him, something alien and terrifying. 'These are the forms you can understand. They are objects of pure power, their shapes defined by the stories. They have existed under other names, but at their heart, in your terms, this is what they are: a stone, a sword, a spear and a cauldron. But they have been missing for an age and though many have searched, none have found.'
'Then how will I find them? You said time is short, so surely you can't expect me to spend years wandering the country, digging holes.'
She led him to a large oak chest in one corner which he hadn't noticed before. The hinges creaked as if it hadn't been opened for centuries, and from within came a strong azure light which he recognised from Stonehenge. Carefully she removed an iron lantern on a short chain with a hook on the end. The light glowed from a blue flame which flickered through the tiny bottleglass panes on the lamp's four sides. She held it out to Church, who took it gingerly.
'You must take this back with you. It will light the way.'
'How?'
'Follow the flame. It is the essence of your world and is drawn to the talismans. Trust your instinct.'
A feeling of well-being flowed up the arm that was holding the lantern aloft. 'Thank you,' Church said honestly. 'I'll do what I can.'
'Now-' she began.
'Wait,' Church said anxiously. 'There's so much more I need to know. Who are the five?'
'You will know them when they come together.'
At that moment, Laura emerged cautiously from the shadows of the doorway. She looked from Church to the woman.
'You did well,' the woman said to her. 'He is the one.'
Church eyed Laura suspiciously. 'Wait a minute, you were supposed to bring me here?'
'Don't get antsy, Church-dude. I couldn't take the chance you were going to get all yellow-bellied on me.' She seemed to be shying away from the woman as if she was afraid of her.
Church felt a bolt of awareness that made his palms sweat. 'When you mentioned Marianne-'
'She told me the one I had to bring here would know the name and it would be reason enough to make him come.' Laura glanced at the woman, unsure she had said the right thing.
The woman's expression was impassive. 'You would have been drawn here in time-'
'But you knew that would get me here quickly.' Church felt his hands shaking and he hid them behind his back; he was almost afraid to ask the question. 'This place looks out over all time, you said.' He swallowed; his mouth was too dry. 'Do you know-' There was a flicker across the woman's face that told him he didn't have to continue the question; he could see she knew something.
'Once you have done as I asked, all will be revealed to you.'
The lack of emotion in her face disturbed him; it was a mask to hide the truth, but he couldn't tell if it was because it would destroy him, or because she felt suspending the answer would drive him on to succeed. 'You must tell me now,' he pleaded. He hated the desperation in his voice-it seemed so weakbut he couldn't control it.
She shook her head, said nothing. But for the first time he had real hope of finding out what really drove Marianne to take her own life; real hope of ending his own purgatory. If it was all he could take away with him, it would be enough.
The woman motioned for Church to move towards Laura. 'You must locate my people before the Beltane fires light the land or they will be lost to you for another year, and by then …' Her voice trailed away.
Church felt a surprising twinge of sadness that he was leaving the mysterious woman behind. 'You still haven't told me your name.'
She smiled. 'When we become friends, then we will know each other.' She touched his shoulder so briefly he barely felt it, but in that instant energy crackled between them. He thought he glimpsed something in her face then, but before he could be sure, she had turned away, by chance or on purpose. Then she made an odd, convoluted movement with her hand and the next second the woman, and the Watchtower, were gone.
The air was foul with the stink of burning, melted plastics and charred metal. Where the depot had stood was a broken outline, blackened and dripping water on the sodden, scorched ground; trails of smoke drifted up into the twilight sky from the twisted girder framework that was still too hot to touch. Three fire engines were parked in what had been the forecourt, their firemen, exhausted and sooty, standing around in small gaggles surveying the wreckage or spraying bursts of water on to pockets that were still burning.
'My God!' Church said, turning slowly to examine the carnage; the shock on their re-entry had taken any conscious thought away for a moment. Then: 'We couldn't have been gone for more than a couple of hours.'
'Time's different over there,' Laura said distractedly.
They both stood for five minutes trying to come to terms with the upheaval until Church noticed a group of men in suits standing among the wreckage examining something on the ground before them. He squinted, but the haze made the object difficult to discern. Then a gust of wind cleared the smoke away and he saw it was a skeleton charred by the fire. But it was clearly not human; the bones were enormous, twisted into such monstrous forms he couldn't imagine what it would have looked like when it was alive.
Laura saw where he was staring. 'What is that?' There was a note of sick disbelief in her voice.
'A Night Walker,' he said quietly.
Suddenly one of the men spotted them and said something hurriedly to his colleagues. They looked towards Church and Ruth, their faces cold and serious, and then they started to advance. They weren't police, Church was sure; something in their manner suggested a higher authority.
'We had better get out of here,' he said.
As one of the men called out harshly for them to stop, they turned and ran through the smouldering wreckage towards the gates which had been blown down. As they crossed the forecourt, they heard a cry and then saw Ruth waving from the other side of the fence.
'What in heaven happened to you?' she said; the strain was evident on her pale face.
There wasn't time to answer. The men were yelling furiously, but the three of them had enough of a head start. By the time their pursuers had reached the gates, Church was already behind the wheel of the car, the engine roaring.
'Who the hell were they?' Laura said as they pulled away at speed.
Ruth ignored her and turned towards Church. 'We should dump her now,' she said. 'She led us into a trap. And now Tom's missing.'
In the rearview mirror, Church watched the smoke obscure the angry red glare of the sunset. Laura spent several minutes denying trying to cause them harm, but her ironic manner made it difficult for them to accept anything she said at face value.
'Look, I tumbled through that hole to God knows where by accident,' she said to Church. 'I spent hours wandering around those corridors getting my head well and truly screwed, and then I met Lady Freakzone who insisted I'd be contacted by some Brother of Dragons and I had to bring him straight to her. She didn't have to say or else-I'm not stupid, and I'm not about to mess with someone who lives on a big floating castle in space. I had no idea if you were the right one. I hoped, because I didn't want to keep jumping on the Nightmare Shuttle. But I didn't know. And I certainly didn't have any idea about whoever those geeks were who jumped the old guy and Miss Smarty Pants here.'
Ruth glanced at her coldly, then said, 'The point's moot now. We need to find what's happened to Tom and move on.'
'You're not leaving me behind,' Laura said. 'I'm in on this now.'
Ruth turned to Church. 'We can't take someone with us we can't trust. And she's just excess baggage-'
'Who made you-'
Church silenced Laura with his hand. 'The woman on the Watchtower told me there had to be five of us-the right five, the chosen ones, I supposeinvolved in this mess and I don't reckon she would have involved Laura if she wasn't one of us.'
Ruth chewed on her lip. Reluctantly she said, 'You had better tell me what else you were told.'
For the next fifteen minutes, Church related everything that had happened to him on the Watchtower,
