Jack of Ravens (52 page)

‘So he says.’

‘I am inclined to believe him. Everything I have witnessed gels with his perception of the situation.’

‘So … dragons?’ She rested her head on the stone wall, enjoying the sun warming her face.

‘He says if we can find the Fabulous Beasts we can find the Blue Fire, for the two are inextricably linked. The latent Blue Fire in these places not only masks our presence from the Army, it appears to be anathema to them. You saw how Rourke was thrown when the spark flashed between us. It appears it can be used both to heal and to hurt.’

‘This Pendragon Spirit is the thing I don’t get. The old git says we’re supposed to have it because we’re some kind of heroes. But, you know – and don’t take this the wrong way – are we the best they can get? I wouldn’t
want to be protected by any army that has me in the front line. I’m a selfish, lying, cheating, promiscuous coward who will fuck anybody over if it will save her neck.’

Shavi smiled. ‘I think you are being harsh on yourself. And I think you are presenting a certain face to the world to hide the truth. You fear people will think the worst of you so you try to show them that aspect to prevent your disappointment.’

‘You don’t know anything, pretty boy. You think you do, but you really, really don’t.’ She changed the subject with a dismissive gesture. ‘So there’s supposed to be five of us, right? The magic number. Five Brothers and Sisters of Dragons. There’s you and me—’

‘Ruth Gallagher must be one, the other name on the stone.’

‘That’s only three. Who’s this “Church” who left the stone for us? He must have been around a long time ago if the ground wasn’t disturbed, as you said.’

‘I do not know. Now we must find Ruth.’

‘How? There must be about eight million old folks’ homes in South London. You reckon we should knock on every door?’

‘I have an idea I would like to try.’ Shavi’s statement was simple, but it carried a weight of apprehension.

‘Do you ever get the feeling that your life’s not real?’ Laura said thoughtfully.

The concept troubled Shavi to a degree that he couldn’t understand, but he knew exactly what she meant. ‘I feel as if I am playing a part.’

‘That’s it. It’s as though it’s all fake – memories and everything. I can remember my parents, but there’s none of that real detail you should have. It’s like I know they’re my parents, but that’s all. And they don’t feel as if they really are. They’re like actors playing a part.’ She paused, troubled. ‘How weird is that?’

The Bone Inspector came up so silently that Laura jumped. He held out his hands to show six eggs. ‘Breakfast,’ he said. ‘Then we get down to business.’

3

Forty minutes later on the edge of the graveyard, Shavi sat alone, listening to the birdsong, the wind stirring the branches of the trees, trying to still his rapidly beating heart. Laura and the Bone Inspector had retreated, bickering, to the van to give him his meditative space.

He breathed in, breathed out, tried to attune himself to the rhythms of nature as he had done in his flat after his long, hard days at the office. He expected it to take a long time, if it happened at all, but within minutes he
was surprised to find himself slipping into a trance state. The waking world receded and soon there was only the soft thrum of blood in his head. He concentrated on what he wanted to achieve.

Time appeared to hang. It could have been minutes or hours when a faint fizzing arose accompanied by the smell of burned iron. The air was bubbling and spitting like molten metal. Shavi forced himself to stay calm. A gap the size of a porthole opened up in the seething air, and then a hand snaked out, followed by another. The spirit-form hauled itself through until it hung out from the waist up. It was the same almost featureless thing that had manifested in his office.

It mewled in pain, then said, ‘You have called me from the Invisible World again, Brother of Dragons, forced me to endure the suffering of this world. Do you have a question for me this time, or do you merely wish to exhibit your cruelty?’

‘I have three questions,’ Shavi said. The Bone Inspector had told Shavi that as a seer he should be able to communicate with the ‘Others’, but Shavi hadn’t understood the meaning of the statement until that moment.

‘Then speak them, Dragon-Brother, but know this: there is a price to pay for the answers you seek.’

‘What price?’

‘A small thing.’

‘You must tell me first.’

‘No, you must agree to the contract first. That is the way these things are done.’

Shavi knew it was stupid to agree in advance, but he could see no other alternative; there was too much at stake. ‘A small thing?’ he asked.

‘A small thing.’

‘Then I agree.’

The spirit-form made an unpleasant smacking noise and said, ‘Then ask, Brother of Dragons, and may the knowledge benefit you as much as you hope.’

Shavi took a deep breath. Then: ‘Where, exactly, is Ruth Gallagher, Sister of Dragons?’

‘Not a good question, Brother of Dragons. Ruth Gallagher is
exactly
in the Fixed Lands. She is
exactly
within a day’s flight from this place. But with respect to you, I will offer the answer you require this time. Ruth Gallagher spends her days in labour next to the river, near a bridge.’

Shavi decided the information was good enough for him to find her. For the second question, he strove to choose his words more cleverly. ‘I know there are supposed to be five Brothers and Sisters of Dragons. Ruth, Laura and myself make three. Who are the other two?’

‘Jack Churchill, known as Church, and Ryan Veitch.’

Shavi couldn’t understand how Church could be one of their group and also have buried the stone all those years ago, but he couldn’t risk asking. He had one more important thing to ask. ‘Where can I find the Fabulous Beasts?’

The spirit-form paused for so long that Shavi thought it was not going to answer. But finally it said, ‘There is only one Fabulous Beast left in this world. It remained behind in the hope that one day a voice would call out and waken it from its slumber.’

It fell silent. Shavi waited.

‘The Fabulous Beast sleeps beneath the Garden of Eden.’

Shavi continued to wait, but it was clear the spirit-form was not going to volunteer any more information. But that is meaningless … The Garden of Eden does not exist.’

‘I have answered your questions, Brother of Dragons, and now I demand my price.’

‘But—’

Shavi’s protestations died in his throat. The spirit-form rushed from the hole in the air with outstretched grasping hands.

4

The howl of pain echoed across the Abbey grounds. Laura and the Bone Inspector rushed across the graveyard to find Shavi sprawled on the grass. Laura turned him over. His hands were clutched to his face and when Laura pulled them away she recoiled in horror. Shavi’s left eye had been torn out leaving a blood-encrusted, gaping socket.

5

After detouring to a costume shop in East London, Shavi had a black leather eye patch covering the empty orbit. ‘Strangely, it no longer hurts,’ he said as he gingerly probed around his cheekbone.

‘Good. So you’re ready to answer some straight questions,’ Laura said sharply from the driver’s seat. ‘You gave up your eye on purpose? Just to get a few answers?’

‘I did not know that would be the price.’

‘Then you’re more of an idiot than I thought,’ the Bone Inspector growled. You think they’re going to take something that’s not important?’

Shavi was surprised by how hard Laura had taken his sacrifice. She had already gone through disbelief, tears and finally had arrived at a cold, hard anger that currently was directed at him.

‘I think the eye patch from the costume shop is quite dashing,’ he said in an attempt to defuse the tension. It didn’t work.

Laura pulled the van over with a screech of tyres. ‘Is this what it’s going to be like, then? You give up an eye. I donate an ovary. You lose a leg. I hack off an arm. Is that it? Because if it is, I don’t want it.’

‘The burger bar is better?’

‘Yes, it is. Let somebody else do this stuff. We can go back to having fun.’

‘There is no one else.’

‘You two shut up.’ The Bone Inspector glared at them. ‘Here’s how it is: you do this or the Army of the Ten Billion Spiders cuts you – and me – out of reality. Gone. Forgotten. Never existed.’ He turned to Shavi. ‘That’s it, isn’t it?’

Shavi nodded.

‘Now find this Ruth Gallagher and maybe you’ll make a bigger spark. And then you find the other two, and then maybe we’ll discover what’s happened to the world and what the Enemy wants.’

They’d already tried a number of care homes near London’s bridges after consulting the
Yellow Pages
and the
A-Z
. There was only one left.

‘That’s it,’ Laura said nodding to a large, old house. ‘I hope she’s got more sense than you or we really are fucked in the head.’

6

Ruth felt as if she was waking from a long, deep sleep. Her mind was sluggish, but she was sure clarity lay just on the other side of the fog. Her dream of the owl-man had set something in motion, but she was not yet sure what it was or how it would turn out. The first manifestation of her new state was that she had called in sick to work, and the elation she felt when she put down the phone made her think she should give up her job completely. If she couldn’t afford the flat, she could always move out of the city.

Her phone rang. It was Rourke. ‘I just tried you at work—’

‘I called in sick.’

‘Is that wise?’

Ruth bristled. She wondered why she had put up with Rourke’s claustrophobic attentions for so long.

‘I thought I might drop round to see you,’ he continued.

‘No,’ she said firmly.

‘We could go for lunch?’

‘I’ve got things to do. I’ll call you later.’ Ruth hung up quickly. She
realised that in the past he’d always managed to talk her round when she tried to hold him at bay. Was she really that weak?

A noise in the bedroom. Ruth felt a familiar shiver, but this time she didn’t shy away from it.

The bedroom was still. Her bedroom door was ajar. Before she could investigate further, she was drawn to the window by a magnetic sense that someone desperately needed to speak to her.

In the street outside stood the giant she’d encountered on the Underground. He was looking up at her window with an expression of abject concern. When he saw her, he motioned furiously for her to join him. Ruth was surprised to realise she felt no sense of threat. Away from the shadows of the Tube tunnel, the giant appeared benign. Every now and then he glanced from side to side. Ruth knew obliquely that he was watching for the spiders. At that moment, not really knowing why, she decided she would go to him.

The creak of the wardrobe door made her start. Ruth turned to see the door opening of its own accord.

Ruth was gripped by a terrible dread. As the eerie movement of the door halted, she looked inside the wardrobe and saw not her clothes, but a deep, sucking darkness. Within the folds of the impenetrable gloom,
something
lurked. Ruth felt the inescapable gravity of the presence, the weight of its malign intent. It hungered for her.

The darkness bulged from the doorway, gaining shape and form. Ruth just had time to turn back to the giant before whatever was behind caught hold of her. Fear came down like night. She gripped onto the curtains, but was dragged back inexorably. Her eyes locked onto the giant’s, and she saw fear in them, too: for her.

The darkness pulled her back, and back, until she was sucked into the depths of the wardrobe. She felt the presence close behind her, its breath on the back of her neck.

Ruth had time for one final scream and then the wardrobe door slammed shut.

7

‘She’s not there. I’ve got an address for her flat.’ Laura marched down the path from the care home, Shavi and the Bone Inspector hurrying in her wake.

‘They gave out her address?’ Shavi said.

‘Not exactly.’

Laura paused as she neared the van. Someone leaned jauntily against it: long, dark hair, a grinning, charismatic face.

‘Who the fuck are you?’ Laura said.

‘Ryan Veitch,’ he replied. ‘Ring any bells?’

‘We were about to search for you,’ Shavi said.

‘And I’ve been searching for you.’

Veitch held out his hand. When Shavi took it he was surprised by the coldness of the grip.

‘Yeah,’ Veitch said. ‘I’m not all there.’ He held up his silver claw.

Shavi felt he should be remembering something, but it failed to surface.

‘See?’ Laura said bitterly. ‘I told you – he’s already lost a hand. Well, I’m too beautiful and sexy to give up any body parts.’

‘You’re right there, darlin’.’ Veitch held his arms wide and Laura gave him a tentative hug.