Destroyer of Worlds

4

Although none of them knew the Caretaker, they all felt a deep grief at his death. Instinctively, they recognised that something good had passed and the universe was a worse place for it.

For a long hour, they had sat in a shady spot on the cafe terrace where they could not be seen by the other clientele, drinking cups of the hot, spicy drink and trying to make sense of what had just occurred. Ahead of them, the setting sun turned the desert the colour of blood.

'This is a right bleedin' mess. You don't know who to trust,' Veitch said.

Laura fixed a knowing eye on him. 'Very true.'

Veitch glared at her.

'I can't believe the Caretaker's dead.' Ruth's knuckles were white on her spear. 'Something so powerful, destroyed by the Enemy.'

'Janus is one of the Oldest Things in the Land,' Tom reminded her, 'and he has joined the Void.'

'So… what? This is a civil war?' Laura said.

'Could be.' As Church listened to the soaring dusk song of one of the many sects now occupying the city, he remembered a similar moment in Cairo, sitting on the edge of mystery in a hot, sprawling city, looking into the night and wondering what the future held for them. Would there ever be a chance for rest, or was this as good as it got — a brief interlude in the chaos of life before it wound down to failure and death? 'The Caretaker said the Enemy knew we were here. How?' He looked around the group carefully.

'The most obvious answer would be that someone told them,' Tom said.

Veitch sneered. 'You're saying one of us? Nah.'

'You would say that,' Laura said.

Church saw Veitch bristle and stepped in quickly. 'I'm not saying anything, except it's something we need to keep at the back of our minds.'

'That we can't trust one of us?' Veitch continued, growing more incensed. 'That defeats the whole point of the Five. A team, all together when it's backs-to-the-wall time.'

'That didn't stop you when you sold us out first time around,' Laura said.

'That wasn't me!'

'Will you two stop it?' Ruth snapped. 'Don't you get it? The Enemy knows we're here — they're not going to sit back, they're going to come looking for us… with something powerful enough to kill the Caretaker.'

Accepting the magnitude of Ruth's words, Veitch and Laura fell silent.

'So, should we leave the city tonight?' Shavi asked.

'And go where?' Church said. 'We came here to try to find a way into the House of Pain. We shouldn't leave till we've got the information we need. And it's a big, crowded city — the Enemy's going to take some time to find us. If we're smart.'

'I agree with Church,' Tom said.

'You don't get a vote, old man.' Laura swung one booted foot onto the table and stretched out, hands behind her head. The others remained tense.

Veitch sat up sharply, remembering. 'I forgot… I met a girl.'

'Did you hold hands and skip?' Laura asked.

'A girl from Earth.'

'You're sure?' Church asked.

'Looked like she'd just arrived. She was in a right panic. Being chased by something, she said.'

'Impossible,' Tom snorted. 'You know all the gateways to the Fixed Lands were closed by the Army of the Ten Billion Spiders.'

'She just got here, I tell you.'

Church thought for a moment, trying to contain his mounting excitement. 'That means there's another path back to Earth that we don't know about. We can go home.'

Ruth couldn't hide her concern. 'You're thinking about running away?'

His mind racing, Church ignored her, and the uneasiness the others were starting to exhibit. 'Drop everything else and turn this city upside down. We need to find that woman.'

The song of the cult reached a crescendo as darkness fell across the overcrowded city, stinking of sweat and misery and desperation, and filled with voices that never stopped. But with the fading of the light a new degree of misery was added. From the shadows, where nothing had been, shapes moved out into the population. No one saw them pass, but they felt them in their hearts, and the fear began to rise.