sounded as if she was saying it was on the other side of the universe… it crawled up from the edge of Existence… but it's moving this way.'
'It's nothing to do with the Adversary?' There was a dim note of despair in Daniels' voice.
'I don't know.'
'Who told you all this?' Daniels asked.
Before Mallory could answer, they were both hailed in a gruff Geordie accent. Gardener strode towards them, beaming in a manner Mallory had never seen before. 'Bloody hell, lad, I thought you were-'
'Yeah, yeah, we've just been through all that.'
Gardener cuffed him genially on the shoulder and Mallory winced again.
'You landed a few bruises then,' Daniels said, with what Mallory thought was unnecessary brightness.
'They're from our friends here. The Inquisition. I gather you haven't had the pleasure yet.'
Daniels looked uncomfortable. 'Sorry, Mallory. I heard about them, but they left us alone. I think they were too surprised we actually made it back… plus my injury…'
Mallory laughed. 'You don't have to make excuses, Daniels. I know they don't like the cut of my jib. If there's some shit going around, I'm the one who's always going to get the first helping.'
'Well, as long as you know it, laddie,' Gardener joked.
Mallory's voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. 'What I don't get is what the hell's happened and why nobody will talk to me about it.' He eyed them hopefully, urging them to understand his meaning.
Daniels and Gardener both looked across the beds uneasily to make sure no one was listening. 'We had the same thing when we got here,' Daniels whispered. 'They don't know, Mallory. They think everything's normal.'
'They've been affected by whatever caused it,' Gardener said. 'They all think the place has always been like this. I tell you, I tried to explore the madhouse a few times, but it seems as though it's bigger than…' He picked his teeth rather than finish the sentence, so Mallory said it for him.
'Bigger than the land it's on.'
Gardener nodded, but didn't meet Mallory's eye.
'And the layout keeps changing all the time,' Mallory continued.
Once again Daniels looked unaccountably gloomy. 'I like things to make sense-'
'Then why are you neck-deep in religion?' Mallory said bad- temperedly.
'-and there's no sense to this at all. There's no sense to anything in this world any more. No rules. That's the one rule — there are no rules. And I hate it! How are you supposed to understand things if it can all change while you're sleeping?'
'It's either the Devil's work, or it's God's,' Gardener said bluntly. 'It's up to us to find out which. Personally, I'd plump for the latter. This is hallowed ground. The Devil can't have any influence here.'
'Do you think you can come up with a more simple explanation?' Mallory said tardy.
Daniels lay wearily back on his pillow and closed his good eye. 'Look, we've all got different beliefs here — there's no point arguing amongst ourselves. If we're the only ones who can see the truth, we've got to stick together until we find out what it means.' He gave a low laugh. 'And it's not as if you can run away, Mallory.'
'Blaine said something along those lines. What's going on?'
'We're under siege,' Gardener said.
'The kind of things we saw out on the Plain have moved into the city,' Daniels added. 'Every night they're roaming around the walls, sometimes during the day as well. Anybody who goes out doesn't come back.'
'Blaine said I was lucky to get back here.'
'He's right there, man,' Gardener noted. 'I just watched them send out three Blues. They didn't make it to the end of the street. There was something out there like dirty washing lying in the road. It came up, flapping around, like, and they all fell apart. Just like that. All fell apart. I tell you, it made me sick to see it.'
'But they say the things don't touch any of the city people at all during the day. Most of the time, folk can just go about their business… though they're giving the cathedral compound a wide berth,' Daniels said. 'At night, it's a different matter, though. Anything's fair game then.'
'Something's going on,' Mallory said. 'I don't believe that cleric we were following across the Plain was real at all. When I saw his face, it looked as if it was… made up or something. I reckon it was a setup from the start, to lead us to Bratton Camp.'
'Why?' Daniels said. 'So we'd get attacked by that thing?'
'I don't know. I've just got a gut feeling we've only seen the tip of the iceberg.'
Before leaving the infirmary, Gardener and Mallory visited Miller. The younger knight was sleeping peacefully. Warwick had patched him up, but he'd lost a lot of blood and he'd need several days' recuperation.
'You did a good job bringing him in,' Gardener said. 'Couldn't have been easy, the state he was in.'
'I need somebody to be my conscience,' Mallory replied. 'Was it hard getting Daniels back?'
'He was in a bit of a bad way… you know.' He pointed to his temple. 'Losing the eye hit him hard. It'd get any of us, wouldn't it? But he's a good bloke, Daniels, for a poof. He's got a good heart. He'd stand by you when times were hard, and that's all you really need in a mate, isn't it?'
Mallory couldn't disagree. But as he made his way back to his crib, his relief at the four of them surviving was already obscured by his growing worry that unseen events were taking place behind the scenes, with repercussions for all of them.
Blaine left Mallory alone for the remainder of the day. It gave him time to gain some respite from the dull ache throbbing through his body. He ate a bland lunch of vegetable stew in the refectory and noticed that the portions were all markedly smaller. If they were truly under siege, supplies would have to be conserved. He made no attempt to go to any of the services, relishing his disobedience like a boy skipping school; it was a small victory against the oppressive order, but it made him feel good nonetheless. Instead, he chose to dwell on his growing anger, not only with Blaine, but also with the higher Church authorities that had conspired in making what had been a simple exchange — work for food and board — into a thoroughly unpleasant experience. With enthusiasm, he began to plot ways in which he could get his own back.
He took supper with Gardener and was surprised to find two weeks had passed since they had set off on their mission, although he had only seemed to spend a few brief hours in the Court of Peaceful Days. It made him feel disoriented.
One other thing troubled him: the cleric who had wandered into the cathedral that night, setting them on their search for his missing colleague, was now missing himself. Since their last conversation, Gardener had found out that the cleric had spent the night in the infirmary, but in the morning his bed was empty. Common opinion suggested that he had wandered off in a daze, possibly to search for his friend, but the guards at the gate claimed that no one had exited the compound all night. Blaine had punished them anyway. It only confirmed Mallory's fears that they had been set up from the start, but why would such an elaborate plan have been put in motion just to entice a few knights into the danger zone?
After supper, Gardener invited Mallory to stand watch over the gates so he could see for himself what was happening. The mid-October night held a brittle cold and was suffused with the smell of wood-smoke from home fires. On the walkway running around the inside of the wall, Mallory felt a strange frisson looking out on to a city without a single electric light burning. Only a few flickering candles glowed like fireflies in the night. Yet the ghostly light cast by the full moon when it broke from the cloud cover was brighter and more affecting than any street lamp.
Duncan, the captain of the guards, was a middle-aged bearded man with a thick Birmingham accent. He met them deferentially as they walked to a position near the gates. His attitude reminded Mallory of the respect with which the knights were treated throughout the cathedral, but particularly amongst the guards who knew exactly what they had to endure under Blaine's leadership.
'I could swear it's colder in winter since the Fall. Do you remember the snow last Christmas?' Gardener said as they leaned on the top of the wall, looking out across the city. Their breath clouded, and they had their cloaks pulled around them for warmth.
'That's all we need — a new ice age,' Mallory replied.
'What time does it start?' Gardener asked Duncan.
'They're already out there.' Duncan indicated several points along the street, in doorways and deep shadows, but Mallory could see nothing. 'They're like sentries — there all day and night.'
