14
‘You don’t have to solve this on your own. Talk to me.’ Church sat on the edge of the bed, one hand resting on the small of Ruth’s back as she buried her face in the pillow.
‘I want to. I want us to be just how we used to be.’ She rolled over to look at him. Tears streaked her cheeks.
‘If Veitch did something, we can find a way to put it right.’
‘So we stop saving the world to save ourselves? You know that’s not an option.’
‘I’m not going to let us fall apart. You mean more to me than the world.’
‘Maybe that’s why he did it,’ she said. ‘A blow struck for the Army of the Ten Billion Spiders. You get me and the world is lost.’
Church didn’t have to think. ‘I want you.’
She laughed quietly, without humour. ‘I knew you’d say that — that’s why I love you. You’re an idiot. Don’t you get it? Veitch has made me a weapon to destroy everything we’re trying to achieve.’
‘It’s a suicide mission, no hope of success. Everyone keeps telling me-’
‘Shut up.’ She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and wiped the tears from her face. ‘Now that my memory’s coming back, I know what my legacy is. I’m a conduit for the Craft, and all that represents. For life. All that responsibility, you know? I can’t allow myself to be used to screw everything up. And I can’t allow you to walk away from your own destiny. Not for me. Not for us.’
‘What are you saying?’
‘I’m saying goodbye, Church.’ She brushed her fingers against his temple and Church pitched backwards onto the bed in a deep sleep.
For a moment, Ruth paced the room, kneading her hands in desperation. Then she grabbed her spear and kissed Church tenderly on the lips one final time. Before the tears started again, she marched quickly out of the room, descended in the lift, strode across the lounge — so driven she was oblivious to the frost — and outside. She wore no coat. Without hesitation, she continued through the thick snow towards the bleak horizon. The wind was bitter and well below zero.
It wasn’t long before the warmth left her completely and she felt as if she was walking into a dream.
15
When Church came round, he rushed from the room. A vision of ice and a blast of north wind brought him up sharp. The corridor had been transformed into a frozen cavern. Icicles hung from the ceiling and hoarfrost covered everything, glimmering in the light from his room.
His breath clouding, he returned to fetch Caledfwlch from the holdall in the wardrobe. Blue flames fizzed and spattered in the cold, and with them came the first wash of bitterness. He wanted to be pursuing Ruth, bringing her back into his arms, not standing there, sword in hand, fighting again for something so immense he could barely comprehend its importance.
The frost crunched under his boots. At the top of the stairs, he paused and listened to a distant scraping of metal on stone. The noise made him feel unaccountably queasy.
Down one flight of stairs, then another, the scraping growing louder as he descended. In his hand, the sword hummed in protest.
As he neared the last few stairs, Church saw the shadow first. Enormous, it fell across the hallway revealing someone out of view sharpening an axe. Sparks flew. He came down another step and saw that the axe was double-headed, the edges nicked from long use, the handle black and rune-covered near the blade, and wrapped with black leather further down.
‘Come, little fox.’ The voice was a deep bass rumble.
‘Who are you and what do you want?’
As Church continued down the stairs, the figure slowly came into view. At first, Church took it to be a wild animal, at least eight feet tall with a mane of black hair and a full beard, eyes the red of a summer sunset. The teeth visible through the thick beard were rows of needles, all bloodstained. The muscular body was nearly naked apart from an animal-hide tied roughly around the waist, but the exposed skin was nearly invisible beneath blue tattooed runes, hideous battle scars and body hair, thick and shiny.
He held up his right hand to reveal a cruel silver hook. ‘That bastard wolf!’ he growled. ‘But I survived and I will slaughter it yet!’
‘Who are you?’ Church repeated.
‘Your little fox-brothers called me Tyr. I am the thunder of the battlefield. Now I am returned, my power awakened by the sacrifice of the hanged man.’
Tyr saw Church sizing him up and smiled cruelly. ‘You walk our Great Dominion. There are rules, blood and earth. You have taken a step too far. A prayer and a sacrifice may have bought your passage, but now there is no hope for you.’
Tyr swung his axe so fast Church barely saw it move. Only instinct saved him. It cleaved horizontally, shattering stair rails and reducing to dust a large part of a pillar.
Reactions and muscles honed by combat across two thousand years threw Church backwards onto the stairs, his sword coming up just in time to deflect another blow so powerful he was afraid his blade would shatter. The jarring impact almost plunged him into unconsciousness.
There was not even a second to recover. Tyr drove his silver hook towards Church’s head. Church rolled and the hook smashed through the stairs a fraction of an inch from his skull.
The axe was already swinging again as Church jumped off the stairs over the arc. As he came down, Caledfwlch tore open Tyr’s side.
Tyr’s roar was deafening, but Church was surprised to hear it evolve into booming laughter. ‘Not just a little fox after all!’ he yelled insanely. ‘I will enjoy carving you into food for the ravens!’
The axe whirling in a blur, Tyr launched himself with the strength and speed of a beast. He had no qualms about his own safety. Church sliced a chunk of the flesh from his bicep, but Tyr continued oblivious.
Church had already worked out a strategy to back Tyr into a space where he couldn’t wield the axe when three shots rang out. Hunter stood on the stairs with Laura beside him. He waved the handgun towards Church. ‘One of the perks of working for the Government.’
Tyr stopped, puzzled. He dug one meaty finger into the bullet hole in his chest and delved around for a few seconds before retrieving the bullet. He examined it curiously and then turned his attention to Hunter and Laura.
‘You should not be in the shimmering. Why has my sister’s
Hunter examined the gun contemptuously. ‘I tell you, what’s the point? I should just throw this away and get a fish knife or a spoon or something.’
‘All right, damsel in distress here,’ Laura said insistently as Tyr began to advance. ‘Aren’t you tossers actually supposed to be doing something?’
‘We’re going to throw you to him as a diversion,’ Hunter said.
Church tried to blindside Tyr as the god attacked Hunter and Laura, but a whirlwind of axe movements protected him. Chunks of masonry in clouds of dust flew wherever the axe hit.
Hunter propelled Laura through a gap in the shattered stairway, and they raced to Church before Tyr could turn.
‘We need to find somewhere defensible until we can work out our options,’ Hunter said.
‘Agreed.’ Church led the way into the dining area and then through to the kitchens. Hunter locked the steel door behind them.
