though the arm is weak, the heart is strong. Yet, still, we need something more to aid us in our struggle. Guide us with your wisdom.'
There was a moment of hanging tension when Church thought the spirits weren't going to answer. Then: 'You must find the Luck of the Land if you are ever to unleash the true power of the people.'
'What is the Luck of the Land?'
Silence; just the soughing of the wind. Tom chewed on his lip. 'Then tell me this, I beseech you: in the Grim Lands, all existence is laid out before you. Where is the Fomorii nest where Balor will be reborn?'
'The Heart of Shadows will rejoin this world betwixt here and there, but he will find his home where the Luck of the Land is kept.'
Church could sense Tom fighting with his normally irritable nature at their opaque answers, but the Rhymer knew a word out of line would not only ruin their opportunity to discover more information, it could prove fatal to them. The spirits may once have been kin, Church thought, but their time in what they called the Grim Lands had changed them immeasureably; he didn't want to antagonise them at all. Cautiously scanning the massed ranks for any sign of attack, he saw a shape that seemed familiar. It was only a fleeting glimpse of a profile against the starlit sky, but it struck a chord with him. He lost it almost instantly and before he had chance to seek it out again, Tom's measured tones distracted him.
'Revered ancestors, is there any guidance you can give us which will aid us in our great task? Anything at all?'
'Wise teacher, in my words lies your salvation. You require more? Then heed this: for the source of threat, look within as well as without. For direction, follow your hearts south to the city of the Well of Fire. For success in battle, cleanse the darkness from the spirit of your chieftain. And remember this: an ally already stands tall among the Children of Danu. Treat him with respect to keep his comfort close. Now, your offering was gratefully received, but it will buy no more of my patience. If you require anything else, you must pay for it with a life. Do you wish to proceed?'
Suddenly, the arc of Celts seemed too close, ready to cut off any retreat. As Church looked round, they seemed to waver like an image in a heat haze and for a moment he sensed something very like hunger; anxiety began to turn to fear deep in the pit of his stomach.
'Revered ancestor, we have been enlightened by your wisdom,' Tom began. 'And we offer our gracious thanks for your time. We shall delay you no more. We wish you well on your return to the Grim Lands.'
The Celt who had addressed them lowered his head slightly in parting and, for the briefest instant, the shadows that covered his eyes seemed to clear; what Church glimpsed there made his mind squirm and he had to stop himself fleeing back to the campfire.
It was several minutes after the Celts had melted back into the landscape before anyone spoke. It was as if they were coming out of a dream, one tinged with incipient menace where strange truths had been made known, so strange that they could barely be comprehended upon awakening. The feeling was heightened when they realised they could only hazily remember what they had seen, although the words still rang out in their minds.
'Did we actually experience that, or was it the mushrooms?' Ruth asked. Church saw she was gripping her hands together to prevent them shaking.
'A little of both,' Tom replied.
Shavi nodded in agreement. 'The mushrooms are the key to opening the doors of perception.'
Tom smiled suddenly. 'I remember seeing Jim Morrison perform in Florida-'
'Most old gits talk about the war,' Laura interrupted. 'We get reminiscences of the happy hippie trail. Now can we get back to the fire-it's freezing out here.'
Veitch pulled out a bottle of single malt he'd found in the grocery store on Kyleakin and they drank it from plastic cups around the fire.
'So, correct me if I'm wrong, but that was just a load of cryptic bollocks that wasted our time, right?' Although Laura sat next to Church, she was careful not to make the others feel uncomfortable by showing any sign of her affection for him, though Church had sensed an obvious proprietary instinct in the way she had taken her seat just as Ruth was walking up.
Tom shook his head. 'They didn't make it easy for us, but all the information they offered is vital.'
'Except we probably won't crack the code until it's too late,' Church noted. 'What's the Luck of the Land?'
'I have no idea. The Celts believed it was dangerous to name a sacred thing by its true name, which is why these exercises end up in irritating circumlocution.' Tom took a deep swig of the whisky and then said tartly, 'But we can pull some pearls from the verbal ordure. The city of the Well of Fire is Edinburgh. There's an extinct volcanic feature in the city called Arthur's Seat.'
'More Arthurian code for a site linked to the earth power?' Church mused.
'It's a very powerful source, the most powerful in Scotland. The Well lies under Arthur's Seat.'
'Then that's where we've got to go. Shouldn't take too long from here.' Veitch lay back with his hands behind his head.
'The ally is obviously Cernunnos.' Ruth examined the mark that had been burned into the flesh of her hand by the nature god. She had a sudden flashback to the rainswept night in Manorbier, the terrifying power she had seen in the being as its body melted and changed like oil on water.
'Your ally,' Veitch noted. 'You're his big pal.'
'As long as I'm with you, he's with you. But how are we supposed to show him respect?'
'These beings,' Shavi mused, 'seem to expect deference from those beneath them in the hierarchy of power.'
'I'll just tug my forelock in front of the toffs,' Veitch sneered. 'Blimey, talk about things being the same all over.'
'The Celts rightly believed islands were prime places for carrying out rituals,' Tom stated. 'Not far from here, in Loch Maree, there's an island called Eilean Maree, with a sacred grove dedicated to the Tuatha De Danann, where we can make an offering to-'
'How do you know all these things, wise teacher?' Laura asked pointedly.
Shavi eyed Tom incisively. 'Tom knows all of the lore of the Celts, is that not right? You told us you were tutored by the people of the Bone Inspector-'
'And so the knowledge of being a freak is passed down,' Laura sniffed.
'And the Bone Inspector spoke of his people, an unbroken line of guardians of the old places stretching back through history,' Shavi continued.
Church threw another branch on the fire. 'Well, we all know what cleansing the darkness from the chieftain means,' he added sombrely, 'though a little guidance on how to go about it wouldn't have gone amiss.'
'There was one other thing,' Ruth said. 'What did for the source of the threat, look within as well as without mean?'
'As if you don't know.' Laura stared deep into the heart of the fire. 'It means one of us is looking to earn thirty pieces of silver.'
After the others had retired to their tents, Church and Laura sat warming themselves by the dying embers. In the midst of all the chaos and tension, Church felt remarkably comforted to have Laura curled up next to him. With his arm around her and her head on his shoulder, the emotional closeness to another human filled him with a sense of well-being.
'This is what it's all about,' he muttered to himself.
'You're talking to yourself again.'
Although they were entwined, Laura still seemed a little stiff and distant. He had started to strip away the many defences she had erected to protect herself, but he knew it would be a long time before she gave her inner self up freely. In fact, the more he got to know her, the more he felt the acid-tongued, confident, aggressive Laura was a character that had been completely constructed, and whatever lay within was something he might not recognise at all. But that sense of protecting the vulnerable heart of their being was something they shared, and possibly what had attracted them in the first place.
'So this Marianne must have been a big thing in your life,' she said after a long period of introspection.
'We'd been together a long time. We were going to get married. So, yes, she was a big thing.'
'I suppose that explains why you were knocked so out of whack when she died. Do you think you'll ever get
