Our army moved into place as soldiers spread out, following the curve of the vast cavern and put themselves between the wall and the vermin. Then, like fire-breathing shepherds, they herded the flock toward the centre. Vermin scuttled backwards, away from the liquid flames, and drew inward into a concentrated pack. Soldiers armed with swords worked behind the flamethrower units, beheading the undead distracted by their own flaming limbs.
My mind couldn't comprehend the number of men tackling the undead. There were far more than the single truckload that followed us here, but where had they materialised from? It appeared Jack and Jake had done far more than tell the lieutenant we were in trouble; they had rallied more troops.
I was annoyed Frank had allowed Alice to return, but she looked fetching dressed as a soldier and emitted a new fierce determination as she clutched the mallet. They had snuck through the enemy lines with a small squad of soldiers and reached us in time to down Louise.
Seth murmured his approval of the situation. "Bain fetched my flamethrowers—good man."
Beyond the wedge of vermin, men lined up in a regimented grid. Seth smirked as though he had planned this all along. Another reason why I loved the man. When he says he will support you, he really means it. Elizabeth may have her army, but I had one too. And mine had flamethrowers.
We faced each other like oddly-arrayed chess pieces, caught toward the end of the game. We were a tiny group with the river at our back, and directly before us was a small nub with the queen at its core. From there, her legions of undead formed a thick band before the ring of army chaps at the back. A small part of me wished for a mighty steed to ride across the cavern floor, with a lance tucked under my arm. Cossimo would have been perfect for the role. But I would make do on foot and with my father's sword.
We had defeated Louise, so all I had to do was rout Elizabeth and her undead minions. A few moments ago that seemed impossible, but now I couldn't see how we could lose.
"The army is yours to command, if you are ready?" Seth asked, taking my hand. He raised my knuckles to his lips and brushed a kiss across my skin.
Oh, I was ready for so many things, once I finished Elizabeth.
"As long as I know you are behind me," I replied. I had given life to this nightmare, and I would extinguish it.
"Always." He grinned and gestured to the queen with his head. "I'll let you sally forth and see if she wants to discuss terms."
I strode over the cavern floor. Elizabeth wanted a spectacle, and she would get one, watching her drones incinerated before her eyes. Then I would come for her. Inch by inch, I would chop down her spiral staircase as though it were dry kindling. Once she was prone at my feet, I would remove her head.
"Where is your champion, now?" I called out. Of course I knew where she was, bound and gagged and waiting to be dispatched to London. She should be happy; she would be the centre of attention for the rest of her unnaturally long life. She would be fêted as the scientific community's darling while they poked and prodded her to learn her vermin secrets.
"Yet again you fail to understand my true might. Louise was my darling knight, not my champion." Elizabeth raised her hands as though summoning something. "Arise! Arise, my pet, and bring these mortals unto my fold!"
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Elizabeth should have left my father alone and taken to the stage. She had a flair for melodramatics. The vermin closest to her on the cavern floor heaved and moaned. Some fell to their knees, others raised their arms above their heads. The moan turned into a hum as the mass rolled itself together like a hideous ball of yarn. I couldn't make out what they were doing. Perhaps they arm-wrestled to pick a new knight from among them?
The huddle became larger as more piled on top. Some crawled over others, until the whole became a seething heap. Thoughts of the rat king flashed through my mind and I shuddered. Were they making a giant ball to knock us over like bowling pins?
I turned to glance at Seth and the others, but he shook his head. None of us understood what was happening. There wasn't exactly a military manual on vermin hives and how to battle their demented queen. We wrote it as we went along.
The mound of vermin emitted a wail as it grew higher, and yet more continued to throw themselves into the melee. Surely it couldn't get any bigger? Just as it looked as though the throng would fall apart and they would all tumble to the ground … an enormous limb appeared.
I took a step backwards as a forearm the size of a tree trunk emerged, and a hand whose fingers were half the length of a man smacked the ground. I bounced up as the shock wave rippled along the floor. The pile shuddered and another arm appeared.
Oh, God. The limbs were made of vermin.
Watching the hideous creature undulate and move, my mind snatched at lines from Lewis Caroll's poem about the Jabberwock:
Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
The vermin were joining together to create one monstrous whole. That was why the fingers looked almost man-sized; each was comprised of a body. Their torsos linked together to form the hand, while their arms dangled as fingers and nails. Somehow, they had fused themselves into one horrific vermin champion for their queen. An arched back shook free and a grinning head formed on top of it. Like an ogre, it stood with its back bent, unable to stand straight in the cavern. Then it roared. The sound rocked me back on my feet. Hundreds of vermin screamed as one.
"Jabberwocky," I named it. A creature from a child's story, given life and transformed into my worst nightmare.
The hair on the back of my neck stood up and my fingers tightened on the katana. The sword seemed woefully inadequate. I would be like a mouse waving a needle at an elephant. The jabberwocky took one lumbering step toward me. The entire cavern shook and jumped as its weight thumped down on one foot.
Another roar and it swiped at me. Five vermin tried to bat me off my feet. I danced to one side and struck out with the sword. I sliced at a leg but the Hell-born creature didn't even notice. How would I defeat it? If the whole worked like a single vermin, then I needed to decapitate each individual vermin to incapacitate the monster. Or did I need to take off the one, enormous, ugly head?
I ran around its legs, looking for a way to topple the monstrous being. As I dodged for my life, only one thought flashed through my mind—I can't do this alone.
I trusted in Seth. Knowing he would command his soldiers and keep Alice safe. I focused on drawing the jabberwocky to me while my mind raced, trying to figure out how to obliterate Elizabeth's pet. Each time I lashed out and managed to sever a head, the whole ejected the destroyed body and sucked up a fresh one.
Flame burst at regular intervals around the cavern as Seth's flamethrower contingent set to work. The wails and moans turned to screams as cleansing fire sent the vermin back to meet their Maker. If the soldiers torched the scattered vermin, at least my opponent would be starved of new body parts and we could slowly whittle it down. If I survived that long.
The massive arm the size of an ancient tree swung through the air, and I leapt back. It would splatter me against the cavern wall if I wasn't watching my step. Yet again, I danced under its limb and hacked another head from its calf as I passed. What used to be a woman slid down and wriggled on the floor, only to be trod into dust as the giant swivelled to find me.
Light skipped and spun around the cavern as swords rose and fell. Lieutenant Bain and his soldiers cut pathways like men with scythes threshing hay. The flamethrowers torched the rotten bodies, and soon, funeral pyres burned at several spots around us.
Seth rushed under the monster, his claymore slashing at a thigh, and a head rolled under its body as though it had laid an egg. "Have any ideas on how to defeat it?" he asked as we switched sides and dodged truck-sized feet.
So many bodies. Even a dozen swords wouldn’t be enough to defeat it. We needed a method to deal with a large number of packed bodies simultaneously. The spark in my brain burned bright.
"Let's turn this jabberwocky into a wicker man!" I yelled at Seth. The ancient druids would surely approve if I borrowed the idea of their burning effigy. Yet again everything tied together from ancient Britons, the druid runes carved into trees and stone, and now the sacrificial victims packed into the wicker man. "Elizabeth has so kindly built us one, so let's throw a torch on it. Do we have fuel?"
Decomposing bodies didn't burn so well on their own and tended to be a bit moist. When I rode the boundaries, I carried a small flask of petrol to help them burn. The flamethrowers’ task would be made easier if we could douse the monster first.
Seth lopped another head from a dangling hand as he thought. He cast quick glances at his men and the location of the flamethrowers. "Can you last a few more minutes?"
I was puffing, but at least I wasn't cold any longer. As long as I didn't trip, I could keep buzzing around the rat king. I nodded and Seth rushed to one side, his form ringed and illuminated by a bonfire. Shadows flickered and retreated as the blazes around the cavern banished the murky half-light.
I concentrated on staying alive as I battled Goliath. The flares around the cavern died down and I prayed Seth rallied the flamethrower troops to us. A vermin broke from the shadows and rushed forward. I raised my sword, and then I realised it held up a gas can.
"Jake, I nearly took off your head." I bowled into him and we ran to the side as the leg swung down and the creature swivelled above us.
He grinned. His infectious good humour seemed permanent. "Captain said you'd need this."
"Thank you." I sheathed the sword on my back and grabbed the canister. Jake dissolved back into the fight that raged around us. This was the tricky bit. I needed two hands, which meant I would have no way to defend myself. I would have to hope my boots, trousers, and wool jacket protected me from any scratches or bites as I worked.
I was about to ascend Mount Vermin.
I took one deep breath to steady my nerves, reminded myself I was owed a delicious evening with Seth once this was all over, and then I ran.
The monster had the vestige of a tail sticking from its back. I jumped on that and used the exposed vertebrae like a ladder, climbing higher up its back. Vermin snarled and snapped as I ran, but they bit only my boots and I prayed none scratched through my trousers. My hands were likewise exposed, but I couldn't complete my task wearing gloves. I had to trust to the vermin being locked into place and unable to move.
Higher I clambered, until I reached the hump of its arched back. From my perch with its commanding view, Elizabeth caught my eye. On her platform above the fight, her hands jerked and waved in the air. Memory exploded in my head of a distant time before the war, when mother was still alive and we’d gone to the village fair. A travelling theatre troupe had kept us entertained with a special treat for the children, a puppet show.
Elizabeth controlled her vermin like a giant marionette.
We would see how she coped when her puppet burst into flames. I unscrewed the canister and found my balance on the rolling surface. Then I began tipping fuel all over the monstrosity. It dribbled through bones and bodies, coating those packed inside the skeleton.
Far below, Seth marshalled the flamethrowers and they encircled the beast, ready to move as soon as he gave the command. I edged down the jabberwocky's spine, ignoring teeth gnashing at my boots and bony fingers trying to grasp fabric. I continued to douse as far as I could reach until the can ran empty. With a shove, I wedged the canister into a gap between two meshed vermin.
All that remained was to get off the bucking critter before I smashed to the ground. It dropped its head to bellow and I took my chance and ran back up its body. I jumped on its head, now lowered to spit at the surrounding soldiers. With a silent prayer to my deceased mother's spirit for her protection, I launched myself into the air.
Thankfully I wasn't too far from the ground, and as I tumbled, strong arms caught me around the waist.
"Got you," Seth whispered against my ear. Then he yelled, "Now!"
He hauled me backwards as the units aimed their pipe nozzles at the creature and flame erupted. Some directed their fire at the legs, others aimed higher. The ribbon of petrol I’d laid ignited, and the fire raced around its body.
Like a magic trick, in a blaze of light and smoke, the jabberwocky transformed into a wicker man. The whole now contained a mass of burning bodies. I imagined ancient druids chanting as the effigy burned, their voices melded into a song that echoed over a thousand years. So close, the voice whispered from deep in my mind. We battled something far more ancient than the recent influenza pandemic. I could nearly grasp the meaning.
As the vermin burned, they screamed, an ear splitting sound that made me cringe. Was it their souls being torn from their decomposing bodies and being sent back to the other realm?
I caught my breath and tested my weight on my ankle that had crumpled as I fell. Fortunately the joint held and it was only a twinge. Now I could change my focus now we had slain Goliath. Time to confront Elizabeth.
I reached up and kissed Seth. "Time to finish this."
"I'll keep the fire burning here," he said.
The creature was well aflame now. Bones heated and popped, making spitting and hissing noises. The acrid odour of charred flesh hit my nostrils and I told my stomach contents to stay put. Wouldn't do to retch in front of the chaps when I was leading this army.
I drew my sword and angled through the throng toward Elizabeth's position. As her numbers diminished, her spiral plinth was revealed in its delicate hideousness. Bodies twisted to support her above our heads. She still sought to control her creature, waving her arms as she tried to force it to rise.
It would stagger to one leg and try to lift its head, but fire ate through its individual pieces and bit by bit, it crumbled to the cavern floor. All that remained of her mighty champion was a seething, twisted mess of burning parts. Soldiers circled, ensuring nothing escaped. Limbs caught crawling free were booted back into the bonfire. From elsewhere, soldiers carried decapitated bodies and flung them on.
I stood at the bottom of step-mother's pillar. Here was a much easier creation to destroy. The katana sang a sweet verse as one by one, I attacked the roots of her tree. The headless vermin wobbled and buckled. Even with head separated from body, they still tried to follow their queen's orders, but they sank to the ground as though made of sand and couldn't put themselves together again. Soldiers ran in, wearing thick leather gloves, and picked up the wriggling pieces to add to the main bonfire.
"No!" Elizabeth screamed and lashed out with her hands. If she waved them any faster, she might just fly. Queen bees could do that if they had to; flee the hive and start again elsewhere. But this one wasn't going to escape. Not this time.
"Kill her!" she screamed as she tumbled down, but there were no nearby vermin left intact to obey her.
Elizabeth fell to Earth. She pushed herself up on her hands, her long hair wild around her face, which twisted and distorted into a mask of true evil. No—the cool mask dropped away and revealed the ugly thing she had always been underneath.
"I will spend an eternity tearing the skin from your back." She spat each word. Spittle dropped to the ground and a blob landed on the toe of my boot.
This was my moment of victory, of cold revenge, and yet I felt hollow inside. "No, you won't. I'm not the scared child anymore, longing for her father to return from war. You are nothing to me, and you have lost this battle."
Years of torment at her hands had come to this, but I couldn't rejoice in killing her. If I smiled and laughed as I struck her head from her body, that would make me no better than her.
The vermin twisted around her, headless bodies trying to protect their queen when all they did was hinder her. Arms wrapped around her waist and held her tight and stopped her from standing. Or did they seek to stop her from fleeing? It looked as though they would drag her back down to Hell with them.
"You cannot stop us!" she screamed. Her voice cracked with hysteria and her arms batted at the limbs twisting with hers as she tried to regain her feet.
I knelt until I was so close to Elizabeth that my lips nearly grazed her skin as I whispered. "I know your secret. The mighty Lady Jeffrey is but a pawn in someone else's game. You are nothing but a puppet."
She narrowed her eyes and laughed, but I saw the sliver of fear reflected in her black gaze. "You know nothing," she said.
Once, I had dreamed of exacting revenge upon her. I had saved up years of agony and wanted to throw it all back at her. Now the moment had arrived, and I let my anger drain through my hands like sand. She had no control over me, and I wouldn't pollute my soul by relishing her final moments. "Oh, I know far more than you ever suspected. Millicent will lose, just as you have lost."
I had set these events in motion and now I brought them to an end. I rose and gripped the sword. I whispered a brief prayer to whatever God there was, asking Him to deal with Elizabeth in a manner befitting her treatment of others while on Earth.
"No!" One high-pitched cry, laced with fear. Then silence as I struck.
Elizabeth's head rolled to one side and I walked back to Seth.