Mark Chadbourn - Destroyer of Worlds

Oblivious to the turmoil behind him, Church advanced on the Libertarian. 'I'm going to kill you,' he snarled.

Someone called his name. He ignored it.

From the side of the room, another Libertarian appeared to knock the mirror from the hands of his twin where it shattered on the floor. A look of abject betrayal filled the face of the first Libertarian, but then his features began to swim.

Church was too consumed by his passions to comprehend what was happening or to wait for an outcome. As the second Libertarian darted towards the window, Church attacked his prey, even as his features began to alter back to those of Tezcatlipoca. An inhuman shriek made his head ring as the blade bit deep, the blue flames a consuming inferno. No cries for mercy would make him relent.

A troubling calm came over him, so he did not hear the thud of the sword that matched the beat of the now-silent drum. Thoom. Thoom. Thoom. The Libertarian was gone, but still Church did not stop. Whatever was before him was now an unidentifiable mass that had to be reduced to the smallest parts possible. So he continued, chopping and hacking and slicing, even when there was only a slurry spread across the dais, and a voice told him that he would never stop, because he could never be sure he could eradicate the foulness he would become. He could never change things, or make them better. He could only destroy.

Rough hands grabbed him, and by then he was too weak to resist. Caledfwlch clattered to the floor and he turned to face Shavi and Tom. Shavi was crying openly, and for some reason Tom would not meet his eyes.

Reeling, his gaze was drawn past them to Ruth, finally worried about her now that his rage had burned itself out. Suddenly he wondered if it was too late, for him, for them, for everything. Veitch held Ruth tightly, comforting her, and they were both looking at him as if he were the monster he had seen reflected in the smoking mirror.

In the ample shade of the roof garden, the ferns, olive trees and date palms swayed in the hot desert wind and the shocking pink and electric-blue tropical blooms released a luxuriant perfume that attracted bees and enormous butterflies. A sense of peace enveloped Church for the first time in weeks. Sipping the hot, spicy tea the grateful citizens brought him, he turned his face to the sun and closed his eyes.

'It's so good to have it back.' Rachel sat opposite him, sheltering beneath a large parasol. She, too, had found her first degree of peace in the Far Lands.

'We take too many things for granted until they're gone.'

The darkness had risen from the Court of Endless Horizons the moment Tezcatlipoca had been defeated. Church wasn't wholly sure that the god was dead — the vile slurry remaining after he had hacked the body to pieces had vanished shortly after, along with the fragments of the smoking mirror — but it was clear they had bought themselves some breathing space.

The city's diverse inhabitants had gradually emerged blinking into the light, barely able to believe that the immediate crisis had passed, while recognising that the larger one remained; at least the dark had hidden the Burning Man's fiery glare. Soon the streets were packed to the brim once again, despite the numbers slaughtered by Tezcatlipoca's followers.

While the city had quickly returned to the chaos that passed for normal, the tensions amongst the Five had not gone away. Church had found his equilibrium quickly, but Ruth was understandably taking longer to recover from her ordeal, and had insisted on resting alone in a room, refusing all Church's attempts to talk with her. Veitch, Shavi and Laura had been caught in numerous intense discussions, the conversation drying up whenever Church approached, and he had felt their eyes on him wherever he went, as if he would somehow pick up his sword and attack them all with the fury he had shown Tezcatlipoca.

'I am not the Libertarian!' he had shouted at one point, but that only appeared to make them more unsettled, and his inability to show any regret for his brutality or to temper his desire to kill the Libertarian only compounded their suspicions.

Tom had attempted to offer advice and guidance, but Church was not in the mood; time was running out and he was more intent on departing the city and completing his plan as soon as possible.

'This place is unbelievable,' Rachel said, her face set, her eyes hard; a great deal of anger was locked inside her. 'It's like a dream and a nightmare wrapped up in one. All this beauty, and so much horror at the same time.' She focused on a flower, which moved slowly before lunging for a passing bird. 'I keep feeling I've been here before, when I was a child.'

'Everyone feels that way when they come here for the first time. I don't know why that is — maybe children dream of this place, or they've got some innate connection to it that we lose as we get older.'

'Thank you for helping me.' Askance, she eyed him, weighing his nature, still not wholly sure. 'The elderly man… Tom?… he told me all about you. I'm not sure how much I believe. But thank you anyway.'

'No problem. The next thing we need to do is get you home.'

'You can do that? I was afraid I'd be stuck here for ever.'

'We can try. How did you get here?'

'I don't know where to start.' She tugged at the fibres of her dirty jeans for a moment, and then said, 'I'm twenty-eight. I've had more jobs than you'd possibly believe — dog groomer, checkout girl, waitress. I'm just one of those people who doesn't feel at home in anything. Always out of sorts. An outsider. Do you know?'

He nodded.

Deep in thought, she remained silent for an uncomfortable amount of time, and then pointed to a scar near her eye. 'You see that? I was living in London with this guy. Scott. He used to knock me around, usually when he'd had a bad time at work, or when the car broke down. Or when his team lost. I kept making all these elaborate plans to leave him. Sometimes that's all I'd do — dream up different scenarios, night and day. And I never went anywhere. How pathetic is that?'

'It's more complex than that.'

'Maybe I deserve this place,' she said to herself.

Church leaned towards her sympathetically. 'Please-'

She pointed a finger at him aggressively. 'Don't patronise me or pity me.'

'Okay.' He sat back.

'One day I started to notice all these weird things happening. Spiders everywhere.' She shuddered. 'It was like I couldn't turn around without seeing them. I started to think I was going crazy. All the stress with Scott and the worry had pushed me over the edge. Then this homeless guy came up to me in the street. Filthy, like he was covered in engine oil. And he reeked! He started to rant at me. I can't remember what he said…' A hand involuntarily went to her forehead. 'It's all foggy. Whether it was that, or the spiders, I just flipped. I went back to the flat, packed a bag and ran out, there and then. All that time planning and I did it on the spur of the moment.'

'Where did you go?'

'Salisbury.'

'Why Salisbury?'

She laughed bitterly. 'More proof that I'd gone nuts. Do you believe in coincidences?'

'Not really.'

'For days, everywhere I went, Salisbury kept popping up, along with the spiders. Turn on the TV — something about Stonehenge, an archaeologist being interviewed in Salisbury. Somebody stops me in the street, asks which station for trains to Salisbury. I get a pamphlet through the door for double-glazing — the head office is in Salisbury. This is going to sound stupid, but at the time it felt like-'

'The universe was giving you a message.'

'Yeah.'

'Some people are receptive to that, some aren't.'

'So, you're saying the universe was giving me a message?' she said mockingly.