now.'
'You're going to have to keep that responsibility, Ronnie. We're entering the Fortress as planned. We need someone on the ground to marshal the troops. You're the best man for that with your experience.'
'I was afraid you were going to say that, sir. I've heard it once already today.'
The explanation for his comment was revealed as Mallory and Caitlin marched in, throwing themselves into unrestrained hugging and back-slapping.
'Mission accomplished,' Mallory said. 'Though not without a few minor hiccups.' He handed Church a package tightly wrapped in purple velvet. Church could feel the buzzing energy of the Extinction Shears even through the material.
'I'd like to say it was nothing,' Caitlin said with a smile, 'but it really was something.'
Mallory turned to Veitch tentatively. 'Etain is gone. And the other three. She sacrificed herself to save us.'
'That sounds like her.'
'I think she loved you, in her own way.'
Veitch nodded slowly. 'She was a good person who had a raw deal. We… found a lot in common. I'll miss her.' He hesitated. 'Thanks for telling me.'
'No problem. I was wrong about her. Maybe I'm wrong about you too. Everybody deserves a second chance, right?'
Cautiously, with a brief nod, they came to terms with each other.
For a few hours, everyone exchanged details of the battles they had fought, the ones they had won and the others they had lost, mourned friends who had fallen and drew up plans for the fight to come. Most of all they enjoyed being reunited with old friends, and new ones, men and gods together, at peace in each other's company. It was a bittersweet time, for though they had overcome all odds to be together once again, they knew it could well be the last time.
That knowledge generated a heightened mood where deep emotions thrived. Once dark had fallen, Church led the others through the camp. In each little enclave, the gods sat around campfires, telling stories in grave voices, or drinking and feasting, fighting, having sex, whichever were the peculiarities of their own particular group. The Norse were the most raucous, followed closely by the Greeks in an adjoining camp, and at times they appeared to be in competition with each other as to who could revel with the most abandon. The Chinese were measured and introspective, weighing the lessons of the past before considering tactics for the following day. In some of the groups the rituals were alien and unsettling.
The Brothers and Sisters of Dragons were welcomed by all the gods they encountered. Church declined offer after offer to join this group or that, and once they had toured the entire camp, he led the others back to the Tuatha De Danaan, where they felt most at home.
Around the fire, stripped of their arrogance and facing the harsh reality of their position in the universe, the Golden Ones appeared smaller in stature, but somehow more noble than Church had ever seen them. The mood was restrained, but positive, and after a while they began to sing. The songs stirred the emotions in ways far beyond the simple arrangements of music and words, evoking their yearnings for the four lost cities of their homeland — Gorias, Finias, Falias and Murias — the only places where they would ever feel at peace.
When they had finished, Church saw tears in Ruth's eyes. 'I don't know your homeland, but we all long for the same thing,' she said to Lugh. 'We just give it different names. A place or a relationship where we can be who we really are. Somewhere we can put aside the constant struggling and the fears and the anxiety and find peace.'
'We will all find our home one day,' Lugh said. He turned his attention to Church. 'Never in our long existence have the Tuatha De Danaan known hopelessness, but now we all feel it pressing tight against our backs. The Devourer of All Things has haunted us since the earliest stories told by my people. In our hearts, we know it is the End. Should we fight this battle, or would it be best for us to walk away and seek out our homeland, attempt to find at least a little of that peace before all falls away?'
Every one of the assembled Tuatha De Danaan turned their attention to Church; he could see this was a question that had been troubling all of them.
'Over the last few days I've been forced to consider a lot of big questions… why we are here and what all this around us means,' he began slowly. 'And I've learned to study life in the smallest detail to find the big answers. I don't know if I believe in an End. The science of my people suggests there is no such thing. The universe starts with a bang, expands, collapses and then restarts — a constant cycle of life and death. And that's what we see in nature. The big answers are written small.' He looked to Shavi, who was nodding. 'All the information encoded in every aspect of everything, like every part of a hologram contains all the information possessed by the whole. There is no end. We can see it around us, in the turn of the seasons. We can see it in the Tarot cards, where the Fool goes on a journey of enlightenment, and when he thinks he's learned everything, he's back to the start as the Fool again, learning once more.'
Lugh nodded. 'Then the End may be a new start. But for the Devourer of All Things and his followers. Not for us.'
'Fair enough. But I think the Void can be beaten,' Church said. 'The Void loves the mundane, the normal. For all its spiders and its weird army, it hates magic. And that, essentially, is what the Blue Fire is. Look around you. Here we are, in the heart of this landscape devastated by the Void, and magic is still here.'
Everyone shifted their intense concentration from Church's words and looked around, and they saw that he was right. The campfire crackled and sent golden sparks swirling upwards in the fragrant woodsmoke, tiny stars shimmering with beauty. High overhead, the real stars shone like ice in a glacial sweep across the black velvet sky. As one, their breathing slowed, and they listened, and they felt. There was silence in their tiny circle of light, and the peace that only came where magic lay.
'We have to use the magickal lessons we learned on our long journey,' Church continued, but now he was talking directly to the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons. 'The secret knowledge that kids know and adults forget, because it's encoded in their stories, their books. Don't stray from the path. Trust your heart. Three times is the charm, say the name three times, call three times. And the rest. That information comes from the Far Lands. This place is the receptacle of that knowledge, for our world to tap into. So we learn it, for this time, this battle. The magic is in here.' Church rested his fist against his heart. 'That's what we've learned, isn't it? On the road, after we all got together that first time.' He looked Ruth directly in the eyes. 'On that long trek I made from the Iron Age back to our time.' She didn't look away. Church saw the campfire reflected in her eyes, and himself, and the past, as the frostiness he had sensed since Stonehenge slowly slid away.
'Friendship,' she said. Then, hesitantly, 'Love. It sounds sickly, sentimental, simplistic.' She looked to Shavi and Veitch, and then to Tom. 'But that's what we learned, isn't it? Five forged into One. That's where the magic is. And we don't stray from the path.' She felt for Church's hand out of sight of the others and squeezed it tightly. 'We don't stray from the path,' she said quietly to herself.
A low, mournful call rang out across the camp that sent goosebumps up Church's arm. Gradually, the tone changed until it became uplifting, growing louder, a roar of defiance. The Tuatha De Danaan jumped to their feet as one.
'Our brother!' Lugh exclaimed.
Peering into the dark beyond the campfire, Church's eyes gradually became accustomed to the gloom. He could just discern a large figure circling the camp, occasionally throwing its head back to roar into the night; at times it appeared to be an animal, with horns silhouetted against the lighter night sky; on other glimpses, it appeared to be nothing more than vegetation.
'Cernunnos,' Ruth said quietly. 'The Green Man, he's here. That should give us hope — he's a god, one of the Oldest Things in the Land, and he's so closely linked to the Blue Fire.'
Church looked up at the spray of stars. 'This could be the last time we see this.' He put an arm around her shoulders. 'Let's make the most of it.'
Ruth folded into his arms and rested her head on his shoulder. 'Sometimes everything feels such a mess, Church. Everything between us should be perfect, but I'm scared that there's some real darkness inside you-'
'The Libertarian waiting to come out?'
'Yes. I was all ready to keep you at arm's length, but what you said at the fire… about the magic. It made me realise what we had, and what we've got to fight to keep. We've come a long way, from beneath Albert Bridge to this God-forsaken place, and everything feels as if it's been trying to tear us apart. But here we are!'
