'We met in Avebury before you came on board,' she said.
And then Shavi recognised him. 'The Bone Inspector.' He smiled and held out his hand in greeting.
The Bone Inspector didn't take his eyes off Shavi's face.
'Who is he?' Marshall asked.
'The custodian of the land's old places, the stone circles, the longbarrows and burial mounds. The last in a long line of wise men who kept the knowledge of nature's ways.' Shavi tried to read him, sensed a threat, though he didn't know why.
'Do you know what you're doing here?' the Bone Inspector asked.
'Trying to save the world,' Laura said from the back. 'You should try it some time.'
'I couldn't believe it.' His voice was low, trembling with repressed emotion. 'When I felt it in the land, like a shiver running through the soil, I came as quick as I could to stop you, you damn fools. I'll ask you again: do you know what you're doing?'
'We have been guided here to free the hidden power-'
The Bone Inspector snorted derisively. 'Hidden power! Then you don't have any idea what's beneath your feet. Or why this place was built to keep it there.'
'Then tell us,' Shavi said firmly.
The Bone Inspector laughed contemptuously. 'It's beyond you, boy. It's bigger and darker and more dangerous than you could ever imagine, and if you had any idea what it was, you wouldn't even be within ten miles of this place. All of you, you're like mice, getting into things you shouldn't, causing trouble. I knew you weren't up to the job.'
'We're up to it,' Laura said adamantly, 'so you can take your staff and shove it-
Shavi silenced her with a cut of his hand. 'I mean to find what is here and take it with me. Everything turns on this. If we return without it, all is lost.'
The Bone Inspector's face grew harder. 'And I mean to stop you. I could sit quietly and explain why what you're doing is a mistake of nightmarish proportions, or I could beat the shit out of you. Either way you'll get the messageand I know which one will be more effective. So let's see who's up to the job, eh? Boy.' There was arrogance in his voice; he was not used to being opposed. He raised his staff aggressively and in a liquid movement rolled on to the balls of his feet, primed and ready to attack. Shavi could see he knew how to use the staff, there was something in the way he held his body which suggested the rigid discipline of the martial arts, although Shavi guessed the fighting style was uniquely British, and very ancient. 'How do you plan to fight, then, boy?' the Bone Inspector asked.
Shavi stood calmly with his arms by his side. He registered no fear, no sense of urgency at all. He knew he would be no match physically for the Bone Inspector. Instead of tensing, he let his muscles relax, pushed his head back slightly and closed his eyes.
'You do that,' the Bone Inspector said. 'Pretend I'm not here.'
Shavi had never tried it before, but the fact that his abilities were improving each day was unmistakable. It was difficult to attempt something untried in the crucible of conflict, but he was growing increasingly confident. He knew in his heart what he should be able to do. It was only a matter of seeing if he could.
At first nothing seemed to be happening. Then, gradually, the Bone Inspector's sneering voice seemed to fade until it sounded as if it were coming from the depths of a long tunnel. At the same time Shavi's vision skewed like it was being twisted through a kaleidoscope. Dimensions stretched like toffee, turned on an angle. Once the distortion took over, different, deeper senses took over. Time appeared to be running slowly. He could hear sounds, whispers, that had not been there before, although he had no idea who was talking; and he suddenly seemed to be able to see through the dense stone of the wall and out across the land for what appeared to be miles. In that dream-like state he was beyond himself, beyond the chapel; although he had touched on it with his experiments he had never achieved such clarity before. And then he was ready: he put out the call with a voice that was not a voice.
'Shavi! This is no time to zone out on me!' Laura shook his arm but he didn't even seem to feel it.
'What's going on?' Marshall said. Then, to the Bone Inspector, 'Why are you threatening these people?'
The Bone Inspector grinned, his staff still levelled at Shavi's throat. 'Hold your voice, church-man. Your kind act like you know everything about everything when you know nothing about nothing. Don't go sticking your nose in where it doesn't belong.'
'This is sanctified ground!' Marshall said irately. 'I will not have fighting here!'
'No, but you'll let these two take a pick-axe and shovel to the place. Hypocrites, your kind, always have been.'
Laura was distracted from the confrontation by a movement outside the door: a shadow flitting against the background of clipped grass and mist. Another one, too quick to pin down the shape. There was something outside, several things, and they were drawing closer.
'Shavi?' she muttered.
'Playing dead won't help, lad,' the Bone Inspector mocked. 'You'll have to learn your lesson soon enough.'
'What lesson's that?' Laura's eyes darted back to the door. Closer. 'That sooner or later everyone turns into a bitter old git?'
The Bone Inspector's grin soured. He opened his mouth to speak. And in that instant something flashed through the door and hit him, and then he was howling in pain. Everything moved so fast it took a few seconds for Laura to register what was happening. A large russet fox was scrabbling wildly at the Bone Inspector's torso, its teeth sunk deeply into his forearm. Blood trickled down his brown skin. He flailed around with the staff, trying to thrash it off, but it was holding on too tight and the pain was throwing him off balance. Before he could toss away the staff and grapple it with his free hand, a large mongrel and a Great Dane still trailing its owner's lead burst through the door and set about him with snapping jaws. Laura could tell they were not really trying to hurt him, but they kept him reeling and gave him enough nips to make his skin slick with blood and saliva. More shapes were moving towards the chapel; she glimpsed another fox, a badger, bizarrely, several rabbits, all heading towards the Bone Inspector. In the whirlwind of fur and fang, snapping and snarling, he was driven backwards by sheer weight of numbers until he was on the threshold. Laura picked up his stick and ran forward to jab him with it so he went spinning out on to the grass.
'Quick!' Shavi gasped. 'The doors!' He pitched forward, spraying spittle, his eyes rolling, and grabbed the back of a pew for support.
Laura and Marshall ran together and slammed the doors shut, then helped each other to drag pews in front of them. When they had finished it would have taken a bulldozer to plough the doors open.
And then, eerily, the crescendo of awful animal noises ended suddenly, to be replaced by the dim sound of paws padding quickly away. There was a choking moan, quickly stifled, as the Bone Inspector started to feel the full pain of his wounds.
Laura whirled. Shavi still clung to the pew, pale and weak. 'You did that!' she said incredulously.
He nodded, tried to force a smile. 'I never realised I had it in me.'
'Good Lord!' Marshall muttered. He slumped down on to a pew blankly.
Laura and Shavi hurried round and piled pews against the west and south doors too. 'He's going to find a way to get in as soon as he recovers,' she said.
Shavi nodded. 'Then we better get moving.'
Back in the sacristy, Laura felt cold, queasy, barely able to continue. Shavi, though, seemed oblivious to the growing anxiety which hung over the chapel like a suffocating fog. He swung the pick-axe at the wall with force; the reverberations exploded to the very foundations. Up in the choir Marshall still sat in a daze, staring at the floor, his arms hugged tightly round him. And at the door the Bone Inspector hammered and hollered, his voice growing increasingly fractured. It was a terrible sound, filled with a growing sense of fear. Laura covered her ears, but even that couldn't block it out.
'What's in there, Shavi?' she asked, but he didn't seem to hear. His face was fixed, almost transcendent.
And the pick-axe rose and fell, rose and fell. Shards of stone flew off like bomb fragments and clouds of dust filled the air. He coughed and choked and smeared his forehead with sweaty dirt. 'Nearly there,' he hacked.
Laura wanted to say Don't go any further, but with that thought there was a sudden crash and several stones collapsed into a dark void beyond. Laura jumped back in shock, not quite knowing what to expect. Shavi paused in
