Thin Air (39 page)

‘I want assurances,’ Dex said.
‘I want Jay and me to be safe and free. Jay must be given back
everything that was taken from her.’

Peter and Lacey did not move,
but Jay sensed that in some arcane way they had exchanged a glance.
‘Jay will have what she wants,’ Peter said and looked Jay in the
eye. ‘But be careful what you ask for.’

‘Yes,’ Jay said, ‘I don’t want
to wake up and find myself in bed beside Gus, for example, as if
none of this ever happened. I’ve been through shit, but some of the
changes have my approval.’

Peter smiled, in a totally human
way that made Jay feel better about him. ‘Precisely.

‘Sing the songs,’ Lacey said to
Dex. ‘Sing now.’

He sighed. ‘I haven’t sung since
I walked away from my life.’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Peter said.
‘You don’t have to give the vocal performance of your life. It’s
the intention that counts.’

Dex nodded thoughtfully. ‘OK.’
He closed his eyes.

Jem reached for Jay’s hand.

His voice was shaky at first,
slightly out of tune. Jay had heard these songs a hundred times,
but had never known their true meaning. Now, her skin prickled as
she listened to them. The words seemed almost irrelevant, what was
important were the feelings that expressed themselves in Dex’s
ragged tone. She could almost see his bewilderment and fear, his
self-disgust, his anger. It was not a comfortable experience being
surrounded by those emotions. Dex’s voice became stronger, louder,
as the lyrics to ‘Losing Me’ burst out of him. He could almost have
been singing about a failed love affair: ‘You can’t make me into
you, you can’t keep me near, because I’ve seen the truth of your
heart, I’ve seen inside your fear.’

Jay felt as if she was shooting
up out of her body to look down upon the scene below. Sounds had
become colours. She could see them flaring out of Dex’s body,
glittering beams that reached up towards the sky and rayed outwards
to touch the world around him. The songs were truly being released.
They were breaking away from him, becoming free, like sentient
spirits. She had no doubt that this event must have some effect on
the real world. It was too intense not to.

Lorrance had been wrong to get
Dex to change the words, because ultimately, they’d meant little.
It was the feeling inside the music itself that counted. When Dex
disappeared, he should have left the songs behind, because then
Sakrilege would have released them. They would have been played on
millions of CD machines all over the world. The sentiments, and the
power they contained, would have become free so much sooner. If
only Dex had realised. Jay found herself laughing, back in her
body. Beside her, Dex was silent, staring at her.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said, ‘don’t
stop. I’m not laughing at you.’

‘I’ve finished, Jay,’ he
said.

She put her hands to her mouth.
‘My God,’ she murmured.

Peter smiled at her. ‘You see,
don’t you,’ he said quietly.

She nodded. ‘Oh yes. I see
perfectly.’

‘Now you must go from this
place,’ Peter said. ‘Lorrance is not your concern. You have my word
he will no longer harm you.’

‘Are you sure of that?’ Jay
said. ‘How long will it take for the songs to take effect? We have
practicalities to deal with.

‘His downfall has already
begun,’ Lacey said.

‘If we return to reality,’ Jay
said, ‘how will things work out? Lorrance was not my only enemy.
There was a woman, Gina, and my ex, Gus.’

‘Don’t worry about them,’ Peter
said. ‘They are confined to one place, and because of that, you
have the upper hand. The woman acts in ignorance. She is a void
within, and has no concept of consequence. You should not blame
her. She is caught in the tide.’

‘My father and his underlings
will have other things to worry about now,’ Lacey said. ‘You will
no longer seem so important to them. Trust us. We’re not
lying.’

Peter inclined his head gently.
‘You are free to go home.’

As soon as he uttered these
words, it seemed to Jay that the shadow world of the house began to
grow dim. They had been shown what Lacey wanted them to see, Dex
had done what was required of him, and now that reality was fading.
‘Did Lorrance put me in Lestholme?’ Jay asked urgently. ‘I have to
know. How did I get there?’

‘You followed an instinct,
that’s all,’ Peter answered. ‘You followed a story, and the story
was partly your own.’

Lacey went to stand beside him
and linked one of her arms through his. They looked liked
archetypal characters: the Queen of the Elves and her gallant
knight. ‘Peter and I have work to do,’ Lacey said. ‘You will see
the results of it.’

Unexpectedly, Jem jumped forward
towards them. ‘Touch me,’ she said. Lacey reached out and gently
placed her fingers against Jem’s outstretched hand. Jay saw nothing
unusual; no visible exchange of energy or flare of light. Jem
sighed and stepped backwards, her shoulders pressed against Jay’s
chest. Peter and Lacey did not speak again. Behind them, the pillar
of dark smoke still hovered on the stairs, but now it did not
appear quite so looming and threatening.

Jem took hold of one of Jay’s
hands and tugged it. She said nothing, but Jay knew she meant it
was time to leave. She linked her arm through Dex’s and pulled him
gently. Then, somehow, without seeming to move, they were outside
the house. The great front door slammed shut in their faces. All
was silent now and the house was in darkness. Jay glanced round.
The wide heath-land was empty of presences. A fat moon hung low
above the horizon and Jay’s hair was ruffled by the passing of a
silent wind. When she spoke, her voice sounded muffled. ‘Are you
all right, Dex?’

He nodded, his face set in an
expression of shock.

‘Let’s go back to
Lestholme.’

They walked back towards the
distant line of forest.

They heard the sounds of merriment long
before they saw its source. Walking back through the beech and oak
at the edge of the village, Jay heard singing and the music of a
fiddle. The sky ahead was ruddy with a fiery glow. They emerged
from the trees by the side of the pub, next to the village green,
and here a celebration appeared to be in progress. A huge bonfire
had been built in the middle of the green and was now burning
savagely; glittering streams of orange sparks spiralled up towards
the stars. Women were dancing around the fire, hair lashing, skirts
swinging. Men stood in a circle around them, clapping rhythmically.
One of them, perhaps one of the confirmed bachelors Jay had
visited, played a hectic jig on a violin. It was a pagan scene,
filled with ancient power.

Jem began jumping up and down,
tugging at Jay’s hand.

‘What’s going on?’ Jay asked.
Unaccountably, her heart was immediately filled with hope and joy.
She felt she had undergone a rite of passage, and now was time to
dance and celebrate.

‘I want to dance,’ said Jem.

‘It’s a kind of madness,’ said
Dex, ‘called freedom.’

Sally Olsen whirled out of the
group of women, and came skipping up them. Her face glowed red, and
tendrils of her damp hair hung over her brow. She sang a greeting,
apparently unable to keep still.

‘Sally,’ Jay said. ‘What’s this
party for?’

Sally reached to clutch Jay’s
arm briefly. ‘The era is changing,’ she said excitedly. ‘Oh, Jay,
can’t you feel it? Isn’t it wonderful?’

Jay raised her hands in
puzzlement. ‘I feel something.’

Sally made an expansive gesture
with one arm, as if reaching for the stars. ‘New feet walk across
the sky,’ she said. ‘New gods are coming. She has flowers for feet
and diamonds beneath her tongue. She is clad in woven rays. He is
the herald of truth.’

Sally sounded as if she was
hallucinating, yet her mood was infectious. Jay found she couldn’t
stop smiling.

Then the night was filled with
the sound of a mighty booming crash. It seemed to shatter the sky
and the stars rocked against their velvet backdrop. Jay winced
against Dex, who curled an arm around her, staring wildly about
himself.

Sally only clapped her hands.
‘Look! It is time!’

Jay broke away from Dex and
followed the line of Sally’s pointing hand. She gazed up at the
hill, where it seemed a multitude was rampaging, far more people
than she’d imagined inhabited the village. As she concentrated upon
this scene, her vision became telescopic. She could perceive every
detail. Some of the crowd carried burning torches, which they waved
about their heads. Children wove in and out of the dancing figures
like sprites, followed by the dogs Jay had seen in the field by the
river. Their tails were wagging and they barked excitedly. Above
them all, the monument of Lestholme’s god and its tower were
crumbling. Great chunks of lichened masonry broke away from it and
seemed fall in slow motion to the ground. The people cavorted
around it, dodging the plunging debris. ‘They’ll be crushed!’ Jay
cried.

Sally laughed. ‘No. Not on this
night of all nights.’ With these words, she wheeled away, her skirt
flying round her flashing calves.

Jay felt a thread of unease worm
through her mind. There was a tugging sensation within her, as if
her consciousness was being pulled from her. ‘No,’ she murmured and
clutched onto Dex’s arm. ‘No.’

‘Jay,’ he said. His eyes looked
panicked. They were being pulled away from that place, but Jay
would not let them be separated. Not again. She refused with all
her will and wrapped her arms around Dex’s body. A sudden confusion
of crashing sounds, of glass shattering and mountains exploding,
seemed to engulf her body. Her eyes were clenched tightly shut.
Then, there was only silence. For a moment, she could not feel
anything, but gradually became aware of the rough texture of Dex’s
coat against her cheek, the pressure of his arms around her. She
opened her eyes and pulled away from him. ‘Where are we?’

Dex groaned. ‘Fuck. How the
hell?’

‘Dex, where are we?’

‘Lorrance’s house,’ he said.

Jay looked around herself. They
were standing in a spotless white hallway, which she recognised as
the one where they’d met Peter in the shadow world. ‘What does this
mean?’ she asked. ‘Is he here? Did they lie to us?’ For one hideous
moment, she considered that Lacey and Peter had delivered them into
Lorrance’s hands. Had they been working for him all along?

‘I think it’s OK,’ Dex said
uncertainly.

‘There’s a car coming,’ Jay
said. ‘I can hear it outside. I think we should hide.’

‘OK.’ Dex took her hand and led
her further into the house.

‘This could be just another
layer,’ Jay hissed. ‘Something else we’re meant to see.’

‘Possibly,’ Dex answered.

‘Where are we going?’

‘I thought we should make for
the back door. The kitchen’s this way.’

Suddenly, a tall figure loomed
out of a doorway to their left. Both Jay and Dex couldn’t help
cursing and jumping backwards. ‘Rhys!’ Dex cried.

Rhys Lorrance stood before them.
Jay had never been this close to him before, even though she’d
occasionally glimpsed him across rooms at various events and seen
his photo often in the papers. Perhaps because of her recent
experiences, and the knowledge she’d gained, she immediately felt
the heat of Lorrance’s power radiating off him. He didn’t seem to
be in any state of decline other than appearing slightly anxious.
Dex uttered Lorrance’s name again, but it was clear that he could
not see his visitors. He strode past them, back into the hall.

‘Why are we here?’ Jay said.
‘Are we back in our own reality or not?’

‘I don’t know,’ Dex said.

Outside, car doors slammed. Dex
and Jay remained immobile, Jay straining her ears for any sound
from Lorrance. There was none. She sensed he was waiting in the
hall, as motionless as they were. After a few moments, the doorbell
chimed. Silence. The bells chimed again. Then came a more
threatening sound. The front door creaked open, without any noise
of footsteps or other movement. Curious, Jay went back towards the
hall, Dex following. She saw Rhys Lorrance standing tall and
powerful before the door, braced as if for an attack. A man stood
in the doorway, while another was visible loitering outside. Dark
men, clad in black.

‘Ghosts!’ hissed Dex. ‘Jay, come
back here. They’ll be able to see us. I know it!’ He grabbed her
arm.

Jay resisted, drawn by an
uncontrollable impulse to witness what happened. She heard Lorrance
utter some unintelligible words. He began to raise his hands. Then
came the gunshot.

Lorrance staggered backwards, a
hole blown through his torso. He fell to the ground. Jay could not
move. She saw the gunman walk into the hall and calmly direct
another bullet through Lorrance’s brain. Then the assailant raised
his head and looked Jay full in the eye. She couldn’t even cringe
away from his dead-eyed stare. What she saw in it was an utter
soulless and icy implacability. She was irrelevant to him, no more
than a powerless phantom.

The gun-man turned round quickly
and walked from the house, leaving the door open. Jay buried her
face against Dex’s chest. ‘Oh my God,’ she whispered. She had begun
to shake. The world around her was shaking too. She clung to Dex
and he to her. They were being wrenched away again, drawn through a
void of terrifying crashes and roars.

They did not find themselves in
silence this time, but surrounded by the merry tune of fiddles and
joyous voices. Jay opened her eyes to Lestholme, and above her saw
the final chunks of masonry fall from the statue. Her body flooded
with relief, although her limbs were stiff yet shaking at the same
time. It was difficult to pull away from Dex. He had crystals of
ice in his hair.

Dex shook his head slowly, as if
coming out of a trance. ‘It’s happened,’ he murmured. ‘They said it
would. We saw it, Jay.’