This time she looked up. 'I think I can trust you, Mallory.' She sounded surprised herself. 'But how do I know I can trust the rest of the God Squad?'
'All they want is some food… a way to carry on believing in what they believe in. The same as you.'
Mallory was intrigued to see what looked like moonlight glimmering where her bare feet had just trod. 'So they dig under the wall… what then?'
'The food comes in through your camp to the tunnel. In return, they can offer something… I don't know. See it as trade between nation- states. They've got a good standard of health care… they know about herbs-'
'So do we.'
'And they've got a massive wine cellar and a lake of beer.'
'OK, you sold me.' She laughed. 'Whose idea was this?'
'Mine.'
'Preaching peace and love between men, Mallory? There's hope for you yet.'
'There might have been a slightly more selfish motivation.' Hunger consumed him. In that place where there were no rules and no judgment, he finally accepted he didn't have to pretend.
Her eyes flashed in the moonlight. 'Oh?' A faint smile.
'Well, you won't come to me…'
'Major engineering works, just to see me? How very romantic.' She broke off from her dance and entered the circle to join him. There was nothing coy about her; she was as strong and confident as he was: an equal. All his repressed emotion rushed up and out: his consuming guilt, his fear and, most of all, his love. At that moment, nothing else mattered — all Existence revolved around the two of them.
He grabbed her shoulders forcefully and pulled her forwards. She propelled herself to him with the same hunger. This kiss was so much more than the tentative, desperate first one: it was voracious; all barriers crashed before it. Her skin was hot. Their lips were hard and bruising, their mouths moving with desire, hands raking each other's bodies.
Energy crackled between them: Blue Fire, Mallory thought, filling them, consuming them. From that point, there was no going back.
The next day dawned cold and grey, but Mallory took to it as if it was midsummer. He found time to go up on to the walls so he could look at the trees that lined the hillsides to the south of the city, bare black amid the evergreens. As he slowly made his way along the walkway, enjoying the peace away from the oppressive control of the knights, he became aware of two people talking below him. There was something in the tone of their conversation that caught his attention, a note of deep concern, perhaps of undue seriousness. He peered cautiously over the edge to see James and Julian so engrossed they were oblivious to his presence above them.
'It's outrageous,' Julian said. 'He should be using his position to bring the camps together. He doesn't have a mandate. The election was so close it could have gone either way. And after we all made such a big show of supporting him…'
'There'll be trouble. Some on our side won't toe the line indefinitely for the sake of unity,' James said. He added hopefully, 'Perhaps he won't go down that road. It's all rumour and innuendo-'
'It sounded pretty copper-bottomed when I heard it.' Julian's voice snapped with repressed anger. 'He could split the Church. How stupid is that? We're barely hanging on by our fingernails. To fragment us now could be…' He shook his head. Tears of anger flecked his eyes. 'I can't believe this is happening so soon after Cornelius passed. He'd be outraged, after all he did to bring together all the conflicting factions. Good Lord, even the Baptists. I'm starting to think he should have been a little more exacting in his inclusion policy.'
James clapped him on the shoulder supportively. 'Things have been bad before. We'll pull through, God willing. If things are going the way you say, we have to make a stand. We have to. We can't let the Church be taken over in this way. It would be disastrous. The responsibility is on us to provide a counterbalance.'
'And how do you think he'll respond to that?' Julian said. 'For all his public pronouncements, he's never been one for compromise.'
'Then we'll have a fight on our hands.'
They walked away in the direction of the cathedral, leaving Mallory to ponder on the significance of what they had been discussing.
Most of the knights congregated on the roof at seven p.m., but the Blues were nowhere to be seen. There was an atmosphere of tense anticipation, though oddly hopeful as everyone prepared for the release of pent-up feelings of impotence and inadequacy. Although no one quite knew what it was hoped would be achieved by the planned strike-back, it felt good to be doing anything. And debate raged back and forth about exactly what they were doing; Blaine had given nothing away in his briefing. No one had any idea how they could hit the Adversary's forces from the restricted position of the roof of the cathedral buildings. And even if they could strike the creatures that attacked the walls, how could it possibly amount to the kind of earth-shaking blow Blaine had implied?
Mallory leaned on the stone wall that ran around the edge of the roof area and peered into the sea of dark beneath; it provided no sense of depth, so he had the dizzying sensation that the drop went on for ever. Miller refused to come anywhere near the edge; he complained of vertigo and had almost been physically sick when they had processed on to the roof to see the landscape stretched out all around, bathed in the moonlight shining from a clear sky. Daniels lay glumly against a sloping section, wrapped in his cloak, staring at the stars. Gardener sat with his back to the wall, smoking a roll-up.
The roof was structurally as complex as the new buildings it covered: pitched, tiled sections separated flat areas that could be accessed from the many corridors and rooms that filled the roof spaces; towers, steeples with flag poles and lightning conductors protruded upwards, along with huge gothic gargoyles that had the same unnerving effect as the ones overlooking the great hall. The knights had decamped in little clusters all around, reflecting the small teams that had been established during the training period.
'It's still difficult to comprehend,' Daniels said introspectively. 'We don't know what's out there, in the hills and the fields, in the night.'
'We never did,' Mallory replied. 'I reckon they were always there… sleeping, if you like, hidden away… but they were there, waiting for their time to come around again.'
'No one thought anything like this would happen,' Miller muttered dismally.
'We were arrogant.' Mallory turned to face them, his head spinning as he pulled away from the illusion of the void. 'Because we were top dog on the planet for so long we thought we always would be. But there are things more powerful than us… and now they're back to show us we weren't even close to the top of the pile.'
'You really do have a depressing world view, Mallory,' Daniels said.
'Realistic,' Mallory countered.
There was a quiver of excitement as Blaine and Hipgrave emerged from a door on to one of the flat areas further along the roof. Blaine moved slowly amongst the groups of knights, giving short briefings, taking questions. He had the look of a predatory tiger, and was plainly pleased with how things were going.
When he faced Mallory he couldn't hide a flicker of contempt, but he continued in a measured voice. 'The target will soon be approaching. We will be allocating weapons and ammunition shortly. The aim of this operation is simple: to inflict massive damage on the enemy, to bring it down, to kill it. Success will send an overwhelming message back that we are to be feared.'
'How do you know the target is approaching?' Mallory asked.
Blaine smiled tightly. 'We know — let's leave it at that.'
'What's the target?' Gardener said.
'You've seen it before,' Blaine replied, 'on the night we were first attacked… when you were on your field operation-'
'The Fabulous Beast.' There was a note of disbelief in Mallory's exclamation that drew a suspicious glance from Blaine.
'The flying creature-'
'How can we hit something like that?' Mallory said. 'It's huge… it shoots fire… Anyway, it's not been seen since we were on the Plain. What makes you think it'll be here tonight?'
'It'll be here.' Blaine had grown cold at Mallory's questioning of his big plan and turned his attention to Gardener. 'Yes, it is a big bastard, but we've got the capability to down it. And we'll be helped by the power of the Lord protecting us — it won't be able to see us. It will be able to strike, but only at random.'
'Where are the Blues?' Mallory asked.
