`What did it look like?' Nest asked quickly:
'I'm getting to that, if you please' the sylvan informed in a no–nonsense tone of voice. 'Don't rush me' He cleared his throat. `It was a man. He was tall and thin, rather different looking–dark hair and small features. He wore a long coat, no hat. I got a good look at him through the scope' He held up the tube tied to his waist. `Spyglass. Lets me see everything. Anyway, he stood there in the shadows for a long time. Maybe an hour or more. The park emptied out. It was a bright, moonlit night, so I could see what happened next very clearly.'
He paused meaningfully.
'Another demon appeared. It crawled up the cliff face from somewhere below, from the shoreline. I don't know where it came from before that. This one was huge, barely recognisable as human, its disguise sort of thrown together. It was thick–limbed and hunched over and all hairy and twisted. It looked more like an animal than a human, but a human is what it was trying to play at being, sure enough.
`So the first demon steps out from its hiding place to talk to the second. I have good ears, so I could hear them. "What are you doing here?" the first one asks. "I've come to kill him," says the second. "You can't kill him, he's mine, he belongs to me, and I want him alive" says the first. "It doesn't matter what you want. He's too dangerous to be allowed to live, and besides, I want to taste his magic. I want to make it my own," says the second.
`Then they begin shrieking at each other, making threatening gestures, calling each other names: Boot shook his leafy head. `Well, you can imagine. I'm watching all this and wondering what in the world is going on. Two demons fighting over a human! I'd never heard of such a thing! Why would they do that when there's a whole world full of them, and more than a few ready, willing, and eager to be made victims?"
The sylvan came forward to the very edge of the bench, head inclined conspiratorially. `So then the first demon says, "You have no right to interfere in this. The Knight belongs to me, His magic and his life are mine' Well, now I know what they're talking about. They're quarrelling over a Knight of the Word. For some reason, they seem to think there's one out there waiting to be claimed! I've heard of this happening. Rarely, but now and then. But I don't know about this Knight. I don't know much of anything that happens outside the park, so I'm a little surprised to hear about this. I pay close attention.'
Boot glanced around at the darkness as if someone else might be listening, `So this is what happens next. The second demon pushes the first and says, "I was sent to make certain of him. I tracked him before you, in other cities and other towns. You stole him from me. I want him back." The first demon backs away. "Don't be stupid! You don't have a chance with him! I'm the one who can turn him! I can make him one of us! I have already started to do so!"
`But the second demon isn't listening. Its hair is bristling and its eyes are narrowed and hard. I can feel Audrey trembling next to me, her talons digging into the limb from which we watch. "He has made you weak and foolish. You think like the humans you pretend to be," says the second demon, advancing again on the first. "You are not strong enough to do what is needed. I must do it for you. I must kill him myself"
`Then the second demon pushes the first demon hard and sends it sprawling into the brush'
Nest felt the skin on the back of her neck crawl with the idea of two demons fighting over possession of John Ross. She should have taken the time to find him and bring him with her. He should be listening to this. If he were, he would be hard–pressed to argue that he wasn't in any real danger.
Boot nodded, as if reading her mind. `It was a bad moment. The first demon gets back to his feet and says, "All right, he's yours. Take him. I don't care anymore," The second demon grunts and sneers at the first, then turns and moves off down the path. The first demon waits until the second is out of sight, then starts to undress. It takes off its coat and the clothes underneath. Then it begins to transform into something else. It happens quickly. I have heard of creatures like this, but I have never seen one - a changeling, a special kind of demon, able to shift from one form to another in moments where it takes the others days or even weeks to assume a new disguise'
The sylvan took a deep breath. `It becomes a four–legged creature, a monster, a predator like nothing I've ever seen. It has these huge jaws and this massive neck and shoulders. A hellhound. A rover. It lopes off into the brush after the second demon. Audrey and I take to the air and follow, watching. The changeling catches up to the second demon in seconds. It doesn't hesitate. It attacks instantly, charging out of the brush. It knocks the second demon to the ground despite its size and holds it there with its body weight. It tears the bigger demon's head from its shoulders, then rips its body down the middle and fastens on the dark thing inside that is its soul. There is a horrible shriek, and the second demon thrashes and goes limp. It begins to dissolve. It turns to ash and blows away in the summer's night breeze.
`The first demon says - growls, actually, and I can hear it even from atop the trees where Audrey and I watch it begin to change again — "He belongs to me, he is mine'
Rain gusted suddenly through the trees, blown on a fresh wind, and Nest started as the cold droplets blew into her face. The weather was worsening, the mist turning to a steady downpour. Nest tried to make sense of what the sylvan was telling her, why it was that the first demon would be so desperate to protect its interest in John Ross, to keep him alive so that he could be subverted. Something in the back of her mind nudged at her, a memory of something that had happened before, but she could not quite manage to identify it.
Ariel floated past her in the dark, her childlike form looking frail and exposed against the rush of wind and rain. 'Is that all?' she asked Boot. `Is that the end of the story?'
'Not quite' replied the sylvan, dark eyes bright. `Like I said, the demon begins to change again, but -it's the strangest thing - this time it changes into. .
Something huge tore through the woods. Thick masses of brush shivered suddenly, shedding water and scattering shadows. Boot wheeled toward the movement in frightened recognition, his voice faltering and his dark eyes blinking in shock. Ariel gasped sharply and screamed at Nest.
Then the brush exploded in a shower of branches and leaves, and a massive black shape hurtled out of the night.
0n the advice of Simon Lawrence, Andrew Wren enjoyed a leisurely dinner at Roy's, tapping it off with the chocolate snuffle because everyone around him seemed to be doing the same. He was not disappointed. Then he went back out into the lobby for a nightcap. He drank a glass of port and engaged in conversation with a computes–software salesman from California who was in town to do a little business with Microsoft, picking up a few new tit bits of information on Bill Gates in the process (he never knew what was going to prove useful in his business). So it was nearing nine o'clock when he went up to his room to turn in.
He saw the manila envelope as soon as he opened the door, a pale square packet lying an the dark carpet. Wary of strange deliveries and having known more than one investigative journalist who had been the recipient of a letter bomb, he switched on the light and knelt to examine it. After a careful check, and noting how thin it was, he decided it was safe and picked it up. No writing on it anywhere. He carried it over to the small table by the window and set it down. Then he walked to the closet and hung his coat, turned on a few :mare lights, called the message service to retrieve a call that had came in over the dinner hour from his editor, and finally went back to the table, sat down in the straight–backed chair tucked under it, and picked up the envelope once more.