Robert McCammon - Mister Slaughter

She nodded, staring at the box.

"God creates all," McCaggers said, his spectacles reflecting red. "And all suits God's purpose. What then, is this?"

He raised the velvet lid, and both Berry and Matthew saw what was inside as McCaggers tilted the box toward them.

It was an ugly piece of dark brown wood, curved and scored and about five inches long, that came to a bladelike point.

"Hm," Matthew said, with a lift of his eyebrows that betrayed his amusement at McCaggers' folly. "Very interesting."

"And of course, by that tone of voice, you tell me you have no idea what you're looking at. Berry, would you care to guess what this is?"

Greathouse had put aside the pistol and come nearer. He offered his comment without being asked. "A tent stake, I'd say. Wouldn't care to stake my tent on it in a windstorm, though."

"I'll tell you where this was found," McCaggers said, as he drew a finger along the item's length. "Are you familiar with the bell pits of Somerset?"

"The coalfield? Yes, I know that area."

McCaggers nodded. He picked the item up and held it before them. "This was found sixty feet underground, in the wall of a bell pit near Nettlebridge. It's a tooth."

There was a span of silence, which after a few seconds was broken by Greathouse's rude guffaw. "A tooth! Sixty feet under? In a coalmine?"

"That's correct. I know a tooth when I see one, Mr. Greathouse. This is very old. A thousand years? Five thousand? Who can say? But you're missing the larger picture, so to speak."

"Which is?"

Berry answered, in a quiet voice: "The size of the tooth. f-from one tooth-you speculate the size of the jaw and then the head "

"Correct," the coroner said. "It must have belonged to what I can only say would have been " He hesitated, and fixed his gaze on the vicious point. "A monster," he finished.

"A monster!" Greathouse laughed again, but this time it didn't have the same force or conviction. "Where do you keep your rum barrel up here?"

"From what I understand," McCaggers continued, "the Somerset miners occasionally bring up bones that none of the locals can identify as being from any animal anyone's ever seen. They're considered to be ill omens, and so they're disposed of however one would dispose of such things. This tooth escaped destruction. Would you care to hold it?" He offered it toward Greathouse, who in spite of his courage in all things swords or fistic seemed to blanch a bit and recoiled from the gift.

Matthew found himself stepping forward. He opened his hand and McCaggers placed the tooth in his palm. It was as heavy as a stone of that size might be, yet it was surely no stone. Matthew could see serrations along one edge that might still do damage to flesh.

Berry pressed against his shoulder, peering at the object, and Matthew made no move to widen the distance between them.

"A dragon's tooth," Berry said at last, the sound of both excitement and awe in her voice. "That's what it must be. Yes?" She looked at McCaggers for confirmation.

"Some might say that. Those who believe in dragons, I mean."

"What else could it be, then?"

"A dragon-if such existed outside mythology-might be considered to conquer its enemies with fire. This creature was a killer made to tear away huge pieces of meat. A supreme carnivore. You see the edge on that tooth? A masterpiece of form and function. Do you have any idea what a jaw full of those could do to say a side of beef?"

"Dragons! Carnivores!" Greathouse had recovered his wits and his color. "This is nonsense, McCaggers! I mean no disrespect, but I think your grandfather has passed along something from a scoundrel's workshop!"

McCaggers regarded him somberly and then took the object from Matthew's palm. "That may well be," he said as he returned it to the velvet box, "but then again perhaps it's evidence of what God told Job."

Greathouse frowned. "What are you on about now?"

"God spoke to Job," McCaggers said, "from the whirlwind. He told Job about the behemoth and the leviathan.

Unimaginable creatures of size and power. He told Job to gird up his loins like a man, and face what was to come. He said, I will demand of thee ." McCaggers saw that none of this was getting through to Greathouse. "Don't you know your Bible?"

"I know the part that says if men respect me, I'll respect them. Is there anything else?"

McCaggers pointedly ignored him, focusing his attention to Matthew and Berry. "This may be a tooth from behemoth, or from leviathan. As I said before, it's a mystery without an answer."

"Maybe they know the answer by now." Greathouse motioned upward, where the coroner's angels watched with hollow sockets. "Too bad you have to die before you find out."

"Yes, that is unfortunate," McCaggers agreed, and closed the lid of his red velvet box. Then he spoke directly to Berry. "I thought you might enjoy seeing it, from the viewpoint of both a teacher and a person who obviously appreciates the art of function. Just as the bones of a human skeleton are all formed for specific tasks, so was this tooth. Whatever the creature was that possessed it, you can be sure the animal was formed for the function of both destruction and survival. My further question is what was in God's will to create such a monster?" As he knew no reply could be forthcoming, he turned away once more, took the box back to the chest-of-drawers and deposited it where it had been.

"About Zed," Greathouse prompted. Beyond McCaggers, the slave had returned to his task of cleaning the instruments and seemed not to care a fig about anything else.

"I appreciate your experiment with him," McCaggers said as he strolled back to them. "I understand and share your opinion about his talents, that he shouldn't be-as you've stated-wasted in the duty of moving corpses about. I had no idea of his obviously valuable heritage. I also find it quite interesting and very remarkable that you wish to buy him from me and go about the process of gaining a writ of manumission for him from Lord Cornbury."

"First things first. I'd like Miss Grigsby to observe him for a few days and tell me if she thinks he can be trained." Greathouse caught himself, and his mouth twisted as if he'd tasted some bad liver. "I mean to say, taught."

McCaggers gave a thin smile. "Of course he can be taught. He's very intelligent, as a matter of fact. He quickly understands instructions, as you yourself found out last night. I have to say, I don't know to what extent he can be taught, but simple tasks are no problem for him."

"Does he know very much English?" Berry asked, watching Zed work.

"He knows enough to carry out his job. I think he had some knowledge of English before he arrived at the auction block. It's somewhat difficult to know precisely, as of course he can't speak." McCaggers looked at Greathouse and narrowed his eyes behind his spectacles. "Before we go any further, sir, I should tell you that there is a problem. As I do appreciate and respect your offer, I'm afraid it's not possible."

"Not possible? Why? I'd be willing to pay-"

"Not enough," McCaggers interrupted. "Simply because I don't own Zed outright." Greathouse was taken aback, and glanced at Matthew for support. "You mean someone else owns him?" Matthew asked.

"When Zed came up for auction, you can be sure I wasn't the only bidder, and that I quickly came to the bottom of my pocket. One of the predominant bidders was Gerritt van Kowenhoven."

A wealthy shipbuilder, Matthew knew, who owned one of the mansions atop Golden Hill. The man was in his seventies, had been through three wives and had the reputation of being both a skinflint and a backbreaking taskmaster. But, for all that, his ships were majesties of grace and speed. "He wanted Zed for his shipyard," McCaggers went on. "I happened to know that van Kowenhoven has not been able to buy something he devoutly desires. Due to the fact that he's wrangled famously with every mayor we've had, and proclaimed his shipyard to still be part of the States of Holland."