"That is indeed a serious development." Her gaze never wavered from Tom's face; she didn't seem even slightly troubled by the news. She shifted her position, raising her behind slightly so Veitch once again had a perfect view of her sex. "What is your primary wish?"
Tom collected himself before he said, "To destroy the End of Everything."
Veitch started. "To save Ruth's life," he corrected sharply.
The Queen's smile grew as she looked from one to the other. "A disagreement?"
"No disagreement." Tom fixed a cold eye on Veitch.
"There is no need to argue." Her voice was like honey. "There is a possibility I may be able to help you achieve both your aims."
Tom bowed again. "Anything you can do to help us would be gratefully received, my Queen." She glanced at Veitch and he realised he was supposed to prostrate himself too. He bowed awkwardly once more and muttered something that approximated Tom's statement.
It appeared to please her; she nodded and smiled. "There are many secrets here in the Court of the Yearning Heart, some which are hidden even from my brethren; even from the Court of the Final Word. Here, all things are given up eventually." She sucked on her index finger as she thought deeply for a moment. "The Eddy-Ball," she said with a certain nod. "A gift of great value to me." A smile; the game had begun. "The orb opens out into the void between worlds. It has the ability to suck the essence from the solid."
"And this could be done without harming the Sister of Dragons?"
"Of course. And the Heart of Shadows will find itself in a place where no shadows are cast." This amused her.
Veitch could barely contain his relief. Although Tom maintained his plain expression, Veitch could see the signs in the Rhymer's face too.
"Thank you, my Queen," Tom said.
"And you will do something for me. True Thomas?"
His face grew taut. "Of course, my Queen." Tom waited for her to demand he stay behind.
She pretended to think, toying with him. "No, True Thomas, not you. This Brother of Dragons." She glanced seductively at Veitch. "I will give the Eddy-Ball to him and him alone, and in return he will carry out a simple request for me."
"Anything," Veitch replied before Tom could stop him.
There was a triumphant note in her smile that made Veitch uneasy. "The Questing Beast has again escaped from the pits beneath us. It is loose in the solid world. It is my heart's desire that this Brother of Dragons seek it out and destroy it, or at least lead it back here to the Court of the Yearning Heart."
Veitch could hear her words, but all he could see was Tom's face, which had grown eerily bloodless. "The Questing Beast-" he began.
The Queen silenced him with an upraised hand, her eyes watching Veitch's face intently. "Will you do this for me?"
Whatever doubts Tom felt, Veitch knew he didn't have an option. "All right."
"Then I will make the arrangements. Go with Melliflor and he will provide you with all you require."
They moved slowly away until the gently stirring sheets of silk had swallowed up the Queen once more. As they walked, Veitch brushed against Tom and felt the trembling that was running through the Rhymer's body.
They were provided with two connecting chambers far from the noise of the Great Hall where they could rest and prepare themselves. They were both ravenously hungry, made worse by the plates of food left for them on tables in the corners of the room. Tom plucked from his ever-present haversack two bags of roasted peanuts he had been saving as a last resort, and they munched on them hungrily.
Veitch was filled with questions, but at first Tom wouldn't speak to him; it was almost as if he couldn't bring himself to do it. He retreated to his chamber for an hour where he smoked a joint quietly on the deep, comforting bed.
Veitch couldn't begin to rest. His mind turned over all that he had experienced, but kept returning to the image of the naked Queen; it was beginning to torment him. And when he forced himself not to think about her, his eyes drifted to the food.
When Tom finally walked in, he sat bolt upright with relief and said, "Come on. Spill the fucking beans. What am I up against?"
Tom pulled up a chair and sat on it backwards, folding his arms on top of the backrest. "You and your big mouth, agreeing to anything she said."
"We didn't have any choice."
"Of course we had a choice. They play games, barter, throw things back and forth. You don't take the first thing offered. You were too hypnotised by the sight of her cunt."
"And you weren't? You were almost down on your knees with your tongue hanging out!"
Tom cursed under his breath and put a hand on his eyes. "There's no point arguing about it. It's done. We have to find a way to make sure you survive."
Veitch kicked the other chair so hard it flew across the room. "Come on, then. Talk. What's this thing I've got to hunt?"
"The Questing Beast. It's a living nightmare, something that even the Tuatha De Danann are wary of facing head-on. Their own legends say it was there in Otherworld long before they arrived, one of the first creatures to exist after the universe was formed. They call it a Rough Creature. A prototype for what was to come, if you will. Not fully formed."
Veitch sat carefully on the edge of the bed. "If it's in their legends-"
"Exactly."
"So they're sending me out there because they don't want to have a go themselves. That's par for the course, isn't it? Those Bastards don't like getting their hands dirty. So if they're so wary of it, what was it doing here? And how the fuck am I going to kill it?"
"The Queen keeps many dangerous things here at the Court. It's a mark of prestige. How are you going to kill it?" He shrugged wearily. "I don't know enough about it. Neither do the Tuatha De Danann. But their distaste for it isn't because of its power, it's because of its imperfect form, which they find abhorrent in the same way they react to the Fomorii. Us, they can just about tolerate. Anything less is to be despised."
"So how dangerous is it?"
"Very. Make no mistake about that. It escaped into our world several centuries ago, before my time, and many people died before it was driven back to Otherworld. The general belief of the time was that a mortal girl gave birth to it after having sex with the Devil. The legends that grew up around it described it as having the head of a snake, the body of a big cat and the hindquarters of a lion, which is just another way of saying the people of the time couldn't describe it. It was said to give off a sound like forty hounds baying, or questing, in its stomach, and that's how it got its name."
"So we don't know what it looks like, just that it's very fucking bad." Veitch jumped to his feet and started pacing round the room; his eyes repeatedly strayed to the appetising food. "Well, it was driven off, so it can be done. It sounds like a big deal, but I'll be hunting it, not the other way round. Anyway, it's got to be, for Ruth, for Church and everything. Can't fuck up now."
Tom realised he was talking to himself, planning, bolstering; it was like the ritual of a boxer preparing for a fight.
After another moment's pacing, he turned to Tom and said, "Okay, I've got my head round it. I'm going to get some Zs in now. We'll do it when I wake."
As he left the room, Tom hid the fact that he was secretly impressed; once a conflict situation had been established Witch's developing abilities made him like a machine. Fear or overconfidence didn't burden him; he simply weighed up all the available evidence and decided what needed to be done. Tom hoped that would be enough.
In the court it was impossible to know if it was night or day. But when Veitch woke his body told him he had had a good rest; the exhaustion had seeped from his muscles and he felt ready for anything. He was still hungry, but he knew he could find something to eat back in the real world.