SHADOWS OF LONDON
SHADOWS OF LONDON
A series of images depicting interesting, odd or quirky bits of London, some are more obscure than others while many have since been smashed down. How much longer can the others survive? One or two of these locations feature in the Thaumic Triad series of paranormal urban thriller novels, while others define the time and place in which they're set. There's also a brief run through of some of the more infamous haunted houses. To finish off, there's a quick tour of the West End in the 1970s. Welcome to the shadow world of the Thaumic Triad.
(By the way, if your property should pop up on this page, please don't take offence. I was going to call this page "Wonderful old places in London" but that simply didn't have the same ring to it.)
FREE EXTRACT FROM "DEMONIC LIBERTIES"
The first adventure of the Thaumic Triad.
The Maserati roared in to Bloomsbury Square, wheels squealing as Miriam Blaine swung the car to a dramatic halt. She and Tolan leapt out, though by now he was feeling more than a little self-conscious as he ran down the street after this voluptuous woman in her kinky hot pants and boots, as if she was one of those girls from "Pan's People" on the damn telly. A distraction, she had said, well God only knew there was more than enough of those right now. It felt as though they were late to a fancy dress party, the invisible sword bouncing against his thigh beneath the raincoat.
Miriam's booted feet stomped to a halt, she drew the obsidian dagger from its sheath on her hip, aiming it at the ground before her. A flickering, pulsating glow shimmered purple and green around the dark blade.
"There! That's where Mafferdt went in - and so will we!"
Tolan realised she was pointing to a manhole cover in the pavement. Even as he looked at the concrete slabs they radiated a glow similar to the one surrounding Miriam's magical knife, the heavy covers rose up and floated away, settling gently down on the side of the road.
They stepped over and peered down into the dark hole. It didn't seem to Tolan as though it lead anywhere, but then Miriam's hands shoved into his back and he found himself plunging down into the darkness. "In you go!"
He fell into inky blackness, a stab of fear and panic killing the hysterical scream that threatened to tear from his lungs as he hurtled through the dark void, bracing himself for the
hideous bone-crunching impact that would surely await him at the bottom of this Stygian pit.
Then, a lurching sensation in his gut told him that somehow his deathly descent was slowing, that he was no longer falling but floating downwards. Seconds later, his feet touched the ground as gently as if he'd just stepped off a kerb. Tolan stumbled before catching his balance, finding himself engulfed in the dark.
A pale shaft of daylight radiated down on him, cast from the hole in the pavement far above, all but swallowed by the immersive gloom that smothered him. Tolan instinctively drew his sword, the silver blade gleaming in the faint light where he held it before him, ready to strike at any monstrosity that might suddenly lunge from the inky shroud around him.
A distant moan sighed out, a gust of warm air brushed his face. Tolan whirled, sword raised to fend off the grotesque creature that had issued the mournful howl before he realised it was the sound of a tube train from the nearby Central Line.
A shadow flickered over him, Tolan looked up to see Miriam Blaine descending towards him, gracefully floating down the length of the shaft of dim light, raven tresses billowing around her head, arms stretched out to her side. Her legs flexed to absorb the impact as she gently landed beside him, the obsidian blade still clasped in her hand.
"Levitation aura," she said simply. "Easy enough to cast over a short distance."
"A little warning would have been nice," grumbled Tolan.
"Sorry, John, but we're running out of time. I'm sensing a a huge influx of mystic potential in the immediate area. Zaevia's getting ready to use the Orb of Osiris and generate the quantum rift. She does that and it's all over."
Miriam aimed the trans-nexial blade before her. The luminous aura surrounding the obsidian dagger turned bright and silvery, lighting the way like a 100 watt light bulb. "Look there!"
Tolan peered down where she pointed at a series of footsteps in the dust. "Mafferdt's footsteps?" he asked, she nodded in reply.
"They head off this way - come on."
He followed after the witch as she lead the way through a series of darkened tunnels. Distant rumbles and sighing moans of passing trains seemed to issue from all around them. On several occasions he felt compelled to flee as a surge of terror and panic rose within him, dissipated by the charm in his pocket that Miriam had given him earlier. More of Zaevia's psychic wards and mystic defences at work, he guessed.
Miriam paused, holding the obsidian knife out before her once more. The aura surrounding it now flickered purple and crimson, casting multi-coloured hues across her features.
"Something wrong?" asked Tolan.
"I'm not sure. Several mystic power flows are converged on this spot. Talcemini's detecting a thaumic energy field, but I can't sense any hostile ... emanations. Wait a minute -"
A deafening chorus of howls and shrieks erupted through the tunnels as a blaze of emerald light flared around them. Tolan stumbled and fell, rolling through the dust.
He peered up to see Miriam enveloped in the green haze of misty light. A collection of indistinct beings seemed visible within the emerald fog; snarling, hideous faces and savage, clawed talons lashed out at her. The screams and cries echoed through the tunnels in a cascade of unearthly voices. Serpentine tentacles whipped out, wrapping around her limbs as Miriam struggled against the ghostly entities, slashing out with her mystic dagger to fend them off.
A clawed hand struck home in her chest and Miriam fell to her knees, convulsing with a gasp of agony. Tolan gave a curse from where he lay sprawled in the dust. Some mortal champion he was - just when she needs his protection, he falls arse over tit! He gathered up the sword, instincts burning fierce and true within him and Tolan charged forward.
He lashed out, Demonsbane flared with a sapphire sheen where it sliced through the swirling fog, the snarling, savage features and hideous faces breaking apart into diffuse streams of vapour that seemed to flow into the sword.
He kept up the assault as fangs and claws snapped out at him from all around, whirling to swing Demonsbane at the hideous beings, its power absorbing the ethereal creatures. Finally, the last of them broke apart in tattered plumes of green smoke that swirled and vanished into the enchanted blade, the cacophony of screams and moans reverberating into silence. Tolan turned and helped Miriam to her feet. "You alright?"
"Yes, my own stupid fault," scowled the witch, brushing herself down irritably. "Blundering into a mystic displacement field like that!"
"What were those ... those things?"
"Aetheric soul leeches. Parasitical entities that feed on the life essence of mortal beings."
"They were eating your soul?"
"They would have - if you hadn't stopped them. They originate from another plane of existence. Zaevia had them contained in a mystic force field, then concealed their presence. When I stumbled into it, the leeches attacked. Obviously, she's stepped up her defences to try and prevent anyone else chancing upon her lair. Anyway, thanks for saving my life."
"About time I did something useful. Where to now?"
Before Miriam could reply, a loud clattering rumble thundered through the tunnel. He whirled, Demonsbane held at the ready to see a flickering strobe of carriage windows flash past where a hole in the wall looked out on the tunnel beyond. Finally, the train roared off into the distance, a mechanised sigh receding in its wake. Miriam's hand lay gently on his shoulder.
"Easy, champ. That's the 8:15 to Hainault you're getting ready to take on."
Miriam held the mystic dagger up before her where it radiated the silvery nimbus, once more lighting the way. The footprints in the dust lead to the hole in the wall.
"That's where we go next," she said simply.
"Through there? You're sure?"
"It's where our demonic friend Charlie Mafferdt went. Come on ..."
They stepped up to the jagged aperture in the wall. Tolan clambered through and dropped down, taking care to avoid the rails, then helped Miriam down. The tunnel widened out around them into what was apparently a storage area, various building materials lay strewn around.
"This has to be where the platform for the old station must have been," mused Miriam, gazing round at the tiled, curved walls lined with dirt and grime.
Tolan turned and peered down the track where the lights of Holborn station shone brightly. The red tail lights of the tube train that had rattled past a few moments ago moved off as it headed down the line towards the next station. What was it now? St.Pauls? Chancery Lane? One or the other ...
Even as he pondered the question another angry rumble issued, this one more violent and noisy. Plumes of dust and dirt rained down, the walls and floor throbbed and shivered as though a bloody earthquake was under way. But it was no natural phenomenon, of that he was certain.
The air seethed and squirmed around him, making his skin tingle. Giddy sensations oozed through his brain, as though the very space around him were being stretched and distorted. He and Miriam stumbled and staggered off-balance, clutching hold of each other. A strange, warbling growl quavered and undulated on the fringes of his consciousness, as though the neighbours next door were playing Dr.Who sound effects at full volume.
He clasped Miriam's arm and yelled in baffled awe. "Jesus! Is ... is that what I think it is?!"
Miriam's face was pale and taut, her features dismayed yet still so beautiful. "We're too late! Zaevia's called on the power of the Triad to charge the Orb of Osiris! She's opening the way between the worlds! In the process, she'll destroy this one!"
"There has to be something we can do to stop her!"
Miriam held up the trans-nexial blade, its pulsating aura flaring gold and purple. "Talcemini's honed in on the energy emissions! It'll lead us directly to the source - hold on!"
She flung her arm out, a dazzling beam was spat from the obsidian dagger, erupting on the wall in a colossal blast that showered chunks of brick and shattered tiles in all directions. Tolan coughed and choked on the clouds of dust and smoke that wafted down the tunnel, the cascade of strange, unearthly noises now joined by a tinnitus whine in his ears where the deafening explosion had been amplified by the tunnel's acoustics. Miriam grabbed his arm, her voice seemed to resonate directly in his head.
"Come on, John! We have to move!"
Tolan pulled himself together, clasping hold of Demonsbane he staggered after Miriam where she raced into the dense fog bank of dust and smoke, picking her way over chunks of rubble scattered in the gloom of the tunnel. They clambered through the immense hole she had blasted in the wall, emerging in a vast chamber that almost certainly wasn't designed by any architect hired by London Transport.
He found himself in yet another immense temple with high, cavernous ceilings, this one filled with a dazzling glare of silvery light emanating from what could only be the Orb of Osiris where it rested on a tall altar, the jade globe radiating a magnesium blaze. Two figures loomed before it, a beautiful black woman, stark naked, on her knees before Zaevia Eissengardt, now clad in some bizarre red costume that looked as though it was one of Jane Fonda's cast offs from Barbarella.
The witch held the same kind of magic knife that Miriam carried, poised ready to stab it into the black woman's heart, who he guessed to be Miriam's friend, Gemira Cordell. Three more figures loomed to his right. He recognised the mage Thaddeus Niemon and the purple skinned monstrosity that was the demon Astoreth, who seemed strangely subdued, clad improbably in a pair of tight-fitting tracksuit bottoms.
But terrifying as the creature was, Tolan's attention was caught by the third man where George Fennick drew his gun and took aim. He heard Miriam's voice issue with urbane calm.
"Sorry we're a bit late, but you know how it is trying to find somewhere to park. Haven't missed anything, have we?"
Then Fennick squeezed off three shots in quick succession. Tolan was about to yell out, but Miriam was ready, the trans-nexial blade held out before her where it issued a bright flare. Three blue-white globules of light erupted in front of her, radiating a series of rippling auras that swiftly faded where the bullets vaporised.
The next instant, Fennick's body flashed multi-coloured strobes, the energy blast hurling him through the air into the far wall where he fell to the floor and lay still.
Zaevia merely gave an amused shrug, her voice growling out in that ridiculous Bavarian accent she used. "Is nice to see you again, Miriam. But please, don't be casting your magicks at my people. Is most upsetting way to carry on."
"I'm not here for a damned lesson in etiquette, Zaevia. I'm here to stop you."
"Come now, dahlink, we both know that wont be happening. Think of consequences to your dear friend Gemira, here."
The naked black woman rose to her feet, standing blank faced beside Zaevia. Tolan could make out the burn marks scorched into her flesh, the complex runes of a domination brand holding her helpless.
"You're going to kill her anyway," said Miriam coldly. "Using her life essence to boost the power of the Orb and generate a quantum rift, isn't that the plan? You'll kill us all, don't you realise that?! The forces you unleash down here will blow the whole damned world apart!"
"We've had this discussion before, I'm not about to go over it all again. You and your stupid policeman friend are too late. Don't make this more painful than it has to be."
"There's far more at stake here than just her life - or mine!" scowled Miriam.
"True - but sentiment was always your weakness, honey."
"Then maybe you don't know me as well as you think!"
Miriam aimed her mystic dagger. The obsidian blade crackled then issued a luminous ball of blue light that radiated shimmering energies as it streaked towards Zaevia. The crimson tressed witch brought up her own trans-nexial blade, a flare of bright light erupted, the bolt swerved from its course and struck Gemira. A dazzling aura flared around her body as she convulsed then fell to the floor.
"Now look what you've done!" smirked Zaevia.
The obsidian dagger flared in her hand, a searing beam of light blazed towards Miriam. Before he even had a chance to think what he was doing, Tolan was already in motion, leaping in front of his magical lover, the sword raised before him.
The beam struck the silver blade with a brilliant flare that swiftly faded as Demonsbane absorbed the mystic energies.
A brief, shocked pause followed, then all at once Tolan knew what he had to do. Clasping his sword, he charged at the rogue witch, Miriam's cry loud in his ears.
"John - don't!"
Heedless of her plea, Tolan ran towards Zaevia, a fierce, angry need to be rid of this bloody woman once and for all burning through him. Zaevia brought her free hand up, fingers curled in a casting semeiotic. A luminous sphere leapt from her fingertips, Tolan swing Demonsbane across, swatting at the ball of light as though he were some demented cricketer.
Once more the sword of power soaked up the mystic forces, discharging a harmless flare of incandescent light as it did so. With a sense of triumph surging through him, Tolan raced on, brandishing the sword again as the witch unleashed another mystic bolt, only for Demonsbane to once more absorb the fearsome energies.
Then, he was on her, stabbing the long silver blade into Zaevia's gut. Yet the steel did not pierce her flesh, rather it seemed to turn intangible, penetrating her body as though she were some disembodied ghost. For a moment, Tolan thought it was another of her magic tricks, that he was attacking some kind of phantom decoy image conjured up by Zaevia.
Tolan felt the sword shiver and vibrate in his grasp. Some innate sense told him the blade turned incorporeal when it strikes its mortal victims. A surge of thaumic energy blazed through the mystic weapon as it attempted to absorb the magical forces suffusing Zaevia's being. Yet so great was the torrent of power coursing through the blade, no mortal could hope to withstand them.
A flare of light erupted, an intense blaze of agony shrieked through Tolan's nervous system like an electric current. With a cry he found himself flying through the air, a shuddering impact slamming through him as he crashed down onto the floor. Tolan rolled over, gasping for breath, struggling to cling onto consciousness, Zaevia's voice ringing out from far away.
"Don't just stand there on the side-lines, Astoreth. Time you lent a hand, I think."
Tolan's eyes blinked into focus, he shook his dazed head, peering at the sword of Demonsbane lying several yards away on the floor where it had been flung from his grasp, wisps of vapour undulating from the hot blade.
A series of heavy footsteps pounded out, shuddering through the floor around him. Tolan looked up to where Astoreth's purple flesh gleamed in the harsh, stark light that radiated through the chamber, twin horns curling out from the creature's monstrous visage. The domination rune on the monster's chest glowed bright crimson as it issued a furious roar.
Shit! Without the bloody sword, he didn't stand a chance! The fucking thing would tear him apart like a soggy paper bag! Tolan scrambled to his feet, but the demon was already charging towards him like a rhinoceros! He had the uncomfortable knowledge of how a rabbit must feel when caught in the headlights of a huge lorry bearing down upon it.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
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