Mallory was entranced. Sophie gave him an unnecessarily hard pinch. ‘Ah … yes,’ he stuttered. ‘We … uh-’
‘Your majesty, we are here to seek your help,’ Sophie interjected forcefully. ‘We’re looking for a powerful weapon-’
‘-that will help us defeat the Devourer of All Things,’ Jerzy said. ‘The object of power is known as the Extinction Shears.’
‘I know of this thing,’ Niamh said, ‘but the Shears have been missing since they were encountered by my good friend Church, your Brother.’
‘The Extinction Shears are held in the Market of Wishful Spirit. Find the market, you find the Shears.’ Mallory had regained his composure.
‘Then I will give you all the help you need to find the travelling market. Now tell me of Church,’ she said brightly. ‘Is he well?’
‘He would have come with us, but he’s needed back in our world,’ Sophie replied. ‘He is well. But it’s a hard fight.’
Niamh nodded, and gave a smile shadowed by a fleeting sadness.
Chairs were brought and Niamh motioned for them to sit. She despatched Evgen to arrange for food to be brought from the kitchens.
‘These are dark times in the Far Lands. War draws ever closer.’ Niamh sat on a carved wooden throne between two braziers, oblivious to the heat. ‘On the edge of this realm, the fortress of the Army of the Ten Billion Spiders sits brooding. Bigger than this court. Bigger than the twenty Great Courts. Its forces have swelled to an incalculable number. Lament Brood. Redcaps. Gehennis. The foulest things known to Existence. They march far and wide, leaving despair in their wake. Soon they will be upon us, and then …’ She waved the thought away. ‘It is not the numbers. It is the great powers they control. And in the sky above the fortress something is beginning to appear.’
‘They have other gods working with them,’ Mallory said. ‘Janus. Loki. Apollo-’
‘They may call themselves gods …’ Once again she caught herself. ‘Old habits die hard. The truth? The Golden Ones are driven back at every turn. Our power and influence wane. Sometimes, in my darker moments, I wonder if our time has passed.’
Caitlin sat with her legs tucked under her and her arms wrapped tightly around her. ‘I’m still scared,’ she said. ‘Where’s the Morrigan?’
‘Don’t worry about her,’ Mallory said to Niamh. ‘She’s not … well.’
‘The Morrigan helped me once.’ Caitlin rocked in her chair. ‘I need her to help me again.’
‘The Morrigan is one of my dark sisters,’ Niamh said. ‘She has great power. She deals in blood and death.’
‘And birth,’ Caitlin added. ‘And sex. New life.’
‘She would be a great boon to us in the struggle ahead, but she has not been seen for a long time.’ Niamh sighed. ‘And she is not the only one. Over many generations, Church rescued Brothers and Sisters of Dragons from certain death and brought them here for sanctuary. One night they left as one, their mission unknown. They have not been seen since.’
‘We were counting on them to help us,’ Mallory said.
‘There is something you should see.’ Niamh whispered to an aide who hurried out of the throne-room, returning a moment later with a large case covered by a velvet cloth. He placed it on a table in front of Niamh and retreated.
Niamh hesitated, then plucked the cloth aside, uncovering a glass case edged with gold. Inside was a spider. Once revealed, it threw itself furiously at the glass, attempting to break free.
‘This was placed inside my head to control me.’ Niamh passed a hand across her eyes, troubled. ‘I know not how it came to be there, but it took all the skills of my people to remove it. I keep it here to remind me that even the Golden Ones can succumb to the powers of the Army of the Ten Billion Spiders.’
‘Have they tried to control any more of your people?’ Mallory asked.
Niamh fell silent for a moment. ‘Not that I know. But some Golden Ones have gone missing. My advisors suggest they may simply have fled the coming war, but I fear the worst.’
Promising to put all she had at their disposal, Niamh had Evgen provide rooms for the four of them.
‘I like her,’ Mallory said, once they were in their cramped, too-hot quarters.
‘You would. You’re a man.’ Sophie examined Caitlin, who had already fallen into a deep sleep on the couch. ‘I’m worried about her. She’s retreated into her other personalities ever since we came here. And what was all that about the Morrigan?’
They were interrupted by a sound like distant thunder. The north window led onto a small balcony. Standing there they watched bursts of fire in the sky far to the north, punctuated by deep rumbles.
‘This is a scary place,’ Sophie said. ‘I thought it was supposed to be Fairyland. It’s more like hell.’
She edged closer to Mallory and he unconsciously slipped an arm around her waist. It surprised them both.
‘I remember now,’ she said. ‘You and me.’
‘My combat honey.’ The words sprang from nowhere. Mallory gently traced his fingers across her face as the memories surfaced, slowly at first but then gaining intensity as if a barrier had been breached. ‘We met in Salisbury. The Church was trying to establish a new order of Knights Templar. I signed up.’
Sophie giggled. ‘You were such a lad!’
‘The things you could do with the Craft. You were scary.’
‘Still am.’
Another thunderous barrage of explosions lit the heavens, but now they were oblivious to it.
Another memory ignited on Sophie’s face, sorrowful this time. ‘That awful thing you went through … the one you killed … you poor baby.’
Mallory tried to brush it off, but a tremor ran through him. ‘We can’t become Brothers and Sisters of Dragons until we experience death.’ His expression grew puzzled. ‘But you … I’m still having trouble …’
The brief moment of anxiety was driven out by her smile. ‘Forget about me! I was just a little rebel girl who hooked up with a bunch of travellers. Nothing compared to you.’ She grabbed his head and kissed him with a desperate passion. ‘We were both lost until we met each other. Getting together in Salisbury — that saved us, didn’t it?’
He nodded, unable to take his eyes off her face.
‘What the Void did to us with those fake lives … Seeing each other every day but never being able to talk, not knowing how much we meant to each other-’
Mallory kissed her again. It was soft and deep and their bodies folded together while fire roared across the sky. Gently, Mallory’s hand moved up to her breast and his thumb circled her hardening nipple. Sophie kissed him more deeply, one hand caressing his erection before undoing his trousers and sliding her hand inside. Heat, delirious sensation and a torrent of emotion overwhelmed them, everything that had been denied them in recent months.
Not caring where they were or who might see them, Sophie pulled Mallory down onto the balcony floor. Hard and hot, he slid inside her, and then they kissed, and made love, and agreed a silent covenant that they would never be torn apart again.
8
Caitlin found Mallory and Sophie asleep on the balcony, wrapped in each other’s arms. She was pleased for them, yet also, oddly, a little sad. If she could, she would have examined that feeling, but the voices of Amy, Brigid and Briony chattered continually in her head, warning her of terrible danger, trying to take control of what they called her ‘day-mind’ so they could drive her to hide or flee.
Yet the raw return of her own memories caused sufficient pain to keep her own personality in control. She recalled with a terrible surge of grief the deaths of her husband and son, a shattering event that had broken her mentally and rebuilt her as a Sister of Dragons. The memory of her possession by the Morrigan, too, was harsh and bathed in blood. It had turned her into a warrior who could overcome anything, but when the Morrigan had finally departed she had hoped she would finally be granted peace.