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Changeling

Harry Keogh, Necroscope, didn’t know Darcy Clarke’s ditty, but he did have a flea on his back Several, in fact And they were biting him

Geoffrey Paxton was only one and probably the least of them, but because he was reachable and ihtened of Paxton, rather of what hecontrol ht conceivably do to him, to the Necroscope himself He kne easy it would be to betray hier an innocent but that so, certainly) Darkness had entered hi for, Harry knew: proof that the Necroscope was no longer a fit citizen or habitant of Earth - no longer, indeed, a man, not entirely - but an alien creature and a monstrous threat And when he knew it for sure, when there was no longer any doubt, then Paxton would report that fact and there would be war Harry Keogh versus The Rest The rest of Mankind And that was the last thing Harry wanted, to be at odds with a world and its peoples which he had fought so long and so hard to keep safe

Paxton, then, was a flea on Harry’s back, a niggle at the edge of - atte its way deeper into - his mind, an irritation And because Paxton’s presence was representative of an even greater threat, which e the Necroscope’s very existence, it was so Harry could well do without For to the Wae may only be written in blood!

Waling in the core of his being, an awareness of passions beyond the feeble, fuy contained - but barely - in his seething blood It was a chain-reaction which was happening to him even nohose catalyst was blood And in itself it, too, was a challenge But one which he must resist, which he must not, dare not answer Not if he desired to remain ascendant and for the most part human

A flea, then, this Paxton An invader ould stick his proboscis in that most private and inviolable of all huhts A spy, a thought-thief- a parasite come to sup on Harry’s secrets - a flea But only one flea of several, and not one whose bites he could afford to scratch

Another unbearable itch was the fact that the dead -the Great Majority of mankind, who yet lay apart from and unknowable to h - ithdrawing froht a change in the them ed him beyond their means to repay, and many more who had loved him for his own sake, to whoht in an otherwise everlasting darkness, but even these ary of him now For when he had been sientle - why, then it had been athat he could touch the dead and they touch him! But all of that was yesterday

And now that he was s which even dead men fear, and limits to what even they will lie still for

Since the destruction of Janos Ferenczy and his works, Harry had been busy Other than the constant irritation of Geoffrey Paxton the only intrusion he’d allowed - the single distraction from his purpose, because he had no control over it - was the knowledge that a necroland It distracted him because Penny Sanderson was now his friend (his ward, even?) and because he was privy to what she and others like her had gone through

Of the fact that the forces of law and order would track down and apprehend Penny’s torturer, murderer, and then violator eventually, Harry had little doubt; but they would never charge hie of his offences, because they had no yardstick by which toa full range of offences, not in this case And certainly there was no punishment which would fit the crime Not in law

But the Necroscope fully understood the nature of this beast and his crient Even before his contamination he’d had that It was a flame which had been sparked in him by the murder of his oeet mother, and which burned just as lively to this day An eye for an eye

As to what Harry had been doing since re the last of the Ferenczys forever from the world of hts in his M&ouht back Trevor Jordan’s ashes froht have so with Harry to talk to), but not even Jordan had suspected Harry’s real purpose

By themselves, however, the essential salts of a man were insufficient to put Harry’s plan into action, not and achieve the entirely satisfactory result which he sought Which hy, before reducing further the ruins of Janos Ferenczy’s castle, the Necroscope had removed from them certain chemical substances by means of which Janos had performed his own monstrous brand of necroence, Harry knew: the Thracian warrior-king Bodrogk and his wife Sofia, whose world had lain two thousand years in the past, had been happy to collapse in each other’s arms and return to dust (a merciful release for them, who had prayed for it so often) But what of the much more recently dead?

Like Trevor Jordan, for instance?

The answer ht seem easy: why not ask hi of all ’I intend to return you to life I have the apparatus but I’m not one hundred per cent sure of the system It worked perfectly well for another, but he had the advantage of oes well you will be as you were; except, well you’ll recall that you did put a bullet through your brain I’m not entirely sure how that will affect you If when I call you up fro fucking idiot then, however reluctantly, I’ll be obliged to put you down again Now, provided you’re perfectly happy with all of this

Or, in Penny Sanderson’s case: ’Penny, I think I can bring you back But if I get theit could be that you’ll not be as lovely as you were I mean, your skin and features could be imperfect, or bles I called up in the Castle Ferenczy were quite monstrous; there were depletions, inconsistencies, er, anoo wrong But of course we’ll always be able to try again, later, ith a bit of luck I’ll get it right’

No, he couldn’t tell theave them the bare bones of the matter they’d require him to flesh it out, and if he elaborated they’d fret about every smallest detail And from now until the actual - resurrection? - they’dshivers of excitement with shudders of terror h mountains of hope, only to tumble back into black lakes of deepest despair and depression

’I have a shot which ive you AIDS’

That was hoould feel to Harry, if the roles were reversed; but at the same time he knew that of course it wasn’t like that: when you’re dead you’re beyond hope, and so any hope has to be better than none Or does it? Or was that si to i for him?

Orperhaps he hesitated for another, farwhich warned him that with his small talents (small, yes, in the scale of a universe or parallel multiverses) he must not, dare not, usurp one of the Greater Talents of that Other who which Janos had been a latecomer, had dared it, and where were they now? Had there been avenging angels before Harry, to put right the wrongs of these wizards? And if so, would there be one after him, to chastise hi a vaht How dare he seek out Penny’s murderer to punish him on the one hand, and on the other pursue the practice of that saears were already engaged, the wheels even now turning Perhaps the Necroscope had already gone too far, disturbing the delicate balance between Good and Evil to such an extent that it now required radical readjustment Had he simply become too powerful, which is to say corrupt? How did the old saying go: ’Absolute power corrupts absolutely’? Ridiculous! Was God Himself corrupt? No, for the maxims of uments were endless in the metamorphosis of the Necroscope’s ht he was hts were clear he knew that he was nothis perceptions along with everything else

And then he would remember how he used to be, determine that he must always be that way, and know that he hesitated only out of consideration for his friends a the dead It was sionies of protracted uncertainty, only to let theh, as had been made perfectly plain by Janos’s many Thracian thralls in the bowels of the Castle Ferenczy

As for God: if there was such a One (and Harry had never been sure) then the Necroscope supposed he ly While he could

Harry had spent a good deal of his ti, not least with himself If a subject took his fancy - alames with himself to the point of distraction and delirium: a sort of mentaloff; in conversations with the dead he was equally arguht and he rong

Indeed, he seeue for the sake of it, out of sheer contrariness He thought and argued about God; also about good and evil, about science, pseudoscience and sorcery, their siuities Space, time and space-time fascinated him, and especially ic The very changelessness of maths was a constant joy and relief to the Necroscope’s changelingbody

Within a day or two of returning from the Greek islands he had used the instantaneousand see (speak to) August Ferdinand M&ourave M&oureat enius had saved Harry’s life on several occasions, again through the medium of his Möbius Continuu Möbius was to thank hi with hireat man had happened to mention that his next project would be to measure space, and as soon as the Necroscope heard this he threw hiuht and the Multiverses’

Won’t ’Universe’ suffice? Möbius had wanted to know

’Not at all,’ Harry had answered, ’because we know there are parallels I’ve visited one, remember?’ (And East German students with their notebooks had wondered at this peculiarto himself)

Very well then, let’s concentrate on the one we know best, M&ouical about it This one

’You’ll measure it?’

I propose to

’But since it’s constantly expanding, hoill you go about it?’

I shall stand at its outer, transfer h the universe to the far ri measure the distance between Then I shall transfer myself instantaneously back here and perforain an hour after that

’Good!’ Harry had answered ’Butto what purpose?’

(A sigh) Why, from that time forward - and whenever I require to know it - a correct calculation of the size of the universe will be instantly available!

Harry had stayed grudgingly silent for a ht,’ he said ’Though purely on the theoretical level, because the physicalquantity seems rather fruitless to , how and to what degree the age of the universe is tied to its rate of expansion - a constant, incidentally - and so forth, see’

(An astonished pause) Oh, indeed! And Harry had al in a frown across the bridge of his nose ’You’ have thought about it, have you? Theoretically, you say? And ht I inquire as to ’your’ conclusions?

’You want to know all about space, tiht and the multiverses?’

If you’ve the ti in his sarcasm

To which the Necroscope had answered: ’Your initialthe size of the universe - and not only this one, incidentally, but all the parallels, too - at any given e and rate of expansion, which will be uniform for all of them’

Explain

’Now the theory,’ said Harry ’In the beginning there was nothing Caht! Possibly it shone out of the Möbius Continuu Bang But it was the beginning of the universe of light Before the light there was nothing, and after it there was a universe expanding at the speed of lightr

Eh?

’Do you disagree?’

The universe was expanding at the speed of light?

’Actually, at twice the speed of light,’ said Harry ’That was the essence of your problem, remeht in space and a pair of observers 186,000 ht one second later, because the light expands in both directions Now, do you disagree?’

Of course not! The Priht, must have expanded just as you say But the universe?

’At the sa at that speed’

Explain And , no universe’

Agreed

’Does anything travel faster than light?’

No - yes! We can, but only in the M&ouht is likewise instantaneous

’Now think!’ said Harry The Pri on all frontiers at a constant speed of 186,000lie beyond those frontiers? And I do ?’

Of course not, because in the physical universe nothing travels faster than light

’Exactly! Wherefore light defines the extent - the size -of the universe! That’s why I called it the universe of light A forree?’

M&ou scrawled on the screen of Harry’s e of the universe is equal to its radius divided by the speed of light And after a ree

’Hah!’ said Harry ’It’s hard to get a decent argu these days Everyone cries uncle’

M&oury He had never seen Harry like this before Certainly the Necroscope’s instinctive ht, but where was Harry’s huot into him? Perhaps Möbius should let hi hi or two

And time? And the multiverses?

But Harry had been ready for him: ’The space-tie as any and all of the parallels - is cone-shaped, the point of the cone being the Big Bang/Pri its current boundary or dia errors, still M&oued to answer, eventually Feasible, logical, but not necessarily correct

’Grant me feasible,’ said Harry ’And then tell , since the universe is contained within it

’Wrong! The parallels are cone-shaped, too, born at the sa from the same source!’

Möbius had pictured it But then each cone is in contact with a number of other cones Is there evidence of this?

’Black holes,’ said Harry at once, ’which juggle withact They suck matter out of universes which are too heavy, into universes which are too light White holes are, of course, the other ends of the black holes In space-time such holes are the lines of contact between cones, but in space they are si,) ’ - holes’

Möbius was tired, but: Cones are circular in cross-section, he’d argued Put three together and you get a triangular shape between thereement ’Grey holes There’s one at the bottoround river in Roument, if there had been one to win in the first place For the fact was he’d only argued for the sake of it and neither knew nor cared if he was right or wrong

But M&ouht or wrong either

Another tiain his principal reason for going to see hireat Greek mystic and mathematician had been of soain the visit had ended in argurave at Metapontum, or if not there then at Crotona in southern Italy But all he found was a follower or two until, by pure chance, he stuotten, 2,480-year-old toorean Brotherhood on the Island of Chios There was no oats ate thistles not fifty yards frooras? No, not here, that one informed, in a hushed and very secretive manner, when Harry’s dead-speak broke into his centuried thoughts He is elsewhere, waiting out his time