'One more step and I'll chop you into hunks,' Mallory said. He didn't know how realistic that threat was. Although the giant wasn't armed, he looked strong enough to have torn apart Cornelius and Julian.
Surprisingly, the giant stopped, though he didn't appear in the least bit frightened by Mallory's threat. 'Ho, Brother of Dragons.' His voice echoed like a slamming door.
'Stay back,' Mallory warned, unnerved that the killer had called him by the same name he had been given in the Court of Peaceful Days.
'Who are you?' Mallory was startled by Miller's small voice at his back.
'I am the Caretaker,' the giant boomed. 'I walk the boundaries of this place of reverence. I watch over the fabric, close some doors, open others. I turn on the lamps of hope in the dark of the night, and extinguish them when dawn's light touches the sky. I keep this place safe from those who would assault it. I keep it safe for all who come here, by whatever route, from whatever place, whether hope or despair rules their hearts. I am their servant.'
'I'm warning you,' Mallory said. He was considering a guerrilla attack to disable the giant with a couple of strikes, before beating a fast retreat.
'Sheathe your sword, Brother of Dragons. You have nothing to fear from me.'
'I don't think he's the killer, Mallory,' Miller whispered.
Mallory wavered. 'I saw you before. You tried to attack me and my friend.'
'I tried to warn you, Brother of Dragons. In these times, this place can be dangerous to your kind.'
There was a cold, almost alien note to the giant's voice that was distinctly unnerving, yet behind it Mallory sensed honesty. He cautiously sheathed his sword.
'Where did you come from?' Miller asked, calmer than at any time since they had ventured into the tunnels. The peaceful atmosphere of the room had increased several notches since the Caretaker had entered.
The Caretaker appeared not to understand the question. 'This is my place,' he said with a shrug. He motioned towards the fire. 'Sit. Shake the cold from your limbs.' He brought over two stools, then lowered himself into the wooden chair.
Still reeling after all the running and fighting, Mallory and Miller tentatively took their seats, but were thankful for the fire. As they warmed their hands, they kept a cautious eye on the giant. The Caretaker's unwavering gaze made Mallory uncomfortable, yet something about the easy mood the giant radiated made Mallory feel he couldn't have fought even if he had wanted to. Mallory's tension seeped away until he felt he could have slept if he closed his eyes.
'I had not expected to see a Brother of Dragons in this place,' the Caretaker said eventually.
'Somebody else called me that,' Mallory said. 'It must be the sword.' He pulled it a little way out of the sheath so the giant could see the dragons entwining on the hilt. 'It's borrowed.'
The Caretaker smiled as if this was the most ridiculous thing he had heard. 'The sword would not have come to you if you were not a Brother of Dragons,' he said warmly. 'I see it in your heart. The sword only answers that.'
Miller looked at Mallory with widening eyes. 'He's talking as if you're special.'
'I'm not special.' Mallory looked away from him into the fire. Though the logs blazed, they didn't appear to be consumed.
The Caretaker shrugged as if it were of no import and settled back into the chair, staring blankly at the shadows above the mantelpiece. In the soporific atmosphere, they sat in silence while Mallory and Miller tried to put the experience into some kind of context.
It was Miller who found the courage to question the giant first. 'What is this place?' he asked.
The Caretaker appeared to respond to the deference in his voice. 'You are a Fragile Creature,' he began. 'Your world is one of constraints, where things are fixed, immutable. This place is not of your world.'
'So we're someplace else? We've been transported? Like in Star Trek?'
'That's right, Miller. Now ask him if he thought Voyager let down the franchise,' Mallory said tardy. He was still ruminating over what the Caretaker had said about him being a Brother of Dragons: could someone with his past really be some kind of mystical champion without him realising it? When he considered it like that, it was more than laughable, but both Rhiannon and the Caretaker appeared convinced. Just thinking of it made him feel queasy, as if he had no control over his life.
The Caretaker placed his fingertips together and stared into the space amongst them. 'This place lies between your world and the Far Lands. It lies amid all possible worlds. It lies within all worlds. It encompasses all worlds.'
'Well, that explains everything,' Mallory sighed.
'Oh, Mallory,' Miller complained. He turned back to the Caretaker. 'But it came out of nowhere,' he said. 'One day it was just here, attached to the cathedral we knew.'
'Aye. It would seem that way.'
Gradually, the Caretaker's words began to strike a chord with Mallory. The giant appeared to be suggesting that there was a benign aspect to the new buildings, as if the manifestation wasn't connected to the oppressive presence beyond the walls. 'Why did it appear?' he asked pointedly.
The Caretaker eyed him. 'You have decided to rejoin the conversation, Brother of Dragons?' Mallory looked away. 'It was, in a way, summoned, or dragged, or manifested. Your home… your Church… has always been a place of power. The Blue Fire has flowed through it since the beginning, fuelled by the wishes of worshippers, and fuelling them in return. Yet now it is like a wellspring of the lifeblood of Existence. Its light shines across all time and all place, too powerful by far, warping the very fabric, altering the Fixed Lands and the Far Lands, calling the dead back from the Grim Lands. Too powerful for you Fragile Creatures. It will make you sick.'
Mallory considered this new information. What could have made the earth energy stronger, and how was it linked to everything else that was happening? At least it explained the ghosts from the ossuary that had been glimpsed around the cathedral. Yet he felt uncomfortable that the spirit-energy was powerful enough to call them back from what the Caretaker called the Grim Lands.
'But what caused the power to get stronger?' Miller echoed Mallory's thoughts. 'And why does it look like our cathedral? Only bigger. And scarier.'
The Caretaker didn't answer, but a notion came to Mallory as he pondered the question. 'That's just the way we see it, right?'
'We all build cathedrals for our aspirations, Brother of Dragons,' the Caretaker said enigmatically.
'And you're with it, wherever it's found,' Mallory said. 'Some kind of universal sacred place.'
'I am the Caretaker.'
'Then who's in charge?'
'I don't want to hear,' Miller said to Mallory. He looked queasy. 'This is doing my head in. I can't understand what it all means!'
'What it means,' Mallory said slowly, 'is that something happened at the cathedral that brought this place to us, and now it's affecting all of us.'
'Then it has nothing to do with the Devil?' Miller looked at the Caretaker. 'You don't work for the Devil?'
'He doesn't work for the Devil,' Mallory said.
'And he doesn't work for the killer?' Miller covered his face with his hands. At this, Mallory looked to the Caretaker; in his eyes there were stars, whole galaxies.
'You must look to your own kind,' the giant replied.
Miller raised his head to fix his attention on Mallory. 'One of us?' His voice was almost comical with disbelief. 'Not a demon? How could someone from the cathedral commit those… horrors?'
'You're a man who obviously knows everything,' Mallory said to the Caretaker. 'Care to tell us who we're looking for?'
'Since the Battle of London, my kind have sought to distance ourselves from you Fragile Creatures. Your affairs must remain your own.' The Caretaker stared into the fire in deep thought for a while before adding, 'Look to your hearts, Fragile Creatures.'
'So we're no closer,' Miller said dismally.
'Look to your hearts,' the Caretaker repeated. The imperative in his words prevented his comment from being seen as a throwaway line. A wheel began to turn in Mallory's mind, pulling notions out of the dark.
Despite the warmth of the fire and the calm atmosphere, the Caretaker put Mallory on edge; though the giant
