Billy Christmas

by Mark A. Pritchard

  At once he, Saul and the mistletoe fell through the water and left Marlow, Agnes and the vestry far behind.

  * * *

  The inversion was so subtle Billy barely noticed the flip, but now they were rising rather than sinking. Aware of the gift he knew Agnes had given up for him, Billy tried to dismiss the small knot of fear growing around the fact that for the first time he would be going up against more than one foe. How many more was not clear, but also mattered little. He wasn’t planning on hanging around for an extended fight. If possible, he wanted to grab Katherine and jump straight back through the water. No point in giving the opposition the home advantage on top of everything else. Saul paddled hard and breached the edge of the pool above him. He saw him turn and take the lead in his jaws, drawing Billy up through the water. However, as he did, time seemed to slow, and the lead appeared to extend, so that the closer he got to the surface the slower his approach became. In the end, he floated just below the surface of the water, the lead still drawing him through but only progressing millimetres at a time. Curiously, he didn’t appear to need to breathe in this water. There was some quality about it that felt nourishing and enriching. He felt the cold vanish from his body for what felt like the first time in days. His heart pounded, not with urgency but with strength and confidence. He felt power in his arms and legs, and looked down at his body in wonder. On instinct, he gave a terrific kick against the water and exploded through the surface, high into the air, still feeling as though time were running slowly. He completed the arc of his trajectory and landed one knee down and another raised, and took his first deep breath of air in this new world. Stars filled his vision. Billy smiled and passed out, falling to one side. The last thing he heard was Saul barking in concern.

  * * *

  “Billy, you have to get up.”

  Billy had rarely wanted to be woken less. His body felt strong and happy and warm, and he felt at peace.

  “Squire, you must rise.”

  He shrugged and tried to roll over. The thought tapped the inside of his head.

  Squire? Billy forced his eyes open.

  The courtyard swam before him as his eyes struggled to adjust to the new atmosphere. Blinking, he raised himself up to a sitting position. Moonlight poured down from above and it was all he could do to map the contours of the room. As far as he could tell, it was a circular courtyard perhaps two hundred yards across. The walls were high dark granite, speckled with flint that threw the moonlight back across the open space, lighting the damp air and making it dance. All across the courtyard, moisture seemed to be rising up into the air. He fancied he could see water trickling up the walls, and over at the pool the odd drip from the surface spiralled up to the sky. A figure he knew stepped forward and cast her shadow over him.

  “No, Billy. Don’t look at me. Shut your eyes.”

  He did as she told him. “Katherine.”

  At once, they were hugging tightly.

  “I knew you’d come.”

  “I thought you had drowned.”

  “The damp air in this place, it’s restoring me. Restoring us. No, don’t open your eyes yet.”

  Billy released his grip on her and teetered back uneasily to a sitting position. Katherine moved back around behind him and drew him back to her, so eventually she was sitting propped up by the wall and he could rest his weight against her.

  “We have a little time, Billy. Open your eyes, slowly.”

  “But we should escape now, before they’re back, we must go.”

  Katherine pulled Billy closer to her. “They won’t be back whilst the air is damp like this, they can’t stand it, but they needed to make me strong again. They had to let the good air in.”

  Billy opened his eyes and blinked against the bright moonlight again. “Katherine, you can explain once we’re back home. We must go back, now.”

  “Through the pool? It doesn’t work both ways. See the water rising from it? It’s a one-way trip whether you arrived through your pool or down with the river.”

  Katherine shivered, which made Billy jump. “I thought you’d drowned,” he repeated, his mind returning to the ice and the pounding of his fists.

  “I think I did for a while, but they need me, it seems.” At this, Billy tried to lift and turn towards her, but Katherine locked her arms tightly over his shoulders. “No, please don’t look at me.”

  “Katherine, I thought I’d been protecting you, keeping what I knew from you. But you seem to know much more than me. Can you please explain what the hell is going on?”

  Katherine took a deep breath. “Over there, back home, I don’t know anything about here. It’s security. It’s protection. It’s deception. It’s politics. I wasn’t hiding anything from you. I was in fact hiding, in the open, from myself, for everyone here. I’m from this side, Billy.”

  Billy’s heart pounded as he tried to make out what this meant. “Why won’t you let me look at you, Katherine?”

  “I don’t want to scare you. I’m something different here, Billy.”

  He gave a small laugh. “I’m getting used to different. How bad can it be?”

  Billy felt Katherine’s grip release a little, then completely. As her arms fell away, he slowly turned around, rolling onto his knees until he was facing her. His shadow covered her, so he tilted his head to one side. As he did, he gave a small gasp. Katherine’s hair had turned to a willow weave, her green eyes black and as her hands withdrew they became covered in the bark of a silver birch. She looked at him briefly and then at the floor, looking a little lost and embarrassed.

  “Katherine,” said Billy, “you’re not the first I have seen like this…”

  Katherine’s eyes twitched back to his, then instantly past his. She put a silver finger up to her lips, silencing him. She rose slowly and tasted the air. Billy got to his feet and looked about him. Saul was just a few paces away with the mistletoe riding on his neck from where they both stood guard.

  “The air is drying out,” said Katherine. “They’ll be back soon.”

  Billy pushed down the hundred or so questions he was dying to ask.

  “You’re sure we can’t just swim down through the pool?”

  “Very,” said Katherine. She picked up a small smooth stone and skimmed it over to the water. The pebble rested comfortably on the surface without sinking before beginning to skip around until it bounced back onto the dry edge. “It did the same to me when I tried.”

  “Do you know another way out?”

  “The only thing I know about this place is that I am not supposed to be anywhere near it.”

  Suddenly the courtyard dimmed.

  “Oh no. No!” cried Billy. “Katherine, I left the weapons in the vestry. I can’t fight the Gargoyle without them!”

  Katherine smiled and then laughed.

  He didn’t join her, still stunned at his error.

  “I’m laughing because I couldn’t have been sent anyone better equipped but less prepared,” said Katherine with her black eyes sparkling. “Billy, how have you felt since you entered this place?”

  Billy tried to still his spiralling mind and answered. “Strong. I’ve felt really strong.”

  Katherine looked up at the sky with a wry smile. “Here you will not need weapons, Billy. You already brought an army.” Her hand drifted out to indicate Saul and the mistletoe, who padded over and stood facing Katherine, almost to attention.

  Billy shook his head. “You know yourself how strong this thing is, and it’s not coming alone either.”

  “I know this place, Billy, and you must try and understand your very thoughts have an impact here. You notice how dark it just got? That was you.”

  Billy frowned. “How is that possible?”

  “You’re very powerful here, Billy, more than you can imagine, but that has to change,” Katherine took his hand in hers. “That is going to change, now. Light up the moon, Billy.”

  Billy looked at her blankly.

  Katherine took his chin and poin
ted it towards the sky. “Light it up. I know what a strong imagination you have. Your dark thoughts sent the light scuttling. Imagine how light you think it could be and then push it out there, then pull it out here, into existence.”

  Billy frowned, but this made sense to him, deep sense, like breathing air and eating food. He’d felt so at home in his skin since he’d burst through the pool, he began to wonder what might be possible here.

  “Do it, Billy. Light up the courtyard.”

  He remembered how the flint flecks had picked up the light when he landed. He wanted to see that again. He took a deep breath, poured the light from his mind skywards and began to swell the bright glare up at the planet before pulling it back down.

  Katherine smiled and somehow, in this place, Billy knew that her skin was tingling with anticipation. He looked up and gasped. To his astonishment, he could actually see the moonlight welling up and rolling into the courtyard. It burst over the walls so hard it made Katherine shield her black eyes.

  She took his hand and squeezed it tightly. “Here, Billy, here you can make anything happen. You don’t need weapons. You are every weapon you can dream.”

  A loud clapping broke the spell, and almost at once dimmed the moonlight again as Billy jumped, startled from his new senses back to his old fears.

  “Bravo! Spectacular light show…did the witch convince you that you did it, too?”

  Saul ran to his side and he could hear the mistletoe audibly hiss. Katherine moved a little closer, but her eyes were still raised to the sky. The courtyard was empty.

  “They’re not here yet, Billy.”

  “We’ll be here in moments,” answered the voice of the knight.

  A deep and dark voice barrelled out of Katherine. “Be gone till then, false priest!”

  Billy jumped and the courtyard went darker still.

  “The air is drying, Billy, and I am out of time to tell you all the things I know are within you, which you struggle so hard to see. Do you trust me?”

  He looked back at the bark-skinned girl in duffel coat, jeans and jumper, still thrown by the aggressive tone that had just sprung from her. Then he smiled. This was Katherine, exactly who Katherine always was, a powerful creature, not a shrinking violet. He’d always known she had backbone, that she had teeth. He always trusted her, as long as he could remember. She had never deceived him, never let him down.

  “I trust you completely.”

  “Then know they will try to convince you that I have bewitched you. Created tricks to fool you. The only possible way they can beat you is to make you doubt yourself, doubt your power in this place. Because here, Billy, if you believed it enough, you could stop this world spinning and carry every living thing out into the ether.”

  “But I have nothing to fight them with,” blurted out Billy.

  “Billy, you have everything you ever needed, you always did,” said Katherine, reaching forward and looking deep into his eyes. She placed a long, slow, full kiss on his mouth. The moonlight erupted again at once, and the courtyard disappeared in the bright glare.

  Eventually, Katherine pulled slowly away. “Focus now, Billy. Breathe this place in, feed from it.”

  Across the courtyard, there came the sound of stone moving on stone, the uneven canter of the stone beast. To Billy’s horror, the Gargoyle appeared to be at least three times the size he remembered. The open wounds he had inflicted looked more painful and angry than in his world. From the good side of the Gargoyle’s mouth, flame began to pool. The beast screamed and poured fire out over the pool, where the rising moisture hissed and spat, sending up a cloud of steam. Through it, the Grey Knight marched directly for them. Despite Katherine’s words, the moonlight dimmed once again. How could he possibly protect them all?

  “You don’t have to,” said Katherine.

  Billy shot her a look. “How did you…”

  The knight marched on regardless.

  “Sleep now,” he said, motioning to Saul and the mistletoe. They fell down heavily on their side. Katherine cried out and started to run towards him, but the knight held up a hand, and she froze mid pace. “And you just stay put. I need a word with your young man.”

  Billy thought fast, trying to assimilate everything Katherine had shown him. He still couldn’t really grasp how he was supposed to free them from here. And why could he seemingly have some impact or power here, and yet apparently Katherine could not?

  “It is her, boy,” said the knight, jumping through his thoughts. “In simple terms, she has some skill as a conjurer, and this world is more susceptible than our own. Things appear a little more real, but I shouldn’t be fooled. Why don’t you try the moonlight trick again?”

  Billy looked at the knight uncertainly. Saul was breathing, Katherine was frozen though not facing him. With the Gargoyle merely pacing by the pool, there appeared to be no imminent threat. He looked up at the moon, tried to remember the connection he had felt and draw the light down once again. Nothing happened.

  “Sorry, Billy. It is as well I intervened. You see, I’m not making it up when I call your friend here a witch.”

  Katherine flinched, pulling herself up and down to tear away from whatever influence the knight had over her. The Gargoyle reacted immediately and ran around the side of the pool, preventing her from moving towards the gateway. It needn’t have bothered. She merely turned to look back at Billy.

  “There is one thing I imagine she hasn’t yet shared with you, apart from her skin condition,” said the knight evenly. “Did she mention that she offered up your father on a plate for us?”

  Despite the strength he felt, despite Katherine’s kiss and the echo of her warning, Billy felt doubt slam against his ribs. His father?

  Katherine opened her mouth to speak, then hesitated.

  The knight turned to her with genuine surprise. “Why, didn’t you think I would just tell him the truth? What else haven’t you told him, I wonder?”

  Katherine’s shoulders sank, and the sky went darker still as Billy’s heart plummeted fast. What else did she know? “Just tell me, Katherine.”

  She looked at Billy.

  “How do I tell him?” she asked out loud.

  “It is a problem,” conceded the knight, unable to conceal his glee at the tension, which Billy still could not understand.

  “Don’t make me do this,” said Katherine.

  Clouds formed in the sky above. “Do what? Tell me what?” said Billy, with his fear rising. “Is my father dead? What is it you both know?”

  “You know we’re just the welcoming committee, don’t you?” said the knight to the girl. “Do you honestly want him to be the one to tell Billy?”

  Katherine snarled and took a step towards Mike. “You’re feeding us both to him! So don’t begin to pretend that…” She took another two steps towards him. “He should not have to find out this way!”

  “What is it? What do you know!” a huge new voice sprang from Billy, shaking the very ground they stood on. Saul stirred from his sleep, shook his huge head and let out a baleful howl. Billy’s heart beat harder than he could remember. He spread his feet to hold his balance, and his hands became fists. “Just tell me.”

  Katherine sighed and turned back to the knight with some venom. “Go keep your pet under control.”

  The knight threw a look at Billy and then walked to the far side of the courtyard and the pacing Gargoyle. Turning back to Billy, she put both her hands over his fists and gently unclenched them, looking deep into his eyes and trying to calm his breathing and his mind.

  “Did you make my father leave? Did you do this?”

  “No Billy. He, it’s complicated…”

  “Just tell me!”

  “He offered to…”

  “Offered, but you knew?”

  “No, not when I was over there, but Billy, that isn’t what the knight is saying. This is something else, something much bigger, and perhaps simpler, to explain.”

  Billy’s mind was still failing to fin
d anywhere familiar to grip, to hold onto. He was lost and beginning to wonder if he was ever going to find a way back to the simple things he knew and craved. Katherine led him slowly by the hand towards the pool. She motioned him to kneel beside her at the edge. To his right, he saw Saul and the mistletoe shake the last of the effects of the knight’s words off. High above them, the clouds scurried over the night sky. Katherine placed a hand on his cheek and returned his focus to her.

  “You had some tasks to accomplish, with the Tree. With Teàrlag?”

  “You remember that?”

  “I know that here. And during these tasks, did you notice things change? A bit like the way you changed the moonlight here?”

  “No. I don’t think so.” Billy thought for a moment. “Well, the sheet music moved on the page.”

  “I remember that.”

  “And, well the knuckleduster changed its shape. But those were magical items. They were supposed to…”

  “Didn’t Teàrlag say…”

  “There is less supposed to…”

  Katherine smiled. “There is no supposed to. Did she say anything else about what you…”

  “…bring to the tasks. But…”

  “There is no but, either. I’m afraid.” Katherine took another breath. “You brought it all.”

  Billy shook his head. “It’s not possible. I didn’t bring the Tree. Teàrlag brought the decorations. I’m just some kid…”

  “Some kid,” said Katherine. “Look, it isn’t supposed to happen like this. It really isn’t, and you’re not going to like it because, well no one would. Do you still trust me, Billy?”

  Billy thought before answering. “I always have.”

  “That’ll have to do. We’re running out of time. If this other person arrives, then we really are in trouble.” Katherine looked over her shoulder at the knight, who was waiting patiently beside the stone beast. “So, I’m sorry about this, but try to remember; all the things you are, you still are. And you are still Billy Christmas.”

  Billy started to lean back and away from whatever truth he was being offered here, but Katherine grabbed him by the shoulder and slowly pulled him to the edge of the pool and over. She looked down into the reflection, then back up to him and motioned with her head for him to look too.