Destroyer of Worlds

8

Fiddles and pipes and voices created an exuberant music that rippled out from the Palace of Glorious Light across the rooftops of the night-shrouded city and raised the spirits of everyone who heard it. The celebration centred on the great hall of feasting, though the thronging revellers spilled out into corridors and antechambers. Musicians from the Court of the Yearning Heart and the Seelie Court took it in turns to play. The former chose long, rich, dense reels that exuded eroticism and could ignite passion with a simple run of notes, while the latter selected uplifting melodies that exhorted the listener to love life and focus on higher purpose. Dancers whirled continually, collapsing in corners when exhausted for new couples to take their place.

The sprawling kitchens at the heart of the palace had been working all day to prepare the feast, in clouds of steam and ferocious heat from the ovens that left every worker stripped to their underclothes. Pies and roasts and delicately spiced dishes, stews and soups, fruits and cakes and sweetmeats were piled high on the tables around the edge of the hall. Goblets were never empty; a small army of servants moved steadfastly around with flagons of wine and ale.

The atmosphere was one of wild abandon, from the dancers to the staggering drunks to the couples who made love in the shadows, not caring who saw them. The festivities had been called to celebrate the reunion of the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons as they prepared for the next and final stage of the campaign, but it was also a statement: that even in the sight of the Burning Man, life was a powerful driving force.

Shavi, mildly drunk and happy, watched the proceedings with one foot on a beer-washed table and a goblet clutched tightly to his chest. 'This is the reason why we do what we do,' he said.

Sipping his ale, Mallory watched Laura grab Hunter by the hand and drag him behind a pillar. 'Free booze?'

Shavi laughed. 'We lived in a world where strange and wonderful things happened on a daily basis, yet we barely raised our eyes from our work to see them. We were truly blessed to exist in the Fixed Lands. Everything that is writ bold here in the Far Lands was there, moving quietly on the edge of our vision, just waiting to be discovered.'

'I never saw that much of it.'

'Then you never looked. Every magical thing is invisible until you find the right eyes to see it, whether it be love, or joy, or friendship, or a small flying pixie.'

'Do you ever get depressed?'

'If you saw the world as I did, you would not. Yes, there is hardship. Yes, there is pain and suffering, and if you focus on each instance in detail then the only thing you will find is pointless misery. But the mysteries of cause and effect are far beyond our abilities to understand them. Because we love science so much we believe there is a process where a simple action has a straightforward reaction. But the system in which we operate is massively complex, and what may have started at the beginning of time caused a billion, billion connecting reactions that are only now bearing fruit. Pick any point along that chain and you would not see what came before or what the final result would be, only that instant, good or bad in and of itself.'

'Oh, yeah, the Butterfly Effect. Flap, flap, big storm a world away.'

'Indeed. We fool ourselves into believing we understand cause and effect, but we see nothing, we know nothing. That is why you cannot plan to influence the world, for good or bad, in the same way that the butterfly cannot plan to create the storm. No one can predict the repercussions in a complex system. In the end, all you can do is trust your heart and hope.'

'Then why are you so upbeat? It could all be trending towards misery.'

'Because if you examine your own life, you will see that the universe is kindly and that it does its best to help you.'

'Laura's right. You really are an old hippy.' Mallory sipped his ale, thoughtfully. 'So nobody knows anything, and we just trust our instincts?'

'Our hearts.'

'I wish I'd had somebody like you on our team to keep the morale up.'

'Hal would have fulfilled that role if he had not become part of the Blue Fire.'

'Be kind of good to get him back.' Mallory stirred uneasily. 'I still don't understand why there's only four of us. Every other team gets five, but us…' He shrugged. 'I keep expecting somebody new to walk through the door. I can't shake the feeling that something's missing.'

'Perhaps it was simply meant to be that your team has only four members.'

'Why? I don't get it.'

'That is my point. We cannot see the patterns. We can only trust that things will work out for the best.'

'I really wish I could see the world like you do, Shavi. I just feel… sad.'

'We all have our pain, Mallory, because in the vast, indecipherable pattern we are all insignificant, while at the same time we are each and every one hugely significant, for our actions, small and large, make up that very pattern. We are threads in the warp and the weft.'

In the centre of the room, Caitlin danced alone, lost to herself, the Morrigan's love of sex and life evident in each seductive movement.

Loading his plate with roast meat, Veitch ignored the pointed stares of the other Brothers and Sisters of Dragons from across the ages. They milled around the hall as they tried to avoid being dragged into Decebalus's ribald revelry as he stalked back and forth, swilling ale by the flagon while indulging in outrageous flirting to make Aula jealous.

For much of the evening, Church and Ruth had been involved in intense conversation, but they broke off to join Veitch as he made his way over to Shavi and Mallory.

'You know how to throw a good party,' Church said.

'One of the perks when you get your own Great Court,' Mallory replied.

'I still can't believe the Tuatha De Danaan let you take over.' Ruth laughed.

'They owed me big time.'

Church surveyed the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons with pride. 'They seem like a great crew, from what I can tell. Brave, fierce — we'll do well with them on our side.'

'Would you expect the Pendragon Spirit to choose any other?' Shavi said.

'You think they're formidable, you wait till you see the gods,' Mallory said with a sly smile. 'Norse, Greek, Chinese, the whole terrifying, insane collection.'

'Where are they?' Ruth asked.

'We've got them in their own separate camps outside the city walls. If you think the Tuatha De Danaan are fractious when they get together, you really don't want to see this lot mixing with time on their hands. They'd be at each other's throats in a second.'

'Imagine them side by side on the battlefield,' Church said. 'Whatever troops the Void can throw at us are going to be up against it.'

'As long as our lot don't kill each other first.'

The revelry was disrupted by the crash of the main door slamming open. In staggered Ronnie Kelly, a Brother of Dragons in a field uniform from the Great War, his expression devastated. He flailed for a moment before raising his hands in a silent plea. They were covered in blood.

'Murder,' he eventually stuttered. 'There's been a murder!'

The band came to a sudden halt. Church, Veitch and Mallory raced towards Ronnie before the others realised what he was saying. In one of the branching corridors off the main approach to the hall, a woman in a pink satin Georgian dress was sprawled, eyes wide open. A neat hole had been punched in the centre of her forehead.

'Marie,' Mallory mouthed. All he could think of was her accusation the previous day that he had attacked her. Haunted, he dropped to his knees to check her pulse, though it was clear she was dead.

Angry voices rose up from a small crowd of Brothers and Sisters of Dragons further down the corridor. A man in a Georgian morning suit pointed an accusing finger at Veitch. 'He did it. He killed our Marie.'

'No.' Church stepped quickly between Veitch and the group. 'He's been with us all the time. Don't jump to conclusions.'

'Why not?' The man brushed away a stray tear. 'That is what he does.'

Fearing they would attack Veitch, Shavi held up his hand and drew all attention to him. On the periphery of his vision, his alien eye glimpsed hidden shapes, and amidst the dislocation, he heard the distant whispers of the Invisible World. 'The murderer is still here in the palace. And more… We are under great threat!'

'Fan out across the palace,' Church said. 'Stick to the core groups that Decebalus has defined for you. Nobody goes alone.'

Reluctantly, the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons moved off along the echoing corridors.

'This wasn't me,' Veitch said, eyeing the body.

'We know,' Church replied. 'I was stupid to think the Enemy would give us time to regroup. Come on.'

Shavi followed Church, Veitch, Ruth and Laura along the corridor. Mallory, Hunter and Caitlin headed for the stairs to the next level. As the groups separated, Shavi heard a rasping, unfamiliar voice issuing from Caitlin that chilled him to the bone. It said, 'Death is circling. Blood will come!'