The Black Tattoo (35 page)

"
You are beaten
," said the Scourge, through Charlie's mouth.
 
The demon was standing over her.
 
The pigeon sword was at her throat.

"
And you know how
," it told her.
 
"
You know how, in fact, every time you fight me, you're going to lose.
 
Look
," it said, making a small gesture in the air with the hand that wasn't holding the sword.
 
"
Look at yourself
."

Esme didn't want to.
 
She knew what she'd see.
 
But she looked.
 
And she saw.

There was a pool of darkness, quivering, under the skin of her palms.
 
In another second, it was moving, spreading:
 
the long, graceful curves and the scalpel-point hooks were already beginning to form.

"
You're
marked
, Esme
," said the Scourge.
 
"
You've always been marked.
 
You just never knew yourself before
."

The black tattoo was swarming up her arms.
 
She could feel it under her skin, all over her body.
 
It had been waiting inside her all her life, and now she could feel it moving.

There's something a bit special about you
, echoed Raymond's voice in her head.

You're not human!
 
echoed another.

It's already too late for her
, echoed the Scourge's.
 
It's always been too late for her.
 
Just ask Felix.

"No," she whispered.

"
There
," said the Scourge, watching her reaction.
 
"
I believe you're beginning to understand
."

Esme stared straight up at the thing behind the boy's face, stared up at it helplessly.

"
All your power
," the Scourge told her, "
your speed, your flying, your strength — all of it comes from
me
."

The demon regarded her carefully.

"
You are fighting yourself
," it said.
 
"
How can you expect to win
," it asked, and there was an odd note of kindness in its voice, "
if you are fighting yourself
?"

Esme lay there in Charlie's shadow.
 
Her mind was swarming with darkness:
 
her whole body felt
thick
with it, so that she could hardly breathe.
 
She could recognize the power of the demon inside her.
 
And for the first time, in perhaps the whole of her life, she began to be scared.

"
The night you were conceived, I could have made my escape
," said the Scourge.
 
The point of the pigeon sword rested on the carpet now, with Charlie's hands on the pommel.
 
The demon spoke slowly, taking its time. "
Felix had released me, and in return I had granted him his wish of that one night with your mother.
 
At long last, I was free to do as I pleased.
 
But instead
..."
 
It paused.
 
"
I stayed
."

Esme stared up wordlessly.

"
For nine months I waited
," the Scourge went on.
 
"
And even after you were born I remained.
 
Watching you through his eyes.
 
Seeing you grow.
 
Wondering about what you might become.
 
Why do you think that was?
 
I'll tell you
."
 
The demon leaned over her.

"
I stayed because I could not help myself
."
 
The eyes stared down at hers.

"
My child
," it whispered.

Esme felt the dark inside her quicken at the words — and shuddered.

"You've ruined my life," she said softly, almost disbelievingly.
 
"Before I was even born, you ruined my life."

The boy with the demon inside him, the great dome of the throne room beyond him — all of it was turning blurry and dark.

Remember your mother...

"But I swear," she said, "I'll make you pay for what you've done."

She stared up at the demon, her amber eyes flashing fiercely.

'I'll have my revenge," she hissed.
 
"I
will
have my revenge.
 
I
swear
it."

Her breath choked in her throat.

She fell back.

And for Esme, everything went black.

*
       
*
       
*
       
*
       
*

"Bravo!" said a voice, and the throne room resounded with slow, ironic handclaps.
 
"Bravo!" said the Emperor again.

With regal slowness, he stood up from his throne.

"That went even better than I'd hoped!" he said.
 
"The battle.
 
The great revelation.
 
Truly, that was all most amusing.
 
But now, I think, it's time to proceed to more important matters."
 
He waved one cloven red hand, and his Overministere shimmered into view beside him.
 
"Gukumat!'

Sire?

"Bring the boy.
 
You know, the other one.
 
Let's have all three of these tiresome earthlings in one place.
 
It's time to get this whole thing wrapped up.

At your command, Sire.

The air in front of the throne seemed to bulge for a moment — then Jack appeared.

For a second, as the jelly stuff slithered off him and slipped over the sides of the carpet to join the rest of the pool, Jack just stared at Esme's limp body.
 
Then he ran to her and knelt by her side.

"You've killed her," he said, looking up at Charlie.

The Scourge made Charlie's head swivel toward Jack.
 
It looked at him.

"
No
," it said, "
I have not.
 
And this state she is in now is not of my doing.
 
Believe me
," it added, "
I have no wish to harm her
.

"Khentimentu," the Emperor interrupted.
 
"Let's start with you."

Charlie's head turned to face the throne.

"I've let you have your fun for long enough," the Emperor announced.
 
"It's time to add this girl's powers — and yours — to my own.
 
Gukumat?" he added.
 
"Put Miss
 
Leverton into the pool."

There was a pause.

"What?" said Jack.

"
I can't let you do that
," said the Scourge.

"Come, come Khentimentu," said the Emperor, smiling again.
 
"You didn't seriously think I'd allow you to run around Hell making plans behind my back, did you?"

He gestured at Esme.

"You and that girl are connected by a special bond, as you've just proved.
 
By adding her essence to my collection," he went on, indicting the slowly rippling pool of jellylike matter that rose and fell all around them, "I will take your powers and add them to my own, just as I have with any other demon who poses a threat to me, and any gladiator who showed any promise."
 
He smiled.

"Hold on," said Jack.
 
"You mean
that's
where that jelly stuff comes from?
 
It's all — he grimaced, staring around at the oily liquid, hardly believing it — "
dead demons?
"

"Even in death, my subjects continue to serve me," said the Emperor, his golden eyes glinting.
 
"Oh."
 
He frowned, pointing at Jack.
 
"Except for you, of course.
 
You're no use to anyone, alive or dead, quite frankly."

Jack blinked.

"
Your powers are a sham, Hacha'Fravahsi
," said the Scourge, squaring Charlie's shoulders.
 
"
You are weak and decadent, and you do not have the strength to stop me from fulfilling my destiny
."

"Which is what again?" asked the Emperor, raising his eyebrows.
 
"Remind me."

"
I will awaken the Dragon
," said the Scourge.
 
"
It's breath will be destruction.
 
Its fury will cleanse the firmament.
 
Its gaping jaws will swallow us, every one, and at last all Creation shall
—"

"Oh, yes," said the Emperor, pretending to stifle a yawn.
 
"Boring."

Then he struck.

His handsome face sharpened into a scowl of pure rage, and his right arm flashed across his chest in a vicious backhand slap.
 
At the same moment, a kind of undersea explosion lit up the surface of the throne room floor, and something like a ripple in the air passed between the Emperor and his victims.
 
Though they were twenty feet apart, Charlie's body suddenly bent double, as if something large and heavy had smashed into his midriff.
 
Flung back across the throne room, he hit the wall again, a full thirty feet up off the ground this time.
 
Then he slid to the floor in a helpless heap and lay there, unconscious once more.

Jack just gaped.

Standing where Charlie had been was a man-shaped blob of blackness.
 
The Scourge sank to the floor, shuddering with pain, looking at itself as if in sheer disbelief at what had just happened.

With a single blow, the Emperor had completely separated the Scourge from its host body.

"There," said the Emperor, lifting into the air.
 
He floated smoothly over and touched down on the carpet in front of the Scourge.
 
"Perhaps now you'll realize how much trouble you're really in."
 
He looked down at the demon at his feet.
 
"How's it feel," he asked, "being forced outside your vessel?
 
I imagine you must be feeling a bit... exposed.
 
Defenseless, even."

On the word
defenseless
, the Emperor leaned over the Scourge, staring down hard, his golden eyes livid with superhuman concentration.
 
The jelly stuff around him lit up again — and suddenly the Scourge was writhing in soundless, convulsive agony.
 
The Scourge lost its man shape, turning into nothing more than a splatter of black, jerking and flapping on the carpet in front of the Emperor's spotless white shoes.
 
Just as suddenly, the Emperor stopped what he was doing and stood upright again.

"Gukumat, did you hear me or not?" he snapped.
 
"Put the girl into the pool!"

Obediently, Gukumat floated over, reaching toward Esme with long, elegant fingers.

"No!" said Jack, his voice coming out in a kind of squeak.
 
"I mean, leave her alone!" he added, as gruffly as he could manage.

Now everyone in the room was looking at him.

"Yes," said the Emperor, regarding Jack with obvious distaste.
 
"I suppose we'll have to do something about you too.
 
Lord Slint!" he called, looking round.
 
"Where
is
he?
 
Ah, there you are.
 
If you'd be so kind..."
 
He gestured vaguely in Jack's direction.

Jack turned, just as the giant flying shark slithered in through the throne room's double doors.
 
He caught a pinkish-gray glimpse of a widening mouth.

"Oh,
shi
—"
 
Jack had just enough time to say as he was lifted off the ground.

And then, with a great sweep of his tail, Lord Slint swam away through the air, powering his way up towards the vaults of the throne room's roof, where he could devour his freshly plucked morsel in peace.
 
Jack hadn't even had time to scream.

In the shadows over by the wall, Charlie stirred.
 
Across the throne room, the Emperor and the Scourge faced each other.

"Now," said the Emperor.
 
"Time to have some
real
fun."
 
And he lashed out with his power again.

*
       
*
       
*
       
*
       
*

The world spun crazily.
 
The walls of the throne room slid past at hideous speed — but Jack's thoughts, strangely, were quite clear.

The shark hadn't bitten him seriously yet:
 
for the time being, it was only carrying him, but Jack wasn't thinking, in between things like
AAAARGH!
and
SHARK!
, went something like this:

How come
he
didn't get to have superpowers that made him be able to do cool things?

How come
he
didn’t get to face his enemies on equal terms?
 
Or have sword fights or do kung fu?

And this!
said his brain, with mounting indignation.
 
Look at this latest situation!
 
He'd thought having to go to Hell was bad.
 
Getting bitten by a giant spider — well, at the time, that had seemed about as low as you could get.
 
But oh no,
his
luck had to go one better, didn't it?

This whole situation, Jack was deciding — not just this latest development but pretty much everything, stretching back in an unbroken line for what seemed like most of his life — was infuriatingly, excruciatingly, incandescent-apoplexy-inducingly UNFAIR.

What this was, Jack decided, what this whole situation
was
, really, when you came down to it, he thought, the realization hitting him with almost as much force as the shark had —