Spirits from Beyond by Simon R. Green Read Free Book Online Page B

have been a bad way to go . . . They’ve been nothing but old bones for centuries, haunted by an undying hatred for those who lived on, in the world above. Now these old bones have been given new life, wrapped in new flesh provided by The Flesh Undying. So they can have their revenge at last.”
    “Revenge on whom?” said Happy. “The Romans are gone!”
    “But we are their inheritors,” said Kim.
    “So, essentially, these are the ghosts of old Druids,” said JC. “We can handle ghosts.” He stepped forward and challenged the approaching figures in a loud and carrying voice. “What is it you want? Speak up! I’m listening!”
    And all the grey dusty figures stopped moving, standing very still, right at the edge of the open amphitheatre. And when the answer came, it seemed to come from all of them at once. A single dry and dusty voice, still packed full of hatred after all the centuries.
    “We will have our vengeance for what was taken from us. We will make a Wicker Man here and burn you alive in it, as a sacrifice, to make Lud strong again. We will have power and life again, and leave this place for the sun and light of the forests. We shall rule all the peoples of this land, as we did before, and we shall burn out everything that does not follow Druid ways. We shall serve Lud, and he will serve us, and it will be a glorious time of blood and slaughter. We shall take your precious civilisation and nail its guts to the old oak tree.”
    “Long-winded buggers, aren’t they?” said Happy. “I’ll bet they’ve been rehearsing that for ages.”
    “Your time is over,” JC said steadily, to the dusty figures. “You must know that; or what are you still doing down here? You wouldn’t even recognise the world above, now.”
    “With Lud awakened and empowered, we shall leave the Undertowen and rise up,” said the mass whispering voice. “We shall set bale-fires from one end of this island to the other, and delight in the screams of our enemies as they burn. We remember what it is to be Druid; and we will make the world remember.”
    Happy moved in beside Kim. “You brought us down here. You must have a plan. How are we supposed to stop this?”
    “You can’t,” said Kim.
    “What?” said Happy.
    “Our only chance is to make a deal with the ghost god Lud.”
    “Everyone stand back,” said Happy. “I’m going to dig a way out.”
    “Stand still,” said JC.
    “I need another pill,” said Happy.
    “I don’t think the whole of the Carnacki Institute working together has enough power to deal with the thing sitting on that throne,” said JC. “We can’t fight a god, and even if we did . . . Hold it. Hold everything. Fighting . . . is what The Flesh Undying wants. It wants us to fight because it knows we can’t win. That’s why he enfleshed the Druids—to distract us!”
    “Trust me, it’s working,” said Happy. “I am feeling very definitely distracted.”
    “So let’s try talking,” said JC. “Not with the dead Druids. All they have are old grievances, old hatreds, that they’d rather die than give up . . . Happy, can you make mental contact with Lud?”
    “Not on the best day I ever had!” said Happy, loudly. “That may be only the ghost of a god, but they key word there is still
god
! My brains would boil in my head and leak out my ears. Unless . . .” His voice trailed off as he looked around at the others, his brows falling into a serious scowl. He took out a silver pill box. “I suppose . . .”
    “No!” Melody said immediately.
    “Yes,” said JC. “Sorry, Melody; but we need our team telepath firing on all cylinders.”
    Happy had taken a single pill out of the box, a long yellow-and-green-striped one. He rolled it back and forth between his fingertips, studying the pill thoughtfully. “Now this . . . is the good stuff. I distilled it from some weird esoteric chemical traces I found in Chimera House, left behind by the passing of the New People.”