Mark Chadbourn - The Burning Man

‘Maybe you will-’

The door burst open with a crash and Caitlin took a sharp and unconscious side-step away from Mallory. It was Jerzy.

‘Good friends, come quickly!’

They followed him down the winding stairs and out into the driving rain where the storm was so loud it was impossible to hear what Jerzy was saying. At the main gates there was a group of guards in a circle of torches, their capes swirling as they surrounded a large man on horseback clutching a bundle to his chest. The guards brandished spears and swords threateningly.

Jerzy grabbed Mallory’s arm tightly. ‘You must help her!’ he shouted.

Mallory thrust his way through the guards. They rounded on him, swords pointed at his chest, but backed off when he half-drew Llyrwyn.

Evgen, the captain of the guard, blocked Mallory’s way. ‘You are not required here. Leave now.’

‘Who is that?’

‘It is none of your business, Brother of Dragons-’

‘Ho!’ The rider threw back his hood to reveal a mane of black hair and glowering features. A ragged scar ran above and below his left eye. ‘A Brother of Dragons, you say!’

Mallory pushed past Evgen. He could feel the captain’s hateful eyes on his back.

The rider peered into Mallory’s face. ‘Yes, I can see it now. Soft features, but it is there.’ He half-fell from the horse and caught himself at the last. ‘I have ridden for five days and nights to escape the Enemy. I need a bed, ale and a woman, not necessarily in that order.’

‘Who are you?’ Mallory asked.

The rider grinned. ‘My name is Decebalus, once of Dacia, then a bastard of Rome, now a Freeman of Existence.’

Mallory recalled Church’s description of fighting alongside Decebalus centuries ago in the earliest days of the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons.

Decebalus raised the bundle cradled in his arms. ‘I return with a great prize.’ He pulled back the blanket to reveal a girl of about eight, blonde ringlets framing a dirty, tear-stained face and wide, frightened eyes. ‘Give greeting to Virginia Dare, first child of the New World.’

Wary of returning to the Palace of Glorious Light, Mallory, Caitlin and Decebalus slipped off to the Hunter’s Moon, the barbarian carrying Virginia tenderly beneath his heavy cloak. Evgen set a guard on their trail, but Decebalus knew the dark, winding lanes intimately and they lost him within five minutes.

In a tiny, low-ceilinged backroom before a fire, Decebalus steadied himself with three flagons of ale in quick succession.

‘I have been away from the court for many, many moons, tracking the frontier of the Enemy’s territory,’ he said. ‘I have seen some bastards in my time, but they are the worst. The devastation … the slaughter … But that is not the most awful thing. It is the feeling they leave in their wake. Hopelessness. The end of it all.’ He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, his eyes haunted and faraway.

‘What happened to the other Brothers and Sisters of Dragons who were here?’ Caitlin asked.

Decebalus looked at her, puzzled. ‘They are gone?’

‘Missing. No one knows where.’

‘I left to spy on the Enemy’s weaknesses. It was a long and dangerous mission, hiding and running, living off the land. Most of the others were soft, like you. I was best-suited.’ He ground his teeth. ‘I thought the risk was mine, not theirs.’

In his lap, Virginia stirred, lulled asleep by the warmth of the fire after the chill of the night.

‘Where did you find her?’ Mallory asked.

‘In the blasted lands, not far from the Enemy’s fortress. She had discovered a secret way out of their damnable captivity.’ He paused. ‘And she knows a secret way back in.’

Mallory instantly saw the tactical significance, but Caitlin was overcome with sympathy for the child. ‘Poor girl. She’s the one the spiders stole from Roanoke with all the other settlers.’

‘Four hundred years ago.’ Mallory couldn’t forget Church’s expression when he had recounted his failure to save Virginia and the others.

‘She was a baby then,’ Caitlin said. ‘She’s spent eight years of her life with those things. What she must have been through-’

‘Children are hardy,’ Decebalus said. ‘She will recover, given time.’

‘Evgen was keen to stop me getting to you,’ Mallory mused. ‘Perhaps he is the Enemy’s spy. Or,’ he added, ‘perhaps Niamh didn’t really have that spider removed after all.’

‘She sounded honest,’ Caitlin protested. ‘And if she is working with the Enemy, why hasn’t she sent us the way of the other Brothers and Sisters of Dragons? Or killed us in our sleep?’

Decebalus finished his ale. ‘Because she wants something?’

‘Could be the Extinction Shears,’ Mallory said. ‘The spiders can’t find them. They might think we have more information.’

‘We can be away from here within the hour,’ Decebalus said.

‘No. Everything we need is here,’ said Mallory.

‘We stay,’ Caitlin agreed. ‘You hide here with Virginia. We’ll remain at the palace, try to pick up some information about what might have happened to the others.’

‘A risky, some would say foolish strategy,’ Decebalus noted. ‘I like it.’

Sophie emerged from the ritual so weary she could barely stand. Using the Craft in the Far Lands was a rush, all her senses on fire, her mind experiencing things that would change her for ever. But even abilities that had been a wild dream a few days earlier could not uncover any sign of the Market of Wishful Spirit. It was as if it had never existed.

Niamh waited in the anteroom, hands clasped behind her back as she stared into a mirror with a sunburst design. She gave a troubled smile.

‘Have you had good fortune in your search?’

‘Not yet, but I’m not going to give up.’ Sophie flopped onto a sumptuous couch, feeling as if she could fall asleep in seconds. ‘Can I help you with something?’ she asked wearily.

‘Counsel.’ Niamh sat beside her. She curled her legs under her and stretched, cat-like. The movement revealed a striking vulnerability that Sophie had not seen before. ‘I cannot discuss my doubts and fears with my own people. It would be seen as a sign of weakness. If Church were here, I know he would help, but he … abandoned me.’ The final words were barely audible, but Sophie could hear the longing in them.

‘He’s got a big responsibility.’

‘I know. We all have. There is no room for the personal in our lives.’

‘But we have to have that. It’s what keeps us going through all the hard times. Everyone who knows me says I’m strong, able to cope with anything. And I am strong. But if I didn’t have Mallory, I’d be … lost. I love him so much.’

‘And he loves you?’

‘He says so. I … I believe him. Our relationship is weird. We never really tell each other our feelings. We just sort of know. Although … I don’t think he knows exactly how much I need him.’

‘Then you should tell him.’

‘It’s not that easy. I don’t want to appear weak — or desperate. And when you love somebody that much it makes you weak on some level. It makes you scared, because you have something to lose.’ Long-suppressed memories of the heartache that Mallory had healed threatened to rise. She fought to hold them back, knowing they would tear her apart again. She closed her eyes, and gradually calmed herself. Sleepiness crept up on her.

‘I understand what you say. We all fear abandonment. We need that love. For me, there are times of great loneliness … at night … during the stillness after dawn. I have grown fond of your people. I miss your companionship.’