Stories: All-New Tales - By Neil Gaiman & Al Sarrantonio Page 0,21

you’ve ever known, and the alley lit up a luminous white, and I screwed my eyes shut to prevent them from being burnt there and then out of their sockets, and all these things happened at once.

First of all, the rain stopped. The pressure on my chest disappeared, and I could move my arms again. The light, which had been too intense even to see when it first shone out, diffused itself to a greenish-pink glow. Birds on the rooftops began to sing. A scent of something floral filled the air—strangest of all in that alleyway, where the smell of piss was predominant—and someone put a hand on my face and said:

“It’s okay, sweetie. They’ve gone now.”

Well, that was it. I opened my eyes. I figured that either I’d taken more concussion than I’d thought, or there was something Our Thor hadn’t told me. He was standing over me, looking self-conscious and bashful. Sunny was kneeling at my side, heedless of the alleyway dirt, and her blue dress was shining like the summer sky, and her bare feet were like little white birds, and her sugar blond hair fell over my face and I was glad she really wasn’t my type, because that lady was nothing but trouble. And she gave me a smile like a summer’s day, and Arthur’s face went dangerously red, and Sunny said:

“Lucky? Are you okay?”

I rubbed my eyes. “I think so. What happened to Skól and Haiti?”

“Those guys?” she said. “Oh, they had to go. I sent them back into Shadow.”

Now Arthur was looking incredulous. “How do you know about Shadow?” he said.

“Oh, Arthur, you’re so sweet.” Sunny pirouetted to her feet and planted a kiss on Our Thor’s nose. “As if I could have lived here this long and not have known I was different—” She looked at the illuminated sky. “Northern lights,” she said happily. “We ought to have them more often here. But I really do appreciate it,” she went on. “You guys looking out for me, and everything. If things had been different, if we hadn’t been made from such different elements, then maybe you and I could have—you know—”

Arthur’s face went, if possible, even redder.

“So, what are you going to do now?” she said. “I guess we’re safe—for a while, at least. But Chaos knows about us now. And the Shadow never really gives up…”

I thought about it for a while. And then an idea came to me. I said: “Have you ever thought of a career in entertainment? I could find a job for you with the band…” I wondered if she could sing. Most celestial spheres can, of course, and anyway, she’d light up the place just by stepping onto the stage—we’d save a fortune on pyrotechnics…

She gave that megawatt smile of hers. “Is Arthur in the band, too?”

I looked at him. “He could be, I guess. There’s always room for a drummer.”

Come to think of it, there’s a lot to be said for going on the road right now. New people, new lineup, new places to go—

“That would be nice.” Her face was wistful. His was like that of a sick puppy, and it made me even more relieved that I’d never been the romantic type. I tried to imagine the outcome: sun goddess and thunder god on stage together, every night—

I could see it now, I thought. Wild—re, on tour again. I mean, we’re talking rains of fish, equatorial northern lights; hurricanes, eclipses, solar flares, flash floods—and lightning. Lots of lightning. Might be a little risky, of course.

But all the same—a hell of a show.

THE TRUTH IS A CAVE IN THE BLACK MOUNTAINS

Neil Gaiman

YOU ASK ME IF I CAN FORGIVE MYSELF? I can forgive myself for many things. For where I left him. For what I did. But I will not forgive myself for the year that I hated my daughter, when I believed her to have run away, perhaps to the city. During that year I forbade her name to be mentioned, and if her name entered my prayers when I prayed, it was to ask that she would one day learn the meaning of what she had done, of the dishonour that she had brought to my family, of the red that ringed her mother’s eyes.

I hate myself for that, and nothing will ease that, not even what happened that night, on the side of the mountain.

I had searched for nearly ten years, although the trail was cold. I would say that I found