Jack of Ravens

10

After Gabe and Marcy left, the atmosphere in the apartment was tense. Tom had very little patience with Church and showed it at every opportunity. Church wanted to head to New Orleans. Tom flatly refused to set foot in the south while civil rights were being resisted. Tom wanted to go to Mexico to check out the sacred mushrooms that Leary had investigated. Church wasn’t interested.

Finally Tom stormed out and disappeared for two days. When he returned he had an armful of cheaply produced magazines, all of them garishly illustrated. He tossed them at Church.

‘See what’s happening? Existence is organising. People are hearing the call, rising up. But if they’re going to make a difference they need a king to lead them.’

Church flicked through the magazines: articles on ley lines and Earth power, calls to arms against the Vietnam War, for civil rights, against the force for repression that was manifesting across the world, academic discussions of the occult, Wicca, Sufism, all sorts of Eastern spirituality.

‘Freedom equals Life. Love equals Life,’ Tom said. ‘Control equals Anti-Life. This is war. And you’re needed.’

‘You sound like one of those hippies out on the West Coast.’

‘When you want to destroy something you give it a name so you can mock it. Even the filids of the Celts knew that. But maybe these hippies are right.’

Church lay back on the cushion and closed his eyes. ‘I don’t want to argue, Tom,’ he said wearily.

‘Well, I do. You sank into depression after your woman died, and I can understand that — I’ve fought against it ever since I walked out of the Court of the Final Word. A broken heart’s a terrible thing, but you can’t stay sinking down in the black waters for ever-’

‘It’s not just Ruth. What I saw in the Court of the Final Word showed me that the human race is nothing-’

‘That’s what they want you to think.’

‘The Demiurge, the Void, whatever you want to call it — it rules this world already and pretty soon it’s going to control the Far Lands, too. It’s beyond powerful, Tom. Surely you can see that. I’m one man. I can’t make a difference.’

‘One man or woman can change everything.’

‘More stupid hippie talk.’

Tom studied Church for a moment and then began to collect his magazines.

‘What are you doing?’ Church asked.

‘What you should be doing. I’ve been living in fear ever since I was dragged out of my life and into this whole miserable business. But I don’t have the luxury of being scared any more.’

‘You’re very clever, Tom, but you’re not going to make me feel guilty.’

‘The Blue Fire and everything it represents has been sleeping for a long, long time, since the Age of Reason came in at least. But now it’s being woken again. By ordinary people, Church — normal, everyday people filled with hope, who need help. Somewhere out there are new Brothers and Sisters of Dragons, who may well be the most powerful in generations. They need someone to shape them, before Veitch gets to them, or the Libertarian, or Salazar.’

‘How are you going to find them?’

‘That’s my problem now.’

Church listened to Tom in his room packing his haversack, and soon after the front door slammed. He’d left all his records for Niamh with a warm, affectionate note, but for Church there was only a silence that spoke volumes.