The Burning Man

5

‘Where’s Shavi?’ Church called as he ran to the van where Hunter and Laura were watching the flock of ravens settling on all the vehicles. So many flew overhead that it looked as if night was falling early.

From the perimeter of the car park, Shavi walked confidently towards them. They all stopped to stare, recognising a transformation that went beyond his missing eye patch. In the gathering gloom, a faint golden glow emanated from his new eye.

‘What the fuck, Shavster?’ Laura peered into his face and was relieved to see it was still her old friend.

‘Oslo, Norway,’ he said. ‘That is our destination.’

‘Look.’ Ruth indicated steady movement in the fields that bounded the service station. Brutish figures moved close to the ground, approaching on all sides.

‘Redcaps,’ Tom said. ‘They are only the first of many.’

In less than a minute, Hunter had the van racing onto the motorway. The birds followed, turning the sky into a cauldron of seething darkness.

‘The whole bird thing — bit of a giveaway,’ Laura said.

‘The Morvren recognise the currents of reality,’ Tom said. ‘They see convergences that presage a maelstrom.’

Laura eyed him suspiciously. ‘I know you somehow. Old guy, talking bollocks. Or was it just a bad dream?’

‘This is all a bad dream.’ Tom’s glasses caught the light of approaching headlamps in the preternatural dark. ‘Drive faster, now.’ The calm in his voice was somehow more chilling.

‘All right,’ Hunter said as he searched the landscape for any sign of threat, ‘starting to think I made the wrong decision listening to you back in London.’

Shavi began to recount what had happened to him, until his head suddenly rocked forward to his chest, then snapped back. His new eye shimmered a sickly green as he stared at things no one else could see. ‘The air folds and spatters like liquid metal,’ he said in a flat monotone. ‘Shadows falling like rain …’

‘He’s having some kind of vision.’ Ruth grasped Shavi’s shoulders but he was rigid.

Hunter took the slip road for Swindon, then followed a circuitous route to avoid the most built-up areas. Eventually Shavi regained his composure.

‘What were you thinking?’ Laura said. ‘You steal an eye from some supernatural tosser, and then stick it in your own head? There’s a reason why the NHS doesn’t do transplants like that.’

‘I knew there would be a price to pay for the transaction,’ Shavi said with a strained smile, ‘but it is one I can bear.’

‘We thought you were going to have a seizure.’ Ruth brushed his sweat-matted hair away from his forehead.

‘When I focus through that eye, I can see things in the Otherworld. I know things I would never have known otherwise. Things that can help us.’

‘You can see two worlds at the same time?’ Ruth asked.

Shavi nodded.

‘No wonder you keep losing it.’ Laura snorted. ‘Shame. I was starting to like the eye-patch look. Still won’t trust you behind the wheel, though.’

Hunter brought the van to a halt on a country lane. Beyond the hedge there was a high-security fence punctuated with Ministry of Defence warning signs.

‘What are you planning?’ Church asked.

‘That’s RAF Wroughton.’ Hunter stretched, cracked his knuckles. ‘I’m going to commandeer a Hercules Transporter to take us to Norway. It’s a NATO ally. We can bypass all the civilian security clearances.’

‘You can do that?’

‘As long as they haven’t already revoked my security clearance. In which case, I’ll have to steal one.’

‘Remember: you are not simply entering a new country,’ Tom warned. ‘It is a new Great Dominion. New rules, new dangers. The gods are very protective of their territories.’