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“It just so happened that while you were looking back throughtime, Madam Blavatsky was peering forward.”
“ Da. We touch.”
“And you projected your astral body into her mind.”
“ Da. It vas easy for such as Rasputin. In future, I have Eye ofNaga. I use it to transfer into woman.”
“And to your good fortune, it just so happened that she existedat exactly the point in history where the seeds of the war wereplanted, if you'll forgive the unintentional pun.”
“Pun? Vot is that?”
“I refer to Richard Spruce's eugenically altered plant life, thedevastation of Ireland, and his and the Eugenicists’ subsequentdefection to Germany.”
“Ah. So.”
“And the Naga diamonds, Grigori-you say you have one?”
“Cambodian and African stones are, in war, used to- povyshenia?”
“Enhance.”
“-minds. I have African. Germany has others. Of South Americandiamond, nyet, it is not found in my time. I make Blavatsky find itin yours.”
“Leading her to the Tichbornes. So, the African Eye will befound, will it? Interesting.”
“Found by you.”
“What?”
“No matter. I change that. You die today.”
“I think not.”
Rasputin laughed, a nasty sound. “I congratulate you, tovarishch,” he said. “You are-umm-impressive. Speech you give Blavatsky-veryinteresting. No person can make future entirely vot they vish. Da.Da. This maybe is true. But I, Grigori Rasputin, am already infuture. I speak to you now from future. Votever I change in past,still, future I am in. You die. You do not find African Eye. Yethere I have African Eye. It is-umm-big paradox, nyet? ”
“An intriguing situation,” Burton mused. “Whereas Edward Oxfordtravelled to his past and accidentally wiped himself out of thefuture, you are seeking to change the past from the future. Youknow that whatever your interference here, the consequences willnever threaten your existence there, for if it did, how can you beinterfering?”
The king's agent stepped closer to the black diamond.
“You must feel indestructible,” he said.
“No man can stop me.”
“Really?”
Burton extended his hand toward the stone and was instantlystricken with paralysis.
“ Nyet, my enemy. Not even you. Now life of Blavatsky woman isfinished, you I vill possess. You are close to prime minister, da?This is very good. Through you, I vill assassinate Palmerston.”
A glowing, shapeless wraith oozed out of Blavatsky's shatteredskull and began to slide down the strands of brain tissue andhair.
Burton managed to move his mouth: “Maybe I can't stop you,Grigori, but I can warn you. Stay away from the Eye!”
The Russian's voice sounded inside his head: “I think not. Thediamond vill be -moct?”
“A bridge.”
“ Da. It allow me to cross into you. ”
The wraith flowed over the diamond and seemed to soak into it. Along feeler of energy coiled out toward the famous explorer. Coldfingers closed around his brain.
Straining, the king's agent managed to turn his head until hewas looking at his valet.
“Now would be a good time.”
The clockwork man of Trafalgar Square gave up the charade ofimmobility, nodded its canister-shaped head, reached out with itsmechanical arm, and plucked the Eye of Naga from its ectoplasmicplinth.
“ Vot? The toy moves? ”
Rasputin's reaction was accompanied by a blaze of ectoplasmicenergy. It sizzled across the room, and a bolt of it lashed atBurton and writhed over his body. He cried out with pain anddropped to his knees.
The storm lessened but continued to splutter and jump around thelibrary walls.
“ Vhy ca
Burton pulled himself upright and said: “Yes, that was rather agiveaway, Grigori. When Blavatsky shared with me her vision of yourfuture, it included details of your parlour trick; of how the gunsof the British spies failed when they attacked you. I asked myself:why would the woman be afraid of assassins? The answer was thatthere was no reason for her to be. I therefore concluded that shewasn't responsible for all the stopped clocks, slack springs, andjammed trigger mechanisms.”
“ But this machine clockvork, da? How working now? ”
“Willpower. Allow me to introduce to you the philosopher HerbertSpencer. One of the most remarkable intellects I have everencountered.”
“ Man? This is not man! ”
“In body, no, but Herbert Spencer died with the seven fragmentsof the Cambodian Eye in his possession. His intellect was imprintedupon them. Those fragments are now fitted into a babbage devicedesigned specifically to process the kind of information they hold.In other words, what you took to be a machine is sentient. Itpossesses willpower enough to resist your attempts to interferewith its functioning, and it can do a great deal more. Are youaware of the legend of Kumari Kandam?”
“Nyet! No more talk! Put stone down! ”
“The Eye was shattered by a man who possessed a perfectlyordered brain. When that happened, the intelligences previouslybound together through means of the diamond were destroyed.”
“Tovarishch! Vot is this nonsense? ”
“The Choir Stones still have that event imprinted upon them likea memory. If a sufficiently powerful mind-say, for instance, thatof a philosopher whose thoughts are ordered by a babbage-couldfocus that memory upon another Eye, well, I suppose you're aware ofthe phenomenon of resonance?”
“ Nyet! Nyet! ”
“Where these stones are concerned, I believe only equivalencecan lead to destruction. Let us see if that's the case. Proceed,please, Herbert.”
The clockwork philosopher didn't move, but the glow from theroom's ectoplasmic walls, floor, and ceiling suddenly dimmed,seeming to concentrate itself around the diamond held in his metalhand, and the bolts of energy that had been playing across thewalls now arced inward and danced over the stone's facets.Simultaneously, the diamond's soft humming increased in volume anddeepened in tone until it passed below the range of human hearing.To Burton, it felt as if invisible hands were pushing hard againsthis ears.
Rasputin's voice hammered furiously against the inside of hiscranium: “Nyet! Do not do this thing! Let me go! Let me go,tovarishch! I vill return to my time! ”
“Too late. But look on the bright side, Grigori, you've achievedyour aim-you've avoided your assassins. It will not be water thatkills you.”
Tiny fractures zigzagged across the Eye, and, as each appearedwith a faint tink, it seemed to Burton that a small entity wasexpelled, yet as hard as he might look, he couldn't quite bring thethings into focus. At the very periphery of his vision, he couldsee that the library was rapidly filling with them, but when heturned his head, he saw nothing.
“Vot are these lizards? Get them avay from me! Get them avay!They put their claws into me! Nyet! Nyet!”
Etheric energy banged and clapped around the gem, increasing inintensity, whipping out and sizzling up the walls and across theceiling and floor.
“Most people see them as fairies,” Burton told the dyingRussian. “They're remnants of an ancient race-nothing but preservedmemories. Rather too difficult in nature for us humans tocomprehend, so we tend to impose a more palatable myth on top ofthem. But, of course, you don't have any fairy stories in Russia,do you? They aren't a part of your folklore.”
Rasputin screamed. “ They are tearing me apart! ”
“Really? I suggest you fight back. If there's one thing I'velearned from you, it's that damaging memories can be overcome.After all, Grigori, it's all in the past, isn't it?”
“ Nyet! Nyet! ”
Rasputin let loose an appalling howl of agony. It piercedBurton's head like a spear. The explorer staggered and gritted histeeth. Blood spurted from his nose.
Spencer turned his brass head.
“No!” Burton managed to gasp. “Don't stop!”