Sophie forced herself not to look back, but could hear the sizzle of the flames as the sword cut the air, and the sickening sound of bone and meat cleaved, and the hysterical screams and incongruous shrill laughing, so loud she wanted to scream herself.
The bat was so large that at first she thought it was a bird of prey. Soon the cord was unravelling out of the window. When it was taut, she yelled to Mallory.
‘You go first!’ he replied. The unnatural children swarmed at him like rats. He hacked and thrust in a blur, piling up bloodless limbs and dismembered bodies.
‘Caitlin-?’ Sophie said.
‘I’ll carry her! Go!’
Sophie paused as she took in Mallory holding Caitlin about her waist, pressed hard against him, using his own body as a shield. Caitlin clung to him with a touching hope.
Sophie swung her legs up to grasp the cord and then shinned along it like a monkey, feeling the sucking gulf beneath her once she was out of the window, forcing herself not to look down.
Bats flapped around her head, and the cord burned her hands and feet as she gathered speed, but she clung on. Soon she was on a flat roof nearby, allowing herself to breathe as Mallory dropped from the cord next to her, bleeding from numerous wounds. Caitlin hung around his neck, her face pressed close to his.
‘Thank you,’ Caitlin said, with what sounded to Sophie like breathless adoration. Just the little girl inside her friend, Sophie told herself.
Mallory steadied himself. ‘Okay, that’s put me right off having kids.’
‘Whoever’s behind this isn’t going to let us blithely carry on trying to find out what happened,’ Sophie said.
‘We knew it was just a matter of time before they caught up with us. Let’s find that library.’
4
While Mallory bathed his wounds in one of Decebalus’s network of secret rooms at the back of the Hunter’s Moon, Sophie sat with Virginia Dare, brushing and braiding the little girl’s hair. More resilient than Sophie could have hoped, she had recovered from the worst of her ordeal, but her eyes still held a haunted look that Sophie feared would never fade.
‘When will you rescue my mother?’ Virginia asked.
‘Soon.’ Sophie averted her eyes from a network of scars peeking above the neckline of the girl’s shift.
‘Do not talk to me about that place!’ Virginia snapped, as if she could read Sophie’s mind.
‘Darling, you’re with friends now. We’re going to look after you.’
‘Nobody can look after anybody. You are always on your own.’
‘That’s not true-’
‘It is! My mother could not protect me!’
Sophie winced. ‘I know what that’s like. To feel you’ve been abandoned by people you count on. You’re lost. You’re scared. You’re afraid you can’t stand on your own. It hurts, doesn’t it? And you never forget that hurt.’
Virginia watched Sophie intently for any sign that she was lying or patronising. ‘You are not alone. You have the Knight.’
‘Mallory? Yes, I do.’ Sophie looked around to check that Decebalus was not in earshot and then whispered conspiratorially, ‘I haven’t even told Mallory this. It’s a secret, between you and me, all right?’
Virginia’s eyes grew wide. She nodded.
‘Before Mallory came along, I felt exactly like you. I couldn’t cope on my own, and I was ready to give up. I didn’t show anybody — I’m not like that. I put on a big, brave smiling face, but inside I was clinging on by my fingernails.’
Sophie could see that Virginia understood.
‘And then Mallory came along and he saved me,’ she continued. ‘Not in an “I’ve got a big sword to kill the monsters” way. Instead he made me realise there was somebody to watch my back when I wasn’t up to the fight. He showed me the truth — that none of us are superheroes who can always cope on our own, and it’s not a sign of weakness to accept that. All we need to do is find somebody we trust and put our faith in them to look after us when we stumble. And once you give up fighting on your own — once you share that burden of struggle — you’re stronger.’
Through the open door to the next room, she watched Mallory move about, wincing when one of his wounds pulled.
‘You are very lucky to have found him.’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I am.’ She let her own deeper fears subside and turned back to Virginia with a reassuring smile. ‘And now I’m asking you to trust us. Can you do that?’
Virginia looked into Sophie’s eyes for a moment and then nodded, before nuzzling her head into Sophie’s neck and hugging her tightly.
5
To Ruth, the scenery had the look of a seventies summer holiday snapshot with colours that were too saturated to be real. A clear blue sky, verdant trees, sun-bleached grass and rolling, dusty, boulder-strewn hillsides. The white walls and pink-tiled roofs of the village glowed in the morning light.
It was warm and beads of sweat trickled down her brow, but her bonds prevented her from wiping them away. The tape across her mouth itched and she was sure she was developing an allergic reaction to the glue.
‘Why don’t you let her go? She won’t try to get away. I can’t believe you’ve kept her like that for a week.’ Miller became upset every time he saw Ruth, his discomfort made worse by his awareness that he was too ineffectual to do anything about it.
‘It’s not the getting away that I’m worried about.’ Veitch reached over and wiped Ruth’s damp brow with a handkerchief, not unkindly.
‘I know you say she’s some kind of witch, but I can’t believe that.’
‘This from a bloke who can cure any illness with a touch.’
‘That’s not witchcraft!’ Miller said, outraged. ‘It’s the power of God-’
‘Yeah, yeah, whatever. Now shut up. Your whining voice really gets on my tits.’
Miller fell silent, plucking at the grass beneath his legs like a spurned schoolboy.
Pensive, Veitch leaned back against the wheel of the car and watched Ruth for a moment. ‘You know I don’t want to have you trussed up like a Tesco chicken.’
Ruth glared at him.
‘Yeah, I know. Words are cheap. But I’ve seen what you’re capable of. You’re an A-bomb just waiting to detonate, only you don’t know it. You’re getting your memory back, I know, but you still haven’t remembered how to tap into that whole witchy Craft business. Which is good for me. Not too keen on waking up a toad, or with my insides on the outside. But pretty soon even that gag and those ropes aren’t going to stop you doing what you do. Then we’ll have to make a choice-’
‘Even you wouldn’t kill her!’ Miller interjected shrilly.
‘I told you to shut up.’
‘No!’ His voice cracked with emotion. ‘I’ve had enough of this. I don’t know why you’ve got us both. I was stupid to come with you. But I trusted you! You don’t feel like a bad man-’
‘Yeah, well, you’re an idiot.’
‘Why are you so horrible? What do you want?’
Veitch gently tapped one silver finger on the well-used map as he surveyed the landscape.
