'Maybe that's the point. Maybe you were like a jigsaw with one piece missing. Now you've found it you can be the person you always might have been.'
He shook his head, laughing quietly. 'Now I know how I feel, I'm taking it all with a pinch of salt. Tom gets so wrapped up with these predictions and prophecies. They're all so vague they can mean virtually anything under any circumstance. Who knows? Maybe Veitch is the big saviour.'
'But what does it mean? For us?' Her eyes shimmered brightly in the firelight.
'I'm carrying on with my life as it was. I'm not thinking about tomorrow. I'm not thinking about the big picture. I'm making the most of each minute and I'll deal with whatever's thrown at me, as and when it happens. And I'm doing it with you.' He pulled her forward and kissed her tenderly.
They were interrupted by Tom's irritated muttering. 'You've got time for all that spooning in the privacy of your tent,' he said.
'You're only jealous because you're not getting any,' Ruth replied.
The night was clear and bright and filled with a deep, abiding magic. The full moon brought silver tips to the waves, their gentle lapping a soothing symphony accompanied by the occasional breeze rustling the goldening leaves; the perfect soundtrack to Church's thoughts. Stars glistened everywhere they looked; they felt peaceful for the first time in months.
'It could be like this all over,' Church said, his arm around Ruth, the two of them watching the light on the waves.
'And I thought I was the hippie,' Tom said. 'Don't start going soft. This is a little oasis. The real world is out there and it's thoroughly unpleasant.'
'Can't we just enjoy the moment?' Ruth protested.
'You go right ahead.' Tom prodded the fire with an annoyance that matched the sneer in his voice. 'We'll just forget about all those bodies getting torn apart and eaten, all those lives being ruined, land being blasted, cities razed to the ground, rivers polluted. Oh, and while we're at it, let's forget the end of the world in just a few short days.' He punctuated it with a tight smile.
'I didn't mean that.' Ruth's eyes blazed. 'But we can't do anything right here, right now, so do we have to continue flagellating ourselves? We've worked hard. We've achieved something… Church has achieved something. We should celebrate our victories.'
'I simply wanted you to remember-'
'Of course I remember! I know what we're up against! And I know what our chances are, even with what Church has done today.' Tom flinched. 'Yes, I can see it in your face. Even if we win we aren't all going to make it through alive, right? So I just want to enjoy this quiet time with Church and my friend because it might be my last.'
Tom shrugged. 'Point taken.' He gave a slight grin that punctured the mood.
For the next half hour, they did take it easy, enjoying their company with jokes and gossip while handing round the whisky. Even so, they found it impossible to bury the momentous events of the day and soon they were chatting animatedly once more about what had happened. Church couldn't bring himself to discuss what he had felt once he had given himself up to the Blue Fire-it had been too personal, a spiritually transcendent moment that would be devalued by being discussed. That infuriated Ruth, who was eager to understand.
'But I don't see what he did to bring the land alive,' she said. 'It wasn't as if he unblocked a channel or something.'
'He gave it his life, his spirit, in honesty and openness, and the Blue Fire gave it back to him, but not before that vital surge had brought the whole of the system alive.' Tom was lying on his back, watching the stars through his cloud of smoke. 'It is fuelled by belief, and Church believed in a way that nobody had for centuries. Not just believed in the Fiery Network, but in himself, in humanity and the universe and hope, and childish things too, like dreams and wishing.'
'So he's just one big battery.'
'The only battery who could have done it.'
'I don't get it,' Ruth continued. 'You talked about waking the land as if it were a big thing, but apart from the Fabulous Beasts we saw earlier, everything looks the same.'
'Maybe you're not looking in the right place, or the right way. Maybe you're not feeling.'
Ruth hurled some mild abuse at his patronising attitude. He sighed wearily and dragged himself to his feet. 'Do you remember that night at Stonehenge when I gave you the first sign of the Blue Fire?' he said.
'No, I don't,' Ruth said, 'because I was fast asleep. You saved that demonstration for your favourite son here.'
'Yes, I remember,' Church said. 'It was amazing. Like something I'd been looking for all my life.'
'The power of Stonehenge made that easier,' Tom said, 'because it's a node in the network. Look around-do you see any standing stones in the vicinity?' They agreed that there weren't any.
They waited for him to continue, but all he did was smoke, and check his watch and the moon and stars, until they were convinced he'd slipped into a drugged stupor. Ruth shifted impatiently, made to speak, but Church placed a restraining hand on her forearm. She looked at him curiously; he put his finger to his lips.
After fifteen minutes, Tom said, 'Now.' He dropped to his haunches and placed one hand flat on the cool grass. 'The time has to be right. The mood has to be right. Everything has to be right, and it's not been righter for centuries. You even need the right eyes for this-not everyone can see it-but you should be ready now. Watch carefully.'
Around his hand, tiny sparks began to fly. They had a life of their own, dancing and jumping into the grass, surging towards the nearby trees. Other strands ran to Church and Ruth, infiltrating them with a prickly thrill; they both felt a sudden surge of euphoria.
'It's in everything,' Ruth gasped.
'You think that's good.' Tom smiled. 'Watch this.'
The ground erupted with Blue Fire. It shot out in lines across the land, towards the sea and under the waves, intersecting at regular points where tiny flares burned. And then it suddenly burst upwards in a tremendous, breathtaking rush, hundreds of feet high, a dazzling cathedral of lights like the one Church had seen at Stonehenge. A paler blue light shimmered between the connecting strands, turning opaque, then clear, like protective walls. Only this cathedral was not the only one. An even bigger structure covered St. Michael's Mount; and there were more beyond, stretching right across the land. It was dazzling in its potency. Caught up in the sheer wonder of it, there was no doubt the whole of the land had become infused with the vital force.
'How did you do that?' Ruth gasped.
'Sometimes when things fall into alignment it becomes more active. I simply helped you to see it.'
'This is why the ancients put up the stone circles,' Ruth said in awe.
'And the standing stones and cairns and other places of sacred power.' Tom was now sitting cross-legged on the grass, watching the display with a beatific smile. 'To channel it, to help it to live, and to reap the benefits it provides.'
'It heals,' Ruth said.
'It heals the body, certainly. But more importantly, it heals the spirit.'
'I want to feel that.' Ruth looked from Tom to Church. 'You've both had experience of it. It's changed you both, I can see. I need to feel it.'
'There'll be time,' Tom said.
'Will there?' Ruth replied. The note in her voice infected them all, and gradually the astonishing display faded.
Church put his arm tightly around her shoulders. 'But it's worth fighting for, isn't it?'
Veitch and Shavi escaped from the farmhouse, but only with a helping of guile and a good serving of luck. They kept to the hedgerows, hiding in ditches at the slightest sound, barely moving, barely breathing.
The Fomorii were out in force, scurrying along the roads all around the farm. Veitch and Shavi were in no doubt the Night Walkers still considered them a threat. At times when the beasts drew a little too close, Shavi used his shamanic abilities to direct various field animals to cause a distraction so they could escape. Since his return from the Grim Lands, he was even more adept at the things at which he had previously excelled.
Eventually they were faced with open countryside; as dawn began to break they were moving as fast as they could towards the west.
