Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth by Simon R. Green Read Free Book Online Page B

balls for this!" she screamed.
    "Join the queue," I said.
    I took out my Club Membership Card. Alex Morrisey gave it to me some time back, when he was in an unusually expansive mood. When properly activated, the magic stored in the Card could transport you right into Strangefellows, from wherever you happened to be at the time. I had perhaps used it more often than Alex had intended, because he was always nagging at me to return it, and yet somehow I kept forgetting on purpose to do so. But once again, the magic in the Card was no match for whatever Walker had done to the dimensional barriers. I turned to Suzie.
    "Do you have any grenades?"
    "Silly question," she said. "You think I'd go out half-dressed?"
    "Spread some confusion," I said. "I need some time to concentrate, to raise my gift."
    "You got it," said Suzie. "Blessed or cursed grenades, do you think?"
    "I'd try both."
    "Excellent notion."
    She started lobbing grenades in all directions, and everyone else ducked and put their hands over their ears. The explosions dug great craters out of the ground, and bits of golem, coffin wood, and even body parts rained down all around us. Stone fragments from headstones and mausoleums flew on the air like shrapnel. The golems were shredded and rent, flattened and torn apart. And still more rose, forming themselves out of the torn earth.
    I closed my eyes and studied the cemetery through my third eye, my private eye. Without Tommy's gift interfering, I could See clearly again. And it only took me a moment to find the source of the consciousness animating the earth golems. It was a diffused, widely spread thing, scattered throughout the whole of the cemetery, and beyond. This was the great secret of the Necropolis graveyard. The last line of defence for the helpless dead. This whole world, the earth and the soil of it, was alive and aware, and set to guard. The Caretaker. A living world, to protect a world's dead.
    The Caretaker decided the golems weren't working, or perhaps it sensed my probings into its nature. All the earth in the cemetery rose before us, in a great tidal wave, and thundered forward like a horizontal avalanche. Enough earth to pulverise and drown and bury us all. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, no way to defend ourselves. But I had finally found the weak spot in Walker's plan. He'd strengthened the spells containing the cemetery dimension, made very sure that nothing could get out. But it had never occurred to him to stop anything from getting in… I reached out with my gift, and found a place in the Nightside where it was raining really heavily. And then all I had to do was bring the rain to me and let it pour down. The driving rain hit the tidal wave of earth and washed it away. Thick mud swirled around our feet, but its strength and power were gone. The rain kept hammering down, and the Caretaker couldn't get its earth to hang together long enough to form anything. And while the Caretaker was preoccupied with that, I reached out with my gift again and located the weakest spot in the dimensional barriers containing us. I showed Eddie where it was, and he cut it open with one stroke of his godly razor.
    We all ran through the opening, while Eddie strained to keep it open. Then we were all back in the Nightside, and the opening slammed shut behind us. We stood together, soaking wet and smeared with mud, breathing hard. I looked around me. I'd been half-expecting a crowd of Walker's people, set to stand and watch in case we found a way out, but there was no-one. Either Walker hadn't expected any of us to get out… or his people were needed somewhere else. Sandra said he'd been called away, to deal with trouble on the Street of the Gods… Could Lilith be making her move at last?
    Sandra stomped wetly towards me, and I raised an eyebrow. "Relax, Taylor," she said curtly. "You saved my life, and I always pay my debts. Walker has to be shown the error of his ways. I can help. Of course, once that's