"I don't want to take them, you buffoon. I want you to use them. Tell us where they've taken the orb."
"I suppose I could…" he wavered. "But only if I come with you. You must promise to take me with you."
"We're not waiting for you," said Blackbird. "There isn't time. If you fall behind then so be it."
"Agreed!" said Gregor. "I will not fall behind. You'll see. We'll be there together to witness the end of all things."
"We will if you don't get on with it," said Blackbird.
NINETEEN
Gregor took a box from his pocket from which he extracted a deck of cards.
"Tarot cards?" I asked her. "Are you serious?"
"I need a table," said Gregor.
"We can use the altar," said Blackbird, turning towards the end of the apse.
"No!" I said. "You can't use an altar for tarot cards. That's… that's…"
"Oh for goodness sake," said Blackbird. She grabbed Gregor's lapel and dragged him through the church to the back where a table had been spread with souvenir leaflets and postcards. She swept the lot from the table in a single gesture.
"Do it," she commanded.
He sat down and took the deck from its box. "I can't do it with you staring at me like that," he said.
She turned her back ostentatiously. I stood in front of her. She caught her tooth on her lip and narrowed her eyes.
"What does it say?" I asked Gregor over her shoulder.
"I am still shuffling the cards," said Gregor.
Blackbird balled her fists. If he didn't get on with it there would be blood.
"I will do a simple reading," said Gregor. "We do not have time for a more sophisticated divination."
"Really?" whispered Blackbird under her breath.
"The fool. Oh," he said, "I think that must be me."
Blackbird shook her head in despair.
"The priestess and the hanged man. You see? I told you."
"Get on with it," she called behind her.
"Have patience. These things cannot be hurried. Do you wish me to make an error?"
I could see her holding back her retort.
"The Sun, The Moon and the Star? Where have they come from? I do not understand. One more — the Devil. There is evil in this."
"We're getting there." she said, "Slowly."
"Now we come to it," he said. "The world, flanked by justice and judgement. A moment of truth."
"Nearly…" she said.
"The lovers, and the wheel of fortune, flanking the seven of swords. Everything hangs by a thread," he said, "but why the seven of swords?"
"One more…" she whispered.
"Death." His voice held the loss of hope.
"Do it again," she said.
"It makes no difference," he wailed. "We will only repeat what we have in different ways."
"The last card," she insisted. "Turn it again!"
There was a pause. "The Tower," he said, as if he was seeing clearly for the first time.
"Glastonbury," she said. "Glastonbury Tor, that's where they are."
She grabbed my hand, pulling me towards the aisle of the church.
"We will go together," said Gregor. "I will call the taxi. We can hire a car in Hereford."
"Sorry Gregor," she said. "I told you, we won't wait." She mouthed a single word to me.
Follow.
She stepped into the aisle of the church and I realised what I had missed in all the fuss. We were standing on a Waypoint. It hummed beneath us, under the flags. She stepped forward and the air twisted. She vanished.
"What the…?" I heard Gregor behind me and turned.
He stood with his mouth open.
"Sorry," I said. "You heard what she said."
"Wait!" he called, but I was already turning and stepping, feeling the Way rise beneath me, whirling me away on the breath of night, into the dark.
Eve held the orb out in front of her, cupped in her hands as she walked up the path towards the summit. As she moved, the colours in it swirled and twisted. It reminded Alex of photos she'd seen of the planet Jupiter, except there was no red spot.
"It knows where it's going," said Eve.
"Which is more than I do," said Alex. "This is the middle of nowhere."
"On the contrary," said Eve. "This is the middle of everywhere. Everything converges here — human and fey — everything and everyone."
"But there's no one here," said Alex, scanning the top of the hill.
"Don't worry," she said. "They'll know when it's time. You can be sure of that."
Eve pushed on for the summit. Alex thought they would head for the empty windowed tower, but Eve stopped short in the flat space before it. "Here," she said. "This is a good place."
Alex exchanged glances with Sparky, who was carrying the bag with all the things they'd stolen in it. He shrugged, "I don't need to go any further if you don't." He dropped the bag, holding it out and letting it fall from his outstretched hand.
"Careful!" Eve glared at him. "If you damage anything in there at this late stage, you'll suffer for it."
"All right," he said. "Keep your hair on."
"Save your flippant remarks. We are at the culmination of years of research and painstaking study. Have you never wondered what happened? Where they all went?"
"Where who all went?" asked Alex.
"Long, long ago," said Eve, "the world was a different place. Creatures walked the earth that we now think of as myths and legends, but were as real as you or I. Griffons, manticores, dragons — even unicorns. The universe was a different place. Magic was a core part of existence. Without magic you were meat, something to be caught and eaten."
"Lovely," said Alex.
"Then came the universe of men, shaping the world to suit themselves. They forced the world of magic back where it came from, shaping the world into a poor facsimile of what it was, the world we see spread out before us now." She gestured out to the land around them, fading into distance in the haze. "But we can change it back. We can remake the world as it was."
"But we're part human," said Alex. "It's what we are."
"And they despise us for it," said Eve. "We are not of either tribe, but a melding of both. We are as much human as we are fey, but neither will have us. They have refused us at every turn, they have tortured us in their hospitals, and their laboratories…"
For a moment there was an expression on Eve's face that frightened Alex, but then her face softened.
"…and when we turned to our brethren, our true heritage of magic and power, they turned their backs. They sent their assassins, their killers, they held the knife to our throat."
She smiled, looking at Sparky, then at Chipper, then at Alex.
"But we are better than them. They are old and weak, and we are young and strong. They were arrogant and complacent, and we were ready for them. Weighed down by concepts as irrelevant as honour and duty, by corrupt deals done in dark corners, they have shown themselves to be unfit to carry us into the future."
She held up the orb. "We are the torch bearers; it is up to us to show them the way."
"What do we need to do?" asked Sparky.
"Gather the items together. Alex, take the rod and the key and stand there."
She pointed to a spot in the grass. Sparky dipped into the bag and handed her the items. "It'll be OK," he said quietly. "You'll see."
"Chipper," said Eve, "take the scourge and the feather and stand there."
Chipper moved to collect the items and stood in his appointed place. Alex watched him, thinking that for once he was here in the real world with them, and not some virtual reality. For once he looked focussed and attentive.
"Sparky, bring the arrow and the cross and stand there." Eve pointed to a spot that would mean they formed a large triangle around her.
He moved across, winking at Alex as he passed. When he was in his place, Eve turned slowly, checking each was in position.