The sounds came again, closer this time. Whatever was trailing her might be trying to keep quiet, but stealth was clearly not its natural mode. Which meant it had little fear of attack. Logically it was likely to be something very, very dangerous.
Some Thing very, very dangerous, her mind corrected her.
Blue drew the Halek blade from her belt and slid into a narrow crevice in the wall of the passageway. Her plan had formed itself. She would hide here until the creature stalking her passed by, then emerge and stab it with her lethal knife. She was taking an enormous risk. If the thing glanced in and saw her, she was trapped and with scarcely enough room to wield the blade. If the thing really did turn out to be undead, she was far from certain even the energies of a Halek knife would destroy it. Furthermore, she was well aware, as everyone was well aware, that if a Halek knife shattered, its lethal power turned against the person holding it, killing them instantly.
But this was another situation like the catsite – what else could she do? If she ran, her footfalls would alert her pursuer at once and she had no guarantee that this passage was not another dead end.
She held her breath and waited.
Whatever was pursuing stopped and snuffled, as if sniffing the air. Blue closed her eyes briefly. If it caught her scent, she was finished. But then it was moving again, no faster than before. Abruptly it occurred to her that the curious clicking noise might be the sound of claws on the stone floor. If so, the thing had a deliberate tread. It certainly didn’t seem to be rushing in for the kill, at least not yet. Perhaps it hadn’t detected her. Perhaps…
It was so close now she could hear its breathing. Then suddenly there was a large bulk passing her hiding place. Moving on pure instinct, Blue stepped out of the crevice, raised her blade and…
‘Don’t,’ said the charno.
The flooding of relief was so extreme that Blue simply stood there shaking and panting as she tried to catch her breath. Eventually she said angrily, ‘What the hael do you think you’re doing?’
‘Following you,’ the charno said.
‘Why?’ Blue demanded. ‘Why? I said you didn’t have to. I can’t use the stupid hammer. Midgard Serpents eat charnos; you said so yourself. So why… did you have… to frighten the life…’
‘Thought you might like the company,’ the charno said.
‘The Purlisa put you up to this, didn’t he?’ Blue said on sudden insight. ‘The Purlisa and the Abbot?’
The charno nodded. ‘Yes.’
‘They wanted you to make sure I came in here!’
‘Yes.’
‘Then why did you try to persuade me not to?’ Blue demanded.
‘Reverse psychology,’ the charno said.
For a moment she thought she’d misheard. Then she said, ‘What do you mean?’
The charno shrugged. ‘The Purlisa said you were perverse.’
This time she was sure she’d misheard. ‘What?’
The charno gave a patient sigh. ‘One of those people who always do the opposite of what they’re told. He was worried you might decide your Henry person wasn’t down here.’
‘And he told you to make sure I came in anyway?’
‘Yes.’
‘By telling me not to?’
‘Yes.’
Blue’s eyes were like saucers, part from surprise and part from fury, much of which came from the realisation that the Purlisa was absolutely right – she did have a perverse streak. ‘And is Henry down here?’
The charno shook his head. ‘No.’
‘What about the serpent thing?’
‘Oh, yes,’ said the charno.
‘And I’m supposed to fight it?’
The charno shook his head again. ‘No, you’re supposed to be captured by it.’
‘Well you and your precious Purlisa can forget that, for a start!’ Blue snapped. ‘The only reason I’m standing here is that I thought I might have a chance to rescue Henry. If you’ve all lied to me about Henry, then there is absolutely nothing in the Faerie Realm that would make me stay down here a minute longer.’ She blinked her eyes twice to reveal the luminous filament, ‘I’m going back to the surface.’
To her absolute astonishment, the charno transformed itself into a grinning clown, ‘I’m afraid it’s much too late for that.’
Seventy-Six
‘Get him back!’ shouted Henry in sudden panic. All very well to say he had to rescue Blue, but from what? And when? Was she in trouble right this minute, or was this something Mr Fogarty saw in the future? Was she ill? Had she picked up the time fever thing? And, most important of all, where was she? He needed to know more! But the stupid ark only sat there, silent and inert.
Euphrosyne smiled and nodded. ‘Soon, En Ri,’ she said.
Henry felt like shaking her, but didn’t. Instead he said firmly, ‘No – now!’
‘It is not possible now,’ Euphrosyne said calmly. She was still smiling, but there was an absolute finality in her voice that stopped him dead.
Henry felt his panic deflate like a punctured balloon. Euphrosyne would help him if she could. Every one of the Luchti would help if they could: they might be primitive but they were about the nicest people he’d ever met in his life. But he wasn’t going to get anywhere by shouting at them. He needed to know what he was doing, needed to ask intelligent questions, needed to show them how they could help. He had to stop feeling so much out of his depth. He needed information. Most of all, he needed information about Mr Fogarty and how, incredibly, he was able to talk to these people as their god after he was dead.
‘Euphrosyne,’ Henry said. ‘That was Charaxes I just talked to, wasn’t it?’
Euphrosyne nodded enthusiastically. ‘Yes.’
‘And your people have talked to Charaxes for centuries, haven’t you?’
She nodded again. ‘Yes.’
Out of the corner of his eye he noticed other members of the tribe were approaching, Lorquin among them. Even at a distance, he could tell they were happy. However confused he was now, he seemed to have muddled through the business of their ceremony. To Euphrosyne he said, ‘How was Charaxes able to talk to you centuries ago?’ Mr Fogarty wasn’t dead centuries ago. Mr Fogarty wasn’t even born centuries ago. So how did Mr Fogarty get to be the god of the Luchti?
Euphrosyne said happily, ‘With the ark.’
‘Yes, I know with the ark, but Charaxes wasn’t there centuries ago.’
She looked at him blankly. ‘Charaxes is always there, otherwise how could we be here? How could you be here, En Ri?’
‘You mean Charaxes created the world?’ Mr Fogarty as a creator god was more than he could cope with. There was something badly wrong here. He wasn’t understanding what was going on.
‘Oh no,’ Euphrosyne said. She looked almost shocked. ‘The world was created many billions of years ago in the Great Explosion that caused the universe. Charaxes had nothing to do with it. They were not born yet.’
They? There was more than one Charaxes? It had never occurred to him that the word might be plural. ‘Euphrosyne,’ Henry said, ‘who are the Charaxes?’
‘Our ancestors,’ said Euphrosyne promptly. ‘Was that not your illustrious ancestor you just talked to, En Ri?’
Well, it wasn’t, but a lot of things were clearer now. The ark wasn’t some religious object like the Ark of the Covenant designed so the Luchti could talk to God. It was a device that helped you get in touch with dead relatives. Mr Fogarty wasn’t a relative, but he was certainly dead and he was a lot closer to Henry than either of the grandfathers Henry had never even known. He gave a relieved sigh. Now he understood, he might be able to get things moving.
‘Is there any way,’ he asked, ‘any way at all that I can get in touch with my Charaxes again? Like, now, I mean?’
‘I can help you, En Ri,’ said a strangled voice behind him.