Pickman’s Student: part 4

Extracts from the Personal Diaries of Dr Belinda Durham and Gloriana

30 August 2008 (continued)

Belinda

Adam and I remained at MI13 HQ after the others had left, and met the full-time MI13 operative who was going to join us as a replacement for Andy Price. He'd got into a fire-fight in the hospital grounds in Reading and injured or killed at least two Deep Ones but had been left so shaken that he had to go on sick leave. However, he was there when we met Captain Sandy Wood, who had just returned from MI13 duties in Iraq and so was available to help us. Captain Wood's unenviable job was to try to kill Blake/Ghadamon in Reading if we didn't manage to prevent the transfer from the Dreamlands. He asked us, especially Andy, detailed questions about the set up in the hospital and finally said that he needed to have video surveillance on Blake. We left in his car for Reading with a rifle and two shoulder-launched anti-tank missiles in the boot!

At the hospital we met Alec and Eliza, who had arranged for us to use a room near the intensive care unit as a base. St John had gone there to see Blake with Adrian, but the mere sight of Blake had taken him over the edge and he'd had to be taken to the Wilmarth Facility. That was a real loss.

Dr Jones, in charge of Blake, came to talk with us. The other events at the hospital – the attack on Eliza, the rapes of a nurse and a prostitute and the gun-shots in the night – had put most of the staff on edge. Dr Jones himself also appeared on the brink of collapse. He was pale and sweating and his hands occasionally trembled. He told us that Blake continued to increase in size, despite receiving no food or drink, and was now over 500 lbs. His body was massively swollen and yesterday the buboes that had developed all over him had burst to reveal a human-like head in each, that ate Blake's flesh and snapped or spat at anyone who went near. Only one nurse, Nurse Charleston, a West Indian, would go near him, and she constantly muttered Voodoo prayers. Dr Jones also did not want to see him, but currently managed to do so once each day. He planned his next inspection later today. In bizarre contrast, Penny Tilstrom remained at Blake's side, convinced that he was recovering well from his accident and would soon go home. Dr Jones thought that she should be sectioned and taken away, but since no hospital staff would go near him once Nurse Charleston had to go off duty, he pragmatically delayed this step so that there would be someone to nurse Blake.

Dr Jones left once there was nothing more to tell us. We pooled our knowledge of Deep Ones, which turned out to be more than I thought. The Deep Ones lived in colonies in the depths of the Earth's seas. Eliza was convinced that they were the source of the fairy tale about kissing a frog who would turn back into a prince. This seemed vaguely possible since their real lives began as children from, usually forced, human-Deep One unions. The children looked human at birth but slowly started to turn into Deep Ones as they reached their teens. They had had a relationship with the people of a town on a Pacific Island for centuries, but it had been wiped out and was replaced by Innsmouth on the US eastern seaboard in the nineteenth century. This was an unfortunate choice if they had wished to avoid drawing attention to themselves, and had led to the foundation of the American equivalent of MI13.

We knew that we had to go back to the Dreamlands and try to cut off the transfer of Ghadamon to the real world from that end. It had to be soon, but once there we would have the weeks Adrian needed to learn the appropriate spell from Talia's grimoire and for travelling to the site in the Underground Sea. We needed to prepare and then sleep. There was nothing constructive that I could do, so I spent the day getting some exercise and trying to relax.

I went for a long walk around the hospital grounds with Eliza, so that we were both refreshed and tired enough to sleep in the night for our work in the Dreamlands. Alec and Sandy went to Eliza's flat, with the definite aim of Sandy getting some sleep so he could remain awake to watch Blake in the night in case we failed. I learned later that they'd searched the firefight site on the way, and found spent ammunition from a light handgun which could not have come from Andy Price's gun. The way that his location put the Deep Ones into cross fire from Andy and himself gave them the idea that the person had military training. When Alec phoned MI13 with this information, he got Marmaduke who immediately wondered if it was the Americans again.

I met up with the others in the evening at Blake's flat, which we'd agreed was the best place to start our travel to the Dreamlands. The others told me that they now thought that the mystery gunman was no other than an ex-boyfriend of Eliza's, Captain James Doolittle. He'd been around all day – breaking into her flat while Sandy and Alec were there (a really bad time to choose!) and asking after her at casualty at the hospital. Eliza had handed over a picture of him so that we'd now recognise him if we ran into him. I think the plan was to try to enlist his aid against the Deep Ones, regardless of what was (or was not) going on between him and Eliza.

While we went to the Dreamlands, Sandy was going to patrol around the Reading canal and see if he could do anything about the Deep Ones that were causing such distress round the hospital. He or Alec had installed a video camera on the door into Blake's room, and he had a remote monitor for it with him, so he could check if anything happened, and then rush to the hospital if necessary. As a plan, it seemed to me to assume that we were going to be able to prevent Ghadamon arriving, since he would never have time to get from the river to the hospital to do anything useful if things happened rapidly. I rather thought that gods could move rapidly and shrug off even anti-tank rockets. Anyway, falling asleep and arriving in Celephäis went without a hitch.

Gloriana

I was Gloriana once more, back in the timeless city of Celephäis. We, of course, introduced ourselves to King Kuranes as soon as we arrived and he held a ball in our honour. Wonderfully, St John appeared at it. However his treatment was going in the Real World, it was great that we had his skills for our quest. We had to wait over a month for Adrian to read Talia's Grimoire and learn the spell we needed. I had time to mix with the nobility of the city, hear news of Alba Longa and catch up with politics and trade. I spent time practicing shooting and sparring with my rapier with Jerry. He'd now lost all interest in Friday, who had three suitors, and was taking her time about deciding which, if any, to accept. Despite time standing still in Celephäis, she looked more mature which must have been a consequence of the way we can gradually mould ourselves, as well as things, to what we want in the Dreamlands.

Adrian, Adam and Alec consulted with Ezekiel Corathan to learn more about the Fungus Forest. I knew something about the route we would have to take there, via the ghoul tunnels from Mount Ngranek in Oriab, where we had emerged last time, that would take us to the Vale of Pnath in the Fungus Forest. However, they worked out that we would have to sacrifice to the God of the Forest, Nurgal (a lion-headed man covered in sores and pustules) at an altar on the edge of the Netherworld Sea. This would give us protection from the water and Ghadamon but the length of time it would last depended on the sacrifice. Nurgal is considered evil in nature and a virgin human would be most appropriate. I know that in Alba Longa some men and women would be glad to sacrifice their lives to prevent the end of the world. However, the people Celephäis and the real world, think differently, so we decided on a goat. Later, Alec informed us that the goddess he worships, Bast, had forbidden him from taking part in any sacrifice to Nurgal. He could go with us, but could do nothing once the sacrifice was made.

As we reached the entrance to the ghoul tunnels on Mount Ngranek, I underwent an unpleasant transformation to Shoggoth and back, presumably a legacy of the change that had occurred to me the last time we were there. As the ghouls clustered round, we asked them to bring the Pearly King and Queen forward as a messenger. They eventually did so, and this ghoul guided us through the darkness to the edge of the Fungus Forest. Then, to give us a further advantage over Nurgal, Eliza, with my help, put on the dress that King Kuranes had given her that makes her irresistible to men. This time, bizarrely, Barbara was overcome by lust for her and had to be restrained by Alec.

Ezekiel sacrificed the goat and its flesh went putrid immediately, presumably a sign of Nurgal's satisfaction. Apart from Alec and Barbara, we then went into the forest that was lit by eldritch phosphorescent light from the fungal fruiting bodies that made up the forest. They ranged from vast to small, and in all styles of the fungoid. The air smelt damp and had the odours of rot and spores. As the only trained fighter in the group now that Alec's goddess had made him stay with Barbara at the altar, I walked at the front of the part as we moved in single file through the forest.

Several tried to trap or attack us and then I spotted a voonith waiting to pounce. These are vicious carnivores, about the size of a horse, that live in swamps. I'd heard of them but never seen one before and knew that they attacked the last in any group. Stepping to one side, I motioned to the others to go past, and then when it prepared to leap out at me as the last member of the party, I shot at it. This was a bad choice in the damp forest, because my gunpowder was too damp to fire. I rapidly changed to my rapier, and after several exchanges, injured it enough to drive it away. It was much larger and stronger than myself and I had to use all my skill to deter it. I did not pursue it into the swamp water.

Finally, Eliza spotted a ring of blue and yellow mushrooms that we'd been searching for. She entered it alone and talked with the goblin who appeared, the Lord of the Ring. He was wizened with sharp teeth, a cackling voice and was dressed in blue and gold. He, too, succumbed to the spell of Eliza's dress and eagerly pointed out the puff-balls we wanted. These were actually the heads of small vegetable men who screamed when they were pulled out of the ground. When Eliza asked me to cut one, I swiftly grabbed its hair to pull its neck taught and then, leaving the body in the ground, severed the head with my rapier before it could shriek. Eventually she had collected seven of them, and we followed the direction of the Lord to return to the water's edge.

We had several mishaps, along the way. Adrian, Adam and Ezekiel were distracted by a corpse candle but they came to their senses in time. Then I was grabbed by a snare plant and only escaped its tendrils through Eliza and the others pulling me away. The last and most dangerous encounter was when we came to a clearing in the forest. There were two women dressed in black, picking mushrooms, who looked like archetypal witches, their broomsticks leaning against a larger mushroom.

There was also a man, similarly well dressed in black and with jet black skin despite Caucasian features. We thought we had met him somewhere before and he said he was interested in our exploits. He gave us a message for Alec, about his daughter whom he described as ‘charming’, and gave Eliza a blue flower as a gift for him. He suggested a different route back to the sea-shore. I could not tell which would be better, but we choose his and got back to where St John and Belinda were in about half an hour.

Thankfully Eliza decided she would now change out of the dress and put the mask on. She immediately saw that there was very strong spiritual essence left round the altar and as a mist over the water. We discussed who should go down through the water to sever the connection between Blake and Ghadamon and decided that Adam and Alex should go with Adrian to protect him and aid him with the spell. They each ate one of the puff-balls and took a second as a reserve, and then got into the water. They told us that it was surprisingly warm. We waited on the shore, with the one remaining puff-ball and no way of communicating with them. We knew that we had to try to do something if they failed, and assumed that we would see something in the water to know of their success or failure. As a strategy it left something to be desired but is the best we had.

We waited and waited. Nothing at all happened. We waited some more. Then, we all started to feel good, to feel certain that everything was going well and that the end times were not coming yet. That feeling of happiness was the last I had as the others faded from my view. Then I was alone on the shore of the sea.

Belinda

I woke up in Nelson Blake's flat, all the others around me. I can remember the weeks we spent in the Dreamlands. Although many parts are indistinct, the sight, sound and smell of a voonith's teeth snapping shut next to my face is vivid. I felt happier and more at one with myself than I have been for a long time.

We discussed what happened and Adrian told us how he escaped from Ghadamon after his success with the spell by using a door to enter Blake's painting of 'Fate' and then a second door within it brought him back to the real world. Eliza awakened with the blue flower in her hand, and she gave it to Alec with the message – and he immediately looked anxious and started making phone calls. However, his concern did not completely break the feelings of success that we all had.

Finally, we found out from Sandy what happened at the hospital. He told us that while we were spending weeks in the Dreamlands, he had only a single night in Reading. As dusk fell, he encountered some revellers who were attacked by a group of Dark Ones. He was able to kill two of the Dark Ones and save the life of a man they had tried to drown on dry land. Then, after reporting that there were more Dark Ones roaming the streets, he was ordered to return to the hospital, while detachments of the army cordoned off the area around the canal on some 'national security' pretext.

In the morning he saw Dr Jones enter Blake's room on his video camera, after standing still at the door for minutes, obviously gathering his courage. He came straight back out, but with a completely different attitude. He was animated and in charge again, and he even looked happy. He called out for staff to come with him and it was obvious that things had changed in the room. After a moment, Penny came to the door, a big smile on her face. This was the confirmation we need that our actions in the Dreamworld had had an effect on Blake.

Adrian went to the hospital to see Blake and, amazingly, he was fine. He'd been moved to a different room because the bloated thing burst, and there he was, lying in the mess. Obviously all those involved in the clean-up had to be sworn to secrecy – 'a narrow escape from a classified terrorism incident' - and MI13 will have to keep a careful eye on Blake and any future paintings. All these paintings need to be put somewhere very secure to avoid others using them to cross between the real world and the Dreamlands. Inviting Adrian to join is one way to keep Blake under knowledgeable surveillance.