The Hounds of Avalon (Gollancz S.F.) (44 page)

Caitlin loomed over the balustrade, surrounded by the thunderous murder of crows. Yet there was a subtle change in her face, a shadow of humanity. ‘I … I can’t stop her.’ Caitlin’s voice had
returned to a human timbre, but it was weak, barely audible. ‘It’s as if I’ve got two people in my head and neither of us can think straight. This … it isn’t meant to be. It’s driving us both mad.’

‘Fight it,’ Sophie gasped. She managed to swing her feet around to catch a foothold on another carving.

‘If I still had the Pendragon Spirit, I could balance her out, but …’ Caitlin’s voice faded away.

Sophie saw Caitlin’s face darken and knew that her moment of respite was over. Climbing back up wasn’t an option. Fighting the vertigo that spun her head, she focused as hard as she could on the stone of the tower wall to block out the drop, and then searched out more foot- and handholds. The mass of carvings gave her plenty of options, but already she was shaking from the strain of keeping her muscles tense.

She swung to one side with her right foot, tested her weight on the new foothold and then followed with her right hand. She vacated the carving just as Caitlin’s axe raised a shower of dust as it crashed against where she had been clinging.

Sophie moved as quickly as she could while maintaining her safety to get out of the reach of Caitlin’s weapon. But in doing so, she allowed herself a glance down: it was like standing on a ledge at the summit of the Empire State Building. Her head spun so wildly that she almost fell away from the wall.

She screwed her eyes shut and rammed her body hard against the stone while she reclaimed her equilibrium. When she looked around again, Thackeray and Harvey were hanging out of a window below and to her right, urging her silently towards them.

With the last of her strength, she made it as close to the window as she could, but for the final two feet there were no more carvings to support her.

‘Jump,’ Thackeray hissed. ‘We’ll pull you in.’

‘I can’t,’ Sophie said. ‘I don’t know if I’ve got it in me.’

‘It’s either that or fall.’

Sophie knew he was right. With her eyes shut, she jumped, convinced she was plummeting to her doom, and then she felt herself being manhandled roughly through the window. All three of them fell on to the stairs and rolled down, cracking heads and shins on cold, hard stone before they could stop their descent.

From above came the sound of flapping wings approaching fast.
Sophie was the first to her feet, and dragged the others after her. They careered down the stairs on the verge of falling out of control, skidding into the room with the Emptoreptic and then on, down the next flight of stairs.

The sound of the birds never relented and as they emerged back into the corridor, they knew that if they slowed they would be dead.

‘Caitlin’s gone. That thing’s taken over.’ A desperate sadness filled Thackeray’s voice.

‘There’s still hope,’ Sophie said. ‘But we need to save ourselves before we can think about helping Caitlin.’

‘Which way?’ Harvey yelled in a panic.

Sophie randomly picked a direction and they set off as fast as they could. Whenever they felt they could spare a second, they randomly tried one of the doors en route, but on each occasion they lost valuable time that they knew they would not be able to make up. The Morrigan would never give up, and soon they would tire, and then she would catch them.

‘This is ridiculous,’ Thackeray wheezed. ‘We could run around here for ever and not find the door. It’s statistically impossible.’

Sophie wrenched open a door. ‘I think it’s this one,’ she said.

Thackeray didn’t have time to query her before she had propelled both him and Harvey through. She dived in after them, slamming the door behind them. They skidded down a snowy slope and came to a stop beside a fence next to a road sign, obscured by ice and frozen snow.

‘It’s winter?’ Harvey said.

‘Must be,’ Thackeray said. They were all racked with shivers in the biting temperatures.

‘We need to get to shelter before we freeze to death,’ Sophie said with chattering teeth.

‘How do you know this is the right place?’ Thackeray asked.

‘All the other scenes had an odd artificial quality, as if the backgrounds were films projected on to the walls of the room,’ Sophie said. ‘This one looked real.’

‘It doesn’t make sense. It’s too much of a coincidence.’ He looked at Sophie suspiciously, as if she was about to turn into a monster like Caitlin.

‘Two things,’ she said. ‘One, I felt it in my gut, and I think it was the Pendragon Spirit telling me that this was the right door. Two,
there are no coincidences. I think we were meant to find the way out, like we were
meant
to do lots of other things.’

‘That’s kind of creepy,’ Harvey said.

‘Let’s move,’ Sophie said. ‘Caitlin will be through soon.’

‘You really think so?’ Thackeray said. Sadness flashed across his face, but Sophie was impressed to see him constrain it.

‘She’s a killing machine with the powers of a god. No compassion, no empathy. She’s not going to stop until I’m dead,’ Sophie said bitterly. ‘And you know what the worst thing is? I helped to make her this way … and I gave up an utterly valuable, unique thing to do it. And now I’m going to die as well. That’s irony for you.’

Thackeray went to comfort her, but before he could, Harvey hailed them. ‘I don’t think we’ve got far to go before we find somewhere to hole up,’ he said, motioning to the road sign he had just cleaned off.

It said:
Oxford
.

In his arctic survival clothes supplied by the quartermaster, Hal was almost unrecognisable as he trudged, head bowed, through the blizzard. Perhaps that was why Manning didn’t notice him as she crossed the High Street on her way to the Cabinet offices.

It was a random moment that at any other time would have passed Hal by, but he was lost in thoughts of the Otherworld and its strange inhabitants and suddenly he was struck by a revelation. He’d always been suspicious of Manning’s intentions, even before he had heard her talking to a seemingly invisible companion that night before the invasion had started. He’d dismissed the troubling event, sure he’d misheard, perhaps misinterpreted, had too much else on his mind. But now he knew there was something abnormal about her.

Even though she wore a fur coat and hat, they were scant protection against the cold, but when she passed Hal it was clear that the bitter temperatures weren’t affecting her at all.

With the hairs on the back of his neck prickling, Hal made the decision to follow her. It was out of character for someone who paid little attention to instinct – he preferred things hard and fast – but he felt such an imperative that he knew he would regret it if he didn’t.

Hal allowed Manning to reach the far end of the High Street before he turned and followed her, and that was when he noticed the second strange thing. He had been staring at her tracks in the fresh snow when he realised that there was not one set of footprints but two, intermingling so closely that if he had not been paying close attention he would have missed it.

With growing apprehension, Hal kept behind Manning until she disappeared into Oriel College. He anticipated that she would first be heading to her own complex of offices, which lay on the first floor of the building. Hal quickly hurried in through another entrance and made his way up a parallel flight of stairs so that he could approach from the opposite direction and, if discovered, it would not appear that he had followed her.

The building was quiet and he heard Manning moving around her office. There was a single set of footsteps at first, and then, eerily, there were two sets.

Hal edged cautiously along the corridor until he could peer in through the window in the door. The blind on the window was half-closed, impairing his view, but he could see Manning from the waist down. She was talking to someone just out of sight.

‘Things are falling into place. Reid doesn’t suspect a thing.’

‘This is a strange alliance.’ The voice was strong and resonant. Hal craned to see who was speaking

‘That doesn’t matter if it works to our mutual benefit. Now, timing is essential. Are you prepared?’

‘I am. Are you? There will be great hardship for your kind.’

‘I’m ready. Don’t worry about me—’

Hal bumped against the door and rattled the blind in his attempt to see the mysterious visitor. Immediately, he sprinted quietly along the corridor and turned the corner on to the stairs just as the office door opened. He was sure Manning hadn’t seen him, or if she had glimpsed him wouldn’t be able to identify him, but he was angry with himself for alerting her before any action could be taken.

He slipped out of the building into the heart of the blizzard, relieved that it would cover his tracks.

At Queen’s, Hal found Reid lounging in a chair, drinking a brandy in front of a blazing fire. He appeared at ease despite the impending crisis.

‘Ms Manning,’ Hal said breathlessly. ‘I think she’s a traitor. I think she’s going to sell us all down the river.’

‘Sit down. Have a drink.’ Reid stood and thrust Hal into the chair by the fire, then stuffed a crystal glass of brandy into his hand. ‘Now, tell me what you know.’

Hal blurted out what he had seen. Reid listened intently, then muttered, ‘This changes everything.’

‘Are you going to arrest her?’

‘Of course. But if there’s a conspiracy, I want to know who else is involved before I tip my hand.’

‘She stressed that you didn’t suspect anything. I’m sorry if I’ve made her suspicious now.’

‘Don’t worry about it.’ Reid stared into the depths of the fire while he thought things through. Finally he said, ‘The Void is coming soon. I’ve got new intelligence. The only chance we have to stop it is to get the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons together.’ He turned to Hal. ‘I believe Hunter to be one of them.’

Hal said nothing.

‘The research carried out by Kirkham’s team suggests that the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons become active – if that’s the right word – in proximity to the crisis they’re meant to deal with, or they are quickly drawn to that area. We’d already profiled a great many people in Oxford – that’s why we’ve been carrying out a detailed census in recent weeks. Hunter was one of a very few who fit the profile.’

‘How did you know Oxford was going to be the centre of the crisis?’

‘The Government is here. It became obvious that this is where the last stand will be made.’ Reid downed the rest of his brandy. ‘I was ninety per cent sure about Hunter. When he disappeared with Mallory, I knew I was right.’ Reid eyed Hal. ‘Anything you want to say?’

Hal shook his head.

‘You’re his very best friend. I’m not stupid, you know. He must have told you.’

Hal remained silent, but Reid wasn’t offended. He shrugged and said, ‘I believe Hunter is getting his little band together. We need them here, now, if we are to stand a chance. Can you get word to him?’

‘I don’t think Hunter or any of the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons will work with the Government. They don’t trust you … us.’

Reid nodded. ‘Understandable, I suppose. In which case, I face a conundrum.’

‘I don’t know where they are, Mister Reid, and that’s the truth.’

‘Then all I’m asking of you, Hal – begging you – is that when Hunter does finally contact you, as he undoubtedly will, I want you to pass on to him the message that the last stand against the Void will be made here, and that he really needs to be with us. We’re in the final stage of this game, Hal, and what may be the twilight days of the human race. None of us must falter.’

The screeching blast of the siren tore Hal from troubled dreams of betrayal and hatred. He scrambled out of his bed into the freezing cold room and ran to the window. Through the thick frost that lined the glass inside and out he could just discern frantic activity. Soldiers carrying rifles raced along the street. A few seconds later, a truck packed with more soldiers followed a snowplough down the centre of the road.