stupid, thoughtless actions have caused. I'm not going to have any more on my conscience. I'll do whatever it takes to make sure the Libertarian's future doesn't come to pass.'
Grim-faced, Church marched away. Ruth watched him go, her heart breaking.
'We're going to keep an eye on him, all right?' Veitch said.
Ruth cast a quizzical glance his way.
'Nah, it's not some ploy to win your heart. I'm a simple bloke — I don't do things like that.' He watched Church kneel and hug Virginia tightly, as much to find comfort for himself as for her. 'Our lives are like some bad soap most of the time, but here we're right down to the wire and everything has to change. We've passed the point where we can indulge ourselves with little games. It's about survival now. And we all need to look after each other, because we're friends. More than friends, maybe. Family, in a stupid, screwed-up kind of way. From here on in, we're looking out for each other, watching backs, carrying the weight.'
'What's come over you, Ryan?'
'You know us working-class boys — we're hard as nails but we're sentimental as fuck.' He paused. 'I love you.'
'Ryan-'
'Don't say anything, you stupid tosser. I love you and I want you to be happy, all the time, ever after, and if that means you're with Church, well, that's the way things are meant to be.' He glanced after Church. 'And I love him too, like a brother. He's blood. The bloke I admire most in the world. That's why I was so desperate to kill him. Make sense?'
'Only in your strange, warped world, Ryan.' She tried to make light, but she felt all her emotion on the point of bursting out. Too much stress, she told herself. Calm down.
'We're all he's got — you, me, Shavi, Tom. He needs us to look out for him, to keep him safe, to stop him doing something stupid. And that's what we're going to do, right? We're going to look after him, and keep him safe. Whatever it takes. Because he needs us.'
'You're rambling, Ryan.'
'Yeah, sorry.'
'I love you too.' She surprised him with a kiss on the cheek and then went after Church.
He knew what it really meant and he wasn't disappointed. It was, quite honestly, the best moment in his entire life, better even than the mermaids swimming beside the boat on the way to Caldey Island. He didn't need anything more now.
6
Along the great Fortress wall, the Fomorii swarmed. Some climbed and ripped out chunks around the windows, ignoring the clouds of flaming arrows that emerged from within. Others crashed against the great gates. It was only a matter of time before they broke through the defences.
'Death is all around, brother,' said El-Di-Gah-Wis-Lor, the final judgement of the Drakusa. Blinded by his hood, the giant saw everything. 'I feel it circling, shifting the patterns of this world, leaving marks and symbols that tell of its passing. A shadow where none should be. A cloud in the shape of a skull. Random grains of sand that spell a dead lover's name. The others do not notice these things, but they feel it, sometimes. A shiver. A moment of emptiness. A question on their lips.'
'Yep, this time we're bringing death on a grand scale, and you're helping me do it,' Hunter said. 'I've always hated my strength, but sometimes you've just got to recognise what you're good at and go with it.' He watched the Fomorii in action. 'I hope they're enough to get things moving.'
'They will suffice for now. There are more things on the way.'
'Yeah?' Hunter shrugged. 'Funny how things turn out. All these little coincidences. Me stumbling across you, you saving my life. Your presence saving the lives of the others. Now this.'
'There are no coincidences, brother.'
'Maybe you're right.'
The giant turned and looked into the sky behind him.
'What do you see?'
'The opposite of us, brother.'
Beyond the deafening rending and tearing of the Fomorii, Hunter could just make out another sound, drawing nearer. 'Wings?'
From the far horizon came the Fabulous Beasts. He counted seven; there could be more behind. The one at the head was larger and even more magnificent than the rest, the steady rhythm of its leathern wings like a heartbeat. Its jewelled scales gleamed, and the myriad colours, and the sheer wonder that it evoked deep inside him made the desolation of the blasted lands insignificant, a grey shadow that would fade in the first rays of the sun.
Hunter watched the Beasts pass over and for the first time in his life felt at peace. The downdraught from the wings ruffled his hair and the shadows passing over were cool and refreshing. Sinuously, the Fabulous Beasts arched and then drove down towards the Fortress, performing an intricate, breathtaking ballet in the air above it.
The greatest one was the first to release a blast of liquid fire that sent a geyser of rubble blasting into the air and set alight a large area of the Fortress. Soon the others were diving and releasing their terrible flame. The Fortress shook and large sections of the wall fell away to reveal the swarming insect life within. The glorious blaze leaped up to the sky, pouring thick black smoke that for the first time obscured the shape of the Burning Man. The heat was so intense that Hunter could feel it on his face a mile distant.
'Game on,' he said.
Chapter Eleven
1
As the glamour faded, the world rushed in to greet them. Overseeing the hellish scene with a sick fascination, Ronnie recalled the Somme with a clarity that made him shudder, the carpet of bodies so thick you could walk across it without touching earth, the pall of choking smoke, the plague of rats and the rain-lashed trenches.
'Ronnie? You okay?' Doctor Jay shook his arm.
'Yes. Of course. Fine as a fiddle.'
The sky was black with greasy, sulphurous smoke, the harsh red and gold glare of the blazing fortress like a dying sun in the depths of space. In the gloom all around, the Army of Dragons and the ranks of the gods waited patiently for Ronnie's order.
Bitterly, he recalled Haig's plan that could not fail: a seven-day bombardment to destroy the German defences and then the order to advance to pick off the disoriented survivors. So terribly flawed. Fifty-eight thousand British troops dead or mutilated in one day alone. The machine guns cutting bodies in two. Was Haig haunted by his failure? Ronnie wondered. How could he possibly live with himself after that?
'War demands the best of us.' Aula was at his shoulder, calm and steady in a way that he had never seen her before; there was more of Decebalus in her than she liked to reveal. 'We fight for the right reasons, and it demands sacrifices,' she continued. 'And sacrifices of our own souls, for we are forced to give up a part of ourselves that we would never have relinquished before. It destroys the person we were and we can never recover, but we do it so
