Mallory cautiously reached out across the blue line. A faint tingling buzzed in his fingers as they passed over it. The air on the other side felt different, almost silky. Instinctively, Mallory knew. 'It's a boundary.' Between this world and the Otherworld, he thought. His earlier suspicions had been true: for some reason, the cathedral compound had become a crossing-over point, where the world and Otherworld merged, and at the point of confluence there was chaos and unpredictability.
'That's what I thought,' Hipgrave said, 'and on the other side is where that Devil lives.' He peered into the dark as if he could pierce it by effort alone. 'The Devil has defined his territory of Evil. Who knows? Crossing over this line might warn him in some way.'
'Then I've already triggered it,' Mallory said. 'We should get back.'
'We'll return,' Hipgrave continued dreamily, as if talking to himself, 'the five of us, and we'll hunt it down. We'll kill it dead.'
They were just turning to depart when the noise of metallic clinking against stone echoed in the depths of the tunnel. As it approached them, the clinking became a consistent scraping. An image of a billhook being dragged along the wall sprang unbidden into Mallory's mind.
'Let's get out of here,' Mallory hissed. His anxiety increased a notch when he saw that Hipgrave's eyes had become wide and distant.
'No, this is our chance,' Hipgrave said quietiy. He drew his sword and turned to face the crackling line of Blue Fire.
'You saw what it did to Cornelius,' Mallory warned. 'The two of us might not be up to it. Besides, this isn't the place to make a stand — there's not enough space to manoeuvre.'
Hipgrave didn't appear to hear him. He stepped forwards until the toe of his boot brushed the tiny sapphire sparks. A worrying thought leaped into Mallory's mind.
'Don't cross the line!' he said. 'It's not sacred ground on the other side. We won't be protected.'
'We have to stop the Devil,' Hipgrave whispered.
Whoever was ahead of them was moving down the tunnel, the scrape of metal now accompanied by a heavy tread and hard breathing. Mallory thought he could occasionally glimpse golden sparks where the metallic object hit the wall.
'Come on, Hipgrave,' he said as supportively as he could muster. 'A good general knows when to retreat.' He grabbed Hipgrave's arm and attempted to tug him back. Hipgrave resisted with the slow, measured strength of a sleepwalker. He held his sword out threateningly.
'WHO GOES THERE?' The voice boomed out with the sound and fury of a tolling bell. Mallory covered his ears and recoiled. Hipgrave blanched.
'I'm not scared,' he said.
The growing noises suggested that the approaching figure should now be in sight, but Mallory could see nothing in the thick shadows.
'Hipgrave,' Mallory pressed.
Hipgrave's sword-arm wilted a little; he looked as if he was starting to comprehend Mallory's warnings. But then the haze crossed his eyes again and he took one step over the blue line. Mallory lunged for him and missed.
'I'm ready for you, Devil!' Hipgrave said, brandishing his sword.
A hand as big as a dinner plate shot from the shadows and clamped around Hipgrave's wrist. He yelled in fright; Mallory started. It had a studded leather band at its wrist and tattered brown cloth wrapped around fingers and palm in a makeshift glove. But what shocked Mallory the most was that where the forearm disappeared into the dark there was no sense of a body attached; it was as if the interloper only took on substance when it was in the light.
Hipgrave howled as the steely fingers dug into his flesh. Mallory threw his arms around Hipgrave's waist and attempted to drag him backwards over the line. The hand held fast, and effortlessly; in fact, Mallory felt himself being pulled forwards. It was too strong. Freeing one hand, he whipped out his sword and prodded into the dark. There was a fizz of blue and a tremendous howl that made his ears ring. Suddenly he was flying on to his back, with Hipgrave crashing on top of him.
Mallory half-expected the attacker to pursue them even though they were on sacred ground, so he rolled over and dragged Hipgrave to his feet, propelling him back down the tunnel. Hipgrave was clutching his sword- arm in pain where the skin was marred by five red marks.
'We'll be back,' he grunted. 'We've seen it now.'
'It's seen us,' Mallory corrected.
When they were a few yards away, he glanced back to see a large figure silhouetted against the lighter shadows, stooping to fits its frame in the constricting tunnel. Mallory didn't want to come back to face that thing at all.
They emerged from another tunnel on the edge of the cloisters, both still troubled by what they had seen. Hipgrave was rambling about exorcising the Devil, and seemed so distracted that he was barely aware Mallory was with him. Mallory took the earliest opportunity to slip away, first into the cathedral and then out into the twilight. As he crossed the lawns back to the dorm, he saw Daniels in deep conversation with his young friend Lewis — his lover, Mallory guessed. The teen appeared upset. Mallory tried not to look, but as he passed it was obvious all was not well between the two of them. The youth was tearful, his voice growing louder. Eventually he stormed away. Daniels noticed Mallory and came over morosely.
'Trouble?' Mallory said.
Daniels didn't meet his eye. 'He's young — he doesn't understand.' He fell silent, and when Mallory didn't press him for information, he added, 'You haven't heard, then. Stefan is introducing some new rules to impose order. They were announced an hour ago in the cathedral. Where were you?'
'Carrying Hipgrave's drool cup. What kind of rules?' 'Reactionary rules.' There was an edge to Daniels' voice that Mallory hadn't heard before.
'You know he comes from the fundamentalist wing. Don't tell me you're surprised.'
'I was hopeful, Mallory. That's the kind of person I am -1 always think everyone is as reasonable and erudite and downright charming as myself.' He looked up at the icy stars. 'It's going to be a hell of a winter.'
'So what's he-'
'He doesn't want any sodomites polluting the religion. There are too many of us here, apparendy — though most of them must be so far in the closet they've never seen the light of day. And God doesn't recognise us. We're sinful… we'll never be allowed into heaven.'
'That's what you get for messing with religion, Daniels — it's just a prop for prejudice.'
He swore under his breath with irritation. 'I knew I shouldn't waste my time talking to you…'
Mallory caught him as he prepared to storm off. 'You're right — I'm sorry, that was a cheap shot. Look, just lie low for a while. What can he do?'
'I don't know. But he had those thugs from the Inquisition with him when he made the announcement. I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this.'
'For God's sake,' Mallory said, 'this is the pathetic rump of Christianity in Britain, here, within these four walls. He can't afford to start driving people out! There'll be nobody left.'
'I suppose you're right. He's just making a point. I mean, he said we could stay if we renounced our sexuality, so he's not being completely hard line about it.'
'There you go.'
Daniels rubbed his eyes wearily. 'I was trying to explain it to Lewis. I said if we didn't flaunt it we could carry on. He said if God is love and we love each other, what's wrong with that?'
'He's got a point.'
'The Bible says-'
'The Bible says a lot of nonsense amongst all the good stuff. You can justify any point of view with it. Same with the Koran. Look what happened out in Afghanistan.'
'If we haven't got the Bible, Mallory, we haven't got anything.'
'Yeah, I hear that all the time, and you know what? I don't believe it. When you come down to it, it's a book. Any religion has to be bigger than that.'
'I'll try that one on Stefan the next time I see him,' Daniels said sarcastically. 'Look, I'm off to compline. Got
