‘That’s about the size of it,’ Church said.
‘And it controls an army of ten billion supernatural spiders.’
‘Unless the number is meant metaphorically. Could be more,’ Church said.
‘And this god controls an unspecified number of lesser gods, any one of which could probably bring the world to its knees.’
‘Yep.’
‘I think you’re going to need a bigger sword.’
‘It sounds like a suicide mission to me,’ Ruth noted.
‘Ah, don’t let that get in the way of your thinking,’ Laura said. ‘Life’s a suicide mission. It’s not a case of if, it’s when.’
They all thought about this and then laughed. Though he wouldn’t have said it to their faces, Church was proud of them; everything he had heard suggested they would be fine additions to the long heritage of the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons. Ruth was right — it was a suicide mission. Yet that didn’t bother them in the way it would have troubled other people, a fact that was both absurd and uplifting.
‘So how do we conduct a fight like that?’ Shavi mused thoughtfully.
‘I’ve been thinking about that. Laura was right in a way — we do need a bigger weapon,’ Church said.
‘If you only knew how many times in my life I’ve had to say that,’ Laura said.
‘What kind of weapon?’ Ruth edged closer to him.
‘The Extinction Shears,’ he said. ‘I saw what they could do. I think if we had them we could inflict some serious damage on the Void. Maybe even destroy it for good.’
‘You want to kill god,’ Laura said. ‘Nobody’s going to accuse you of aiming low.’
‘Then we need to find that market you mentioned-’ Shavi began.
‘The Market of Wishful Spirit,’ Church said. ‘It travels around, from place to place. You never know where it’s going to be until you stumble across it. The trader implied that the Shears were going to be off the market for a while, but we’re not going to let a little thing like that stop us, are we?’
‘Any idea where to start looking?’ Ruth said.
‘Not yet. But there’s something else we need to do first. Tomorrow.’
‘I don’t know about you,’ Laura said, ‘but I need to get some shut-eye. Finding out you’re a plant is pretty exhausting.’ She made light of her comment, but Church could see in her eyes how much it troubled her.
The others fell asleep quickly, but Church stayed awake for almost an hour, watching Ruth, and feeling an abiding peace. Finally, after so many years and so much struggle, they were together.
11
The moon was full and milky in a star-spangled sky as they left the comfort of Stonehenge and made their way to Shavi’s van. Church took the wheel, enjoying the prospect of driving much more than he would ever have anticipated before he turned up in the Iron Age.
‘So where are we going?’ Laura asked as she climbed into the back with Shavi.
‘I don’t know yet.’
‘Doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence.’
Church tapped his head. ‘It’s all up here. I’m going with instinct.’
Laura rested her head in Shavi’s lap. ‘I’ll say, ditto.’
‘I have to say, in my experience of the last few days, we cannot afford to stay in one place too long,’ Shavi said.
‘Yeah, everywhere is enemy territory,’ Laura said. ‘How fucked up is that?’
‘I don’t see how we’re going to be able to do anything positive,’ Ruth said. ‘The enemy will have us on the run continually.’ She searched the shadowy hedgerows and the lonely Downs as Church pulled onto the main road. She half-expected Rourke to be waiting there, ready to throw himself at the van.
‘That’s the first thing we’re going to tackle,’ Church said. ‘Some of this land has to be our land.’
‘Sounds like the man has a plan,’ Ruth said.
Shavi stretched out. ‘It is Veitch I feel sorry for. He was one of us, and though I cannot remember it, we must have been good friends. He has been a victim in these events.’
‘He was a victim, but he’s also slaughtered hundreds of Brothers and Sisters of Dragons over the years,’ Church replied. ‘He chose to cross a line a long time ago.’ Of all their enemies, Church was convinced Veitch was the most dangerous. He would never stop, never walk away, until he felt he had got his revenge, even if rivers of blood were spilled and the land looked like a charnel house.
‘Sounds like you’ve got a downer on the Veitch-dude,’ Laura said lazily.
Church glanced in the mirror and thought he saw a faint movement on the skyline. It was impossible to discern the cause, but it troubled him immensely.
12
They headed west through the ancient heart of England, over rolling downs and past silent golden cornfields, through market towns still dreaming of the Tudors and woods where the oaks were twisted with age, and onwards to the M5 motorway. They followed it south to Exeter, and then west through Devon and into Cornwall, stopping only briefly to refuel. Every time they slowed at junctions, Laura, Shavi and Ruth turned to the windows, searching for anything that might hint of an impending attack. But there were only lorry drivers heading through the night from the port at Bristol, or tourists trying to beat the daytime jams.
‘I don’t get it,’ Laura said. ‘They wouldn’t give us a free run. Maybe they don’t know where we are.’
‘They know,’ Church said.
‘They are biding their time.’ Shavi leaned on the back of Church’s seat, searching the road ahead. ‘After our escape they are not taking any chances. They want to get us into a position from which there is no escape.’
‘Because they’re scared of us,’ Ruth said.
‘They’re scared of what we represent,’ Church corrected. ‘They’re scared of the Pendragon Spirit.’
They followed the granite spine of Cornwall towards the land where Church had begun his journey 2,300 years earlier. Before they reached Carn Euny, Church took them south, past patchwork fields and stone walls and trees bent double by Atlantic storms. In the distance the lights of St Austell rose up, with the beach and sea just beyond.
‘Nearly there now,’ Church said. ‘I can feel it.’ The light in his head was brighter; he could almost hear the Seelie Court singing.
The roads beyond St Austell were poorly lit and the dark appeared to be closing in on every side. In the shadows they thought they glimpsed faces and movement, but they sped by too fast to be sure.
The road continued up a steep incline; at the top Church slowed and peered over the steering wheel. ‘I think I know where we are.’
Ruth looked out into the night. ‘Don’t stop here,’ she said uneasily.
From there it was downhill all the way. They left the main road and passed through some gates onto a private road. Ahead a soft golden glow rose up from somewhere below their line of sight.
And there Church did bring the van to a halt. While the engine idled, he looked at the faint glow. ‘This is either a coincidence or the weirdest synchronicity,’ he said. ‘This particular part of my journey is ending where my journey as a Brother of Dragons began this second time round. Metaphorically speaking.’
‘It is the ouroboros,’ Shavi said, ‘the serpent eating its own tail. A full circle. Every ending is a new beginning, and so the cycle continues.’
‘I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about,’ Laura said, ‘and to be honest, no interest. But you’ve clearly done a lot of drugs in the past.’
Ruth had been staring out of the side window, not at the glow, but at the vast sea of darkness that surrounded it. ‘Something’s not right,’ she said.
‘What do you mean?’ Church asked.
‘The shadows are moving. See? All over.’ She indicated a wide arc.
Ruth was right: the darkness looked like a black sheet with something squirming underneath.
They were all mesmerised by it until Church realised what they were seeing. ‘Spiders.’
They covered every inch of the fields and hillsides surrounding them, billions of them drawing in on the golden light ahead.