'Do you think you can find your way back to where you first appeared in the desert?' he asked.
'I don't know. Maybe. Do you think there's a way back?'
'Could be.' He didn't want to raise her hopes, but his own heart was beating faster.
Leaving her there recovering in the sun, he found Tom and Ruth sitting quietly on another, smaller terrace. Ruth looked paler than he had ever seen her.
'How are you feeling?' he asked her. He hated the uncomfortable space that lay between them, and the way her eyes didn't quite meet his.
'Better, thanks. The Pendragon Spirit works wonders if you let it.'
'So what wisdom have you discovered now?' Tom said acidly.
'That boy you saw on the train, Carlton, is working with the Oldest Things in the Land. Maybe he's one of them.'
Tom sucked on his roll-up thoughtfully for a moment, then said simply, 'Interesting.'
'The Oldest Things in the Land conspired to get her here. The Puck chased her into the city. They wanted us to find her, because she can lead us back home. There's some kind of way that isn't one of the regular doors that the Army of the Ten Billion Spiders blocked.'
'You're sure you're not reading into this exactly what you want?' Ruth asked.
'With her, we can find our way home!'
Ruth flashed a brief, disappointed look that stung him. 'You still want to run away?'
'It's not like that… oh, forget it. Why don't you just trust me?'
Tom exhaled a cloud of blue smoke. 'It's a good job I'm not embarrassed by your pathetic domestic issues-'
Ruth and Church turned and snapped at him at the same time: 'Shut up!' He shrugged, unmoved.
'Let's get the others together,' Church said. 'We're moving out within the hour.'
2
In the dead heat of the morning, they departed the Court of Endless Horizons, past the steady stream of refugees seeking shelter in the city. After the packed, sweltering, noisy streets, the blank, rolling wastes were a welcome relief, stilling the tense chatter of the mind and allowing them all to breathe a little easier.
Casting a threatening shadow across the ochre sands, the black cloud of the Morvren followed them, their cawing a jarring sound in the stillness that lay all around whenever the wind dropped. Lest they be lulled into a false state of overconfidence by the peace of the desolation, the scarlet, orange and gold shape of the Burning Man loomed up ahead of them against the silver-blue skyline, the outline now smudged black with greasy smoke. The closer they got to it, the more charged with dread the atmosphere became.
'What do you think it will look like when the Void fills the space?' Ruth was surprised to realise she was whispering.
'I do not think we should worry about that,' Shavi replied. 'Once the Void materialises, everything is over.'
Soon the gleaming towers of the court and the dark line of jungle disappeared from view, and there was only the rolling dunes scarred with the line of their footprints. They sipped sparingly from their water bottles, all of them aware of the dangers of getting lost.
Leading the way, Rachel pointed to a formation of glassy volcanic rock rising from the sands about three miles distant. 'I remember seeing that. I came through somewhere near there. I think.'
Laura sighed loudly, eliciting a cautionary glare from Church.
Veitch joined Church shortly after, his gaze fixed firmly on the horizon. 'You sure this is the best plan?'
'Have you been talking to Ruth?'
'It's just, none of us can see where this is going.'
'You could trust me.'
A pause. 'I do. Course I do. But everything that's happened since we got here has pushed us all to the limit. I know I'm not thinking straight.'
'I hear what you're saying, Ryan. So did you draw the short straw to come and get me back on the rails?'
'It's not like that.'
'Because that's a little funny. Not so long ago they were all afraid you'd kill them in their sleep. Now you're the voice of reason, and I'm the bad guy.'
'That's not fair.'
Church regretted his words instantly. Veitch had been trying his best to make up for his past actions when he had been destabilised by the Void; he deserved better than that, and Church had to do better if he was to be the leader they needed.
'You're right, I'm sorry,' he said. 'I don't want to tell any of you what I'm planning. In the Halls of the Drakusa, when we discovered that one of us is helping the enemy, that really hit hard. Once we got back together, I never thought we'd have to deal with a traitor in the group again, even after Tom got his warning from the boy on the train. Now I'm not taking any chances.'
'Even though Virginia's dead?'
'I'm not sure it was her.' Veitch's silence was pointed. 'I'm not saying it was you. I'm not saying it's anybody. I'm just thinking it's wise not to allow any opportunities for our plans to leak out to the enemy.' He added, 'I don't like to think this way. Mistrust is corrosive. Maybe that's all part of the Enemy's plan — letting it eat away at our relationships and the ties that make us stronger as a group. But I can't see another way to deal with it.'
Veitch appeared satisfied with this, and they fell silent again as the heat began to take its toll. Skidding down deep dunes and then climbing up through the shifting sands on the other side made their leg muscles burn and for a long while the rock formation appeared to be drawing no closer. But then they crested a steep incline onto a hardpan plateau scattered with boulders where a stronger wind blew and they saw colours shimmering in the sky like the aurora borealis. Here and there drifted strands of the pearly mist that Rachel had described.
'This is it,' Rachel said, turning slowly.
'What now?' Laura asked. Everyone looked to Church.
'We go home,' he replied.
3
From a distant dune, the Libertarian watched them make their way across the plateau into the mist. With the Morvren swirling overhead, they had been easy to follow, but with each step his anxiety had grown. More than anything he didn't want them to pass through those mists, although he did not know why: another of those annoying blank spots in his memory. He had been so sure that his manipulation of Tezcatlipoca and Church would reap the final rewards he desired, but now his control of events was slipping through his fingers like sand.
When the heat haze shimmered and Church and the others disappeared from view, he broke into a desperate run, stumbling and sliding down the dunes. Cursing, he vowed to let them know that the more desperate they made him, the more he would make them pay.
On the plateau, he didn't slow his pace and plunged into the mists after them.
4
'Stay close together,' Church ordered as they moved through an area of bright, swirling colours.
'Wow, trippy,' Laura said. 'This reminds me of… okay, you had to be there.'
