Mallory was already moving as he saw tensing muscles ripple across its black fur. It erupted from the spot with the speed and mass of a car. Despite his advantage, Mallory only just got out of the way; the dog clipped his sword, sending it spinning across the ground. Its head turned as it passed and a ferocious snap of its enormous jaws only just missed taking off his face. He yelled out as some of its saliva splashed on his wrist, where the skin sizzled and smoked.
The dog was around in an instant, relentless, driving forwards. The ground shook beneath its thundering paws. Mallory tried to dodge; it smashed into his leg so hard it felt as if the bones were splintering. He spun, slammed into a tree, saw stars.
By the time his fumbling consciousness had returned, it was too late: the dog stood a few feet away, teeth bared, ready to tear him apart whichever way he tried to escape. But he couldn't have moved anyway; those red eyes held him fast. Something emanated from them, drilling into his skull above the bridge of his nose, into his brain, where it scurried and wriggled. In his mind, words that were not words echoed; images and impressions burst like fireworks in the night, so sickeningly alien he thought his consciousness was going to shut down at the contact.
Its muscles tensed again; the bass rumble began.
The blast shocked Mallory out of his mesmerised state. Shot smashed into the creature's skull — he saw the skin flow like liquid — but it made no impression; it kept its gaze on Mallory. Through fractured vision, Mallory made out the hunter lurching in the background, waving his gun, ranting incomprehensibly.
Mallory thought, Here it comes.
But the attack never came. Slowly the pinpricks of black at the centre of the fiery red eyes moved to the side. Its head began to follow suit, cranking around until it was staring directly at the hunter. What Mallory's pursuer saw in the beast drained the blood from his face. His eyes widened in terror, and briefly the banal madness that had gripped him was replaced by a startling clarity. Mallory saw how unpleasant true dread looks in a man's face: it stripped away everything that made him civilised, everything that made him human.
He had time to fire one final, useless blast before the thing crashed against him, smashing him to the ground. Mallory saw both of the hunter's shins snap in two on impact, but then Old Shuck's rending head was moving in a blur.
Shaking himself from the horror, Mallory jumped to his feet and ran, pausing only to snatch up his sword. He found an energy reserve he didn't know existed, speeding across the uneven terrain as if he were flying.
Sophie was searching the periphery of the wood, desperately upset. She was overcome with relief when he skidded up to her, throwing her arms around his neck. 'I heard the sounds,' she said queasily.
Mallory threw her off. 'No time.' He dragged her behind him as if she were feather-light, then scrambled into the van and deftly hot-wired the ignition.
'What about the owner?' Sophie asked, anticipating the truth.
'He's had it.' Mallory was filled with lightning. He thrust the gears into reverse and roared backwards, the wheels screeching in protest. Through the trees he could see a low, black shape approaching, now bizarrely part red.
Mallory spun the van around in the road and sped away.
There was more than half a tank of fuel, easily enough to get them to their destination. They had to drive cautiously along roads that had barely seen any traffic for a year, where the snow drifted so deeply they had to dig a path through with a shovel they found in the back.
Sophie began to doze intermittently and seemed on the brink of complete exhaustion. It left Mallory alone with his thoughts at a time when he really didn't need to be. Fragmented, buried memories surfaced, mingling with stark images of another world, another life. Once, he glanced at the side mirror and saw the hooded figure that haunted him standing in the middle of a field, lonely and stark amid the ruts of snow and sweep of mud and grass, scavenging crows bucking and diving around it. The sight made him cold and sick, and left him with a feeling that he was rushing towards a reckoning. The past wouldn't be staying behind him for much longer.
A mile from their destination, and with twilight coming in hard, the van suddenly lost all power and drifted to the side of the road.
'What's wrong?' Sophie mumbled as she stirred from sleep.
The next ten minutes were spent checking everything under the bonnet, but the problem remained a mystery. 'Back to walking, I think.' Mallory looked up at the darkening sky, then forced a smile. 'Maybe we're just jinxed.'
The warmth of the day faded quickly. The black dog was a way behind them, but a strange, troubling atmosphere was rolling out across the deserted landscape. The road wound amongst oppressive clusters of trees heavy on both sides. The occasional isolated house appeared, dark- windowed and uninhabited, but still with curtains and hanging baskets, as though the residents had been driven out and no looters had dared to venture in.
This far from the city, the fields were now clogged with thistles and weeds, the grass unclipped by cows or sheep. Soon the only mark of farming would be the wild hedge boundaries. The wind blew across the land, cold and shrill, stirring the rooks' nests in the tallest trees. The birds occasionally broke the silence with their raucous calls.
'We can't be far off,' Mallory said, consulting the book of maps he had brought with him from the van.
Sophie fumbled for his hand. 'Are you nervous?' she said, manifestly feeling so herself.
'No,' he said reassuringly. 'But I still wish we were walking in the opposite direction.'
'We're a Brother and Sister of Dragons,' she said ironically. 'We're only allowed to do the right thing.'
As they passed a deserted pub standing lonely at a junction, Sophie started and looked out across the fields. 'There's someone out there,' she said urgently.
'I noticed them about half a mile back,' Mallory said. 'They've been tracking us, keeping to the hedges and the shadows.'
'What are they?'
'I don't know. At first I thought they were animals, deer or something… I thought I saw horns… I don't know.' He adjusted his cloak so he could reach his sword easily if necessary. 'But then they looked as if they were walking on two legs sometimes.'
'Oh.'
'I think they're waiting for dark.'
'They like that, don't they?'
'I've been wondering,' Mallory said obliquely, 'do the gods you worship come to your rescue if you pray? Or aren't they that hands-on?'
'I think whatever created the universe would have an interest in the life that populates it, don't you?'
'I thought for a long time that there wasn't a God,' Mallory mused. 'You look at all the random suffering and the mean-spiritedness and the venality, and you think if there was a God He needs to be deposed pretty damn quick.'
Sophie sensed the gravity at the end of his comment. 'But?'
He sighed. 'Anything I say would be too twee. No one would take me seriously any more.'
'Go on, I won't tell.' They both knew the conversation was a distraction to keep away the void that lay at the end of the day.
'Well,' he began uncomfortably, 'take love. The evolutionists say it's a mechanical impetus, perfectly designed to create a bond between two breeding partners and then to provide an atmosphere of security so the offspring can thrive and perpetuate the species. But anyone who feels love knows that's not true. Inside your head you know exactly what love is but you can't express it in words because it's too rich and complex… so otherworldly… so non- human…'He was struggling to find the words. 'That's it. It's not of us. It doesn't exist within our frame of reference at all. It comes from… somewhere else…'
'Are you trying to tell me something, Mallory?' She smiled teasingly.
'Tallent, the only people who could possibly love you are the kind who'll come up to you in a park in piss- stained trousers and do a dance for twenty pence.'
'There's hope for you yet, then, Mallory.'
The road sloped gently down, curving around the edge of another thick copse. A house stood dark and forlorn amongst the trees. Sophie eyed the dying light anxiously; they couldn't pretend the dark wasn't coming any
