Mark Chadbourn - Jack of Ravens

‘They’ll be in any second,’ Laura shouted. ‘How much further?’

‘Not far,’ Church lied.

The spiders had gained purchase on the front of the van and were spreading across the windscreen. Church used the wipers to little effect.

‘You’re the one who works the Craft, aren’t you?’ Church said to Ruth. ‘Can’t you do something?’

‘I don’t know how … I … I can’t remember-’

‘This junkheap is falling apart,’ Laura yelled. ‘I’m going to be sliding on my arse in a second.’

Ruth bowed her head and closed her eyes. During the journey back through the Far Lands, Church had told her how one in every Five always had mastery of the Craft. It explained the owl, her familiar, but she had no idea how to access the abilities she must have developed in her past life. She concentrated intently.

The rear doors fell off with a clatter. Streams of golden sparks trailed behind them from the wheel rims. The windscreen was now fully covered by the wriggling black bodies. Soon the glass would disappear and hundreds of the writhing creatures would surge in.

There was a white flash, like a lightning bolt, and the entire windscreen flew out with the spiders still clinging to it. Ruth convulsed and spat a mouthful of bile to the floor.

‘You did it,’ Church said.

Ruth smiled weakly before slumping back into the seat. Even that little effort had drained her completely.

The road noise grew drastically louder and Church saw there were no longer any spiders ahead.

‘They are leaving,’ Shavi exclaimed. He watched the creatures fly off the van and return to the mass that waited along a clear line a few yards behind them.

‘I don’t get it,’ Laura said. They had us. Why are they holding back now?’

Church stopped the van and jumped out, and saw that she was right. The spiders had halted in a wide arc as if held back by an invisible fence. It doesn’t matter,’ he said. ‘We’re through.’

The others clambered out. Laura jumped onto Shavi’s back, laughing, and playfully bit his neck.

He gave her a piggy-back to where Church was supporting Ruth, who was slowly recovering.

Church nodded to a winding path that led towards the light. Let’s go.’

I’m not looking forward to getting out of here later,’ Laura said, eyeing the darkness where the spiders waited.

They followed the path around to a large visitors’ centre. Beyond it was a landscape that looked as if it had been plucked from a 1950s science fiction movie. In a 108-foot-deep former china clay pit stood two enormous geodesic domes surrounded by a massive, lush garden filled with plants from India to Russia. Shavi, Laura and Church recognised the place immediately.

‘What are those domes?’ Ruth said. The view was so impressive it made them all stop and stare.

‘Greenhouses,’ Laura said. ‘They’re called biomes.’ Everyone looked at her, puzzled. I happen to like the environment,’ she said tartly. Inside one of those domes are trees and plants from the rainforests and tropical islands. The other one has stuff from the Med, California and South Africa. They’re temperature-controlled to match the local climates. You can’t really tell from here, but there are full-grown trees in there. They’ve been calling this place the Eighth Wonder of the World.’ She gave a hard smile. ‘An environmentally friendly paradise.’

Shavi read the sign by the entrance. ‘The Eden Project. Dedicated to the environment-’ Shavi recalled the words of the spirit-form just before it took his eye: The Fabulous Beast sleeps beneath the Garden of Eden .

Nature. That makes sense,’ Church mused.

‘You’re still not filling me with confidence that you know what you’re doing,’ Laura said.

‘Ten minutes ago, I didn’t. Now … maybe.’

The visitors’ centre was lit up brightly, but eerily still. Church led the way inside.

‘Look at this.’ Behind a desk, Ruth pointed out two security guards, both of them in a deep slumber, faint smiles playing on their lips.

They passed a deserted cafeteria and empty ticket desks. It felt as though all the occupants had suddenly vanished. Doors led outside to a viewing platform on the lip of the crater. Beneath them, a path wound around the side of the pit through the thick vegetation to the floor far below where the biomes and other buildings were located.

‘Do you feel it?’ Church said as they looked out over the evocative combination of ancient nature and futuristic design. The atmosphere was electric with the same vibrancy Church had felt at Boskawen-Un and Krakow.

‘I do not understand,’ Shavi said, intrigued. ‘I thought the provenance of this power was the ancient sites.’

‘So did I,’ Church replied. ‘But it’s here.’

‘Get a grip. We’re not alone.’ Laura leaned over the rail of the viewing platform and pointed towards movement on the floor of the crater. Torches bobbed amongst the shadows near a large covered stage. Not far away, in a puddle of electric light, Church could see the tail of a procession of strange beings.

‘The Seelie Court,’ he said.

‘The travelling court of the Tuatha De Danann?’ Ruth said. ‘What are they doing here?’

‘When I was in London during the Second World War I developed a bond with them,’ Church answered. I can feel them in my head, wherever they are, and they can sense me. When I was in America in sixty-nine I asked them for a favour.’

‘Drugs or sex?’ Laura said.

‘A search, for the one thing that could help us.’

They jogged down the winding path towards the court. As the route opened onto the floor of the pit, they finally comprehended the huge scale of the biomes gleaming in the lights. For Ruth, Shavi and Laura it was the first time they had experienced the otherworldliness of the Seelie Court, and for a moment they could only stand and gape.

The king and queen approached Church with their attendants.

‘Brother of Dragons,’ the king said. ‘So good to see you recovered from your previous predicament. Of course, we knew it was only a matter of time.’

‘Your legend grows by the day,’ the queen said lightly.

‘And these are your fellow Brothers and Sisters of Dragons?’ The king surveyed the others. Laura was fixated on a man with a hawk’s beak and the legs of a goat, while a woman with silver eyes and grey skin was examining Ruth’s long hair, much to Ruth’s discomfort. Church introduced the three of them.

‘You’re here at my request?’ Church asked the king.

‘This is where our quest led us, Brother of Dragons. The task you set us was not easy, for the prize did not want to be found. We had to listen quietly to the whisperings of Existence, follow the scents on the wind-’

‘Thank you. I’m in your debt. Where-?’

The queen brought a hand to her temple. Her brow furrowed. ‘Beware. The hunters have come.’

On the lip of the crater high above, five riders were silhouetted against the lights of the visitors’ centre. The spiders couldn’t enter the peculiar magical atmosphere of the site, but Veitch and his four followers had no problem; they had all been touched by the Pendragon Spirit and the Blue Fire held no fear for them.

Veitch fell into relief as he urged his horse down the winding path. The others followed.

Church turned to Ruth, Shavi and Laura. ‘We have to find some way to hold them off until I can do what I need to do.’

‘Go,’ Shavi said. ‘We will do what we can.’

The king pointed towards the tropical biome. Church ran for the entrance with the sound of the approaching horses in his ears.

Sparks flew from the iron-shod hoofs of the horses as they thundered from the path towards the biomes. Ruth was drawn to Veitch, whose dark eyes never left her face. Something crackled between them, but what it was she did not know; he scared her and intrigued her in equal measure.