she could make out crushed cars and trucks, washing machines, fridges, plastic, girders and broken masonry embedded in its walls as if the makers had plundered the local communities for the material. Above it, the stars were obscured by smoke from a hundred fires burning a dull red, visible through ragged openings all over the tower. And as she watched, Ruth could see movement around the base of the construction, up its walls, on its growing summit; the termites were swarming.
In her uneasy curiosity, Ruth flew a little closer, only to be disturbed by roars, shrieks and insane monkey chattering. She felt as if a terrible power had been turned on her, like a black ray projected from the tower; she suddenly became so cold her entire body shook, and an unbearable sense of despair began to gnaw at the pit of her stomach.
It was numbing, but then she felt Nina frantically tugging at her arm. Her terrified face left no doubt that they had been seen. The fear was infectious, and as Nina pirouetted in the air and sped away faster than Ruth could imagine, she felt instinctively that whatever was being built there would be too terrible to even imagine.
Nina's panic lessened only once they had put several miles between them and the black tower. They followed the landmarks back to the cottage, and then Nina took the route Ruth had first expected, up the hillside to the road above. As they neared where the van had been parked, they dipped down beneath the treetops and made their way cautiously among the upper branches until they found an eyrie where they could peer down on the stretch of road like two ghostly birds.
The van was still there, glowing white in the moonlight, but weaving in and out of the trees in a wide circle around it were the Baobhan Sith, no longer shrieking or as wild and predatory as they had been earlier. Tom was sitting a distance away, his head between his knees. Church, Shavi and Veitch were on the ground, slumped against the van. They weren't moving and blood stained their clothes and skin; Veitch, in particular, had a ragged wound in his neck where Ruth had seen the spectral creature prepare to bite. Her first thought was that they were dead. Her stomach knotted and she felt like bursting into tears; another part of her told her that wasn't the case. With an effort, she calmed herself and watched.
Not long after, the silence was broken by the drone of a car engine as twin beams splayed light over the trees. A nearly new BMW, but with deep, fresh scratches on its wing, screeched to a halt near the van. Callow's grinning skullface was behind the wheel; in the back seat an ominous form was sprawled with a car blanket pulled roughly over it. Ruth could tell from its shape that a man lay beneath it; she guessed it was the car's former owner.
Callow stepped out with a flamboyant flourish, leaving the headlights switched on so they spotlit Church and the others. 'Mister Churchill! So pleased to see you again!' he said, grinning superciliously.
At his voice, Church stirred and looked around. When he saw Callow, rage crossed his face and he forced himself to his feet. A second later the Baobhan Sith were around him, shrieking and gnashing their teeth, and they didn't retreat until he had fallen again.
'Nice little doggies!' Callow said after them.
'You bastard!' Church yelled.
Callow waved his finger and tut-tutted, but he didn't seem interested in engaging in conversation. Instead, he walked to the rear of the car and opened the boot. The Baobhan Sith looked towards it and hissed as one, moving away from it before resuming their weird circling dance.
As if in answer to the boot opening, Ruth realised she could just make out an odd, distant noise, like metal being dragged across gravel, and the kind of hideous animal sounds she had heard at the black tower. Callow turned in its direction and peered into the gloom. Slowly, his grin melted away.
Ruth could feel whatever was coming on some instinctual level. Her skin, however insubstantial, was crawling, and she felt like snakes were slithering through her intestines. The Baobhan Sith seemed to sense it too; for the first time she saw them motionless, facing in the same direction as Callow. The air seemed to swell with feverish anticipation.
Tensely, she watched the shadows that clustered around the bend in the road and within minutes the night seemed to come alive with a greater darkness. An insectile swarming broke free from the gloom and headed towards the van. Although her eyes told her there were individual shapes, she felt there was just one hideous, dark creature, radiating an evil power that made her feel sick. And in the mass, the shapes themselves were difficult to distinguish, although she knew they were Fomorii. They continued until they were teeming around the van, the car, Callow, Church and the others, so that the road now resembled a churning black river.
My God! Ruth thought. I never realised there were so many of them!
One of the forms separated from the others and walked into the glaring circle of light thrown by Callow's car headlamps. It was a man with golden skin, long hair and a frail, spindly body; there was an air of sickness and decay about him, and however stylishly he had dressed, his long, white silk tunic appeared dirty. Ruth recognised him as Fomorii, although he was closer to how she had imagined the Tuatha De Danann. She guessed, from Church's description of his captor in the mine, that it was Calatin.
Witch and Shavi were also conscious now, and Church was muttering something to them, although Ruth couldn't hear what it was.
'Little rabbits!' Calatin said in a voice like breaking glass. 'You ran the course I mapped for you so perfectly. How you slipped from your cell remains a mystery, but it was only a matter of time before the doors were left ajar. And from that point you did everything I hoped. Reclaimed the Quadrillax-a remarkable achievement. Even as Brothers and Sisters of Dragons, I thought it beyond you. And turned back the Wild Hunt too, though there was more of chance in that. But then this frail creature …'-he motioned to Callow'… served his purpose well. And now, for the first time, the Quadrillax are in Fomorii hands. We thought you too weak for the responsibilities laid upon you and we have been proven correct.'
Ruth winced at that and she could see it hit Church too.
'Tom-' Church began weakly.
Calatin's smile was so cold it froze the words in Church's throat. He turned and summoned something from the seething mass of Fomorii; a second later something glinting silver, small and scurrying like a spider ran out, up his legs and into his hands, where it formed itself into a dagger. Ruth recognised it: she had seen something like it before, at Heston Services when the Fomor had first tried to kidnap her.
'The Caraprix,' Calatin said, examining it. In his hand the dagger shifted its shape, became something indistinct but disgusting, then returned to its dagger form. Calatin showed it to Church as if it was explanation in itself, but when he saw Church's blank look, he continued, 'Their fluidity and versatility makes them useful to us.'
'They are alive?' Shavi asked.
Calatin looked at him as if he didn't understand. 'They do our bidding in many different ways. Sometimes,' he mused to himself, 'they are almost companions.'
'What's this got to do with Tom?' Church looked at him, still slumped on the roadside nearby.
Calatin eyed him slyly. 'Oh, the pain of betrayal.'
Church winced, looked away.
'When the wanderer fell into my hands, I saw the opportunity to have a subtle hand on your wheel.' He held up the Caraprix, which wriggled in the light from the headlamps. 'One deep incision is all it takes. Painful, but he remained conscious until the last. The Caraprix slipped in through the wound, attached itself in here.' He tapped his temple. 'It sits there still, tormenting him, doing our will.'
At first Church couldn't grasp what Calatin was saying, but then he remembered the wounds on Tom's forehead when they first met him in the mine and he felt horror grow within him. 'He's got one of those in his head?' he said with disgust.
'Oh, it's not all bad.' Callow sidled up until he was near Calatin.
'You've got one too?'
'Mine was by choice, dear boy. I have a remarkable aptitude for seizing opportunities.'
'You call that an opportunity?' Church was disgusted. 'It's probably eating away at your brain.'
'It can be removed at any time, or I can simply live with it. If you think that's bad, you should try to get rid of lice.'
'Why did you do it?' Church asked.
'I told you, an opportunity. By declaring my allegiance early in the game, it gave me access to all the miracles and wonders that will rain down on us.'
