Tithe to Tartarus

by John C. Wright

  Tom said, “We may need to call an ambulance for Matthias in any case.”

  Gil said, “Why? What happened? Where is he?”

  As if summoned by his name, out from between two angelic statues, leaning on the five-foot-tall form of Elfine, Matthias came walking into view.

  3. Anti-vampirism

  He was dressed once more in his Dominican habit of white beneath a black hooded cape. His steps were slow and unstable.

  As he drew near, Gil said, “Have you checked yourself for wounds?”

  Matthias said, “I am well.”

  Gil said, “What happened?”

  Matthias said, “Nothing unlawful.”

  Gil scowled. “A vampire trick. Those are not good for you.”

  Matt said, “A vampire drinks blood and drains the life of another. I gave of myself that another might drink and shared the life within me.” He smiled sadly. “It sounds mildly blasphemous when I put it that way, I know, but the grace of Heaven allows some of us, in some small way, to participate in the work of Christ even though we all participate in the sin of Adam. I can do nothing of myself.”

  “Spare us yet another theology lecture!” Tom said, “What happened?”

  Matt raised an eyebrow. “You were there. You saw.”

  Tom said, “I mean, just now. You vanished.”

  “The magician’s spell, for which I suppose I am grateful, deposited me back in the waking world near my things. Elfine found me and Yumiko’s pearl.”

  Elfine brought the pearl over. Yumiko twisted it in her hands and was able to shove it in the same imaginary direction her vixen body had come out from. The pearl vanished, and her suit, boots, gloves, and other gear solidified into her hands. The green cloak was so voluminous, and the smart material so plaint and convenient, that she was able to draw on the suit without any loss of modesty, as if in a tent. The boots and gloves followed a moment later. The mask vanished into the pocket of her cape because she had no time to brush and braid her hair.

  Matthias hobbled closer. “Thank you, Magician, for bringing us so neatly back to Earth. But there are things you may not bring on holy ground.”

  “Now, wait a moment…” Wilcolac started to say.

  Matthias raised the little silver crucifix dangling from his rosary and said a blessing. The black walking stick in Wilcolac’s hand moaned, vibrated, jumped, and then exploded into a mess of splinters. The larger fragments began to turn red and give of little wisps of blue smoke.

  “How dare you!” Wilcolac was red faced with fury.

  Matthias said, “When I was in your house, I said nothing to disaccommodate you. But now you are here. This ground is consecrated. I am no knight, who sheathes his sword on the Sabbath, or in parley, or when peace is made. You are forever at war with Heaven, Necromancer. You are the slave of those who just this hour sought your life and soul. You have escaped from Hell by less than inches, less than seconds, and your life will lead you back there. Escape from them. Choose life, not death. Save yourself.”

  Wilcolac heaved himself painfully to his feet. “Never,” said the magician with finality.

  “Schroedinger’s unprintably uncertain and acausal cat! You are so going to die,” declared Tom, glaring steadfastly into Wilcolac’s condescending smirk.

  Wilcolac stiffened, gargled, swayed. The life went from his eyes. His body fell backward across the headstone, quite dead.

  4. The Eyes of Night

  Gil glared disapprovingly at Tom.

  “Not me! I did not do anything!” Tom protested. “You think I can cuss someone to death? With a cat?”

  The body slid off the headstone and turned toward them as it struck the grass. Now all could see where a red arrow was imbedded in the top of his skull up to the fletching. The arrowhead and shaft protruded a foot out below the chin. Death had been instantaneous.

  Ruff barked. All looked up.

  Dark against the bright morning sky, passing from cloud to cloak, slid a dark shape on wide wings, black as a crow and silent as an owl. The longbow was visible as a thin horn issuing from his head, reaching in the direction of flight.

  The distant figure was sideways to them, one wing foreshortened and hard to see. He reached both arms above his head, almost as if in a swan dive, before drawing them sharply but smoothly down and apart, which was the Japanese style of archery.

  This time they heard the whisper of the arrow fly. The second arrow struck the fallen body square in the chest, passing through the heart and pinning the corpse to the ground. There was a scrap of paper bound around the shaft. A little wind pried the paper open and set it to flutter. Yumiko could see some of the words listed: black magic, abduction, murder, rigged gambling, purveying lewdness…

  Gil made a fist and raised it at the wide-winged black shape as it dove smoothly into a cloud bank and was lost to view. “Another lawless slaying. No trial, no mercy, no hope. Why does he mar our work?”

  Yumiko said, “I can answer that.”

  Gil looked down. “Will he be in the factory if we go back?”

  “I doubt he will connect the moon-door to that threshold again now that it has served its purpose.”

  Gil looked puzzled.

  Tom said, “She means thresholds. Winged Vengeance stole Rotwang Cobweb’s irreplaceable moon-door right out of the wreckage of the Iron Mole. So it acts like the door to your attic, Gil, or the gate to Mommur. Sometimes the entrance is in one place, sometimes in another. But the attic, city, or room is not actually behind the door.”

  Gil said, “No, I knew that, I was wondering what purpose.”

  Yumiko said, “I assume the factory was meant to kill whoever Wilcolac had tailing me. Nyctalope must have suspected you would find the ghost and force it to bring you here; otherwise, he would not have been hiding in the clouds overhead, waiting for you to bring any surviving Anarchists out from the Tithing Ground. He knew where it was, for he escaped from there.”

  Tom said, “He and I should form a club.”

  Yumiko said, “He is not one for joining clubs.”

  Gil said to her, “You said you could tell us why he hinders us.”

  “The hindrance is not deliberate. He acts as he does because of who he is.”

  “Who is he?”

  “He is Nyctalope Peaseblossom.”

  Gil said, “He was in the previous Last Crusade. But I was told they all died.”

  Tom said, “Should have been called the Not Quite the Totally Last Crusade.”

  Yumiko said to Gil, “Two lived. The other was Rotwang Cobweb, who is an Anarchist.”

  Tom said, “Lord Saturday, the Master of Revenants. He told me before he gave me to the Werewolf guy, Lord Thursday. We should discuss with the Man in the Black Room why he never told us that the man for whom I was interning, and was later hired to spy on, was an ex-member of the same crusade I served.”

  Gil said, “Don’t interrupt. You and I will discuss your private expeditions into danger zones with unvetted allies later.”

  Tom said, “Unvetted? She’s my second cousin once removed!”

  Gil ignored him and turned to Yumiko. “You were saying, Cousin?”

  “I was speaking of Nyctalope. Your fight he condones—indeed he fights it himself—but he trusts neither the Man in the Black Room nor any living being.”

  Gil said, “Where is his sanctuary? The Magician tricked us into looking for it, and we were nearly killed by the deadfalls.”

  “It cannot be found,” said Yumiko, “He carries the eight-sided chamber on his person.”

  Elfine said, “Is he allowed to do that? It is not fair if detectives cannot find villains!”

  Yumiko said, “He is no villain. A dark mermaid helped him. I do not know which one. It takes up nearly no space. Anyone who steps into the sanctuary is actually in his pouch. That was the destination I had in mind when I tried to use the Ring of Mists to return from the Third Hemisphere.”

  She sighed and said half to herself, “How am I going to get all my
outfits out of my closet? And get my diary?”

  She turned to Elfine, “Which reminds me, I now remember something. Damiano was the name of the police officer who brought me to the hospital. He is also one of the agents of Winged Vengeance. When I arrived unconscious in the eight-sided chamber, Nyctalope had his agent put me in the hospital.”

  Elfine said, “With all your weapons and supersuit and such?”

  Yumiko said, “All redesigned by Tom. Nyctalope did not trust them. He thought I was a trap as well.” She pouted. “As it turned out, he was right. I led an enemy to his door.”

  Matthias said, “Why didn’t he bring you to one of the Moth houses? We have one in every city. You could have found help there.”

  “He is not a Moth. He is solitary.”

  Elfine said angrily, “He could have parked you some place safer than a hospital were werewolves could find you! And a goat man!”

  Yumiko said, “He did not know the Ring of Mists was on my finger and that its scent calls ghosts when the band is black. Euhemerus Cobweb, the Lord of Ghosts, had no trouble finding me.”

  5. Experimental Results

  Yumiko turned to Tom. “I can report the experiment in intercontinental teleportation was a total failure. The dark part of the world of mists—the part the lost ghosts haunt—is watched and guarded just as well as the upper parts. The mist barrier between here and the Third Hemisphere is impenetrable.”

  Tom said, “You told me the ghosts could not stop you. That is why you were the logical choice to go.”

  “The demons stopped me.”

  “They should not be able to come up in the mist that high. It is not their layer. Insubstantial beings exist at a higher strata than non-dimensional beings”

  “I dove down.”

  Tom looked shocked. “What? But why? What could possess you to do that?”

  Yumiko said sadly, “What possesses anyone who dives into the arms of a demon? A flaw in me made me so crave some trifle in the demon’s hand that I fell willingly onto his palm. He but closed his fingers. But I have learned a hard lesson.”

  She reached down and shut the eyes of the dead man. “Many things have gathered to convince me that reckless slaughter betrays my mother’s memory and does not avenge her or honor her.”

  6. The Announcement

  Yumiko turned to the others. “I have an announcement. Saint Barbara told me to tell you that when eternal day breaks, twilight is no more. Then will all the deeds of the Twilight Folk be laid bare and judged. She said that this hour is at hand.”

  A look of astonishment and joy overcame the face of Matthias. His eyes behind his spectacle lenses seemed large. Now they seemed larger still. He called to Gil, “Did you hear that? Did you hear?”

  Gil said warily, “It might not mean what you think it means.”

  Matthias said to Yumiko, “Was there anything else? Did the saint say anything about the Grail?”

  Yumiko said, “No. Nothing about that. She only told me not to let my beloved be drawn into darkness.” She put her arm around Tom and smiled up at him.

  Matthias said to Gil, “It means we are destined to succeed!”

  Gil said, “Or those who come after us, inspired by our brave deaths, will succeed. Or it means the Second Advent is nigh and has nothing to do with the Black Spell at all.”

  Elfine said, “What are you talking about?”

  Gil said, “The Last Crusade. We are not crusading against the paynims or to free the Holy Land. We will free all the lands. We will break the Black Spell.”

  Tom said, “Which reminds me. I also have an announcement.”

  Yumiko’s face lit up. Elfine clapped.

  Tom threw out his chest. “I have figured out how to enter the Third Hemisphere, recover the Grail, drive back the Mists of Everness, and save Mankind from the domination of the elves!”

  Yumiko’s face fell. Tom looked at her, startled. “What? What is it?”

  Yumiko bowed. “Nothing of importance. I just thought–”

  “She just thinks you are an idiot!” said Elfine.

  Tom said, “And who are you, again, exactly?”

  Elfine grinned. “A lovable rogue girl detective.”

  Tom said, “Wait. Does that mean you detect the girls of lovable rogues, or that you are a rogue girl who detects, or…”

  “All of that, of course!”

  Matthias said, “Elfine knows where the Nautilus docks. So you see what our next step will be.”

  Gil said, “Before that, the next step is getting this body properly buried and our reports squared away with the Man in the Black Room.”

  Yumiko said, “And I must meet him.”

  Gil said, “Oh?”

  Yumiko said, “If I am to become a member in good standing with the Last Crusade.”

  Gil looked skeptical. “Well, Cousin, I am not sure how to put this, but you do not make a very good first impression, and there are some real drawbacks in your history.”

  Matthias said, “And there are drawbacks in our histories as well. That is why we are so eager to give anyone a chance to turn over a new leaf. Also…” He turned to Gil. “Tom will insist she come.”

  Tom said, “I will?”

  Matthias said, “Because of your big announcement!”

  Elfine jumped up and down and clapped again. “Announce it now! Announce! Announce! Pronounce the announcement!”

  Gil said, “What announcement?”

  Tom said, “Yeah, what announcement? That I figured out a way past the–”

  Elfine shook her head and gestured meaningfully towards a silent Yumiko. Tom looked quizzically at her. Finally, a look of enlightenment came to his face, but was immediately transformed into an expression of sheepish embarrassment.

  Tom cleared his throat. “I would like to announce… Well, wait a minute. I am not sure if I can. I wanted to ask… that is to propose… Wait a minute.”

  And he got down on one knee.

  “Yes,” said Yumiko before he could say anything. “I do. I accept.”

  Tom stammered. “But you don’t even know what I–”

  “I do,” said Yumiko. She raised her hand and displayed the ring on her finger. “You already asked. I accept. I am yours.”

  “I mean, I am asking you to be my–”

  “Yes,” said Yumiko. She smiled shyly, and bowed politely, and took his hand, and urged him to his feet. “My answer to you is yes.”

  Tom stood and sputtered. “I mean… what I… uh–”

  Ruff barked impatiently. Gil sighed and shook his head, “You said it, boy.”

  Ruff barked again. Gil laughed and translated. “Shut your trap, Tom, and kiss her already.”

  Here ends TITHE TO TARTARUS

  Which Concludes the Tale of the Dark Avenger’s Sidekick

  The Tale of Moth and Cobweb continues in

  MAD SCIENTIST’S INTERN

  Science Fiction

  Awake in the Night Land by John C. Wright

  City Beyond Time: Tales of the Fall of Metachronopolis by John C. Wright

  Somewhither: A Tale of the Unwithering Realm by John C. Wright

  The Corroding Empire 1: Corrosion by Johan Kalsi

  Back From the Dead by Rolf Nelson

  Hyperspace Demons by Jonathan Moeller

  Mutiny in Space by Rod Walker

  Alien Game by Rod Walker

  Young Man's War by Rod Walker

  QUANTUM MORTIS A Man Disrupted by Steve Rzasa and Vox Day

  QUANTUM MORTIS Gravity Kills by Steve Rzasa and Vox Day

  QUANTUM MORTIS A Mind Programmed by Jeff Sutton, Jean Sutton, and Vox Day

  Victoria: A Novel of Fourth Generation War by Thomas Hobbes

  Fantasy

  One Bright Star to Guide Them by John C. Wright

  The Book of Feasts & Seasons by John C. Wright

  Iron Chamber of Memory by John C. Wright

  Moth & Cobweb 1: Swan Knight's Son by John C. Wright

  Moth & Cobweb 2: Feast
of the Elfs by John C. Wright

  Moth & Cobweb 3: Swan Knight's Sword by John C. Wright

  Moth & Cobweb 4: Daughter of Danger by John C. Wright

  Moth & Cobweb 5: City of Corpses by John C. Wright

  Moth & Cobweb 6: Tithe to Tartarus by John C. Wright

  Arts of Dark and Light 0: Summa Elvetica: A Casuistry of the Elvish Controversy by Vox Day

  Arts of Dark and Light 1: A Throne of Bones by Vox Day

  Arts of Dark and Light 2: A Sea of Skulls by Vox Day

  A Magic Broken by Vox Day

  The Wardog's Coin by Vox Day

  The Last Witchking by Vox Day

  The Altar of Hate by Vox Day

  The War in Heaven by Vox Day

  The World in Shadow by Vox Day

  The Wrath of Angels by Vox Day

  Military Science Fiction

  There Will Be War Vol. I ed. Jerry Pournelle

  There Will Be War Vol. II ed. Jerry Pournelle

  There Will Be War Vol. III ed. Jerry Pournelle

  There Will Be War Vol. IV ed. Jerry Pournelle

  There Will Be War Vol. V ed. Jerry Pournelle

  There Will Be War Vol. VI ed. Jerry Pournelle

  There Will Be War Vol. IX ed. Jerry Pournelle

  There Will Be War Vol. X ed. Jerry Pournelle

  Plague Wars 0: The Eden Plague by David VanDyke

  Plague Wars 1: Reaper's Run by David VanDyke

  Plague Wars 2: Skull's Shadows by David VanDyke

  Galactic Liberation 1: Starship Liberator by David VanDyke and B.V. Larson

  Galactic Liberation 2: Battleship Indomitable by David VanDyke and B.V. Larson

  Riding the Red Horse Vol. 1 ed. Tom Kratman and Vox Day

  Fiction

  An Equation of Almost Infinite Complexity by J. Mulrooney

  Hitler in Hell by Martin van Creveld

  Loki's Child by Fenris Wulf

  The Ames Archives 1: Brings the Lightning by Peter Grant

  The Ames Archives 2: Rocky Mountain Retribution by Peter Grant