The Pilgrims

the mages returned.

Siel got back to her feet and gazed at Case with her teeth bared. Sharfy had seen that look in her eye once before and remembered what her curved knife had done to the last poor bastard on the other end of it. He ran back up the steps and stood between her and the old man.

Case did not know his peril; his eyes were on the yard, where he’d seen something slip from Anfen’s pocket. The charm lay in the dirt, and he carefully marked the place, his heart pounding as he watched Anfen to see if he’d remember it.

Eric crouched by the Invia’s corpse. He felt sick and numb, his mouth so dry he could hardly peel his lips apart. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, not to himself, not to Anfen.

Anfen’s slanted eyes caught and held his. ‘I know what you’re feeling. But it wasn’t murder. They aren’t as human as they seem.’

Eric swallowed. ‘They don’t seem human at all. They seem better than us.’

Anfen put a hand on his shoulder. ‘This is our world, not theirs any more. The Dragon cleared this world of the dragon-youth, of which this is a servant, so that we could dwell here. Remember that.’ Anfen stood. ‘We’re all birds in a cage anyway. We must talk later. You are now Marked. You should learn what that means. And I must know all you can tell of that weapon you used. I wish you’d told me of it earlier.’

Later, when Eric would look back on this moment, on Anfen’s words and the look in his eye when he spoke, he would think: I know why you didn’t say thank you. I’m pretty sure you seemed happier when you were walking out to die, dropping your sword, offering your throat. Like you’d been waiting for that moment a long time. Like it’s why you chose to camp on the hilltop, knowing the Invia would see you, and come for you …

Right now, with the Invia’s corpse beneath him, and the sound of her death wail still ringing in his ears, such desolation was a feeling Eric could understand too well. Anfen headed wearily back towards the house.

Suddenly in the doorway stood Faul, and she surveyed the sights of the yard in the fading light of Stranger’s spell. Her huge face was suddenly ferocious with rage. She stared at the Invia’s corpse. ‘WHO?’ she boomed. ‘WHO SLEW THIS ON MY LAND?’

Its blood still dripped from Anfen’s blade. His pained smile said it all: And now this …

Faul moved with speed impossible for something her size. All those on the porch were picked up and hurled towards the yard, the last of them airborne before the first had landed. Case luckily (unless Faul had intended it) landed on Sharfy, not the bare rocky turf. Only Lalie remained, squirming in fear on the end of her rope. Faul loomed over her.

‘AND YOU, GIRL. DEATH FOLLOWED YOU SURE ENOUGH, HERE, TO MY DOOR. IT CAN FOLLOW YOU ELSEWHERE. BE THANKFUL I DO NOT SNAP YOUR SILLY NECK. MY HANDS ITCH TO DO IT.’ Faul yanked the rope, pulling free a section of the post it was tied to. She picked up Lalie and hurled her towards Anfen. His arms spread to catch her, but she knocked him over, both of them winded, her leg grazed as it scraped on the ground. The piece of post thumped hard into the turf nearby.

‘TAKE BACK YOUR GIFT OF DEATH,’ Faul bellowed at Anfen. ‘I SHOULD SQUEEZE YOU ALL BY THE GUTS TO GET BACK THE FOOD AND DRINK I MADE, AND GAVE YOU, IN MY FOOLISHNESS. IN MY …’ her voice choked up.

‘We’re going,’ said Anfen as they picked themselves up. ‘I hope we meet again, when you’ve calmed. Thank you for your shelter. I’m sorry this happened.’

Faul’s feet boomed down the steps. ‘I WILL NOT CALM. LEAVE NOW OR I BREAK YOUR HEADS LIKE EGGS.’

‘Come,’ said Anfen to the company. ‘If our host will be so kind as to throw us our possessions, our going will be easier.’ Lut emerged, a look of utmost regret on his face as he dumped their packs and gear into the yard.

Eric turned just in time to see it. Case had edged his way around the group, while the company gathered their things, all eyes nervously on Faul. Now Case made a run for a patch of ground just beyond the Invia’s corpse. ‘Case?’ Eric called.

Case looked back at him, hesitated, then grabbed the necklace from the ground and slipped it over his head. He vanished. Scuffs of dirt trailed away at the pace of his jog. ‘Guys! Wait!’ Eric called, rushing to follow before he lost sight of Case’s trail.

But Anfen and the rest didn’t hear. At that moment, Faul charged like a bull, a howl of rage tearing from her throat, eyes ablaze. They scattered, all of them. Eric had a second to decide which way he went.

In that moment he could smell Siel’s hair while her body nestled against his under the blanket, felt hope and desire bloom through him as it had just before hell had broken loose, a triumphant giddy voice crying: she’s mine! He also heard her voice, saying she’d looked inside his heart and mind and seen nothing. He hadn’t realised at the time, nor with the ensuing distraction of the scale vision, that they had been the most painful words ever spoken to him. He knew the choice may right now be: lie with her again tonight, or chase an old man through the wilderness, probably to their pointless deaths.

If they met again, he could explain what his choice had been trying to show her, if it wasn’t already clear to her. ‘You stupid, stupid old fucker,’ he muttered, and ran in the direction he’d seen the scuffs of Case’s footprints take.

34

It was too dark to see them, but there up ahead he heard it with intense relief, the crunch crunch crunch of Case’s feet on gravel, slowing to a walk. Eric had followed for a while, not even sure he was on the right trail, calling Case’s name to no response. Thin morning light revealed a plain of rubble and stones with no sign of life. Already Faul’s house couldn’t be seen when he turned and looked back. The wasteland of rocky turf sloped gradually downwards, awkward to walk on. On the very horizon’s edge was a raised bridge — a road, running left to right across the plain. Something, at least, to head towards. He hoped Case felt the same way, but there was no knowing, for the old guy wouldn’t speak and refused to take off the charm.

‘Case. Can you hear me? I hope to hell you’re listening. Because we’re square now. You think I got you into this whole mess in the first place? Well I’m telling you the ledger is even.’

No response.

‘Hey. Remember? Switch that lever. Open that door. Fuckhead. Who started it, huh? Yeah OK, jumping through the door was a mistake. Maybe stopping to talk to you under the bridge was a mistake. But look. Think about it. Does this seem a good plan to you?’ Eric swept his arm around at the barren grey wasteland. ‘Think our next meal’s going to be easy to get out here? I can’t see any lonely journalists who might put us up and pay for our alcohol. Know any?’

Crunch crunch, Case’s footsteps answered him.

‘It may not be too late to go back and find the others. Probably is, since they fled for their lives in a different direction, but maybe not. It’d be nice to have someone to talk to anyway, before we starve to death or get killed by pit devils or ringwraiths or whatever else.’

Eric realised the sound of footsteps had ceased. Behind him, there was Case, head in hands sitting on a rock. ‘Why’d you follow me?’ he said.

‘You just heard why. So we’d be even.’ And to prove to a certain female I’ll probably never see again that I’m able to stand on principle, however pointlessly.

‘Why? What a waste, Eric. I did this for me. You weren’t meant to come. You were happy with the rest of em. I wasn’t. Didn’t like em or trust em.’

Eric laughed. ‘Happy is maybe going a bit far. But we were fed and protected.’ He sat down beside the older man. ‘What is it, anyway? You want to go back home?’

Case snorted. ‘We’re not getting back.’

‘What makes you think so?’

‘She told me herself. Opening the door, it was real powerful magic, more than people here can actually do, even them mages. She didn’t know who did it in the first place. We can’t open it. No one’ll do it for us.’