II
“Are you certain this is the place?” Ealdstan asked, placing his satchel on the ground.
“Yes,” Daniel said. And he was certain. The centre of the plain pulled on him like an elastic string. Standing here, he felt at rest. What he wasn’t certain about was how much he could actually trust a man whose face kept changing. Was it just him? It was like there was a fog inside his eyes. It was hard to focus.
Ealdstan raised his hands and spoke words that were ancient and powerful. The air became like static; Daniel could feel his skin prickle and he felt tightness in his body.
“What have you done?”
“I’m sorry, Daniel,” the old man said, “but this is going to hurt, literally, like hell.”
“No.” Daniel tried to evaporate, but the rubber bands were back. “Stop it,” Daniel said. “Let me go.” He struggled more and more, trying to physically break free this time.
“This is what I’ve been searching so hard for,” Ealdstan said. “If I had come here directly from our world, then I would have entered through it naturally, but I passed into Elfland through a different gate.” He said more of the ancient words that were low and loud and seemed to come up from his gut.
“What are you doing to me?” Daniel tried to move but found his feet stuck fast, his legs immovable as if trapped in concrete. He found that his arms were raised now, just as if he were back in Kelm’s torture chamber.
“I am sorry, Daniel, I am. It sounds as if you have been experiencing intense pain here in this world. I know naught of this Night that chases you, but I can see the marks it has left on you inside. I did not intend you this course but-well, I make no apology. You are useful to me most in your current purpose. This opportunity is too fortuitous to pass up. I will have to place the rest of my hopes on the girl. Freya.”
“What does that mean?”
“That,” Ealdstan said, “would take far too long to explain.” He raised his hands, spoke more of the ancient words, and electricity danced from the ground to the souls of Daniel’s feet. “That’s not to say that I wouldn’t explain-I most certainly would-but now there is no time.” He bent down and picked up his satchel again.
“Ordinarily I would have to kill you at this stage,” Ealdstan said. “I may be opportunistic, but not cruel. But in your state, that is impossible. You will still endure agony, though-agony I cannot imagine. For that, I do apologise, most heartfeltly.”
Ealdstan stood so close that Daniel could have reached out and grabbed him if he could move his arms.
“But if you need something to help contextualise your suffering, imagine this: picture yourself as a doorstopper, propping open a gate between worlds. That is more or less your purpose now. The door wants to close, but you won’t let it, and so you will be destroyed-but so also will be the door.”
“Let me go.”
Ealdstan really did look regretful. “No-I am sorry. I. . Good-bye, Daniel, and thank you. Thank you for everything. I had hoped that you, perhaps-but never mind. The girl. It is the girl now.”
And Ealdstan started to pass through Daniel-stepping into him. Daniel howled as his body’s cells and molecules parted to allow him to go through. He could feel Ealdstan move through his chest, his stomach, his spine, and out the other side.
And then he was gone, and Daniel was still left, writhing in almost unendurable agony.
III
Fergus had made a friend.
Actually, he had made many friends, Kieran had noticed, but he and Rory were always at each other’s side. It was as if they were tied together. Even when they were running around the weird, underground city, they were never more than a few feet apart from the other one. They scrabbled around in the rubble, pointing out interesting carvings to each other, or sifted through bent weapons and tools for things that might still be usable.
Kieran tried to keep them in view at all times-he was feeling the pressure of his brotherly responsibility acutely in this foreign place. The woman who had spoken to them all just a little while ago as they assembled in the tower’s courtyard had assured them that this place was safe for now, and that everything was going to be done to get them back to where they came from, but that it would be best to stay in or around the tower for the time being.
Which some of them did, but others found it too crowded, or the city outside the walls of the tower too intriguing. The knights intrigued them, with their strange ways and language, and many of the children took to following them as they traipsed in and out of the Langtorr, or set up camp, or sharpened their weapons, or disposed of those strange little dead creatures. None of the knights spoke English, but that didn’t seem to perturb the children. Fergus and Rory were clearly caught up in the adventure of it all, and tore around in banged up helmets, brandishing bent swords at each other. Kieran had told them twice to be careful and to stop what they were doing, but all he got back were reproachful looks, and then the sight of heels as they took off to escape him.
He was looking for them now, with a silver lantern that he had taken from the city. They loved running along the top of the thick walls next to that eerie throne on top of the pile of stone. He couldn’t see them now, but he thought they might be hiding from him. He needed to tell them that it was time to eat. But he couldn’t find them. They must’ve headed back in. .
The interior of the building was a series of round passages, all spreading from a central, circular room. Kieran couldn’t find any trace of them there, but in the central chamber, there was a tunnel that had been closed by two large, stone doorways, now broken and set aside.
It would be just like them to go exploring, Kieran thought, and started down the tunnel.
It was long and dark and he would have stopped almost immediately, except that he could see footprints in the patches of dust and grit on the ground.
He walked for about fifteen minutes. Many times he nearly turned around and went back, but he kept thinking that if Fergus and Rory really were down here, then they had to be found. And he would give them a good old proper telling-off when he did so.
But the sounds that soon met his ears-clanking, grunting, barking-came from the other end.
The tunnel opened into a massive area, as big as the plain above, except that there were huge rocky spires the size of cathedrals hanging down from the ceiling. At first he marvelled at them, and then he wondered how he could see them. They were being lit from below, but how? And where was that noise coming from?
He was on a sort of ledge. Creeping forward, he made his way to a rickety wooden frame that something was chained to-a boat? Why would anyone need a boat down here? There’s no water.
There were bonfires. Hundreds of them. It was another encampment below the city. He saw monsters; great, big, lumbering, rock-like things, muscled men with the faces of different animals, things the size of rhinoceroses but with hairy, shaggy bodies and faces, and yfelgopes running to and fro between them, alternately feeding and abusing them. It was like a mythological menagerie, and some steel spikes that had been sunk into the ground kept all the creatures in. Around the edges, and on the other side, he saw tents and buildings-a more ordered settlement. Did they know about this?
Did the woman, Freya, know that there was what seemed to be a vicious army right beneath her feet?
If she didn’t, then he had to warn them.
He turned to go but was stopped. There was a flutter of hands around his face, and the whole underground world went dark.
EPILOGUE