The Burning Man

brown hair. Every now and then someone would come up to him — an elderly person with frailty etched in their features, or a mother with a child swaddled tightly. With a kind expression, the man would exchange a few words with them, then take the person’s hand lightly. After a moment the visitor would try to press money upon him, and he would politely refuse.

Having seen enough, Veitch strode up to him. The man greeted Veitch cheerily in Norwegian.

‘Sorry, mate. Don’t speak the lingo.’

The man’s face brightened. ‘You’re British.’

‘London born and bred.’

‘Every time I hear the accent, I always get homesick.’ He took Veitch’s hand tentatively. ‘Jez Miller. From Swindon.’

‘Somebody has to be. Ryan Veitch.’

‘Are you here for help?’

‘What kind of help?’

Miller shifted uncomfortably. ‘People come to me … y’know, when they get sick.’

‘And you heal them?’

‘It’s a gift,’ Miller said bashfully. ‘I have to use it to help.’

‘Yeah, you’re the one I’m looking for all right. Come on, walk with me.’

Miller was taken aback, but did exactly what Veitch said. ‘You’ve been looking for me? But no one knows I’m here. I’ve lost touch with my family, and …’ His brow furrowed.

‘You can’t even remember why you’re here, right?’

‘Things have been a bit fuzzy for a while. I’ve been going to the doctor, but the medication isn’t working.’

‘You are so off the radar, mate, you don’t know it. Not even the big evil bastard running the universe could find you. But I did.’

‘I don’t understand.’ Miller looked troubled, as though he was half-remembering something long-forgotten. ‘How did you find me?’

Veitch held up an amber stone that glowed with a dull, warm light. ‘Picked this up in the Temple of the Dead in the Grim Lands. They’ve got all sorts of weird stuff stashed away there. It’s called a Trace-Stone. Locates missing objects. Or people.’

Miller tried to evaluate how sane Veitch was. ‘Why did you want to find me?’

‘Because you’re one of the two Keys.’

‘To what?’

‘To a whole load of trouble. Success or failure. My future.’ Veitch smiled tightly. ‘You got anyone here? Wife, girlfriend, kids? Boyfriend?’

Miller shook his head.

‘All right, here’s the deal. You come with me and I’ll show you everything you need to know. Why your memory’s so screwed up. The whole reason you’re here. Who wouldn’t want to know that?’

The hope in Miller’s face was evident. ‘You’re lying. How could you know something like that? Who are you?’

‘If you don’t come with me, you’ll never know.’

Miller dropped onto a bench and thrust his head into his hands. ‘I’d be crazy to go with a complete stranger. You might be someone who kills people.’

‘Yeah. I might.’

Miller looked deep into Veitch’s eyes. ‘Whatever I’ve got inside me, it makes me a good judge of character. I can see, deep inside you, there’s something good.’

‘Now you’re talking bollocks,’ Veitch snapped. He caught himself. ‘And just to prove you wrong, I’ll give you a choice. Come with me of your own free will, ’cause I reckon you’re a nice bloke and I’d really like you to think good things about me. Or I’ll make you come with me.’

Once again Miller tried to read Veitch. ‘Well … okay,’ he said hesitantly. ‘But I’ll yell if you try something.’

‘Like a girl, I bet. All right, shut the fuck up and follow me.’

Veitch marched along the network of paths with Miller constantly asking hesitant questions that got no answers. In the car park, Veitch motioned for Miller to get in the front of a four-by-four, while he went to the rear and checked all around before opening the boot.

Ruth lay inside, hands and feet tied together, tape across her mouth. She glared at Veitch hatefully.

‘How you doin’, darlin’?’ he said chirpily. ‘I hate treating you like this, but I needed to get our man in the bag before we sat down and had our little heart-to-heart. Won’t be much longer now.’

Just as the boot swung shut, Veitch had the vague impression that Ruth was mouthing something behind the insulating tape. He shrugged. She had a lot of fire in her, and he expected a broadside when they finally did sit down and talk.

As he climbed into the driver’s seat and pulled away, he didn’t notice a couple of stones in the car park begin to roll slowly of their own accord. They came together, then another, and another.

8

Cabs from Oslo’s railway station took Church, Hunter, Shavi, Laura and Tom into the centre of town. Burying themselves in their seats, they watched the flash of police cars passing regularly.

‘How many spiders?’ Laura said from the depths of her parka hood.

‘Impossible to tell.’ Church’s attention never left the street scene. ‘It only takes one or two at the top. People are good at obeying orders without question.’

Arriving at Vigeland Park in the early afternoon, they separated to lose themselves amongst the trees and duck ponds, eventually coming together again at The Monolith.

Shavi paced around for a few minutes, then said uneasily, ‘I do not understand. He should be here.’

‘Maybe he’s gone to feed the ducks,’ Laura said.

Shavi unconsciously rubbed the skin around his alien eye. ‘No. He should be here. But he is not.’

Tom had been scanning the park while they spoke. ‘Something is happening,’ he said.

What they had taken to be one of Vigeland’s sculptures was moving. It resembled a brutish man with a low brow and long, muscular arms, built from rocks and stones. A dull amber light leaked from its eyes. With each step, tremors ran through the ground.

Laura and Tom edged away.

‘Hang on,’ Church said.

‘Crazy leader,’ Laura muttered under her breath.

As the rock-thing approached, the park underwent a rapid change. Ponds and lawns faded away to be replaced by a wilder landscape of rock, gnarled trees and drifting mist. Bonfires were just visible in the distance.

The craggy Neanderthal lumbered up to them and levelled its burning gaze on each in turn. ‘Heroes all,’ it said in a voice like cracking granite. It nodded slowly as if this fulfilled a requirement. Gesturing with one heavy arm, it added, ‘This is the land as it was in time past when the warriors ground bone and blood into the soil. And this is how the land is now beyond Bifrost: timeless and wild where the true powers live in every rock and tree.’

‘What do you want with us?’ Church asked.

‘I bring a message from one of your kind. She summoned me from the dark place beneath the earth where I live with my people.’

‘Ruth?’

‘A Sister of Dragons who knows the practice of seior as only the great and wise Freyja knows it. She has been taken by another of your kind, he who carries the blade of black fire.’