'Pathetic Fragile Creatures. Your time has passed,' she spat. 'You taught me to feel emotion and defiled me for life. You deserve to be eradicated from Existence for the poison you have inflicted on all wondrous things. Love.' Fury filled her. 'Love! See what it has done!' She indicated Caitlin, who was attempting to staunch the flow of blood from her shoulder. 'It has destroyed you too, though you do not realise how or why. It has destroyed me. In the end it will destroy Jack Churchill, the vile and deceitful last chance of humanity.'
With a flourish, she tore a dagger from her belt and attacked. At the last moment, Mallory turned and it tore open his upper arm. Instinctively, he brought Llyrwyn up and with a sizzle of Blue Fire he separated Niamh's head from her shoulders. After a second, the body exploded in a wild flurry of moths, their brilliant gold corrupted by black as they swirled up to the ceiling, and through it. When they had gone, there was nothing left of Niamh.
Mallory had thought his mysterious urge for revenge would be sated, but he only felt deflated, and strangely sad. He hurried back to Caitlin, who gave him a forced smile. She was deathly pale.
Blood streamed from his own wounds, but he was certain that, given time, the Pendragon Spirit would heal him. Of Caitlin, he was not so sure. 'I'm afraid to remove the sword. It might cut the artery,' he said.
'Don't worry. Let's get out of here, find somewhere we can rest a while.' As he lifted her in his arms, she added, 'You can go on ahead with the Extinction Shears, come back for me later when it's all done.'
'No,' he said, denying the practicality of her suggestion. 'You and me, we're a team. We've travelled across Earth, the Far Lands and the Land of the Dead. We're not going our separate ways now.' He added, 'I need you with me.'
'No, you don't.'
'Yes,' he said firmly. 'I do.'
Bracing his foot on the edge of the balcony, he propelled them across the gulf onto the next balcony. Landing hard, they spilled onto the ground. Caitlin cried out as the sword twisted.
'Don't worry,' she added hastily. 'You did great.'
Carrying her into the adjoining corridor, he laid her at the foot of the wall. Her clothes were sodden with blood.
'A good infusion of the Blue Fire could turn you around quick as anything,' Mallory said. He unhooked the Wayfinder from his belt and examined the flame, which flickered even more weakly than the last time he had scrutinised it.
'Doesn't look too good, does it?' Caitlin said. 'For me, or Hal.'
'Don't be so negative.' Hiding his despondence, Mallory wondered where else he could find another source of Blue Fire in that God-forsaken place.
Taking his hand, Caitlin appeared to read his thoughts. 'You mustn't worry about me. There are more important things to deal with right now. I can wait.' She saw his face, and smiled. 'And even if I can't, I'm proud I've played my part. I'm ready, Mallory.'
'No!'
'I've buried my husband and my son. I've seen so many people die. There's been so much suffering, but so much good too. Friendship like I never imagined. And love… Everything that's happened has made me see life and the world in a completely different way. It's not mundane at all. There's so much wonder everywhere, it's just so well hidden. But once you find it… everything really is magickal.' She smiled. 'And then there's you.'
'Will you be quiet?' Mallory tended to her wound, but the blood pumping out around the sword was not diminishing.
'Life was dark after Grant and Liam died, but you made it worthwhile for me again. You've been a good friend, Mallory. My best friend.' She took his hand and squeezed it tightly.
He didn't like the way she appeared to be drawing an end to the story of her life. 'Stop it. The Pendragon Spirit is all about hope, and while your heart's still beating that's what there is. No more talk like that.'
Her smile was sympathetic. She nodded as if she agreed, but that only made him feel worse.
A noise from further along the gloomy corridor disturbed them. As Mallory drew his sword, the shadows retreated from the blue flare, but he still couldn't see who was there.
'No one's going to get past me,' he said. 'You'll be all right.'
The darkness unfolded to reveal a blue light way down the corridor, drawing closer. Puzzled, Mallory held his breath and watched. It was Blue Fire, he was sure of it, but it moved like a person. As it neared, he saw it was indeed a man in a column of the sapphire flames.
'Is that Hal?' he asked quietly. Flicking open the lamp's glass door, he saw only the faintest flame guttering inside.
'It is!' Caitlin said. 'That's why the Wayfinder flame was dying. He was taking on form.'
'Hal!' Mallory called. Sheathing his sword, he ran to greet their friend. 'Come on! Caitlin needs your help!'
The burning blue figure was a beacon of hope in the grim Fortress, but as Mallory skidded to a halt in front of him, the blue flames licked out. The figure beneath didn't resemble the Hal Mallory had seen in the flames, but even as he struggled to recognise the face, the features were growing fluid, changing. A moment later the Hortha stood in front of him.
Before Mallory could react, the Hortha extended an arm and plunged the rapidly growing spike of blackthorn through Mallory's chest. Caitlin's voice was so weak, her scream barely carried. In his shock, Mallory felt nothing. He staggered back a pace as the spike withdrew, and examined the hole in his chest from which blood now pumped.
Dazed, he scrabbled for his sword, but the Hortha rapidly punched another spike into his gut. This time the agony lanced through him and he yelled, fighting to stay conscious. His hand twitched and thrashed, but couldn't reach Llyrwyn.
'And so one of the Great Swords of Existence is consigned to search for a new master,' the Hortha said.
Impaled on the spike, Mallory was lifted off the ground and carried back to Caitlin where he was dumped unceremoniously on the floor, and for a moment he did black out.
When he regained consciousness, the Hortha was crouching beside him and Caitlin was crying weakly. The pool of blood around her had spread too far and her eyelids struggled to stay open. Mallory could tell from the position of his wound, and the speed at which his blood was rapidly joining Caitlin's pool, that he could not recover.
'You had to trick us,' Mallory said. 'I'd have hacked you to pieces and kept hacking and then dumped you over the balcony if I'd known it was you.'
'I know.' The Hortha's crumpled paper face showed no emotion. 'Your resistance has been strong. I needed a small seed of information to get through your defences. And I found it. Your attachment to the genie in the bottle.'
'How did you know about that?'
Uninterested, the Hortha waved his comment away. 'This end was fixed the moment I tasted your blood in the Court of the Soaring Spirit. It was only a matter of when,' the Hortha said. 'You could never outrun me.'
'You can kill me, but you'll never win.' Mallory coughed up a mouthful of blood. 'And I've got a whole bagful of cliches where that came from. Stick around — I'll bore you to death.'
'I have fulfilled my commitment to the Devourer of All Things, and now I will wait until I am called again.' The Hortha took the bag containing the Extinction Shears. Mallory was too weak to prevent him. 'Without these, your cause is lost,' the Hortha continued.
'Never,' Mallory said. 'The others will find another way.'
The Hortha glanced at Caitlin, who was fading in and out of consciousness. 'She is gone too. And now there is only this one to eradicate.' He plucked up the Wayfinder and prepared to snuff out the dying flame.
Blue Fire erupted from the lantern and engulfed the Hortha. A high-pitched wail leaped from him as he staggered backwards, flapping madly to extinguish the flames. But they burned so furiously that Mallory couldn't bear to look at them, and soon the high-pitched wail was consumed too. After a moment, the flames sucked back into the lantern and there was nothing left of the Hortha but a few charred twigs and a pile of grey ashes.
Mallory spat more blood. 'That'll teach you, you bastard. We win. We always win,' he croaked.
Beside him, a shadow was moving across Caitlin's body. It took a glimpse of red eyes in the umbra for him to realise it was the Morrigan vacating her host. The gaze fell on Mallory and for the first time he saw a hint of warmth within them.
