Every rational argument told Mallory to ignore her, but he was already under her spell; the attraction had been instantaneous — he had never met anyone he wanted to know so keenly, though he couldn't put his finger on exactly what it was that entranced him. With a shove, he encouraged Miller to follow her towards the fire, though they both continually glanced over their shoulders at the oppressive presence over the city.
By the time they found a quiet spot away from the other pockets of travellers and sat down, Mallory had almost started to believe that the thing wouldn't attack. They were joined by the dreadlocked teenager who appeared to be less of a friend and more of an assistant to Sophie. He introduced himself as Rick.
Miller crossed himself again, craning his neck upwards fearfully. 'That's the Devil,' he said, hoping someone would dissuade him of the notion.
'It was certainly scary,' Sophie said, 'though I'm not much of a believer in the Devil myself.' She leaned over and gave Miller's hand a reassuring squeeze. 'You're safe here.' He visibly calmed at her touch.
Miller looked to Mallory for support. 'It's like in Revelations. The Last Days. The Church has collapsed… I mean, it's not gone,' he added guiltily, 'but it's barely hanging on. We've had war, and starvation, and… and…' Panic crossed his face once more. 'It was the Devil… you saw it… you felt it… the fear. Everything's ending.' He hugged his arms around himself tightiy, staring blankly into the middle-distance.
In a glance, something passed briefly between Sophie and Rick, then she leaned over and rested a small crystal from a pouch at her waist against Miller's forehead. There was an instant reaction: Miller's posture shifted, his shoulders loosening, his features becoming brighter, almost as if a shadow had been drawn from his face. Mallory looked at her curiously, but she studiously avoided his eyes.
'This is like a little town,' Miller said with incongruous brightness. 'How long are you staying here?'
'For good.' A breeze caught Sophie's hair. Despite the now-faint screeching high above them, a surprising tranquillity lay over the camp. Sophie noticed Mallory's recognition of the calm. 'There's a deep spirituality in the land here,' she said. 'That's why we've come. That's why we'll continue to come, from all parts of the country.'
'A ley line-' Rick began.
Mallory snorted derisively.
'I might have expected that response before the Fall,' Sophie said, 'but things are different now, surely you know that? We've got our technology back, but these days spirituality is just as potent a force-'
Miller nodded. 'The power of prayer.'
'There's an energy in the land, an energy that runs through us, too. You can call it spirit, or soul, but everything is tied together by it-' Sophie's face hardened slightly at Mallory's dismissive laughter. 'I believe in it because I feel it,' she said, 'and because it works.'
'It's Sophie's power source.' Rick smiled at them. 'Her battery. You should see what she can do.' The awe in the teenager's voice was affecting.
The discussion touched something in Miller. 'It's true, Mallory. Back in Swindon, I saw an old woman lay her hands on a baby that was about to die… and it lived. It's like, if you believe in something strongly enough, you can tap into something, make it real. All the atheists used to say there was no evidence of God, but now He's here, answering prayers.' A notion dawned on him. 'Perhaps it's because these really are the Last Days. Good and Evil preparing for the last battle…'
'They've been saying the Last Days are here ever since the Book of Revelation was written, Miller. I'm not going to start running my life around something composed at a time before underwear had been invented.' He waved away Miller's hurt expression. 'These days, everybody's desperate to find something to believe in,' he continued. 'They can't face what a nightmare the world's turned into… how many people have died… how hard it's become. It's made children of everyone. They're wishing for a way out because the alternative is decades… at the very least… of hardship and suffering as we try to crawl back to some measure of the society we had before. Look around… we're back in the Dark Ages.'
Sophie listened carefully, but gave no sign of what she was thinking. 'And what do you believe in, Mallory?' she asked.
'Nothing. That's what I believe in.'
'Everyone believes in something. But sometimes they don't recognise what they put their faith in. Money, drugs, sex-'
'That works for me.'
Her eyes narrowed as she examined his face. 'No, it's none of those things. There's something there, but I can't tell exactly…'
He had the sudden, uncomfortable feeling that she was trying to read his mind. He broke eye contact. 'You're just being dazzled by my charisma and earthy sex appeal.'
She smiled ironically. 'That must be what it is.'
Miller hugged his knees. The firelight actually gave some colour to his normally pallid face. 'Who are you people?'
'Pagans, philosophers,' Rick began. 'Environmentalists, travellers, freethinkers-'
'There's a movement going on all over the country, Mallory. We're just one sign of it,' Sophie said passionately. 'We're rebuilding a new Celtic Nation from the ground up. You don't have to have Celtic blood to be a part of it, but we're using that ancient culture as a template-'
'If you're trying to get some kind of historical credence, you're off to a bad start,' Mallory interrupted. 'There was no Celtic Nation, just a bunch of tribes-'
'With a similar culture, music, belief system-'
'Fragmentary. The Romantics built them up into something bigger… a fantasy…'
'Exactly.' She leaned forwards, emphasising the word with a blow of her palm to die ground. 'You've obviously read the right books, Mallory, but you're missing the point. We want an ideal. The system we had before was woefully bereft. It worked for a few, the elite, the Establishment, and disenfranchised the many. We've got a chance here to start with a clean slate and we want something better.'
'So you're going to cover yourself with blue paint and go into war naked?'
Her smile was a challenge. 'If we have to. I love to see cynics proved wrong, Mallory. As an aside, don't go basing your views of the Celts on the writings of some tired old Romans. The victors write history and they disempower the vanquished. What we want is a society of equality, a strong community that looks after the weakest members, that's close to nature, that emphasises the arts and spirituality over making money and personal greed-'
'Well, when you put it like that
She watched him cautiously with those big, unnaturally dark eyes, slowly getting the measure of him. He relished her attention, enjoyed the fact that, liked or disliked, he had somehow been raised above the herd in her eyes. 'If we don't do it, there'll be plenty ready to take us back to the old, failed ways,' she said.
'OK, that seems a reasonable motivation,' Mallory conceded, 'but all this other stuff…' He waved a dismissive hand towards the perimeter posts.
'It's part of the human condition to be arrogant.' Her smile was as confrontational as Mallory's words. 'Everyone thinks they know exactly how the world works. Everyone.' Irony laced her comments. 'What do you think that suggests? We're all fumbling in the dark towards an answer.'
The calming atmosphere in the camp had almost made them forget the devastation going on in the city beyond. Occasionally, they would be distracted by a sudden pillar of fire, or when the wind with its chilling voices rushed close by, but generally they felt cosseted in an atmosphere of security that made Mallory face up to the possibility there might be something in the travellers' magical thinking.
They continued their conversation well into the night. Mallory enjoyed the challenge of sparring with Sophie's sharp intellect, and it soon became apparent that Sophie found something intriguing in Mallory, too, though whether she liked him was a different matter. She maintained eye contact, spoke to him much more than she did to Miller, and underneath it all there was definite sexual tension. Sophie spoke warmly of her background, growing up in Cambridge, father a doctor, mother a lawyer, studying English at university before feeling there was more to life. She committed herself to campaigning: for the environment, for Amnesty International, was briefly arrested during a protest against the World Trade Organisation that got out of hand. Mallory was taken by the rich depth of her beliefs and the passion she exhibited. She was so full of life he felt revitalised being next to her.
He, in return, told her nothing, but he did it in a humorous enough way to win her over.
Other members of the community came and went during the night hours, occasionally bringing them food —
