“Oh yes,” I said. “When we’ve all finished killing each other, the monsters will still remain. Listen.”
From far off in the distance came the sound of living things as big as houses, moving slowly and dragging themselves through the purple twilight. Enormous silhouettes appeared briefly upon the broken horizon, and something far too huge went stalking between the nearby buildings, tottering on great stilt-like legs, pulling down stonework where it brushed against decaying structures. Something impossibly large rose suddenly, blocking off our view of the horizon. It made a series of loud, wet, sucking noises, and lurched towards us.
“You’d better do something about that,” I said. “It sounds hungry.”
Oberon and Titania and Mab raised their hands and chanted together, and immediately a shimmering protective circle rose, spreading out to fill all the open space round us. A pale blue-white glare from the screens replaced the bruised purple, and the advancing shape slammed to a halt, some distance from the shimmering screen. It stayed where it was, utterly still, watching from the shadows. It gave the impression that it could wait forever, or at least until the screen went down. Out in the darkness, other great shapes were heading our way, attracted by the light.
“Nice work,” I said to the elves. “You see what you can do, when you work together? I do love these simple life lessons. Of course, the screens won’t last. Nothing lasts, here. And there are things out there that can break through anything, eventually.”
Even as I spoke, a great dark shape slammed up against the shield, on our blind side. What details of the thing I could see made no sense at all. All the shapes were monsters, things left behind because they were too big to be killed by anything except each other. More of them came forward, slapping and grating against the shimmering fields, desperate to get in, to get at us. Driven by many appetites, of which hunger was only one. They wanted to do awful things to us, simply because we were sane and normal and alive. Because we made them remember when the world was not as it had become.
I didn’t have to tell any of the others this. They could feel it. I could see it in their faces.
“This is what the world will look like,” I said, “when all the wars are over and done with. This is what you would inherit after your civil war, Your Elven Majesties. But this is only one possible future, one possible Earth. There are many others, a whole infinity of possibilities. Tell them, Arthur.”
King Arthur had to swallow hard before he could speak, but when he finally did, his voice was calm and reasonable.
“I can offer you another Earth, a new Earth, where Man and Elf never happened. A whole new start, for all the elves. Why fight over our Earth, already overrun by Man and his civilisation, and risk ending up in this future, when you could move to this new world I offer, and never have to see Humanity again? It is a wild fine place I offer you, rich with beasts and birds and possibilities. You could flourish there.”
Oberon and Titania nodded slowly. “For all that elves do love a feud and delight in slaughter, in the name of honour ... the needs of the race come first. We are suffocating at Shadows Fall, and it is known to us that the elves are dying out in the Sundered Lands. There is something in us that is bound to the Earth and will not let us thrive anywhere else. We will forgo our ancient enmity and make peace among our kind, in return for a new Earth. What say you, Mab?”
We all looked at her. She smiled slowly. “You tore me from my Throne and threw me down into Hell. I had to claw my way back, through many sacrifices. You expect me to forget all that?”
“Yes,” said Titania. “In the name of the race. Mab, in this new world ... there could be children again.”
“I will not give up my hate,” said Mab. “It’s all I have.”
“Still clinging to the past, Mab?” said Titania. “That always was your failing. That’s why you lost the war against Humanity and why we had to replace you. Because you cared nothing for the future.”
“Because you never got over what happened in the past,” said Oberon. “Will you risk the continuation of our race over the memory of one dead man?”
“He loved me! He truly loved me!” Mab towered over us, radiant with rage. “The only one who ever did; and the elves killed him for it. Let them all suffer, as I have suffered.”
“You could have children again, on this new Earth,” said Titania. “Have you forgotten how sweet it is, to bear a child?”
“I would sacrifice any elf that ever was, or might be, before I will give up my righteous anger,” said Mab. “Nothing else matters.”
“All this, for revenge?” said Oberon.
“For honour!” Mab sneered at him openly. “I am the last of the first-born elves. All who came after were smaller things, with smaller emotions. You were never worthy of us. Let the war come. Those who survive will have been made pure again, through blood and sacrifice. And I will rule them.”
“And risk this?” said Arthur, gesturing around him. “What point could there be in winning if all you inherit is this?”
“I will do what I will do,” said Queen Mab. “Nothing else matters.”
“There was a time when something else mattered,” said a cheerful, bright, and jaunty voice. “When someone else mattered, sweetest Mab.”
We all looked round sharply at the new voice, and there, striding towards us, was a tall well-built young man, wrapped in a heavy bearskin cloak and simple cloth leggings. He had a broad, open face and an infectious smile, and a shock of red hair under a traditional Scottish cap. He came forward to join us, grinning widely, and Mab ... let out a single low, shocked sound. Arthur started forward, and Kae stopped him with a hand on his arm.
“Is this your doing?” Suzie whispered in my ear. I shook my head.
“Dear sweet God,” said Arthur. “How can this be? Tam ... Tam O’Shanter, as ever was. You died even before I did. Has some dear magic brought you back, too?”
Tam O’Shanter laughed happily, his eyes fixed on Queen Mab. He stopped before her, cocked his head slightly to one side, and planted both fists on his hips. He looked so alive, so full of life, ready to take on the whole world and bend it to his wishes, for the fun of it.
“Why, this is the land of the dead. Where else should I be? I was needed, so here I am, to see my sweet Mab again. Ah, my bonny lass, how fine you look. Even if I did have to stand on a stool to kiss you, in the old days. It is your need that brings me here, sweet lass, to this dark place. Are you still so mad at all who live because I died, and left you alone? Poor Mab, we could never have had long together, no matter how things worked out. Because it is the fate of every man to grow old and die, and you are an elf. That’s why our love was forbidden, among Men and elves.”
“I would have found a way,” said Mab. “I would have kept you with me forever. I will never stop hating and hurting the world that took you from me.”
“Then hold me, my love,” said Tam O’Shanter. “Hold me as you once did, when the world was young, and so were we.”
He stepped forward and opened his arms, and Mab stepped into them without hesitation, and hugged him fiercely to her. For the first time, she looked happy. She kept on smiling, even when Tam’s hand came up with a long knife in it, slid it smoothly between her ribs, and twisted it. Golden blood ran down her side, but she never made a sound. She hung on to him, her eyes closed. He pulled the blade out, and golden blood coursed down her side and spattered on the ground. And then, as though only the blade had been holding her up, she fell suddenly to her knees. Still clinging to her dead love. Her head fell forward on his chest, and he patted her hair fondly before pushing her away from him. Queen Mab fell awkwardly to the ground and lay still. Tam O’Shanter looked down at her, the bloody knife still in his hand. And then he put aside the glamour he’d worn and was himself again.