The Hounds of Avalon (Gollancz S.F.) (35 page)

‘I still can’t understand what happened.’ The Bone Inspector shook his head, perplexed. ‘We all thought Jack Churchill was destined for big things – someone who’d lead us on to the next level. There were prophecies, stories passed down from the earliest days of the Culture. I was sure they referred to him.’

‘He had great power inside him, certainly,’ Shavi said. ‘He wasn’t allowed to reach his potential – he could have changed the world.’ Mallory could see that the death of Jack Churchill still affected Shavi deeply.

Shavi broke the conversation by asking Mallory to come for breakfast with them. They wandered down the Tor in the warming sun, with Shavi greeting everyone he encountered by name. Mallory saw respect in all the faces, and in some, something approaching reverence.

They ate porridge sweetened with honey in a large roundhouse at the foot of the Tor. It was a communal dining area, and throughout the course of their meal men wandered in and out to grab a bite. All kinds had made their way to the college, from teenage boys to grizzled, white-haired men in their seventies and eighties. Some resembled old hippies, with faded clothes and sandals, while others had the clean-cut elegance of barristers or the tattooed swarthiness of motor mechanics.

‘No women?’ Mallory said. His memories of the disturbingly testosterone-heavy regime of the Salisbury Knights Templar were still raw.

‘The sexes have different strengths,’ Shavi said. ‘Women are better practitioners of the Craft, at manipulating its subtle energies, its raw emotional power. Ruth Gallagher endeavoured to spread the word to women across the country. The Culture’s power has always been shaped by male energies. But we would never turn a
woman away if she felt the call, and I’m sure Ruth would not turn her back on a man.’

‘It’s not a monastery,’ the Bone Inspector said. ‘No bromide in the tea, no rules about stamping on sex, or stopping people drinking or doing whatever they want to do to get out of it. Besides,’ he added with a gap-toothed grin, ‘they’ll be out in the world soon enough when the teaching’s done, and then they can get to know all the women they want.’

After they had finished their meal, they made their way into the grounds of the abbey where the main teaching was carried out. Many had already made an early start. A group of young men sprawled on the grass before an elderly tutor, charts of the night sky spread all around. Near the main teaching roundhouse, a group session of t’ai chi was being conducted.

‘I adopted a very idiosyncratic curriculum,’ Shavi said with a smile as they stood to watch the graceful movements. ‘It seemed to me that we had an opportunity to enhance the long traditions of the Culture with the best of Eastern philosophy and belief systems, thereby creating a profound new wisdom for this dawning new age.’

‘About that new age dawning—’ Mallory began.

But Shavi silenced him with a hand; he did not wish to be rushed. ‘I know some of the reasons why you have come,’ he said. ‘But let’s not discuss them here, where we might be overheard.’

Shavi led the way to a much smaller roundhouse in a secluded spot in a distant corner of the abbey grounds. Inside, the only light came from a small fire that, from the mound of ash and charcoal, appeared to have been kept burning for a long time. The Bone Inspector shut the door and barred it.

‘This is the only building with locks in the college,’ Shavi said. ‘It is also protected magically from external attack, or from any party viewing from a distance. There are many powers who do not want to see this college thrive. We are always on our guard.’

They sat around the fire, the flickering flames casting their faces a dull red against the shifting shadows. ‘There’s trouble,’ the Bone Inspector said, ‘or you wouldn’t be here.’

‘Trouble?’ Mallory said. ‘That’s one way of describing it. It’s called the Void. What is it? No idea. The best description I’ve got is that it’s the opposite of life and it’s here to wipe out everything on
earth. Apparently we’re some kind of infestation with ideas above our place. Though I have to admit, there are times when I agree with that estimation.’

‘We are aware of this great darkness,’ Shavi said gravely, ‘and we have known of its approach. I am ashamed to say I am responsible.’

‘What do you mean?’ Mallory asked, startled. The atmosphere in the roundhouse appeared to be growing more oppressive.

‘During the Fall, one of the rules of Existence was broken. I was the reason and the cause. I should take the blame.’ Shavi closed his eyes, remembering. ‘I died during the struggle.’

Mallory felt a frisson at the connection. ‘You look pretty good for a dead man,’ he said wryly.

‘I remember a place of mists and desolation, of a graveyard that went on for ever.’ Shavi shivered. ‘But I was needed. Five Brothers and Sisters of Dragons were necessary for the struggle. Barriers were overthrown and I was brought back to life. But there was a price to pay. There is always a price to pay. Before I departed the Grey Lands, I was told these words. I have never forgotten them.
In times to come, you will discover that you cannot evade your punishment, and it will be inflicted not only upon you, but upon your world
.’ Shavi swallowed, his throat dry. ‘That voice … that voice hidden in shadows … So terrible.
Beyond the edge of Existence, the Void is stirring
. My actions … the breaking of the rule of life and death … brought us to its attention.’

‘
You have been noticed
.’ Mallory repeated the words he had heard from one of the gods.

‘Yes. Because of me. And I have carried this burden with me since the Fall,’ Shavi said desolately, ‘dreading the day when I would hear that the Void had arrived, selfishly hoping it would not be in my lifetime. And now that day has come.’

The Bone Inspector read Mallory’s face. ‘You’re surprised we know what’s happening?’

‘You’ve got a little paradise going here, cut off from the rest of the world. You haven’t even got the bad weather.’

‘Doesn’t mean we’re ignorant of everything that’s happening elsewhere. We’re not thick – knowing things is part of what we do here,’ the Bone Inspector said.

‘The wintry weather you talk about was what first alerted us,’ Shavi said. ‘It is the Fimbulwinter, as foretold in Norse mythology.
The first sign of the end of the world – Ragnarök. Three successive winters without any intervening summers, and during this time war will follow war and brother will kill brother.’

‘Sounds like situation normal,’ Mallory said.

‘Everything that has happened in recent times has been leading towards this, and all of it was foretold in the ancient stories,’ Shavi explained. ‘The Fall, the first change of the season leading towards the end. Autumn, if you will. And now the Fimbulwinter –
The Great Winter
– the herald of the Void’s arrival. The Fimbulwinter has been released by the Blue Hag – the Cailleach Bheur – as the world winds down.’

‘How come you haven’t got the snows here?’

‘We have been using subtle magics to hold back the relentless flow of events so that the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons can fight. The power in the land is most potent here. Glastonbury is a node in the Fiery Network. The earth energy can hold back the winter, at least for a while.’

‘So, the way I understand it,’ Mallory said, ‘the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons are the only ones who can hope to oppose the Void. But I can’t even begin to see how that could be possible. I had enough trouble with a handful of Government thugs.’

‘There are greater powers at work, and you can tap into them,’ the Bone Inspector said forcefully. ‘You might even say you represent them. Don’t ever forget that.’

‘But five’s the magic number, right?’ Mallory said. ‘And there aren’t five of us. Two are missing – we’ve got no idea who they are. There’s a psycho-soldier, goes by the name of Hunter, who’s off walking the land like Kwai Chang Caine. There’s me. And then there’s my girlfriend, Sophie Tallent.’ Mallory steeled himself, but he still felt queasy saying the words. ‘And she’s dead.’

Shavi and the Bone Inspector flinched as one.

‘So we’re not even halfway to making a fist of it. Things don’t look good. Hunter and I decided that the best chance we had was to seek out some of the old Brothers and Sisters of Dragons to make up the full complement.’

‘It doesn’t work like that,’ the Bone Inspector snapped.

‘The Pendragon Spirit is strong in those who are currently chosen,’ Shavi said, ‘but much weaker in those who have completed the task for which they were selected. I still feel it in me,
but these days it is like a single flame whereas during the Fall it was like a raging fire.’

Mallory prodded at the ashes with a stick. ‘I can’t say as I’m surprised. We always expected a catch. So that’s it? It’s over?’

‘There’s always hope,’ the Bone Inspector said so fiercely that Mallory thought the old man was going to lean across the fire and hit him. ‘That’s what you lot are all about.’

‘My friend is right,’ Shavi said. ‘You have travelled far to ask for my aid and I will answer the call, for how could I not in this time of greatest need? It will be an honour to stand shoulder to shoulder with a Brother of Dragons once more. And even if I can be of little use, I will strive to do my best, as our kind always do.’

Mallory was impressed, and a little chastened, by the levels of decency he saw in the young man sitting opposite him.

‘I’ll come, too,’ the Bone Inspector said.

‘No. You must stay here.’ Shavi was firm. ‘If it is possible that we can find some kind of victory, it is unlikely that I will return. That is not fatalism. It is simply probable. You will be needed here to continue our work, for the new age that we have won.’

‘And if I do go with you I’ll be next to bloody useless. That’s what you’re saying, isn’t it?’ the Bone Inspector said gruffly.

Shavi laughed, and it was an infectious sound that made Mallory laugh, too, despite the darkness of their conversation. As they made their way back across the abbey grounds, Mallory was glad he would have Shavi fighting with him, even if, as he guessed, they would have no chance of winning.

Night had fallen by the time Hal and Samantha’s helicopter whipped across the snow-blanketed Staffordshire countryside towards Shugborough Hall. It felt as if the days were rapidly growing shorter, until soon there would be nothing but constant night.

‘I still can’t believe you got the opportunity to meet the PM,’ Samantha said, huddled in the depths of her parka as she watched the white world speed by below. ‘He’s been locked away since all this blew up.’

‘He’s under a lot of pressure. I get the impression he’s being pulled from pillar to post. Everyone in the Cabinet, every advisor, seems to have an opinion on what to do. Everywhere you go you
can hear them arguing amongst themselves, over dinner, in the bars, in the corridors. I wouldn’t fancy being the PM right now.’

‘But he listened to you, didn’t he?’ Samantha said warmly.

‘He listened. I don’t know if he took anything in, though – he was so distracted.’ Hal recalled the PM’s face the minute he had stepped into his room, so grey and drawn that he was almost unrecognisable. There was a report on his desk to which his eyes kept drifting, and as they moved towards it, Hal could see a deep dread in them, like a dark pit. Hal didn’t know what the report said, but he knew what the PM thought it meant: no hope.

Yet strangely that had only enthused Hal all the more. The PM may not really have paid heed to what Hal had said, but Hal was convinced he was on the right path. It was only logical to him that a conventional response would never work against such an unconventional threat; the only way to oppose it was to utilise something as strange and illogical and potentially devastating as the threat itself. Quite clearly that meant something supernatural. Reid had the right idea with his treasure trove of mysterious artefacts, but nothing in there was big enough. It needed the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons and whatever grand design they tapped into.

And after so long feeling weak and ineffectual, Hal felt as if he was finally living up to whatever was expected of him in his role as a Brother of Dragons. He might not be wielding a sword like Mallory or staring death in the face like Hunter, but he was using his own particular strengths: his logical mind, his attention to detail, his forensic approach to problems. It sounded almost laughable to consider those abilities on a par with martial skills, but he was sure he would now be able to uncover the great secret that was hinted at by the Wish Stone, the thing that would finally give them the upper hand. Then he would be a hero, and what a great feeling that would be after being a faceless toiler all his life.

It made it easier to cope with the guilt he felt at running away from his obligation as a Brother of Dragons during the preceding days, at not telling his best friend, and at failing to offer support and solidarity when Hunter was setting off to fight the unknown. Basically, he’d been a coward. But not any more.

‘We’re nearly there.’ The pilot turned towards them, his voice muffled through the scarf he wore in the chilly cab. ‘You still want
me to set you down on the village green outside the estate? It’s a long walk.’

Hal nodded. He knew it would be a hard hike to their destination through the snow, but he didn’t want to draw attention to what they were doing by bringing the chopper in too close to the hall. He had a growing sense of paranoia that the enemy knew what he was doing and would attempt to stop him.