‘But it can change,’ she said hopefully. ‘Things can change. Nothing is fixed, anywhere. You know that. Existence is mutable. The structure can be altered by events … or will.’
‘And our friend lies at the heart of that.’
Niamh moved her fingers over the cards. ‘It says here that if he chose me over the Sister of Dragons I would survive-’
‘You are a god and he is a mortal.’ Tom fixed a searching eye on Niamh as she mulled over the cards. ‘One would think it would not be difficult to bring about that end.’
She shook her head sadly. ‘His love would be meaningless if it were forced. I stand or fall by what lies in his heart.’
‘You love him very deeply.’
‘More than I can bring myself to believe. By doing nothing apart from being himself, he has altered my world completely. When I peer into my deepest thoughts I am not the same person I was before I met him. Far from it. He has awakened many great things in my heart, and though I have experienced wish-pain for the first time, I would not have it any other way.’ She smiled sadly. ‘I exist in hope that he will return my love.’
Tom nodded, but could give her no reassurance. ‘And do you see his future in the cards? I fear greatly for what lies ahead for him. I see-’
He was interrupted by a knock at the door, and then Church entered. He was in unusually high spirits.
‘Well, you have the smile of a winner,’ Tom noted.
‘And with good reason. The crystal skull is destroyed. The Anubis Box has been taken. The Army of the Ten Billion Spiders can’t entrap any more gods. I’d call that a result.’
‘Unless they have already trapped everyone they need,’ Tom pointed out.
Church plucked an apple from a fruit display and pulled up a chair. You’re a real glass-half-empty kind of person, aren’t you?’
‘I’d call it pragmatic.’
‘Okay, we don’t know how many gods they’ve got on their side: Janus, Apollo and Loki for definite …’He shifted uneasily when he thought of Loki’s ferocity. ‘All right, they’re pretty terrifying and I wouldn’t want to face one of them on my own again. But we’ve got twenty courts here to oppose them. That weights things in our favour, I think.’ He crunched on the apple. Have you heard of Robin Goodfellow?’
‘Stay away from the Puck,’ Niamh interjected. ‘He is dangerous.’
‘I don’t know why he decided to focus on me, but he really messed things around. Changing his appearance, shepherding me this way and that-’
‘The Puck has his own agenda,’ she warned.
‘This time it coincided with ours. I would never have destroyed the crystal skull without his help. Okay, he absconded with the Anubis Box, but-’
‘And you call that a success?’ Tom said. ‘An artefact of such power in the hands of something so unpredictable?’
Church shrugged. ‘Whatever you say, I think things are turning in our favour.’
Tom hesitated before saying, ‘I believe I have found a way into the Court of the Final Word.’
‘See? That’s great,’ Church said. ‘So the next thing is to get the lamp and my Pendragon Spirit back.’ He didn’t see Tom share a dark glance with Niamh. ‘I’ve put things in place to get Shavi, Laura and Ruth together in the future. Trust me. Everything is going to be fine.’
2
‘So, have we got to spend the rest of our days hanging out in churches? ’Cause, you know, it’s not really me.’ Laura leaned against the wall of Waltham Abbey Church and watched the rising sun cast pointing shadows from the gravestones.
Shavi sat cross-legged on the grass. The atmosphere was still, perfect for meditation. ‘The power in the land was strong at all sites people considered sacred — not just churches, but stone circles, cairns, springs, hilltops, lakes. Perhaps people instinctively sensed its strength and worshipped there. Or perhaps the act of worshipping made the power stronger in some way. Who knows?’
‘Sounds like a load of hippie crap to me.’ Laura sniffed. ‘So where’s it gone now?’
‘I do not know. But I believe locating the Blue Fire is important in freeing the world from the Army of the Ten Billion Spiders.’
‘You really believe all that bollocks the old git keeps spouting?’
‘Behind his demeanour, the Bone Inspector is a wise man with a vast amount of knowledge that has been passed down to him across the generations-’
‘So he says.’
‘I am inclined to believe him. Everything I have witnessed gels with his perception of the situation.’
‘So … dragons?’ She rested her head on the stone wall, enjoying the sun warming her face.
‘He says if we can find the Fabulous Beasts we can find the Blue Fire, for the two are inextricably linked. The latent Blue Fire in these places not only masks our presence from the Army, it appears to be anathema to them. You saw how Rourke was thrown when the spark flashed between us. It appears it can be used both to heal and to hurt.’
‘This Pendragon Spirit is the thing I don’t get. The old git says we’re supposed to have it because we’re some kind of heroes. But, you know — and don’t take this the wrong way — are we the best they can get? I wouldn’t want to be protected by any army that has me in the front line. I’m a selfish, lying, cheating, promiscuous coward who will fuck anybody over if it will save her neck.’
Shavi smiled. ‘I think you are being harsh on yourself. And I think you are presenting a certain face to the world to hide the truth. You fear people will think the worst of you so you try to show them that aspect to prevent your disappointment.’
‘You don’t know anything, pretty boy. You think you do, but you really, really don’t.’ She changed the subject with a dismissive gesture. ‘So there’s supposed to be five of us, right? The magic number. Five Brothers and Sisters of Dragons. There’s you and me-’
‘Ruth Gallagher must be one, the other name on the stone.’
‘That’s only three. Who’s this “Church” who left the stone for us? He must have been around a long time ago if the ground wasn’t disturbed, as you said.’
‘I do not know. Now we must find Ruth.’
‘How? There must be about eight million old folks’ homes in South London. You reckon we should knock on every door?’
‘I have an idea I would like to try.’ Shavi’s statement was simple, but it carried a weight of apprehension.
‘Do you ever get the feeling that your life’s not real?’ Laura said thoughtfully.
The concept troubled Shavi to a degree that he couldn’t understand, but he knew exactly what she meant. ‘I feel as if I am playing a part.’
‘That’s it. It’s as though it’s all fake — memories and everything. I can remember my parents, but there’s none of that real detail you should have. It’s like I know they’re my parents, but that’s all. And they don’t feel as if they really are. They’re like actors playing a part.’ She paused, troubled. ‘How weird is that?’
The Bone Inspector came up so silently that Laura jumped. He held out his hands to show six eggs. ‘Breakfast,’ he said. ‘Then we get down to business.’
3
Forty minutes later on the edge of the graveyard, Shavi sat alone, listening to the birdsong, the wind stirring the branches of the trees, trying to still his rapidly beating heart. Laura and the Bone Inspector had retreated, bickering, to the van to give him his meditative space.
He breathed in, breathed out, tried to attune himself to the rhythms of nature as he had done in his flat after his long, hard days at the office. He expected it to take a long time, if it happened at all, but within minutes he was surprised to find himself slipping into a trance state. The waking world receded and soon there was only the soft thrum of blood in his head. He concentrated on what he wanted to achieve.
Time appeared to hang. It could have been minutes or hours when a faint fizzing arose accompanied by the smell of burned iron. The air was bubbling and spitting like molten metal. Shavi forced himself to stay calm. A gap the size of a porthole opened up in the seething air, and then a hand snaked out, followed by another. The spirit-form hauled itself through until it hung out from the waist up. It was the same almost featureless thing that had manifested in his office.