Dark Detectives
Page 50
She is far from the Nile, far from water, lost in unchanging sandscape. This country has not changed since she was born. Not since the settling of the continents.
She falls to her knees and looks up at the sky. Twinkling in the night, she sees Ursa Major. It is back again. The plagues are over.
The world is set to rights.
And is on its own.
Dafydd, Sergei, Annie, Jerome.
She deserves this.
But at last she accepts forgiveness.
She crushes the jewel to red grit. Seven flames burst into fireballs, and she burns with love.
*
All find their moments.
Pai-net’em is honoured by Old Pharaoh, the great and wise king.
Edwin sees Catriona’s smile for the first time.
John Barrymore is assaulted by applause.
Maureen Mountmain cradles Mimsy to her breast, and shares perfect love.
Connor gets the green-light on a life.
She is in the British Museum, snatching a glimpse of the reflection of a man’s face, thinking of possibilities.
Jerome is free of them, journeying into the unknowable future. The thread that connects them to him stretches, and then breaks.
*
The sand drifts over her bones, burying them with a red scatter of jewel fragments. The Seven Stars pass from the skies, and the sun rises on the desert.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
With special thanks to Dorothy Lumley, Steve Saffel, Natalie Laverick, Randy Broecker, Robert T. Garcia, Michael Marshall Smith, Mandy Slater, Jo Fletcher, Mike Ashley, Sara Broecker, Brian Lumley, Basil Copper, F. Paul Wilson, Steve Rasnic Tem, Douglas E. Winter, Stefan Dziemianowicz and, especially, Kim Newman. My gratitude as always to the late Philip J. Rahman for his kindness and support as a publisher.
ABOUT THE EDITOR
STEPHEN JONES is one of Britain’s most acclaimed anthologists of horror and dark fantasy. He has more than 130 books to his credit, including Shadows Over Innsmouth, Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth and Weirder Shadows Over Innsmouth. He has won numerous awards for his work, including three World Fantasy Awards, four Bram Stoker Awards and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Horror Writers Association. You can visit his website at www.stephenjoneseditor.com.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
RANDY BROECKER was born and lives in Chicago, Illinois. Inspired by the pulp magazines and EC comics he read as a child, his work has appeared in numerous books and magazines published on both sides of the Atlantic, including Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth and Weirder Shadows Over Innsmouth. He was Artist Guest of Honour at the 2002 World Horror Convention and is the author of the World Fantasy Award-nominated study Fantasy of the 20th Century: An Illustrated History from Collector’s Press.
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