Mark Chadbourn - The Hounds of Avalon

The god led Hal to the research rooms where Kirkham had carried out most of his experiments into finding a way to cross over to T’ir n’a n’Og. They came to the Plexiglas window that looked on to the lab where Glenning had turned to a pile of dust after returning from his trip to the other side, and Hal was surprised to see it awash with a brilliant blue light. The stately bluestone that had been brutally ripped from Stonehenge was glowing with the sapphire radiance.

‘It never stopped working,’ Hal said in amazement. After Glenning’s death, no one had felt the need to return to the labs down here. It was considered a failed experiment and everyone had more important things on their minds.

The sheer power coming off the megalith gave Hal pause. ‘That’s why,’ he said to himself. Then to Dian Cecht: ‘Oxford was flitting in and out of the Otherworld because of this stone! The power must have been infusing the whole city!’

The door opened of its own accord and Dian Cecht stepped into the blue world. Hal followed.

‘He is here,’ Dian Cecht said. ‘He is in your hands now.’

Standing nearby was the giant who had appeared to Hal in the Grove behind Magdalen what seemed like so long ago. The Caretaker held the Wayfinder lantern aloft, and when he smiled warmly, Hal felt all the tension leave his muscles. ‘I knew you would be here, now, Brother of Dragons,’ the Caretaker said warmly. ‘This lantern will light your way, as it has done for many of your kind before you.’

As Hal’s eyes adjusted to the megalith’s flooding light, he realised that there was something else in the room. Coiled around the walls was an enormous Fabulous Beast that appeared to be made of the blue energy, yet which had solidity and weight. Its sapphire eyes were fixed firmly on him, and to Hal they appeared not like those of a beast at all, but wise and calm and wonderful. Hal had no idea how it could have entered that enclosed space.

And standing in the sinuous loops of its tail was a woman, her own eyes as blue as the Fabulous Beast’s; skin pale, hair black. ‘This is your time, Brother of Dragons.’ It was the woman who had spoken, but the voice was deep, male and slightly sibilant.

All eyes were on him. Hal looked from one to the other and realised that he was being asked something of great importance.

‘Do you understand your responsibilities, Brother of Dragons?’ the Caretaker asked.

‘Yes. I haven’t lived up to them,’ Hal admitted. ‘I’m sorry…’ He caught himself and then added honestly, ‘I think I’m too much of a coward for this job.’

‘Everyone has a different strength,’ the woman said. ‘You have used yours effectively.’

Energy arced across the room. The power emanating from the bluestone was growing more intense. Hal stood entranced by the light show for a moment before adding, ‘You’re talking about the code, in the painting.’ He sighed. ‘I know who the king is now. But it’s too late.’

‘It is never too late,’ the Caretaker said firmly. ‘The signs were left for you, and you alone, to prepare you for this moment.’

‘Me?’ Hal said, puzzled.

‘You have a choice,’ the woman added. ‘You may turn away now and give all of Existence up to the Devourer of All Things. Or you must find the king and bring him back here, but the sacrifice you make will be great indeed.’

‘You’re saying I have to die,’ Hal said. Not far from the megalith, the Blue Fire had begun to take on some kind of shape.

The Caretaker stepped forward and, for a second, Hal felt as if he was in the presence of his father. ‘Nothing dies. Nothing new is created, nothing is destroyed. It is simply transformed.’

‘And he’s not dead? The king?’

The Caretaker smiled once more, reassuringly. ‘Nothing dies.’

‘He is lost,’ the woman said, as if she could read Hal’s mind. ‘In distant times, in a faraway place, his memory fading. He will not find his way home without your guidance.’

‘How can I do that?’

The Blue Fire had now formed itself into a rectangle, like a burning doorway in the air. The Caretaker stood next to it, holding the Wayfinder as if to light the way through; the lantern’s flame surged and flickered and tugged towards the door.

‘You must give up your mortal form,’ the woman answered. ‘Become one with the Pendragon Spirit.’

‘In that way,’ the Caretaker continued, ‘you may pass through this door to the source of all things. You will become a part of Existence. You will reach through all time, all space. And for the briefest of moments you will have subtle influence. A mere tug, but it may be enough to direct the king towards this place.’

‘You’re saying it’s like becoming… part of God?’ Hal’s mind spun.

‘Everything rests with you, Brother of Dragons.’ Dian Cecht was grim-faced. ‘Only the king can defeat the Devourer of All Things. Only he can save my people and guide your own race back to the upward path. And only you can call him.’

In a moment of utter clarity, Hal understood exactly what his sacrifice would mean: he would be converted into energy, a wavelength, a thought, a message to the past and the future. And then he would be gone, absorbed into the background energy of the universe. It was the ultimate sacrifice. Yet for the briefest time, he would be a conscious part of the underlying intelligence of Existence, and he would be able to search the twists and turns of reality for the man who would be the ultimate representation of the Pendragon Spirit. The Champion of Life, the only one who could defeat the embodiment of Anti-Life. And Hal would be a part of that champion, and a part of all the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons who had ever existed across the millennia.

After all his failures and his weaknesses, here was his chance to redeem himself, the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to find the true strength inside him. Briefly, he had a vision of himself flashing back across time, appearing to Poussin to plant the message that he would eventually find in his real life, manifesting to the Dilettante Society and all the others he would guide so that at this point in time he would have already assimilated the information he needed to make his choice.

In truth, he had made the decision long ago.

The doorway was crystal clear now, manifested and held in place by the combined power of the Caretaker and the Fabulous Beast.

‘Will you accept this quest, Brother of Dragons?’ the Caretaker asked.

Hal smiled and stepped towards the light.

‘ We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.’ Martin Luther King, Jr.