"But those spooks-" Church hugged Laura off her feet and crushed the rest of the sentence inside her. She tried to look aloof, but she couldn't keep the smile in.
"The Fomorii are still here," he explained. "You saw the nest in the Lake District-they're all over the damn place. We've just stopped them getting the upper hand, that's all. That's all!" He let out a whoop. "We've kicked them so hard it's going to take them a while to get back on their feet! Now we've got the upper hand! All we've got to do now is find a way to get the Tuatha De Danann on our side and kick the Bastards out for good."
"Oh well, it's almost over then," Laura said with a smile that dripped irony.
"Ah, shaddup, you miserable git." He kissed her and that surprised both of them.
"We owe ourselves a bleedin' big piss-up," Veitch said, his arm tight around Ruth's shoulders. She was smiling wanly, still scarcely able to believe what she was hearing.
But they all agreed Veitch was right. Swept up in their jubilation and relief, they turned towards the south and began to move out of the city.
They had travelled barely a quarter of a mile when it became apparent they wouldn't get far on foot. Church and Veitch had been supporting Ruth, but with each step they were doing more dragging than carrying.
They eventually halted on a corner while Veitch and Laura disappeared down a side street. Forty-five minutes later they pulled up in a pristine Transit.
"Who'd you kill for that?" Ruth croaked.
"God, even half-dead she's Mother Superior." Laura raised her eyes in an exaggerated response.
They loaded Ruth in the back and made her as comfortable as possible, then Church Joined Laura and Veitch in the front. "Just like old times," she said, without a hint of sarcasm.
Beyond the reach of the Old Town, the streets gave way to well-heeled neighbourhoods where the houses were rambling and set well back from the road, and beyond that were the plain, structured streets of suburbia. By 2:15 a.m., they were crossing the ring road, enjoying the balminess of a warm summer night after the chill environment of the Cailleach Bheur.
Unlike most English cities, the built-up area ended abruptly and they were plunged immediately into rolling green fields punctuated by peaceful woods. The tires sang on dry roads through tiny villages. Away to the east, the remnants of the haar still clouded the horizon, but overhead the skies were clear and iced with stars.
At the sign for Roslin Village, Laura glanced over her shoulder to see Shavi's chin droop on to his chest. He was normally so bright and optimistic, it pained her to see the dismay etched into his features. More than anything, she wanted to clamber over the seat and give him a hug, but there was no way she could in front of the others.
After a long journey through thick woods, they entered a desolate valley plain where sheep wandered morosely over the clipped, yellow grass. In the distance the hills rose up steeply while, nearer to hand, train lines cut a swathe through the heart of the valley. At 4 a.m. they broke off to make camp for the night. Veitch and Church had been determined to keep going until dawn, but the decision was made for them by another technology failure which left the van drifting aimlessly on to the verge. They pushed it for a little way until they found a lane which led behind a small copse of trees where they could hide; even after their success, paranoia still hissed in the background. They'd abandoned all their clothes, camping equipment and provisions at the hotel, so they made themselves as comfortable as they could in the confines of the van. Tom was particularly concerned about Ruth, but she appeared to be sleeping easily enough. After their exertions, they drifted off within an instant of resting.
By the time they rose the sun was high in a clear blue sky and the interior of the van was beginning to bake. Although still weak and exhausted, Ruth was much brighter. They helped her outside where she propped herself up against a wheel and before too long she was exchanging banter with Shavi and Church and baiting Laura and Veitch. On the surface it was like old times, but something had changed; where there had been malice, now there was affection, however well-hidden.
They were eager to exchange details of their experiences. Veitch was reticent in his description of his assault on the castle, and when Ruth emphasised the extent of his bravery his ears turned red. They all did their best to boost Shavi, but his account of Maponus and the thought that he was still at large cast a chill over them all.
Tom listened carefully, then said, "He is beyond our remit now. If anyone can find a way to restrain him, then it would be the Bone Inspector. He has knowledge denied to you and I, and it was his people who imprisoned Maponus initially." He paused. "But he is just one man."
"But Maponus cannot be killed-we saw," Shavi stressed. "None of the gods can."
"No," Tom agreed, "not in the way you mean. Although the lowest of the Fomorii, the troops, if you will, can be eradicated, as Ryan found out at the castle."
"How can we be guerrillas if we can't hurt the ones that really matter?" Laura protested. "We're just an irritation-"
"Situation normal for you, then," Veitch muttered.
"We've done what we can," Laura continued, "done a good job. Can't we leave it up to somebody else, now? We've earned a rest, haven't we?"
Nobody seemed comfortable debating this line and the conversation drifted on to Church and Tom's encounter beneath Arthur's Seat.
"It was the weirdest experience," Church said. "The way reality, time, space, everything, seemed to be fluid in proximity to such a powerful source of the blue fire."
"Maybe that's how reality really is," Ruth mused. "God knows, we've had enough proof we can't trust our senses to perceive anything correctly. When you think about it, it's scary. We're prisoners in our heads, completely at the mercy of our brain functions, and beyond that little bit of bone, the universe might be completely different to how we imagine it."
"There is a line of scientific thought, currently growing in popularity," Shavi mused, "that suggests time does not exist. We perceive it as flowing constantly because that is the way our brains have been structured to understand it. But we are really living in all times at once. That would explain precognition-"
"But how does it work?" Ruth said.
"I wish you lot would shut up-you're making my head hurt," Veitch said irritably. "Talk, talk, talk, like a bunch of bleedin' students. Things are how they are, that's all. We've got more important things to think about."
A hawk hunted for prey over an area of scrubby undergrowth in the middle distance. The image triggered a succession of disturbing thoughts in Church.
"Tom and I weren't alone beneath the Seat," he said.
"Yeah, the old git took along the chip on his shoulder," Laura said tartly.
"The one who took Ruth was there." Church flashed a glance at Ruth, not quite knowing how she was going to react.
Veitch bristled. "What did he look like?"
Church exhaled through the gap in his teeth. "You know what he looked like. A bloody big wolf, just like Laura said. With yellow eyes and everything."
"You should never have left the path, little girl," Laura said to Ruth with a faint smile. From the corner of his eye, Church caught Veitch watching the two of them intently, coldly.
Church nodded to Tom. "You tell them what you told me."
Tom took off his spectacles and cleaned them on his shirt. Without the glasses he looked less like the sixties burn-out case and more like the erudite, thoughtful aristocrat he was. "When the old gods have…" There was a long, jarring pause while he searched for the right word. "… adjusted someone, it is often difficult for the mind to fully fix their shape. It's as if something fundamental has been altered on a molecular level, something so in opposition to nature it seems to set up interference patterns for the senses. The first few times you see something like this, unless you're prepared, it's like a punch in the stomach. To make sense of it, the mind gives it a shape which is closest to the essence of its being-