The Burning Man

7

The sun rose red and raw behind the olive grove. Ruth watched the trees become stark black silhouettes against the scarlet, and tried to find a path through all that had happened that night.

The death of her familiar left a deep ache in her heart, compounded by fears for what it meant for the future. He had been a companion and an aide for so long she felt as bereft as if she had lost a friend, though there had been times when he had truly scared her.

Her encounter with Dionysus, Pan and the Puck frightened her, too. They were not like any of the other gods she had met — the ‘oldest things’, they called themselves. What did that mean and what did they want? There were so many questions, and so many threats at every turn, that she no longer had any idea what the real agenda was, or what her role in it should be.

Veitch was communicating in his creepy way with the Brothers and Sisters of Spiders, sending them on ahead. Now that he had the Anubis Box he was an even bigger threat; she had to stay with him. She hoped when it came to a head she could count on Miller, but he was almost childlike in his simplistic view of the world.

Movement alerted her to the women trudging down from the grove, naked, blood-stained and dazed. Ruth took Demetra’s arm.

‘Alicia is dead,’ she said in a strained voice.

‘I know.’

‘We avenged her.’ Demetra’s face showed a dawning acceptance of power. She looked at her brown, blood-caked hands. ‘It was horrible. But it was … strength. And defiance. What we discovered tonight … We will not be beaten again.’ She closed her eyes and breathed deeply of the fresh dawn air. ‘There was madness and death, and freedom and life. And we were at the heart of it. This night we awakened … to something else.’

‘The whole world is awakening,’ Ruth said. ‘It can’t stay the way it has been any longer.’

‘You had something to do with what happened tonight.’ Demetra searched Ruth’s face. ‘I do not know what. I do not know who you are, really.’ She hugged Ruth warmly. ‘But I thank you. And I thank you for all that I know you will do. But you must take care. I feel in my heart there is great danger ahead for you, and sacrifice.’

They held each other for a moment until Ruth sensed Veitch watching them. ‘Time to move on,’ he said.

‘Where does your journey take you?’ Demetra asked.

Ruth looked to Veitch, but his dark eyes gave nothing away.