Simon R. Green - Nightside 11 A Hard Days Knight

Table of Contents

Novels of the Nightside

SOMETHING FROM THE NIGHTSIDE

AGENTS OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS

NIGHTINGALES LAMENT

HEX AND THE CITY

PATHS NOT TAKEN

SHARPER THAN A SERPENTS TOOTH

HELL TO PAY

THE UNNATURAL INQUIRER

JUST ANOTHER JUDGEMENT DAY

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UNCANNY

A HARD DAYS KNIGHT

Ghost Finders Novels
GHOST OF A CHANCE

Secret Histories Novels
THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN TORC
DAEMONS ARE FOREVER
THE SPY WHO HAUNTED ME
FROM HELL WITH LOVE

Deathstalker Novels

DEATHSTALKER

DEATHSTALKER REBELLION

DEATHSTALKER WAR

DEATHSTALKER HONOR

DEATHSTALKER DESTINY

DEATHSTALKER LEGACY

DEATHSTALKER RETURN

DEATHSTALKER CODA

Hawk and Fisher Novels
SWORDS OF HAVEN
GUARDS OF HAVEN

Also by Simon R. Green
BLUE MOON RISING
BEYOND THE BLUE MOON
DRINKING MIDNIGHT WINE

Omnibus
A WALK ON THE NIGHTSIDE

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This is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Copyright 2011 by Simon R. Green.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

eISBN : 978-1-101-47523-2

1. Taylor, John (Fictitious character)Fiction. 2. Private investigatorsEnglandLondon
Fiction. 3. Knights and knighthoodFiction. 4. London (England)Fiction. I. Title.
PR6107.R44H37 2011
823.92dc22
2010037673

http://us.penguingroup.com

Things you need to know:

1. The Nightside is the dark, secret, brooding heart of London, hidden away from the rest of the world, where magic is realer than you can bear, where lives and souls and everything else you can think of are always up for sale, and all your worst dreams go walking openly in borrowed flesh. Its always dark in the Nightside, always three oclock in the morning, the hour that tries mens souls. Hot neon burns over rain-slick streets, bars and clubs never close, and gods and monsters go walking hand in hand. You can find anything you ever dreamed of in the Nightside; but watch your back. It might find you first.2. Im John Taylor, private investigator. I wear a white trench coat, but dont let that fool you. I dont do divorce work, and I wouldnt know a clue if I fell over it. I do, however, have a special gift that means I can find anyone or anything, no matter how carefully theyve hidden themselves. I do my best to find the truth for my clients; but in my experience, the truth wont make you happy, and it wont set you free. Walk the streets of the Nightside, and youll hear a lot of bad things about me. Most of them are true. I stay in the Nightside because I belong here. With all the other monsters.3. Walker is dead. The one and only Voice of the Authorities, the man in charge of the Nightside, inasmuch as anyone was or could be ... The only man who could make us all play nicely together is dead. I killed him. I had good reason, but hes still just as dead. So I have to be Walker now. Take over his role and act as representative for the new Authorities. The punishment must always fit the crime.4. Something very old and very powerful has come to the Nightside. That ancient and legendary sword, Excalibur. It isnt what you think it is, and it never was. Puck told me that; but everyone knows you can never trust an elf. They always lieexcept when a truth can hurt you more.5. And, last of all ... When I finally got home, after killing Walker, wanting only to slump exhausted into a chair and nurse my bitter soul ... I found a long, sword-shaped parcel waiting for me on my kitchen table. Some days, you just cant get a break.

ONE

It Came in the Post

I stood in my kitchen, already so tired and used up I would have lain down in a coffin if that was all that was available ... and considered the brown-paper parcel on the table before me. Suzie came in from the hall and joined me. She slipped an arm round my waist, and I kissed her absently on the cheek. My Suzie, also known as Shotgun Suzie, also known as Oh Christ Its Her, Run . My tall blonde Valkyrie in black leathers, a bounty-hunter who always brings them in dead because theres less paper-work that way. My love, my life, my reason for living, who had dropped the biggest bomb-shell into my life in years by accepting this appallingly significant parcel ...

I moved away from Suzie and walked slowly round the kitchen table, studying the sword-shaped package from all angles. It stubbornly refused to look like anything except a bloody big sword. I had absolutely no intention of touching the thing just yet. Suzie looked at me curiously but said nothing. She could tell I was working. Solving problems is what I do. I leaned over the kitchen table, examining the brown-paper parcel from hilt to point. There were no stamps anywhere, and no addressonly my name, in perfect copper-plate. Which meant the parcel couldnt have come by regular post. It had to have been delivered by hand.

When did this arrive? I asked Suzie.

Her ears pricked up as she caught the seriousness in my voice. Two, three hours ago. I heard a knock on the front door, looked out, and there it was. Leaning against the wall. At first I thought it must be for me since its so obviously a weapon; but then I saw it had your name on it, so I put it on one side for you, for when you got home.

Think about it, I said. You wouldnt normally bring a strange, unexpected parcel into our home and leave it lying round without running it through a whole series of security checks first, would you?

No, said Suzie, in a way that made it clear she hadnt even considered the point before and was wondering rather angrily why she hadnt. It felt ... right. Like it belonged here. Why the hell didnt I find that suspicious?

Because the parcel didnt want you to, I said.

We both glared at the brown-paper package.

Could it have some kind of compulsion, or geas, attached to it? said Suzie.

I think were in bigger trouble than that, I said. Im getting a distinct feeling of destiny.

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