‘AND YOU, GIRL. DEATH FOLLOWED YOU SURE ENOUGH, HERE, TO MY DOOR. IT CAN FOLLOW YOU ELSEWHERE. BE THANKFUL I DO NOT SNAP YOUR SILLY NECK. MY HANDS ITCH TO DO IT.’ Faul yanked the rope, pulling free a section of the post it was tied to. She picked up Lalie and hurled her towards Anfen. His arms spread to catch her, but she knocked him over, both of them winded, her leg grazed as it scraped on the ground. The piece of post thumped hard into the turf nearby.
‘TAKE BACK YOUR GIFT OF DEATH,’ Faul bellowed at Anfen. ‘I SHOULD SQUEEZE YOU ALL BY THE GUTS TO GET BACK THE FOOD AND DRINK I MADE, AND GAVE YOU, IN MY FOOLISHNESS. IN MY …’ her voice choked up.
‘We’re going,’ said Anfen as they picked themselves up. ‘I hope we meet again, when you’ve calmed. Thank you for your shelter. I’m sorry this happened.’
Faul’s feet boomed down the steps. ‘I WILL NOT CALM. LEAVE NOW OR I BREAK YOUR HEADS LIKE EGGS.’
‘Come,’ said Anfen to the company. ‘If our host will be so kind as to throw us our possessions, our going will be easier.’ Lut emerged, a look of utmost regret on his face as he dumped their packs and gear into the yard.
Eric turned just in time to see it. Case had edged his way around the group, while the company gathered their things, all eyes nervously on Faul. Now Case made a run for a patch of ground just beyond the Invia’s corpse. ‘Case?’ Eric called.
Case looked back at him, hesitated, then grabbed the necklace from the ground and slipped it over his head. He vanished. Scuffs of dirt trailed away at the pace of his jog. ‘Guys! Wait!’ Eric called, rushing to follow before he lost sight of Case’s trail.
But Anfen and the rest didn’t hear. At that moment, Faul charged like a bull, a howl of rage tearing from her throat, eyes ablaze. They scattered, all of them. Eric had a second to decide which way he went.
In that moment he could smell Siel’s hair while her body nestled against his under the blanket, felt hope and desire bloom through him as it had just before hell had broken loose, a triumphant giddy voice crying: she’s mine! He also heard her voice, saying she’d looked inside his heart and mind and seen nothing. He hadn’t realised at the time, nor with the ensuing distraction of the scale vision, that they had been the most painful words ever spoken to him. He knew the choice may right now be: lie with her again tonight, or chase an old man through the wilderness, probably to their pointless deaths.
If they met again, he could explain what his choice had been trying to show her, if it wasn’t already clear to her. ‘You stupid, stupid old fucker,’ he muttered, and ran in the direction he’d seen the scuffs of Case’s footprints take.
34
It was too dark to see them, but there up ahead he heard it with intense relief, the crunch crunch crunch of Case’s feet on gravel, slowing to a walk. Eric had followed for a while, not even sure he was on the right trail, calling Case’s name to no response. Thin morning light revealed a plain of rubble and stones with no sign of life. Already Faul’s house couldn’t be seen when he turned and looked back. The wasteland of rocky turf sloped gradually downwards, awkward to walk on. On the very horizon’s edge was a raised bridge — a road, running left to right across the plain. Something, at least, to head towards. He hoped Case felt the same way, but there was no knowing, for the old guy wouldn’t speak and refused to take off the charm.
‘Case. Can you hear me? I hope to hell you’re listening. Because we’re square now. You think I got you into this whole mess in the first place? Well I’m telling you the ledger is even.’
No response.
‘Hey. Remember? Switch that lever. Open that door. Fuckhead. Who started it, huh? Yeah OK, jumping through the door was a mistake. Maybe stopping to talk to you under the bridge was a mistake. But look. Think about it. Does this seem a good plan to you?’ Eric swept his arm around at the barren grey wasteland. ‘Think our next meal’s going to be easy to get out here? I can’t see any lonely journalists who might put us up and pay for our alcohol. Know any?’
Crunch crunch, Case’s footsteps answered him.
‘It may not be too late to go back and find the others. Probably is, since they fled for their lives in a different direction, but maybe not. It’d be nice to have someone to talk to anyway, before we starve to death or get killed by pit devils or ringwraiths or whatever else.’
Eric realised the sound of footsteps had ceased. Behind him, there was Case, head in hands sitting on a rock. ‘Why’d you follow me?’ he said.
‘You just heard why. So we’d be even.’ And to prove to a certain female I’ll probably never see again that I’m able to stand on principle, however pointlessly.
‘Why? What a waste, Eric. I did this for me. You weren’t meant to come. You were happy with the rest of em. I wasn’t. Didn’t like em or trust em.’
Eric laughed. ‘Happy is maybe going a bit far. But we were fed and protected.’ He sat down beside the older man. ‘What is it, anyway? You want to go back home?’
Case snorted. ‘We’re not getting back.’
‘What makes you think so?’
‘She told me herself. Opening the door, it was real powerful magic, more than people here can actually do, even them mages. She didn’t know who did it in the first place. We can’t open it. No one’ll do it for us.’
Who’s ‘she’? Ah, Stranger … ‘Case, we don’t know that. Someone already did it: there must be a way. We could go looking. Maybe find our way to a city, ask around. Our very own quest. How about it?’
‘I’m not going back there,’ said Case.
‘Why not? You hate it here.’
‘I hate it there too. Hate it all. It stinks wherever you go. You get me? I’ve done my time. What’s life all about, Eric? What’s the big game, the whole point? I learned it. It’s to get to death in as much comfort as you can. Do your time, then bail. I fucked it all up pretty well but now I’m bailing.’
Eric sat beside him, muscles in his thighs twitching from the walk. Day settled a little firmer around them, the sky going white. ‘Let’s go back, Case. Let’s find the others.’
Case snapped, ‘To hell with them, and do what you like. I came out here to be with her.’
‘Right. You’re so certain she was following you. What if she doesn’t come? Because,’ he looked around, ‘nope. I don’t see her.’
‘She’ll come,’ he said angrily. ‘You bring the gun or not?’
‘Sure did. But you can’t shoot at hunger or thirst.’ Eric was overcome by a sudden burst of grief and guilt as he recalled the gunshots and the Invia’s dying scream. He moaned.
‘What’s wrong with you?’
‘I don’t know.’ Eric stood and began walking. He saw again the last fumbling drunken charge of the wounded human-looking creature, wounds he’d inflicted himself. As though despair had been cast on him like a spell, it suddenly all seemed pointless, and he empathised with the old man. Maybe he too had had time enough. The gun was right here — into the mouth, pop, and it was done as quickly as one could hope. He could do it at any time. It was not a thought he’d ever had before.
‘Where you going, Eric?’ Case’s voice, edged with worry. Eric pointed at the bridge in the distance. Case’s footsteps scuffed the ground behind him. ‘Hey. Hey, wait up for me. Hey Eric. That gun. Why not hand it over for a while?’
Am I as transparent as that? he wondered, handing Case the Glock. For a time they walked without speaking.
‘Shame about that bird lady,’ said Case with a sigh. ‘They’re pretty, they are. Real pretty. But so what? You did what you had to. Took balls to do it. Didn’t think you had it in you, but I was wrong.’
Eric didn’t answer.
‘I know what it feels like,’ said Case with a sigh. ‘Believe me, I know. It’ll stay with you, but it’ll let you have some peace, now and then at least.’ He put an arm around Eric, who was surprised to find himself crying.