Abarat 2
Days of Magic, Nights of War
Clive Barker
For my mother,Joan
I dreamed I spoke in another’s language,
I dreamed I lived in another’s skin,
I dreamed I was my own beloved,
I dreamed I was a tiger’s kin.
I dreamed that Eden lived inside me,
And when I breathed a garden came,
I dreamed I knew all of Creation,
I dreamed I knew the Creator’s name.
I dreamed—and this dream was the finest—
That all I dreamed was real and true,
And we would live in joy forever,
You in me, and me in you.
C.B.
Cover Page
Title Page Abarat 2 Days of Magic, Nights of War Clive Barker
Dedication For my mother,Joan
Epigraph I dreamed I spoke in another’s language, I dreamed I lived in another’s skin, I dreamed I was my own beloved, I dreamed I was a tiger’s kin. I dreamed that Eden lived inside me, And when I breathed a garden came, I dreamed I knew all of Creation, I dreamed I knew the Creator’s name. I dreamed—and this dream was the finest— That all I dreamed was real and true, And we would live in joy forever, You in me, and me in you. C.B.
PROLOGUE HUNGER
PART ONE FREAKS, FOOLS AND FUGITIVES
1 PORTRAIT OF GIRL AND GESHRAT
2 WHAT THERE IS TO SEE
3 ON THE PARROTO PARROTO
4 THE SCAVENGERS
5 THE SPEAKING OF A WORD
6 TWO CONVERSATIONS
7 SOMETHING OF BABILONIUM
8 A LIFE IN THE THEATRE
9 AGAIN, THE CRISS-CROSS MAN
10 “THE FREAKS ARE OUT! THE FREAKS ARE OUT!”
PART TWO THINGS NEGLECTED, THINGS FORGOTTEN
11 TRAVELING NORTH
12 DARKNESS AND ANTICIPATION
13 THE SACBROOD
14 LAMENT (THE MUNKEE’S TALE)
15 THE PURSUER
16 THE WUNDERKAMMEN
17 THE STAR-STRIKER
18 DEPARTURE
19 LIFE AND DEATH IN CHICKENTOWN
20 MALINGO ALONE
21 NIGHT CONVERSATIONS
22 A DEATH SENTENCE
23 DREAMER TO DREAMER
24 HUSBAND AND WIFE
25 FATES
26 KASPAR IS VISITED
27 ABDUCTION
28 A SUMMONING
PART THREE A TIME OF MONSTERS
29 THE CAPTAIN CONVERSES
30 THE BEASTS OF EFREET
31 NEWS IN NONCE
32 EVENTS AT THE THRESHOLD
33 A VISIT TO MARAPOZSA STREET
34 SECRETS AND MEAT LOAF
35 TWO IN NINETEEN
36 THE BRIDEGROOM UNEARTHED
37 THE OWNER OF THE DEAD MAN’S HOUSE
38 MIDNIGHT’S HEART
39 DRAGON BONES
40 A TALE OF ENDLESS PARTINGS
41 AN AMBITIOUS CONJURATION
42 THE HIGH MAZE
43 THE DARK DENIED
44 THE PRINCE AND THE BEAST-BOY
45 A DECISION
PART FOUR THE SEA COMES TO CHICKENTOWN
46 DEPARTURES
47 SOMETHING IN THE WIND
48 STIRRING THE WATERS
49 INTO THE HEREAFTER
50 FATHER AND DAUGHTER
51 INTO THE WORMWOOD
52 THE SECRET OF SECRETS
53 THE WARSHIP UNMADE
54 THE LIVING AND THE DEAD
55 THE BEGINNING OF THE END
56 DOWN AND DOWN
57 “NEVER FEAR…”
58 THE RETURN OF THE SEA
About The Author
ALSO BY CLIVE BARKER
PRAISE FOR CLIVE BARKER AND Abarat
Copyright
About the Publisher
Here is a list of fearful things:
The jaws of sharks, a vulture’s wings,
The rabid bite of the dogs of war,
The voice of one who went before.
But most of all the mirror’s gaze,
Which counts us out our numbered days.
—Righteous Bandy, the nomad Poet of Abarat
OTTO HOULIHAN SAT IN the dark room and listened to the two creatures who had brought him here—a three-eyed thing by the name of Lazaru and its sidekick, Baby Pink-Eye—playing Knock the Devil Down in the corner. After their twenty-second game his nervousness and irritation began to get the better of him.
“How much longer am I going to have to wait?” he asked them.
Baby Pink-Eye, who had large reptilian claws and the face of a demented infant, puffed on a blue cigar and blew a cloud of acrid smoke in Houlihan’s direction.
“They call you the Criss-Cross Man, don’t they?” he said.
Houlihan nodded, giving Pink-Eye his coldest gaze, the kind of gaze that usually made men weak with fear. The creature was unimpressed.
“Think you’re scary, do you?” he said. “Ha! This is Gorgossium, Criss-Cross Man. This is the island of the Midnight Hour. Every dark, unthinkable thing that has ever happened at the dead of night has happened right here. So don’t try scaring me. You’re wasting your time.”
“I just asked—”
“Yes, yes, we heard you,” said Lazaru, the eye in the middle of her forehead rolling back and forth in a very unsettling fashion. “You’ll have to be patient. The Lord of Midnight will see you when he’s ready to see you.”
“Got some urgent news for him, have you?” said Baby Pink-Eye.
“That’s between him and me.”
“I warn you, he doesn’t like bad news,” said Lazaru. “He gets in a fury, doesn’t he, Pink-Eye?”
“ Crazy is what he gets! Tears people apart with his bare hands.”
They glanced conspiratorially at each other. Houlihan said nothing. They were just trying to frighten him, and it wouldn’t work. He got up and went to the narrow window, looking out onto the tumorous landscape of the Midnight Island, phosphorescent with corruption. This much of what Baby Pink-Eye had said was true: Gorgossium was a place of terrors. He could see the glistening forms of countless monsters as they moved through the littered landscape; he could smell spicy-sweet incense rising from the mausoleums in the mist-shrouded cemetery; he could hear the shrill din of drills from the mines where the mud that filled Midnight’s armies of stitchlings was produced. Though he wasn’t going to let Lazaru or Pink-Eye see his unease, he would be glad when he’d made his report and he could leave for less terrifying places.
There was some murmuring behind him, and a moment later Lazaru announced: “The Prince of Midnight is ready to see you.”
Houlihan turned from the window to see that the door on the far side of the chamber was open and Baby Pink-Eye was gesturing for him to step through it.
“Hurry, hurry,” the infant said.
Houlihan went to the door and stood on the threshold. Out of the darkness of the room came the voice of Christopher Carrion, deep and joyless.
“Enter, enter. You’re just in time to watch the feeding.”
Houlihan followed the sound of Carrion’s voice. There was a flickering in the darkness, which grew more intense by degrees, and as it brightened he saw the Lord of Midnight standing perhaps ten yards from him. He was dressed in gray robes and was wearing gloves that looked as though they were made of fine chain mail.
“Not many people get to see this, Criss-Cross Man. My nightmares are hungry, so I’m going to feed them.” Houlihan shuddered. “ Watch , man! Don’t stare at the floor.”
Reluctantly, the Criss-Cross Man raised his eyes. The nightmares Carrion had spoken of were swimming in a blue fluid, which all but filled a high transparent collar around Carrion’s head. Two pipes emerged from the base of the Lord of Midnight’s skull, and it was through these that the nightmares had emerged, swimming directly out of Carrion’s skull. They were barely more than long threads of light; but there was something about their restless motion, the way they roved the collar, sometimes touching Carrion’s face, more often pressing against the glass, that spoke of their hunger.
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