both roughly to keep them awake.
They waited for long minutes after they had announced their arrival, but all they could hear was the wind blowing around the castle walls, sounding at times like plaintive human voices.
Niamh, who had the position of superiority in the group, stepped forwards. 'We enter.'
Two of the guards put their shoulders to the gates, but they swung open easily, as if they could have been moved with the touch of only a finger. Beyond was a breathtaking hall soaring up to a glass roof that made the interior as bright and hot as a greenhouse. Within, they were assailed by numerous sensations. The breeze moved the most melodic chimes hanging in enormous trees that grew mysteriously out of the tiled floor, their tops almost brushing the roof. A white waterfall gushed down from an opening halfway up one wall, splashing in a cool pool that emptied out through a culvert in the floor. The smells were as complex and heady as any they had experienced in T'ir n'a n'Og. Church picked up lime, honeysuckle, rose and cinnamon before he gave up.
'It's beautiful.' Ruth was overcome by the sheer wonder after the air of threat without.
'It is the mistress's palace. Her sanctuary,' Niamh noted. 'She loved the Fixed Lands and wished to bring her memories of that place to life here.' She paused thoughtfully before adding, 'She loved a Fragile Creature-'
'Well, there's no future in that, is there?' Ruth ignored Niamh's pointed stare.
'And she retired here to nurse her broken heart?' Church asked. Niamh replied with a sad smile.
They pressed on through the hall into a maze of rooms decorated in different earthly styles: mediaeval, Celtic, Mexican, Japanese, Native American. Yet each felt as if an unpleasant presence had been in it only moments before, although there was no visible sign of recent occupation. Even the usually stoic Tuatha De Danann appeared uneasy.
Occasionally Church and Ruth glimpsed flitting grey shapes on the edge of their field of vision, accompanied by barely audible but insistent whispering, and a growing anxiety. Sometimes they caught sight of faces, most of them unknown, but one or two that were almost recognisable.
'Can you see them?' Ruth hissed after they had passed through a room where the shapes swarmed at their backs, disappearing the moment they turned round.
'They are the spirits of the dead,' Baccharus interjected. 'You will encounter them throughout the Western Isles.'
'Ghosts?' Church moved his head sharply to try to bring one of the figures to the centre of his vision, without much luck. 'Real ghosts?'
'Some of the dead are drawn here, Fragile Creatures with a yearning nature, unsettled, troubled. It has always been that way. The Western Isles are a destination for those of a questing nature.' The figures kept well away from Baccharus as he spoke.
'Are they dangerous?' Ruth asked.
Baccharus chose his words carefully. 'They can be. The dead bring their dark emotions with them. Many are fuelled by bitterness, resentful of those still living. Beware of them and their whispered words. They will wish to lure you to your doom.'
A chill turned Church's skin to gooseflesh. Another face he half thought he knew. Ruth gripped his hand in hers, fixing her attention on the path ahead.
The layout of the castle was incomprehensible; they trailed from room to room without encountering anyone, constantly sensing a passing presence, always one step ahead.
'Maybe we should head back to the ship,' Ruth said. 'She's obviously not here.'
'But she should be here,' Baccharus said. 'She may be in need of assistance.'
'I thought you Golden Ones rarely helped each other,' Church said.
'We are not all the same.' It was a passing comment, but Church caught the briefest glimpse of something in Baccharus's face that gave him pause.
Before he had time to consider it further, one of the guards said curtly, 'In the next chamber,' although it was impossible to tell how he could know when the door was closed.
As one, the guards drew long golden swords from hidden pockets in their armour. They approached the door cautiously. Church's blood was pulsing loudly in his head; now he could also sense something, and although he couldn't pinpoint it, it set his nerves on edge. In the room. He saw Ruth could feel it too. Her warning hand fell on his forearm, urging him back.
Niamh made a sign to the captain and the door was thrust open. The guards surged through, with Church so close behind, he ran into them when they came to a premature halt. They were so still Church first thought they were the victims of some enchantment until he realised they were staring at the corner of the room. He eased his way through until he had a better view.
The remains of a woman were slumped over a divan, her body breaking up just as Cormorel's had done on the point of death. Her body had been torn apart from neck to crotch. There was nothing anyone could do for her: the flight of golden moths had dwindled to a handful fluttering up intermittently to the ceiling, where they passed through it like wisps of light. Church guessed it was Hellawes.
Niamh thrust past him and dropped to her knees in front of the divan, an unnerving keening sound of grief emanating from her. She kneaded her hands together, dipped and raised her head, barely able to comprehend what she was seeing. Baccharus looked away, sickened.
'Cormorel's murderer-' Church began.
'No.' Baccharus eyed him forcefully. 'This crime was not committed by the same.'
'Who would want to kill a woman who lived like a hermit?' Ruth said.
The guards slowly moved backwards until they had formed a circle, swords ready to repel an attack from any direction.
'Remember: the mistress of this place was a Golden One,' Baccharus cautioned. 'To do this to her takes tremendous power, or specific knowledge.' The words caught in his throat and he raised the back of his hand to his mouth in disgust, unable to hide his feelings any longer.
'Who committed this crime?' Niamh wailed.
The nerves along Church's spine suddenly sparked. 'Something's coming,' he said hoarsely, feeling it acutely as he spoke.
Ruth looked up at him curiously. 'I don't sense anything.'
His left arm began to tremble uncontrollably. He gripped it at the wrist to steady himself. 'You haven't got a cocktail of alien shit in your blood,' he said hoarsely. He half stumbled; Ruth caught him. 'Fomorii,' he wheezed. The taint of the Kiss of Frost was responding to the presence nearby.
The guards glanced at him, concerned, then at Niamh for guidance. 'Listen to him,' she ordered. 'He is a Brother of Dragons. He understands the Night Walkers.' She hurried behind their line of swords as the group began to back out the way they had come.
Before they were halfway across the next room, a guard's head split open. The blow had come so quickly no one had seen it. The Fomorii were all around them. To Church, they appeared to rise from the floor and drop from the ceiling, oil black and filled with malevolence, armed with the cruel serrated swords. His stomach knotted at the waves of evil washing off them. The air was filled with an animal stink, the walls ringing with the echoes of their shrieks and grunts. He still couldn't bear to look them in the face, so all he got were fleeting impressions: darkness and shadows, moving fast, shapes continually changing, horns and bony plates, sharp teeth, ridges and staring eyes. But most of all, power.
The Tuatha lle Danann responded with force. Their swords were a whirling golden blur, and while they had appeared delicate before, now they carved easily through any Formor who came close enough. The ferocity of the attack had obviously shocked the gods; more, the simple fact that the Fomorii had attacked at all. In their arrogance they had presumed the Fomorii would leave them alone out of fear. Now their very existence was at risk.
'What the hell are they doing here?' Church wished he had some kind of weapon to join in the fray, but the guards had formed an impenetrable wall between him and the Fomorii.
'It doesn't make sense.' Ruth was preoccupied, trying to find a space to concentrate so she could use some aspect of her craft, but in the melee it was impossible.
Another guard fell, split almost in two. Church saw none of the golden moths, so he couldn't tell if the victim was dead or not; there were still so many unknowns about the Tuatha De Danann, but there was no time to dwell on the puzzle. The Fomorii surged all around, black water shifting and changing, striking with venom, desperate to
