to take you back to your real life.’
Mallory’s thoughts were already racing ahead, evaluating numerous strategies for disarming the assassin, defensive positions to protect the woman in the next room.
Church appeared to know exactly what Mallory was thinking. He wagged one cautionary finger, then pointed down.
Where Mallory had expected to see Rourke’s corpse and severed head, there were now spiders, lots of them, some small, some as big as his fist. Rourke’s body was also disintegrating rapidly as more spiders poured from its depths. With a single mind, they surged towards Church, and where they passed it looked as if the very fabric of the building was being scoured away to reveal a hole into space.
‘Don’t ask questions now,’ Church said. ‘If the spiders get you, you’ll be gone from this world in an instant.’ He grabbed Mallory’s arm and hauled him away from the black stream. ‘To the stairs. I’ll explain everything once we’re safe.’
Mallory half-resisted, but in the same instinctive way he had wielded his mop like a weapon, he knew Church could be trusted. ‘There’s a woman-’
‘She’s being taken care of.’
Through the glass, Mallory saw an unfamiliar woman who reminded him of a Pre-Raphaelite painting, dark, curly hair framing a pale, attractive face. She was talking intently to the woman he had been watching work at the terminal.
‘Her name’s Ruth,’ Church said. ‘She’s one of us. She’ll get your friend out.’
Mallory had no time to question Church’s use of the word ‘friend’ for the spiders were now flooding in pursuit. Mallory flipped over a desk to block their path, but they cut through it with such ease it appeared illusory.
‘What the hell are they?’ he hissed.
‘The things that really rule this world. Now move.’
Ruth and the other woman emerged from another door into the lobby near the lifts.
‘Two for two,’ Church said to Ruth. ‘Result.’
‘We’re not out of here yet.’ Ruth flashed a smile at Mallory. ‘This is Sophie Tallent,’ she announced. ‘She feels as if she knows me from somewhere.’
Casting a glance at the spiders flooding into the lobby, Church threw open the door to the stairwell. ‘We’re not risking getting trapped in the lifts. You’re the one with the power,’ he said to Ruth. ‘Can’t you do something?’
‘It’s not like turning on a light switch,’ she snapped. ‘I really need a ritual-’
‘Just do what you can.’
Cursing under her breath, Ruth turned to face the spiders, half-bowed her head and closed her eyes. Mallory heard her whisper a word he didn’t recognise, but which made his stomach turn. An instant later the lights went out.
‘Brilliant,’ Church said.
‘I told you I needed a ritual!’
Mallory felt himself being propelled into the inky stairwell and heard the door slam behind him.
‘That won’t hold them at all,’ Ruth said.
Church sighed, said nothing.
A cool hand fumbled into Mallory’s and he realised it was Sophie’s.
‘If we can get down three floors there are windows,’ she said. ‘The spotlights aimed at the outside of the building will give us enough illumination to see what we’re doing.’
‘If we haven’t all broken our necks by then,’ Ruth said sourly.
Clutching onto the handrails, they moved down the stairs as quickly as they could in the pitch darkness. An intense rustling came from the door at their backs.
‘Moan, moan, moan,’ Church said. A faint blue light began to glow. Mallory realised it was coming from the sword that Church was now holding aloft like a lantern.
Down two flights they hurried, stumbling and cursing, until small objects began to fall on Mallory’s head and shoulders, each igniting a burning sensation that made him yell. Church brought the sword closer. In its glow, Mallory was horrified to see spiders clinging to him, eating through his thick overalls and into his flesh. More were raining from above.
‘Get them off!’ he shouted. ‘I hate spiders!’
The others helped tear them off him as they stumbled down the stairs. The spiders felt hard, almost metallic, and they writhed sickeningly under Mallory’s fingertips. His overalls sticky with blood, he hurled the spiders away as fast as he could pull them loose. Some burst against the walls, but the majority merely bounced and renewed their attack.
They were only a few steps ahead of the cascading spiders when they reached the windows that looked out over London’s glittering cityscape.
‘Is this supposed to be some kind of rescue?’ Mallory snapped. ‘Because if it is, it’s the worst one ever.’
They made it down three more floors, their injuries mounting with each level. Finally they could go no further. The volume of spiders behind them was so great that the stairwell was covered — floor, walls and ceiling — apart from a small semicircle where the four of them had been backed against the window.
‘How many of them are there?’ Sophie said, aghast.
‘About ten billion,’ Church replied. ‘Give or take.’
‘You’re pretty blase about this,’ Mallory said, tension hardening his tone.
‘You’re taking it in your stride, too.’
Mallory was surprised to realise this was true.
‘Give me your hand,’ Ruth said to Sophie. ‘If everything’s right, you should still have some vestige of ability to manipulate the Craft.’
‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’ Sophie bristled, unable to take her eyes off the advancing black line. Ruth took her hand nonetheless.
‘Try not to make things worse this time,’ Church said.
Ruth mouthed some insult, but she was already focusing her attention internally.
‘What am I supposed to do?’ Sophie asked.
‘Don’t think. Just feel.’
Mallory was surprised to see that Church was now oblivious to the threat of the spiders. He had returned the sword to a scabbard strapped across his back and was standing with his hands pressed against the glass, looking out over the Thames and the lights of the City.
Mallory kicked out at the nearest spiders. The toe of his boot soon hung ragged where it had made contact with them. ‘A little help here, maybe?’
‘I am helping,’ Church said quietly. ‘You need to lighten up.’
Behind the skyscrapers of the financial quarter, lightning illuminated the clouds. ‘Okay,’ Church said to Ruth. ‘Do your stuff.’
Ruth bowed her head, her hair falling across her face. The stale air of the stairwell suddenly took on the freshness of the seaside and the advancing spiders came to a hesitant stop. All movement in the stairwell ceased. Outside, a distant rumble of thunder; another flash of lightning.
Sophie stiffened, her eyelids fluttering as a flush coloured her cheeks. The hand Mallory still held was limp and unresponsive.
‘Now would be good,’ Church said.
Ruth threw her head back and said a single word. Mallory was brought to his knees by a force that came from nowhere. In an eerie silence, the windows blew out, glass shards glittering as they fell to the railway far below. Standing on the brink, Church was oblivious to the powerfully gusting wind that raged inside, threatening to pluck them all out.
Sophie staggered, shook her head. ‘What the hell happened there?’ As she came to her senses, she noticed
