Mark Chadbourn - Destroyer of Worlds

'Great. Nine potential sources of irritation,' Laura said. 'It was bad enough when there were only five of us.'

A moment after Lugh and Rhiannon said their goodbyes, Church passed through the arch and found himself in the same square, only now foot-deep in snow. An unearthly stillness lay over the normally bustling city.

Once the others had joined him, they made their way along the winding cobbled streets, through the eerily deserted city, noting how the street-plan and the buildings echoed their counterparts on Summer-side, but were subtly different. A sense of menace pervaded the court, engrained in the distorted proportions of the architecture, or the odd way shadows fell, or the occasional sound that echoed through the stillness: a dog's howl, snow suddenly falling from a roof, something that sounded like a baby crying, but was clearly not.

The high buildings protected them from most of the elements, but when they ventured beyond the gates onto the Great Plain, they were blasted by a bitter gale that propelled snowflakes into their flesh like burning needles. Bowing their heads, they drove on through the knee-high snow, Tom guiding them with every subtle tug on his ring-finger.

When the pink glow of dawn finally warmed the horizon, their faces, fingers and toes were numb and snow encrusted the front of their furs. Laura complained vehemently and Tom, Miller and Jack found it hard going, but the others maintained the pace. Of all of them, Hunter appeared to be thriving on the hardship.

It took most of the day to cross the arc of the Plain that took them to the foothills. They made camp on the gentle slopes, in a hollow filled with spiky gorse bushes and rocky outcroppings. Hunter lit a fire with remarkable speed, and soon they had four tents pitched around it, with water boiling for a warm drink. They ate their dry biscuits in two of the tents, clustered together for warmth, and soon fell asleep from exhaustion.

Church woke in the middle of the night, unsettled without knowing why. Crawling out into the bitter darkness, he found that the snow had stopped falling and the stars glimmered icily. It was Veitch's watch, but something was wrong. Church could see him prowling the edge of the camp beyond the red embers of the fire, his sword drawn, occasional flickers of blue amongst darting black flames.

'What's up?' Church followed Veitch's gaze to the snow-covered lip of the hollow.

'Something out there.'

'An animal? Or worse?'

'Dunno yet. I caught sight of it against the skyline, just a flash. It was big. Don't know if it was looking down here, or just prowling around. You'll be able to smell the smoke from the fire for miles.'

'Maybe the campfire wasn't the smartest move.'

'Nah, we needed to stay warm. Besides, we've not seen any sign of life since we got here. As far as we knew, this was a dead place.'

'I see you didn't wander up there to investigate.'

Veitch laughed quietly. 'Right, 'cause I'm a total no-mark, stumbling into the night to investigate a noise. My big slasher-pic moment.'

'There's two of us now.'

'Still not a good idea. There's no cover. Best I just sit down here and keep an eye.'

'I'll keep you company.'

'You don't need to.'

'Four eyes are better than two. And it gets lonely on your own.'

Veitch eyed Church curiously for a moment and then nodded. They sat on the leather provision bags while Veitch stoked the fire until the flames licked up again. As they warmed, conversation came easily and after a while Church realised how much it was like the early days of their friendship. He could see that Veitch felt it too, but neither of them spoke of it.

When dawn broke, they roused the others, who emerged stamping their feet and complaining to fight for space around the fire. They ate a quick breakfast of more dry biscuits, and then Veitch and Church ventured up to the ridge. The snow was disturbed and large tracks led off across the landscape.

'What do you reckon?' Veitch said.

'I don't get it,' Church replied. 'The tracks change. See here — these look like some kind of animal print, these are more like a reptile and these…' He paused at a series of circular holes in the snow disappearing into the distance, unable to find the words. 'Whatever, it looks like it was watching us.'

Veitch peered towards the horizon. 'It's not here now. Maybe it thought we were too much trouble for a snack.'

'Those black clouds look full of snow,' Church noted. 'We'd better get moving before it hits. We're going to freeze to death out here if it gets any colder.'

Church slid down the bank to the camp. Veitch inspected the tracks for a moment longer, casting his gaze across the expanse of snow, and then he followed Church, troubled without knowing why.

At noon, the storm struck with a ferocious force that battered them this way and that, making any progress difficult. The blizzard was so intense that the ground and sky merged into one sheet of white that left their senses reeling. Laura was worst hit by the white-out-induced vertigo and she pitched forwards into the deepening drifts at regular intervals, cursing loudly as her frustration and anger grew.

Each time Hunter helped her to her feet, only for her to shake him off furiously. 'I'm a hothouse plant,' she shouted. 'I'm not meant for these conditions.'

'Yeah, you're just a frail little flower,' he said lightly, but he was worried about her. The strange state imposed upon her by Cernunnos was still a mystery and he had no idea how the cold would affect her, although he was concerned by the blue tinge growing around her mouth and eyes.

He struggled over to Church and said, 'I'm worried about Laura. She's not coping well with this weather. We need to get to shelter.'

Church pulled the scarf from his mouth and shouted over the gale, 'Okay, if we can find somewhere, but it's impossible to see anything in this. At least we're moving uphill. There might be more shelter when we get into the mountains.'

'If we do,' Hunter yelled back. Frustrated, he turned towards Laura and noticed that he could now see only seven other black smudges in the swirling white. 'Someone's missing,' he called to Church. 'Get everyone huddled together, now!'

Once the group had packed into a tight knot, they realised it was Jack who was missing. 'He was right next to me a minute ago,' Miller said as he hugged Virginia close to him.

'If he wanders off, we'll never find him,' Tom snapped. 'Why can't you organise things better?' He wiped the snow off his spectacles.

'If we all start looking for him, we'll never find our way back together,' Hunter said. 'Let me go. I've experienced worse than this in Nepal.'

'How are you going to find your way back to us?' Church asked. 'The footprints are filling up quickly.'

'I'm like an animal — I have an unerring sense of direction.'

'Don't be an idiot,' Laura said, but before she could stop him, he disappeared into the blizzard.

Rapidly, he followed their footprints back and then searched for Jack's outlying track. Church was right — their trail was already becoming a ghost, and he guessed he would only have a few minutes before he lost his way back to the group.

He called Jack's name, but the wind stole his voice only a few feet from his mouth. After a moment, he came across a set of tracks that peeled off from the main body of the others. Keeping his head low, he pressed on into the face of the gale.

He hadn't gone far when his senses picked up movement nearby.

'Jack,' he called again. Even as the name left his mouth, he realised any movement he might have perceived came from something much larger than a teenage boy.

Another shape loomed and was gone in the blink of an eye. This time he glimpsed something black, dense and powerful before the white folded around it.