Mark Chadbourn - The Burning Man

‘Watch him,’ Ruth said to Veitch. ‘He can’t be trusted.’

‘Night wanderers, you are,’ Robin said slyly. ‘And so, by my right, I mislead you. Or not. And therein lies the mischief, for you to divine.’

‘You’re not making any sense.’ Veitch lowered his sword. ‘Like all your bleedin’ kind. Never saw you with the spiders, though.’

‘Robin plays his own game. A long one.’ From behind his back, he pulled a black box etched with gold-filigreed hieroglyphics. He offered it to Veitch.

‘Is that … the Anubis Box?’ Ruth asked with mounting anxiety. ‘You can’t give that to him! It’s too powerful. It controls gods!’

Ruth lunged for the box, but her hands closed on thin air. The Puck was now curling round behind Veitch, the box held aloft. Veitch took it curiously.

‘No!’ Ruth said. ‘I thought you were helping us!’

‘Mischief does not follow a straight path.’

Veitch examined the box. It hummed in his hands as if it was alive, one of the objects, like his sword, that was nothing like it appeared to be. A thought struck him, and he looked to Ruth, who was thoroughly destabilised. ‘Not happy for this to be in my hands? I could just open the box-’

‘Don’t!’

‘Maybe you’d better come along and keep an eye on me, then. In the car, not tied up in the boot. But one wrong move and the lid comes off.’

Ruth’s features grew flinty. ‘I always thought there might still be a little spark of goodness buried in you somewhere. But there isn’t. You’re worthless. And if I ever get the chance to stop you, I will.’

‘You’ll fall for my charm sooner or later.’ He turned back to the Puck, who was circling them like a hunting wolf. ‘What am I supposed to do with this?’

‘It will buy you passage in the most dangerous domain. Now go. More mischief awaits and … Robin is gone.’

Between blinks, Veitch and Ruth found themselves back in the compound where Miller shifted uncomfortably near the Brothers and Sisters of Spiders, unaware they had been anywhere.

Ruth eyed Veitch hatefully, but there was nothing he could do about that. She was still alive and that was all that mattered.

The sun rose red and raw behind the olive grove. Ruth watched the trees become stark black silhouettes against the scarlet, and tried to find a path through all that had happened that night.

The death of her familiar left a deep ache in her heart, compounded by fears for what it meant for the future. He had been a companion and an aide for so long she felt as bereft as if she had lost a friend, though there had been times when he had truly scared her.

Her encounter with Dionysus, Pan and the Puck frightened her, too. They were not like any of the other gods she had met — the ‘oldest things’, they called themselves. What did that mean and what did they want? There were so many questions, and so many threats at every turn, that she no longer had any idea what the real agenda was, or what her role in it should be.

Veitch was communicating in his creepy way with the Brothers and Sisters of Spiders, sending them on ahead. Now that he had the Anubis Box he was an even bigger threat; she had to stay with him. She hoped when it came to a head she could count on Miller, but he was almost childlike in his simplistic view of the world.

Movement alerted her to the women trudging down from the grove, naked, blood-stained and dazed. Ruth took Demetra’s arm.

‘Alicia is dead,’ she said in a strained voice.

‘I know.’

‘We avenged her.’ Demetra’s face showed a dawning acceptance of power. She looked at her brown, blood-caked hands. ‘It was horrible. But it was … strength. And defiance. What we discovered tonight … We will not be beaten again.’ She closed her eyes and breathed deeply of the fresh dawn air. ‘There was madness and death, and freedom and life. And we were at the heart of it. This night we awakened … to something else.’

‘The whole world is awakening,’ Ruth said. ‘It can’t stay the way it has been any longer.’

‘You had something to do with what happened tonight.’ Demetra searched Ruth’s face. ‘I do not know what. I do not know who you are, really.’ She hugged Ruth warmly. ‘But I thank you. And I thank you for all that I know you will do. But you must take care. I feel in my heart there is great danger ahead for you, and sacrifice.’

They held each other for a moment until Ruth sensed Veitch watching them. ‘Time to move on,’ he said.

‘Where does your journey take you?’ Demetra asked.

Ruth looked to Veitch, but his dark eyes gave nothing away.

The blue waters of the Mediterranean sparkled in the afternoon sun. At the rail of the cruiser, Veitch peered past the flecks of foam on the churning wake into the cool depths. Once, in a different life, he had seen mermaids swimming alongside his boat. That single glimpse had been a moment of transformation that opened him up to the infinite wonders of the universe, but sometimes he wished it had never happened; nothing had ever lived up to it since.

They were half an hour out of Paphos, heading south, and trying to make up for the time they had lost stealing a boat in a Greek harbour because the authorities had banned all charters to Cyprus. Another hour and a half to land, and then he could divest himself of the Anubis Box, which throbbed dully beneath his arm.

‘Thinking of jumping?’ Ruth had come up silently behind him.

‘You wish.’

‘I could make you, you know. My command of the Craft is getting stronger by the day. A powerful wind, a gentle nudge … over you go.’

‘Do it,’ he said flatly. He could feel her gaze heavy on him. She was struggling to comprehend his mood; he didn’t really understand it himself.

She hesitated, then said, ‘Miller told me how hard you tried to save my life.’

Veitch glared at Miller, who was sauntering in the sun next to the passenger lounge. He saw the murderous look in Veitch’s eyes and darted inside. ‘I might hate you lot, but I hate that Libertarian bastard even more. If he wants you dead, I want you alive.’

He could see in her eyes that she suspected the truth. Feeling raw and exposed, he turned back to the sea. ‘Anyway, I was just paying you back. You could have killed me in London at your flat.’

‘I try to be better than that.’

‘You should have killed me. Tying me up … that was just stupid. Did you think I wouldn’t get free and come after you again?’

‘I thought it would buy us enough time to sort things out.’ She paused thoughtfully. ‘When you caught up with us in Cornwall and tried to kill yourself, and that power jumped from you to Church and me … what did it do? And why did you do it?’

‘Because I wanted to see if the mermaids were still swimming.’

Fire lit her face at the thought that he was contemptuously dismissing her question, but she controlled herself. ‘You’re right, I should have killed you. All those people you’ve slaughtered, all the harm you’ve done … But the fact is, Ryan, despite all that, I still think of you the way you were when we first met. Someone who was selflessly trying to do their best. Someone who cared.’ She weighed whether to continue, and then threw her caution aside. ‘I remember a time we shared-’

‘Stop it.’

She came up sharp at the emotion in his voice, and that stung him even more. He expected her to press harder, but instead she said, ‘Just because you’ve given me my freedom, don’t think I won’t look for a way to trip you up.’ The expression she presented was supposed to be challenging, but there was an odd note of uncertainty in her eyes.