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Act 21, Bimini

The Swallow sailed across placid waters, one moment a tropical storm, the next a village pond.

"Bail her out. What are you waiting for, whoresons? A personal invitation from King Neptune?" The boatswain's voice rang across the ship.

"Has anyone seen the master?" William said.

"He's not here," said Lucy. "I couldn't save both of you. I had to choose." The girl began to sob, quietly.

William took her in his arms. "He was a sea dog, Lucy, and a good age. He wouldn't retire. I think he wanted it to end this way, rather than on land among strangers. Now, I must check the ship over."

William walked down onto the main deck to confer with the boatswain. "The master's gone. You will have to take over his sailing responsibilities. I will navigate. Get me a foremast rigged as soon as possible."

"Aye, aye sir." The boatswain nodded towards Lucy. "She's a little cracker, isn't she? The men reckon she's like a good-luck token. They believe that we can't lose as long as she is with us. I think they're right. How does she do that singing trick?"

"I wish I knew. It astonishes me how the sea grew civil at her song. She's upset over losing the master. She thinks she should have saved him."

"She saved the ship and all our arses today," said the boatswain. "I have heard of witches who could whistle up a wind but never one who can sing the sea to sleep."

"Is that what the men think she is, a witch? I am worried that they might take against her."

"What, the lady? Of course they think she's a witch, the captain's white witch. I have heard no complaint of her. If I had then I would have dealt with it." The boatswain closed his fingers making an impressive fist. "The men have seen you together. They know where the lady's affection's lie."

"Put up the mast, boatswain," William said, stiffly. "I needs must comfort Lady Dennys."

"Aye, aye, sir," said the boatswain, grinning.

Women aboard ships, William thought, were very bad for discipline, although possibly good for morale, especially the captain's.

He made his way back to Lucy, who was talking to Simon. "I hope the storm did not push us too far off course or your hard-won longitude reading will be for nothing," William interrupted their conversation.

"We don't need to navigate now, Captain. I know the course for Bimini. The island is over there." Lucy pointed.

"And how do you know that, milady," asked William.

"The magical attack came from Bimini. Lilith can smell the island."

"Does that mean Isabella has already reached the island?" asked Simon.

"Not necessarily," said Lucy. "She could have used the island's magic from a distance."

"Are we safe for the moment or do we face another attack?" asked William.

"Lilith thinks that Isabella has shot her bolt for the moment. We are probably safe for a while, now that we are in the Other World," said Lucy.

"What?" asked Simon.

"Other World!" said William, simultaneously.

"I am afraid my defensive spell wasn't entirely successful. That last attack squeezed us out of the world," Lucy said, cheerfully. "But we would have had to come here anyway to find Bimini, so maybe Isabella did us a favour. By your leave, gentlemen."

Lucy curtseyed to the men and paraded off. She was clearly delighted to have caused such a sensation.

"What speed are we making?" asked William, trying to get a grip on something tangible.

"I estimate four and a half knots," said the boatswain. "Sorry, sir. It's the best speed we can make with the rigged foremast."

"We've lost our lead, haven't we?" asked Simon.

"I suspect so. Hell's teeth! We came so close, Master Tunstall." William punched his fist into the rail.

Simon pulled back the sleeve on the captain's shirt. Five purple bruises marked where Lucy had grasped it. "I expected to see that," said Simon. "Look where she gripped the rail."

William ran his fingers over the wood. There were deep indentations that were just the size of Lucy's hand.

"So do we turn back and admit defeat?" asked Simon.

"I just don't know," William said. "This is not a tactical situation that I have faced before. If we go on, and Isabella gets to the magical source first." He spread his hands, expressively. "We may confront dangers that we can't cope with, even with Lucy's help. However, if we turn back, we may give Isabella the chance to launch another magical attack across the water, one that sinks us this time. It is probably safer to head straight for the island at our best speed."

"There is another consideration," said Simon. "According to Lady Dennys, this is the Other World. How do we get home if we just sail away? Doctor Dee told us that Bimini Island has a portal that we could use to go home. I suppose that this is the Other World. It all looks so normal."

Simon gestured at the blue sky above them

"Do you think so?" asked William, pointing over the side. The Swallow had been sailing through a swarm of jellyfish for some time. There was nothing unusual in that as such, except that these jellyfish had humanlike eyes on top of their canopies, eyes that watched the ship as it sailed past. Simon grimaced.

"Aye. I must warn the crew not to do any fishing. It's salted meat from the hold to eat from now on," said William. He came to a decision. "We go on. All our courses are fraught with danger so we might as well choose the one with some chance of success, however small. Have faith, Master Tunstall. We have our own pocket-sized secret weapon on board."

* * *

The Swallow steered into a bay of Bimini Island, following Lilith's guidance. The island was low and covered with rich tropical growth, quite unlike the rest of the Bahamas. A small Native American city was visible just behind the beach. It was badly overgrown with luxuriant foliage but roofs and cleared areas were still visible.

"No sign of a ship," Simon said. "Do you think we have got here before Isabella?"

"Possibly," said William. "But look over there." A thin column of smoke rose from the jungle into the air. "The Bahamas are supposed to be uninhabited. This island clearly isn't. Boatswain, get the shore party organised. Break open the guns, I want everyone heavily armed."

Boats ferried the assault force to the shore. William chose to take both the gunner and boatswain with him, as he thought it unlikely that the Swallow would come under military attack. They had not seen another ship since entering the Other World.

The island was hot and humid even by the standards of the Americas. The fetid smell of rotten vegetation hung heavily in the air, which was alive with the buzzing of insects.

"So, Lady Dennys, which way do we go?" asked William, when they had all disembarked.

Lucy ignored him. She seemed distracted. "Lucy, are you all right?" asked William

"Yes, I'm fine," said Lucy. "It's just that the magic sounds like a screaming child in my brain. The source lies within the city."

They made their way through the jungle. A paved path ran towards the flat-roofed buildings.

"I wonder what keeps the jungle back from the path," said Simon. "It would require heavy use to keep it free but there is little sign of people or large animals."

"I suspect all sorts of irrational things happen here," said Lucy. "Magical power streams out of the city. Have you seen the butterflies?"

"What about the butterflies?" asked Simon.

"Some of them have three pairs of wings."

The first building that they chanced upon was almost concealed by the jungle. It was white-walled and square. An orange-red band, about one foot wide, ran around the base and a similar band circled the house in green at the top. Peculiar red slabs were positioned in a line along the edge of the roof. One had fallen off and dug into the earth. William examined it closely. It was made of an opaque, crystalline mineral. Blunt tools, probably of stone, had been used to roughly shape the slab.

As they went deeper into the city, the plant life thinned out and the buildings emerged clearly. Some structures still had doors barring entry, while in others gaps opened into dim interiors. None of the men felt moved to explore. Lucy silently pointed to the left or right, guiding them through the streets. The route took them ever closer to the rising column of smoke. Eventually, she stopped at a compound surrounded by a high wall of white and red-flecked stone.

"The magic comes from in there," Lucy said. "Something is happening. The power is building up."

William flipped a mental coin. "Follow the wall to the right."

They turned the corner and came upon a heavy set of wooden doors, with a life-sized statue each side. The boatswain detailed several men to put their shoulder to them. The wood gave but an inch before locking against a retaining plank.

"Hurry, we must hurry," Lucy said, suddenly. "Isabella is opening a portal."

The men did not understand the implications of her comments but her urgency and fear came across clearly, so they redoubled their efforts to break down the doors.

"This is no good." The boatswain turned around. He pointed to one of the statues. "Use that."

The sailors upended the stone and charged the doors, using it as a battering ram. The first blow splintered the wood. Something cracked on the other side but the doors still stood. The sailors backed up and ran at the doors again.

Lilith detected all kinds of gravitonic anomalies from the swirling energy mass on the other side of the wall. 'Help them Lucy,' she thought. 'They will never get that door down in time.'

Lucy reached up and pushed hard on the statue as the sailors charged past. This time the doors smashed off their hinges. It happened so fast that the sailors failed to notice the girl's intervention. The sailors flooded into a large rectangular enclosure.

To Lilith, the inside reeked of the heavy energy fields that protected the structure from the decay of time. The interior walls were still brightly white above waist height. Below this they were painted in an emerald green. The floor was lined with coloured stones in a zigzag pattern of dull orange and pale green. Nothing grew on it. The jungle was forbidden to intrude here.

The broken doors were on one of the shorter edges of a rectangle. A low platform of white stone stood at the other end of the precinct, some fifty yards away, with steps leading up from the floor. A square one-story temple with a flat roof stood on this base. The bottom half was the same brick red as the outer walls but the upper half was a flat white that glared in the tropical sun. Panels of pale blue stone were inset. Peculiar ornamental crenulations lined the edge of the roof. These battlements were made of green bricks so arranged as to be straight on one side but in three steps on the other.

A large open rectangular doorway led into the building. Two white pillars supported a long red lintel stone. Isabella stood in front of the temple behind a natural extrusion of crystal that speared out of the floor. Deep blue waves shimmered within the mineral. Isabella's arms were raised in supplication. Her Italian mercenaries flanked her and formed a protective screen in front on the steps.

Isabella spoke in a voice that cut across the precinct. "Lady Dennys! I should have known it was you as soon as the doors burst in. You just don't take a hint when you are not wanted, do you?"

"What in hell is that?" William pointed over Lucy's shoulder to the middle of the courtyard. Hell was right. A large spinning black vortex hung in the air in front of the Spanish witch. Flashes of lightning flickered from the circumference of the circle and disappeared into the centre. The optical effect was of a deep tunnel but that was impossible, as the vortex was a paper-thin flat disc.

"We are too late," Lucy said, dully. "Isabella's got the portal open."

A dot appeared in the middle of the vortex. It grew in size until it could be seen as a figure. It continued to grow like an object approaching at high speed, from a long way off. The figure appeared in the courtyard. It did not step out of the portal or drop but just was there.

The demon stood three yards high on two scaly legs. Its body was held horizontal but a snakelike head reared up on a long curved neck, balanced by a muscular tail. The body and arms of the monster were covered in coloured feathers, giving the appearance of a giant bird. But this monster had two long arms ending in hooked claws. It raised its foot and made a raking gesture at the men with three taloned toes, like a bird of prey. The demon was definitely unfriendly. One of the sailors sobbed and dropped his boarding pike.

Lilith examined the creature carefully. She reached out with her mind to explore the beast and the portal. The demon felt her and opened its mouth, revealing rows of dagger-shaped teeth. It hissed in annoyance at her probe.

Simon whispered behind Lucy's back, "Topiltzin Quezalcoatl. Our Lord of the Feathered Serpent."

"What?" asked William.

"The Aztec worshiped a feathered serpent called Quezalcoatl. Their legends say he departed overseas into the rising sun to find his own land." Simon paused. "Mayhap this is his place."

'Lilith,' thought Lucy. "Is that demon as dangerous as it looks?'

'Your physiological reactions are an appropriate response to confrontation with such an organism,' thought Lilith, who tended to get pompous when rattled.

'What?'

'It's dangerous.'

A second demon appeared beside the first, then a third.

'Can we fight the demons, Lilith? Can we beat them?'

'I don't think so, Lucy. That portal goes deep into the Shadow Worlds, deeper than I imagined was possible,' thought Lilith. 'The very physical laws of the universe are likely to be different where those monsters live. I am surprised that they can exist here at all.'

'Maybe magic protects them.'

'Oh, of course,' thought Lilith. 'The energy from the crystal creates a bubble universe around them. The monsters will vanish if we destroy the crystal.'

'So all we have to do is kill the demons, fight through the mercenaries and Isabella, and destroy the crystal. Then the dead demons will cease to be a problem,' thought Lucy, dryly.

Lilith ignored her. 'There might be something I can do. I might degrade the information in Isabella's control channels by spraying gravitons at her.'

'Right,' thought Lucy. 'Degrade control channels, right.'

A fourth demon appeared. The vortex began to throb and purple blotches spun in whirls around its centre but the demon arrived safely. Isabella waved her arms and chanted frantically.

'I think that I have found the right spin for the particles,' thought Lilith.

A fifth demon sped out of the nowhere of the vortex, towards them. The purple blobs multiplied and split into blue and red whirls. The throbbing vortex collapsed with a crash and a smell like a lightning strike. A scaly head and feathered arm bounced onto the zigzag floor leaving a slimy green trail. The rest of the monster disappeared back into the vortex as it closed. The demons hissed their anger at Isabella.

'Isabella's lost control of the portal,' thought Lilith, smugly.

"See! The demons can be killed. Cut them and they bleed and die, just like anything else," William called out to the sailors, trying to boost morale and stave off panic.

The demons screamed at the men, showing their teeth. Isabella laughed and sneered at Lucy.

William drew his cutlass and raised it over his head to signal a charge. Several of the men fired their weapons. The demons did not appear to notice.

'Stop them, Lucy,' thought Lilith. 'They don't stand a chance.'

"No!" yelled Lucy. Once she had William's attention, she continued in a lower voice. "The men can't fight these things. You will all be killed."

'I have been running some simulations. The sailors will be run down and slaughtered one by one if we all retreat together. You and I might get away but they have no chance. The result is the same if we all attack, only quicker.' Lilith paused.

'I don't like those choices, Lilith. Give me another,' the girl thought.

'There is a third way. We get the men to retreat back to the boat while we attack to pin the demons in place. Back in the last Shadow World, I looked up some files in an interesting place called the Sandhurst Military Academy computer. They had this whole section on what they called Target Rich Environments. A lone fighter can use her enemies' size and numbers against them.'

'I get the idea. On our own we can hit anything that moves but the demons will get in each other's way,' thought Lucy. 'We still won't win though, will we?'

'No. I am afraid we can't win but we can tie them down long enough to save the men. However, my assessment of male behaviour is that they will insist on dying with us. Ridiculous, but there it is.'

'Leave the men to me,' thought Lucy. 'I will do what women always do in these situations.'

'What's that, Lucy?'

'I will lie to them for their own good,' thought the girl.

The conversation with Liliith had taken little more than an eye blink of time.

"William," said Lucy, turning to him. "This battle is unwinnable. I suggest we retreat back to the ship to fight another day. I will make a demonstration and occupy them long enough for you to get the men away. Then I will flee and join you at the ship."

"I like this not," said William.

Lucy looked at him with big innocent eyes devoid of any hint of duplicity. "I am the weapon, Captain. Remember your promise to use me when the time came. Well, the time is upon us." Lucy grabbed William and gave him a long lover's kiss. "Don't worry about me. I'll run these demons round in circles, then join you," she whispered.

Gwilym made to follow her. "Not this time, bodyguard, speed is my defence now. This time you stay with the other men," Lucy said. He fell back reluctantly.

The girl turned her back on the men and walked towards the monsters drawing her blade. Internal communication between Lucy and Liliith happened at superhuman speeds. Lucy had become used to long discussion occurring between one footfall and the next so she thought to have one last conversation with her friend.

'Tell me something, Lilith,' thought Lucy. 'When I die, will you really die with me?'

'I am afraid so, Lucy. I will stay with you to the end.'

'How long would you have lived if you had stayed in your own sphere?' thought the girl.

'Ah. It's a bit difficult to explain in your terms, but I suppose you would say forever. Barring accidents, I would have lived forever.'

'Oh,' Lucy was crestfallen. 'I'm sorry, Lilith.'

'Don't be, Lucy. I have lived more in the last few months than I would have in a lifetime with the People. It's a privilege to die with you.'

Lucy said nothing but Lilith detected a strong emotional reaction. Lucy paused for a long time. 'You know, Lilith, I always thought I would die in childbirth. I was very frightened of that. Still it's not a problem now.'

'Oh it never was a problem, Lucy,' Lilith thought. 'I could easily have prevented you conceiving.'

Lilith detected a flood of neural activity. 'Now you tell me. Did you not think to mention this earlier?' thought Lucy.

'No,' thought Lilith. 'I didn't think it was important.'

'I don't suppose you did, Lilith. Well, it's not important now. We have demons to fight.'

'I have set up some simulations.'

'Simulations?' thought Lucy

'Dreams, Lucy, astrological predictions of what the future could be. I want you to watch them.'

'Oh, models! Why didn't you say.' As Lucy walked forward towards the feathered serpents, Lilith ran simulation after simulation in her head. In every one, the girl lost the fight and was ripped to pieces by the demons.

'Enough, Lilith, enough, so I am going to die.'

'Please, Lucy. There is a point to this. Now, watch what happens when I increase the power running through your body.'

Lucy watched the simulations despite herself. After each run, Lilith incrementally turned up the gain until the girl did massive damage to the serpents. But Lucy started to die of exhaustion after fewer and fewer minutes.

'I calculate there is an optimum power level where we have a seventeen point three percent chance of winning before your body burns out,' thought Lilith.

'Seventeen point three percent? That sounds good Lilith. What's a percent?'

Lilith started to explain.

'Never mind,' thought Lucy. 'Turn the power up and I can win but you may kill me anyway.' Lucy paused for a moment. 'Come on, Lilith. Let's do it.'

Lilith dropped out of Lucy's conscious mind, to avoid distracting her, but seamlessly melded into the girl's body as she strode forward. Barely a second had elapsed in real time.

"She means to buy us time with her life so that we can flee." William slapped the side of his breeches in irritation. "I daren't risk ordering a charge. We probably would just get in her way." He stood at the head of his men on one side of the ancient courtyard near the entrance facing Isabella and her mercenaries on the opposite side, some thirty-five yards away. The demons, and now Lucy, stood between them.

William came to a decision. He turned and yelled out, "Boatswain!"

"Sir."

"Lady Dennys is going to fight the demons. The minute she gets into trouble we charge."

"Sir!" said the boatswain. "You hear that, whoresons? We fight the minute the lady falters."

William turned. Lucy stood about twenty yards from the line of monsters. Her head was up and her arms were outstretched. Her hair rippled as if in a wind but the air was still. Her skin shone and blue lightning crawled down her dagger blade.

"Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand. Numbers 22:3.

1," the gunner said. He added simply, "Angels shine."

William had not realised that the gunner was religious. It was funny what one never knew about people.

The feathered serpents stood in a line in front of her. If snakes could be said to look nervous then they were nervous. Four huge demons from hell stood and hesitated at the sight of a sixteen-year-old girl. William thought she looked like a fairy princess. He had never loved her more.

Lucy attacked without warning. In four steps, she accelerated up to an incredible speed. She ran straight for the centre of the demons' line. The serpents dipped their heads to meet her.

The girl gave a skip, hit the ground with both feet and jumped.

Lucy flew.

The jump was impossible. She soared, somersaulting over the creatures' heads. The demon on her immediate right lifted its head to snap at her and her glowing blade flashed against the bright sky. A scaly head hit the ground with a thud. Green fluid poured from its severed neck. The monster's body stood for a moment, as if deciding whether it was truly dead, before folding in on itself. It looked like a giant chicken settling on a nest.

The Swallows gave a roar of approval that shook the enclosure.

"Angels fly," the gunner said, reverently.

Lucy landed on both feet and used a forward roll to absorb the impact before springing upright. The girl had so much momentum that she skipped sideways for two paces before stopping. The monsters turned and rushed her.

She ran back in at them, fearlessly. Lucy feinted with a sprint to the right, before veering left and throwing herself at the demon on her far left, which was somewhat separated from its fellows. It reared up to catch her in midjump, but this time she dived in low to the ground. The demon lifted a leg and clawed at her. Lucy caught a talon on her left hand and deflected it. The energy spun her round but she slashed at the back of the demon's leg as she fell, severing the tendon.

The feathered serpent gave a terrible fluting cry as its leg collapsed. The long neck struck out at Lucy. She skipped out of the way to avoid daggerlike teeth.

Isabella screamed instructions at the demons. The two undamaged monsters were on Lucy immediately. The first to reach her struck with its long neck, like a snake. The girl deflected the huge head with her blade, slashing it across the monster's face. The demon seemed barely to notice and clawed at her now unprotected body with a claw-tipped arm.

Lucy flung herself backwards. She tripped and fell to the ground losing her knife, its glow fading as soon as it left her hand. The second monster jumped on top of her like a hawk on a field mouse. It stamped its feet, trying to crush the small body underneath. Lucy twisted and turned desperately on the ground, to avoid the hooked talons. The monster gave her no chance to find her feet. The girl was helpless.

William's sword came up and his mouth opened to order a charge.

Both demons thrust their necks down at her. Giant wedge-shaped heads with dagger teeth reached for her—and clashed. The demons shook their heads in an almost humanlike way and glared at each other. Demon One took a chunk out of demon Two's shoulder. Demon Two hissed in anger, and raked its claws across Demon One's snout. And then they had at each other, green in fang and claw.

The demons hissed and spat like a nest of cobras. Lucy rolled clear of the melee, retrieving her dagger. She slipped away, as the demons squabbled like a pair of drunken wherrymen. Lucy ran clear of the two combatants towards the crippled serpent. The creature tried to drag itself upright but its leg failed again.

Isabella screamed and gesticulated at the fighting demons using the strange click language. They reluctantly disengaged and looked around for Lucy.

The girl took a stance in front of the wounded demon. When it didn't respond, she moved in closer and slashed it across the snout with her blade. The angry serpent hissed at her and shot its head out, jaws gaping. Lucy spun on one foot, moving her body out of the line of the strike. The wedge-shaped head slid harmlessly along her back.

Lucy kept turning raising the dagger over her head and bringing up her left hand to double her grip. She brought the blade down in a powerful two-handed slash across the demon's neck. There was a thud like a heavy axe biting into a tree, a flash of energy from the knife, and the neck parted, spewing green slime. The head wriggled on the ground and snapped its jaws, trying to get at the girl. Eventually, a glaze settled over the yellow eyes and it stilled.

The Swallows cheered until the temple precinct shook. Hoorahs broke out again as Lucy saluted them with her blade. One or two of the Italian mercenaries cheered as well, forgetting which side they were supposed to be on. Isabella quelled them with a look.

"By God, that's two down. The lady fights like Drake himself," said the boatswain.

The remaining demons lumbered towards her. Lucy took off in a flat run away from them. Her path took her across the line of Isabella's mercenaries. Up to now, they had taken no part in the proceedings, content simply to obey their last instruction, which was to protect their employer. Isabella, the sorceress, had obviously pinned all her hopes of victory on her demons, dismissing the mundane force at her disposal. Now that they had drawn attention to themselves. The Spanish witch screamed a command and some of the soldiers raised their crossbows and pointed them at Lucy, but the officer at the front countermanded the order, forcing his men to lower their weapons.

Lucy ran like in great loping strides with elbows in and weapon held wide away from the body. The lumbering, feathered demons built up to a fast clip and gained on the girl.

When she reached the wall of the enclosure, she leapt up the sheer face. Grasping the top to steady herself, she landed on two feet. There she waited for the enemy, knife in hand. The monsters braked in front of her and split up to come at her from two sides. They had learned caution. Lucy Dennys had taught them caution with the edge of her blade.

A serpent struck at Lucy and she smacked its head away with a parry; the blade rang against six-inch fangs.

"That will give the bugger a toothache," said the boatswain, with grim satisfaction.

The next monster raked at Lucy's legs with one arm and she leapt upwards, lifting her legs as the claws slid below her. Landing on the narrow wall perfectly balanced, she slashed at the monster's neck, forcing it to spring back. Lucy took the opportunity to renew her attack on the first demon.

A voice from the past came into William's head. "The keys to power are women and horses and fire and steel, and the strongest of them all are women." His father had been fond of quoting that to his young son. At the time, he had not understood, as women were weak and feeble things. By God, he understood now.

And so it went on. Lucy parried, thrust, and slashed, running and jumping along the top of the narrow wall. William could discern her strategy. Height protected her from the hawklike talons on the monster's legs but it also restricted her movements. Lucy was dealing out blows but none of them were lethal. Wounds only seemed to anger the monsters.

The lethal steps continued. Simon remembered Lucy dancing the haute dance at the Tower, the lavolta. Lucy and the demons danced a vicious lavolta, where the slightest misstep could cost her life. The demons only had to get it right once. Lucy had to get it right every time.

A monster overstretched its head in a lunge at the girl and her blade came up. The feathered serpent was wary of the weapon and jerked its neck back. The blade threat was a ruse. Lucy kicked the serpent under the chin. Unbalanced, it tumbled away from the wall.

Its partner turned, with an incredulous expression, to watch its compatriot fall. Lucy jumped on top of the wedge-shaped head. She reversed her dagger so it pointed downwards and thrust down, ferociously. The weapon skewered deep between the monster's eyes.

The beast reared in its death agony. Lucy was thrown violently across the precinct. She landed badly. The girl climbed to her feet slowly. The last serpent raced towards her undeterred by the fate of its colleagues. It hit her in a whirlwind of teeth, claws and taloned feet. Lucy slapped each challenge away with her blade but the girl was almost entirely defensive now. She was visibly faltering.

William raised his sword high and looped it round his head to attract the men's attention. The demon caught Lucy with a vicious blow that spun her to the ground. Blood splashed across her tunic.

"England, Elizabeth, and Saint George!" William launched himself across the precinct.

The demons were terrifying but the Swallows were Elizabeth's sea dogs. They feared nothing that walked the earth or sailed the seas, because they had never met anything more frightening than themselves. As one man, they charged after their captain.

William heard a few battle cries of "Lucy, Lucy," in amongst the rest. The monster stood over her. Its head whipped from side to side confused by the roar of the charging sailors. Lucy lifted herself on one hand, and in a single fluid motion pushed the glowing dagger deep into the demon's bowels. Then the girl collapsed.

The demon whistled a fluting wail of anguish. It snapped at the wound. Yellow eyes with vertically slit pupils focussed on Lucy's still form. The demon raised its taloned foot to crush her.

The sailors hit the beast first, forcing it back. Billmen jabbed at it with the points of their weapons, and made slashing cuts with the bills' cruel hooks. The monster seemed more confused than hurt by the men's attentions. A sailor got too close and was crushed between snapping jaws. He died so fast that he didn't even scream. Then the rest of the sailors swarmed around the beast. Their weapons cut ribbons of flesh off the serpent but it did not seem to notice.

"It's dragging its left side. Lucy has hurt it. Maybe we can wear it down," said William. A crossbow bolt whipped past him and buried itself in a sailor's chest. Isabella's mercenaries had joined the mayhem.

At that point the gunner entered the fray. He was no longer a young man and the heavy object at his side slowed him down. He carried a boarding gun, built to his own design by a gunsmith in Plymouth. Five barrels were linked to a single trigger. The gunner himself had loaded each barrel with the finest ground powder and the truest balls.

He bided his time and then thrust the muzzles of the gun under the chin of the beast as it chopped another sailor in half. He pulled the trigger and the pampered weapon repaid his loving care by firing every barrel. Not a single misfire. Balls smashed through the creature's neck but the real damage was done by the blast. Super-heated air and burning powder melted the demon's flesh like snow in the sun.

"Guns will stop anything," said the gunner.

The monster's head dangled off its neck by a strip of flesh. It was in a bad way now, stumbling around while the sailors chopped at it like soldier ants around a scorpion. It still managed to deal the gunner a clout, knocking him down. The boatswain grabbed a halberd from a sailor and hacked repeatedly at the demon's damaged neck, until the flesh parted. It took a little while for the separated bits to accept the fact, but gradually the demon died.

Lilith worked frantically to repair Lucy's metabolism. The magical energy leaking from the crystal to help her stabilise the girl and restore her abilities. 'Lucy, can you get up? We have to find, Isabella, before she works more magic.'

'I feel sick,' thought Lucy. 'How come we're still alive?'

'Our men deceived you,' thought Lilith. 'Instead of retreating, they charged the last demon. Obviously, you failed to convince them.'

'How dare they disbelieve me,' thought Lucy, indignantly.

'You were lying,' Lilith reminded her.

'That's not the point,' thought Lucy.

Lilith was losing track of what the point was. 'We have to find Isabella and stop her. She will be by the crystal.'

Lucy retrieved her blade and climbed to her feet. She came face to face with an Italian mercenary, who thrust his sword at her in reflex.

"Ragazza da sogno," he said, gallantly, pulling his sword back and kissing the blade, "bella ragazza."

'What?' thought Lucy, who did not speak Italian.

'He says that you are his dream girl and very beautiful,' thought Lilith.

"Galente, senor," she replied, in Spanish.

The man smiled and blowing her a kiss, disappeared into the fighting. Lucy moved though the battle, which flowed around her. Men turned aside to let her pass.

Simon found himself duelling with a mercenary demiarmoured in helmet and breastplate. The man thrust at him with a sword. Simon sidestepped deftly and carefully ran the Italian through the throat. All round him men hacked and slashed at each other. The mercenaries were well armed and armoured but the sailors ripped through them.

A man cut at his head. Simon ducked and slashed back in reflex. He hit something but had no idea what damage, if any, that he had inflicted. The eddies of the fight swirled him away too quickly. Where was Lucy? Simon thought that she had fallen nearby but could not see her. This was the first battle he had ever been in. It was nothing like the classical descriptions of warfare. All was noise and confusion. He had no idea who was winning.

A huge punch in the back forced him to his knees. Whatever it was had failed to penetrate his armour as he was still alive. Simon forgot all pretence of being a gentleman trained in the higher arts of duelling. He jabbed and slashed at anything that tried to stop him.

A mercenary stumbled into him. The man thrust at him with short pike. Simon parried the blow. The mercenary drew back for another thrust. A loud clang rang out and the mercenary went down on his knees, losing his helmet. A sailor came out of nowhere and smashed the Italian a second time over the head with a wooden club. The seaman grinned at Simon toothlessly. There was a thud and the sailor slipped forward over his victim silently. A crossbow bolt protruded from his back.

Lucy spotted Isabella by the crystal outcrop. She threaded her way through the fighting men. Isabella stood in a patch of calm among the battle.

Isabella chanted something and waved her arms.

"You look like a demented windmill, madam. Have you no sense of dignity?" asked Lucy.

"You turn up here in my special place dressed like a sailor's trollop, knock down doors, and start waving a knife around, and you talk to me of dignity?" asked Isabella. "But at least you have brought a ship with you. That will be useful. I had to sink mine when the cowards tried to flee after I went ashore."

'That was why there was no second attack on the Swallow,' thought Lucy. 'She preferred to use her power for revenge.'

"My own commander of mercenaries refused to shoot you down like you deserve," said Isabella, spitefully. "I will deal with him after I have finished you off."

'She is a vengeful woman,' thought Lilith. 'I doubt she is entirely sane.'

"Nothing to say, Lady Dennys?" said Isabella. "Last time we met, I said that you had a surplus of energy but you have lost most of it now, haven't you?"

Isabella made one last pass with her hands. Her body glowed with energy. She spread her arms and a bubble of energy spread out from her pushing the soldiers and sailors. Lucy and the Spanish witch stood inside their own private duelling ground.

Isabella pulled a sword from a sheath inside her petticoats and assumed a duelling position. The sword glowed silver, static electricity flickering in blue crackles up and down the blade.

'Oh dear,' thought Lilith. 'We are rather power-drained, Lucy. This might be a problem. I shouldn't energise your body again so soon.'

'Really!' thought Lucy. 'Shall I ask her for an adjournment? I suggest you do something rapidly, demon, as that bitch means to skewer us.'

Lilith pumped power back into the girl.

Isabella made a straight thrust at Lucy's chest. The girl parried it and stepped back to maintain distance. Isabella continued to attack, testing the girl's defence with high, low, left, and right lunges. Lucy was forced back. The girl could not get close enough to counterattack. As soon as she closed, Isabella cut at her, forcing her to parry and back away. Lucy was soon panting hard and the energy running through her body began to flicker.

Isabella grinned. "What, no merry quip or little homily, Lady Dennys? I think that you are just a frightened little girl who now realises that she was acting above her station."

'You need to finish this quickly, Lucy. We are running out of power,' Lilith said.

'What do you suggest, demon? That sword completely outreaches my dagger.' Lucy parried another lunge. 'All right, I have a cunning plan, God help me.'

Isabella made a couple of halfhearted cuts to the girl's head. Lucy knocked them away with her blade. Then, Isabella lunged straight for Lucy's neck; this was a serious attack and the witch was fully committed. Lucy turned, deflecting the sword fractionally with her blade so that it missed her by inches. Then she stepped in towards Isabella, continuing the spin until her dagger struck at Isabella's side. The blade touched the glowing shield that surrounded Isabella—and it erupted in a flash of energy.

On paper, the battle between the soldiers and the sailors was a foregone conclusion. Men who were disciplined, experienced, heavily armed and clad in demiarmour, outnumbered the Swallows. The sailors wore no armour and carried a variety of weapons, some quite primitive in function. And yet, it was the mercenaries who gave ground before the ferocity of the sailors. It was the mercenaries who were clubbed, stabbed, and cut. It was the mercenaries who fell and died. The Swallows showed why Elizabeth's sea dogs were the terror of the northern ocean.

The cry went up, "Cediamo," and "Arresti il combattimento."

None of this meant much to the English who continued to attack the soldiers until the mercenary officer yelled in English, "Quarter. We yield. We ask quarter."

The officer stood in front of William holding out his sword hilt. A battle-mad sailor tried to run the officer through but William pushed the man away.

"Cease fighting. Give them quarter," yelled William.

A sailor ignored his captain and cut the throat of a wounded mercenary.

"Boatswain! Hang the next man who disobeys my order. I'll have some discipline out of these whoresons." William would do it too, and they knew it.

William took the sword from the Italian officer but he offered it back, hilt first. "I accept your surrender, sir, but you fought well. Please retain your weapon."

The man would need his sword to maintain authority amongst his own soldiers. It was in William's interests for the officer to keep the surrendered mercenaries in line.

The man bowed. "And to whom do I have the honour of addressing, sir?"

"I am Captain William Hawkins of the Swallow. The Swallow is part of the battle fleet of John Hawkins, my cousin."

The Italian officer cheered up. To surrender to an unknown heretic pirate would have been a disgrace that might have been the end of the mercenary's career. But William was a cousin of Admiral Hawkins, which therefore made him a relative of the great Francis Drake himself. To have crossed swords with a cousin of El Draco and lived, even if you did have to surrender to him, was positively career enhancing.

"Tell me something, sir," said William. "Why did you prevent your men shooting at our champion, the Lady Dennys? I saw you countermand the Lady Isabella's order."

The officer turned his mouth down in elaborate distaste. "My men and I signed up for Spanish service to get rich, serve God, and kill heretics." At this point the officer made a small shrug of apology to William. The captain waved a hand to show that he understood, as one professional to another.

"We gave no oaths to serve alongside demons or to shoot girls in the back," continued the officer.

"Whatever your motives, sir, you bought quarter for your men with that act of chivalry."

"And where is the maid?" asked the mercenary.

Oh God, thought William, where is she?

At that moment, a flash of light lit up the precinct and knocked the Italian over. "What in the name of the seven seas?" said William. He ran towards the explosion. Lucy was facedown on the ground. William knelt beside her and checked her neck. He couldn't find a pulse, nor did she seem to be breathing. "Come on, Lucy. Breathe for me." He tried the trick of blowing into her mouth but this time she didn't respond. He held her, tears streaming down his cheeks.

"William," said Simon, putting his hand on the captain's shoulder.

"She's dead, Simon," said William.

There was a cough. Isabella was on her knees, head bent forward. A discarded sword lay in front of her. William gently put Lucy down, picked up the weapon, and held it against Isabella's neck.

"You evil papist witch. You finally got her. You waited until she was exhausted from killing four demons and then you murdered her." William drew the sword back. This was how they had executed Ann Boleyn.

Simon went to intervene but Gwilym grabbed him. "Let the captain finish it. If Hawkins doesn't kill her, I will."

William hesitated, sword back ready to strike. He had killed many times in battle and had once hung a sailor but he had never killed a woman before. Then he had a thought.

"Lilith! Lilith can take Lucy to a safe place and shut her body down. That's what she did in the River Crouch. Lilith needed air to bring her back to life." William dropped the sword and cradled Lucy's body. "What do you need, Lilith? It's not air is it? What do you need this time to bring her back? Show me a sign."

Lucy still held her dagger gripped in her hand. It began to glow, just like it had in the river estuary. "The blade," said William. "Lucy's blade is the key. What do I do with it, Lilith?" The light from the dagger dimmed and went out. "What do I do, Lilith?" pleaded William.

"Lilith can't have enough power to keep the blade glowing," said Simon.

"Power! That's it, Lilith is out of power!" William said. "Where can we get power for a demon?"

The crystal rocks thrust from the ground nearby. William pointed. "There! There is a source of great power."

William carried Lucy reverently over to the rock formation. He put his large hand tightly around her small one, the one that gripped John Dee's dagger. Then he thrust the blade hard into the crystal and the world turned blue-white. A flash seared his eyes. He had the brief impression of falling until something hit him so hard on the chest that he couldn't breath. Then the blackness came.

The sun seared William's eyes, making him shut them tighter. The light levels lowered again as something shaded him so he opened his eyes again. William took a little time to focus on Lucy's face.

"What happened?" he asked. He noticed that his voice was croaking.

Lucy pointed to where crystal shards littered the ground. "You destroyed it when you thrust my blade in, releasing its energy. Lilith used the power to rebuild me, but you must have guessed she would do that. The flash of power hit you hard. You have been in a swoon for some little time."

"Where is Isabella? I still have business with her." William's voice hardened.

"Isabella was older than she appeared, William—much, much older." Lucy said. "The crystal was a fountain of youth, of sorts, and Isabella had clearly taken of it. When you destroyed the crystal, she reverted to her true age. She did not survive the conversion." Lucy shuddered.

William sat up; the movement making his head spin, causing Lucy to steady him. There was something missing. "Lucy, where's the city?"

"It's gone," she said. "The jungle has disappeared as well. Bimini is just another uninhabited Bahaman island. We are back here in the real world. We can go home, to England."

William opened his mouth to ask another question but she touched his lips.

"Shush," she said, pushing him flat on his back. "You need nurturing and I propose to start now."

She lowered her face to his and kissed him. She kissed him and kissed him and kissed him.

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