to follow Longinus, the man did not move. Instead, regarding Quare with a sceptical expression, he asked hesitantly: ‘This woman calling herself Grimalkin … What did she look like?’

  ‘You think it might have been Corinna?’ Quare asked. ‘But surely she would be an old woman by now. The woman I encountered did not appear to be much older than myself.’

  Longinus pulled his hand from Quare’s and made a dismissive gesture, as if to push him away. ‘They are immortal beings and do not age as we do. Besides, I have reason to believe they can alter their shape to appear however they desire. But you’re right – how could it have been her? Why would she not have revealed herself to me?’ He seemed to be addressing himself as much as Quare. ‘No – it is impossible. The woman could not have been Corinna.’

  ‘You do not seem entirely convinced of it.’

  Longinus sighed. ‘I wanted it to be her. I have missed her so much, you see. But as I told you a moment ago, their kind cannot cross over to our world as easily as they once did. No, it was not Corinna.’ He spoke with confidence now. ‘Nor was this woman sent by Corinna, for then she would have said as much, and I would have given her the watch freely. There would have been no need for her to fight, to kill those men. She could only have been sent by Doppler. There is no other possibility.’

  ‘It seems your wards were not as impenetrable as you thought,’ Quare observed.

  Longinus made the same dismissive gesture. ‘I had heard rumours that Grimalkin had come out of retirement, as it were. So I spread rumours of my own, to entice him – for the idea that the imposter might be a woman had not occurred to me, any more than the possibility he was working for Doppler – to my house, where I hoped to expose him and learn his history. Instead, I was the one surprised, both by his – or, rather, her – fighting
skill … and her knowledge of the watch. Though I had hidden it away inside a clock that was altogether unremarkable, she nevertheless saw through the disguise and snatched it without hesitation. Then, before I could react, she smashed a glass vial upon the floor, just such a vial as I had once used in my thieving days, containing chemicals that give birth to a dense, obscuring cloud, and, behind that screen, she fled, taking the clock with her. A most formidable adversary! Tell me, Mr Quare, was there anything distinctive about her? Any peculiarities that impressed themselves upon you?’

  Quare did not have to consider long. ‘I saw her in moonlight, and she seemed to me like some maiden descended from that orb, her hair spun of moonbeams and shadows, her skin pale and luminous, without blemish. Her features were exotic, as if she were a blend of races unknown to me. She was the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. And, at the same time, the strangest.’

  ‘Why, I believe you fell a bit in love with her, Mr Quare!’

  ‘Love? I desired her, true enough. There was a kind of raw sensuality about her, and the effect she had on me was, I confess, not entirely unlike what you told me of your experiences in Märchen, though, as it were, in a minor key. But despite her allure, and the longing she inspired in me, I feared her, too. I had a sense that we were playing a kind of game … a deadly game in which only she knew the rules.’

  ‘A game?’

  Quare nodded. ‘She told me that she would answer three questions truthfully – why, I felt as if I had stumbled into a fairy tale! But a dark one, for I believe she would have killed me in a second. Though I had the advantage of her, I suspect she could have done so with ease. I have never seen anyone move as swiftly as she did. But something prevented her . Bound her, as it were, against her will. She mentioned an ancient compact, but explained nothing more. It was most curious.’