Destroyer of Worlds

by Mark Chadbourn

  In the growing gloom, a blue light gleamed across the wastelands. ‘Wait here,’ Church said to the others. ‘I’ll be back in a while.’

  As he set out towards the light, he was distracted by the strange but familiar sight of a puppeteer standing alone on the blasted terrain. Eight feet tall, wearing black robes and a white mask with a nose that arched like a bird’s beak, he looked just as Church had seen him in Venice in the sixteenth century. His hands moved rapidly above five dancing puppets, though there were no strings. The puppets’ lifelike faces were exactly as Church had guessed.

  Church approached him and for long moments watched the silent show. Then he reached up and removed the puppeteer’s mask, without any resistance. His own face looked back at him, though that too resembled a mask.

  ‘It’s true, then?’ Church asked.

  The puppeteer only gave an enigmatic smile.

  Realising he would get nothing more, Church headed once again towards the light, and when he glanced back briefly the puppeteer was gone, no marks in the dust to suggest he had ever been there.

  Soon all thoughts of what he had seen faded, to be replaced by the unexpected sensation of a great weight lifting from his shoulders. Could it be all over? After so long, he scarcely dared believe it.

  Night came down quickly in the desert. Hal waited for him, the Wayfinder a blue beacon of hope in the desolate landscape. His cloak was wrapped about him against the plummeting temperatures.

  ‘You’re the new Caretaker? How did that happen?’ Church asked.

  ‘Long story. It’s a big job, an important job. Someone needs to do it, and I guess I passed the entrance exam.’

  ‘Don’t do yourself down. You deserve it.’

  ‘Walk with me.’ Hal held the lantern high to guide their way across the wastelands.

  ‘It’s not over, is it?’

  ‘No. I’m sorry, Church. It’s never over.’

  ‘Never?’

  ‘Never.’

  Church’s heart sank.

  ‘On the bright side, you get to spend eternity with the best friends you could ever wish for. You get to be a tremendous force for good in the universe, shaping the lives of untold millions. And you get to be king, now and always.’

  ‘So we didn’t win today. Despite all the deaths and the pain, we didn’t win,’ Church said wearily.

  ‘Oh, you won.’ The Wayfinder’s sapphire glow gave Hal’s smile a strange, transcendental quality. ‘You won bigger and better than you ever dreamed.’

  Hal’s words resonated with what Lugh had said about the Void and the new age, and Church had a strange sensation of something of incomprehensible magnitude drawing around him. He shivered, although he had no idea why.

  On the crest of a rise, Hal indicated the shifting colours of the Warp Zone ahead. ‘That’s still here?’ Church said. ‘I thought it was some bizarre side effect of the Void.’

  ‘It’s going to stay here. And it’ll be your new home.’ Hal laughed when he saw Church’s baffled expression. ‘In a way. It’s time I told you everything.’

  They sat together on the ridge in the chill desert night under the lamp of the full moon. Across the heavens, the glorious sweep of stars brought a shiver of magic and a feeling that anything could happen.

  Hal set the Wayfinder in the dust and watched the blue flame dance. ‘Destroying the Burning Man weakened the Void immensely. If there’d been time to use the Extinction Shears, the Void would have been cut from this reality for ever.’

  ‘I don’t know if that would have been such a good thing. Everything needs two sides, two faces. One to define the other and to give it value. We need the Void and Existence. It’s just a matter of balance.’

  Hal nodded slowly. ‘They said you were wise.’

  ‘So is this how it was meant to have turned out? All part of the pattern?’

  ‘Who knows? I don’t. What I do know is the spiders took the Void to safety in the past. That dark force can reappear at any time in Earth’s history to try to change things so that what happened today . . . never happened.’

  Watching the drifting colours of the Warp Zone, Church thought he understood.

  ‘It’s the job of the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons to oppose the Void wherever it appears,’ Hal said. ‘In the Renaissance, the seventies, the Norman Conquest, the Jurassic era, for all I know. Whenever the Void starts to exert its influence, calling on new allies, creating new threats, trying to shift the pattern, you and your Brothers and Sisters will be there to stop it.’

  ‘Through the Warp Zone, we can reach any time and any place.’

  ‘Exactly. It was always going to be this way. You read all the legends, the old stories. The king, waiting across the water . . . the ocean - of time and space - at the darkest hour when the call would go out and he would return with his knights to vanquish evil and save the land. The Brothers and Sisters of Dragons become the ur-myth.’

  ‘Yes, I know that story.’ Church drew the sword he had picked up near the shattered bridge. After Caledfwlch, it had a strange feel, but it felt right, as though it had been held by good people, despite the way the blue and black flames appeared to fight along the length of the blade. ‘So we don’t get to rest.’

  ‘You get to live for ever with the people you love the most because time never passes here in the Far Lands, or there in the Warp Zone. Always young, always strong, the greatest hero Existence has, fighting the true fight for all time. Does that not feel good?’

  Church considered it for a moment and realised it did. It felt, in a strange way, like heaven. The best reward of all.

  ‘Lugh and the Tuatha Dé Danaan have asked for our help,’ he said.

  ‘You’ll have time for that. After all, you’ve got an Army of Dragons to help you out. And more gods than you can shake a stick at. If you really need them.’ He laughed quietly.

  ‘So we keep repelling the Void at every turn. But we can’t destroy it, because without the Void we would never have been challenged enough to grow and become what we are today. We needed that dark side to learn how to be good. That was part of the plan too, right? Existence needed the Void to achieve its ends. There’s irony in there somewhere.’

  Hal began to say something about the Caraprix, but then caught himself and would only shake his head enigmatically when Church pressed him.

  ‘But something happened when I used the Extinction Shears. I felt it,’ Church said.

  ‘Something amazing. You severed the Void’s connection to the warp and the weft. It escaped into the pattern of the past, but from this day on it has no connection.’

  ‘The Void can’t exist in the future?’

  ‘You freed all the worlds, Church. The Void’s influence will always be felt through the infinite connections, but it can have no control. There is no Mundane Spell. What lies ahead is the Kingdom of the Serpent. Existence will rule the balance for the first time since time began. It really will be a golden age.’

  The possibilities were too vast for Church to comprehend.

  ‘The future hasn’t been written yet,’ Hal said. ‘There’s still a very important job to do. But that’s for tomorrow. Right now, enjoy the knowledge that every sacrifice has been worthwhile. You won, Church.’

  They sat in silence, watching the moon make shadows across the desert, and the stars glinting like jewels in the vast chamber of the night, and Church felt at peace. For the first time.

  He felt at peace.

  Epilogue

  HAPPY EVER AFTER

  1

  After Church had explained what the future held, he took Ruth away into the desert and left Shavi, Tom, Hunter and Laura sitting around a large campfire, drinking a potent brew that some of the Norse gods had brought with them.

  ‘So, an eternity of fighting. Could be worse,’ Laura said.

  ‘It’s going to play murder with my plans for a Caribbean holiday.’ Hunter prodded the fire and sent a cascade of sparks shooting towards the stars.

  Laura
saw Shavi smiling to himself as he looked around the circle. ‘What are you thinking, Mr Enigmatic Seer?’ Laura prompted. ‘Or is it more of your weird sex fantasies?’

  ‘I am thinking that this has ruined Church’s motto for his T-shirts. No happy endings, he said. And here we are. This . . .’ he gestured expansively ‘. . . is more than I could ever have hoped for. The best of friends, a family, even. We faced death, we faced heartache, and we moved beyond them, together, by relying on each other. And we built bonds that have enriched us all. I am very, very happy.’

  Nobody spoke for a while as they reflected on Shavi’s words and realised the depths of those bonds. But then Laura glimpsed Tom’s face in the firelight. In it were fears and doubts she recognised.

  ‘Don’t think you’re getting away, you old bastard,’ she said.

  Tom flashed a suspicious glare her way.

  ‘You’re one of us. If I haven’t got you, who am I going to torment?’

  ‘I am not a Brother of Dragons,’ Tom said.

  ‘No, you are our guide, our wisdom, our conscience,’ Shavi responded. ‘Jiminy Cricket! We need you.’

  ‘That’ll teach you, old man,’ Laura said. ‘You’re going to have to spend an eternity listening to Shavi ramble on about the philosophic connections between the fluff in his belly button and the way a bumblebee dances. We can all wallow in our misery together.’

  Laura saw the relief on Tom’s face as his fear of loneliness drained away, and she felt a sense of satisfaction that she had secretly helped him. They were more alike than either of them would have cared to admit.

  ‘Then I will accept my miserable responsibility and attempt to drill some sense into all of you,’ he grumbled. ‘Have pity. My life is over.’ He took out his tin and carefully constructed a roll-up from his dwindling supplies, a smile playing on his lips.

  Laura stood up, stretched like a cat and took Hunter’s hand.

  ‘Sex?’ he said.

  ‘Like you stand a chance with me. It’s only been charity, didn’t you realise that?’

  She hauled him away from the light, enjoying the feel of his hand in hers. ‘You’re not inviting your friend over for a drink?’ Laura indicated the silhouette of the hooded giant away in the desert.

  ‘He’s not a great socialiser.’

  ‘He going to be joining us in the Great Beyond?’

  ‘It’ll be like having children without going through the whole childbirth thing.’

  ‘That’s how I always wanted children.’

  In the shadow of a dune, they held each other, and kissed.

  ‘I’ve got a question,’ Hunter said after a while. ‘What’s your name?’

  ‘You know my name.’

  ‘Not that DuSantiago bollocks. That’s for the idiots you wrap around your little finger. This is me.’

  ‘Privileged information. I’ve never trusted anyone enough to tell them that. Once someone knows your real name they have power over you. Don’t you listen to any of Church’s crazy ramblings?’

  He waited.

  ‘Smith.’ She sighed. ‘Laura Smith.’

  ‘You see, the reverse is actually true,’ he said. ‘Now you have power over me.’

  They kissed again, and it felt as if it would go on for ever.

  2

  Hand in hand, Church and Ruth walked out of the Warp Zone into a misty morning just before dawn. Familiar, comforting smells of exhaust fumes, damp vegetation and the heavy, deep aromas of the river reached them. They breathed deeply, soothed by the silky sensation of the mist on their faces. The city breathed slow and easy too. It dreamed good dreams.

  ‘Where are we?’ Ruth looked from the hazy street lamp to the parked cars covered in dew.

  ‘Don’t you recognise it? Come on.’

  As they walked along the road, the trees eventually revealed the lights of Albert Bridge, and Ruth smiled. ‘London. Where we met,’ she said with a smile. ‘God, that seems so long ago. We were different people then.’

  ‘If we knew what lay ahead, do you think we’d have carried on down that road?’

  ‘You’re joking, aren’t you?’ They walked to the railings and looked down at the slow-moving river. ‘Miss that chance to peel back the boring, real world and see the magic that lies behind it? I remember . . .’

  A Fabulous Beast swooping out of the night over the lights of the motorway. Stone circles, still and peaceful under the stars. Hidden doors in crumbling castles. Secrets encoded in the landscape thousands of years ago. Old knowledge shining new light on life. The Craft. Flying. Magic swords. A boat that sails between worlds. A Welsh night and a being as old as time, eyes burning in a face made of leaves, ushering her into a new life with a brand on her hand. Friendship. Love. And the Blue Fire burning just beneath the surface of the land, and in the stones, and in hearts.

  ‘The world is better than it seems. And so are people,’ she said. ‘We’ve been allowed a glimpse into the biggest mystery of all. The knowledge that there’s so much more . . . I wouldn’t trade that for anything.’

  ‘The Void’s influence is still here. It’s going to take people a while to open their eyes and pull themselves out from under the effects of the Mundane Spell. But once they have, there’ll be no going back. This is the start of something big and new, and—’

  A fox trotted out of the mist and paused when it saw them. In its eyes was a light Church hadn’t noticed before; it was filled with secrets. The fox looked them over as if greeting fellow travellers and then moved on. In that moment was a strange magic that neither could explain.

  ‘Why have you brought me here?’ Ruth asked.

  ‘I wanted to remind myself what was important, before . . .’ He looked around at the trees and the lights and the still, dark houses. ‘Whatever lies ahead.’

  He was interrupted by a splash in the river below them. Glowing with a dull golden light, a low, long boat drifted slowly in the flow, and aboard it were the Seelie Court, returning once again to the land they loved. Each mysterious member looked around in awe at the scenery, but the queen caught sight of Church and gave a slight, enigmatic bow.

  Once they had passed, Ruth slipped her arm around Church’s waist and rested her head on his shoulder. ‘Since we met here, things got so complex. We’ve been through cynicism, darkness, we’ve become more troubled. But in the end, innocence wins out,’ she said. ‘That was always the message.’

  In the circle of misty light beneath a lamp, Tom waited. ‘It’s time,’ he said.

  ‘It was always going to be you, wasn’t it?’ Church said.

  ‘Of course. I’m your guide.’

  ‘Can Ruth come?’

  After a moment’s hesitation, Tom nodded. ‘She’s the one who kept you on the path.’

  Looking around one final time, Church glanced up and thought he glimpsed a brief light somewhere through the layers of fog, so high, so fleeting, it would have been easy to miss it. A burst of fire.

  3

  ‘I’ve been here before,’ Church said.

  ‘Of course you have. We all have at some time,’ Tom replied. ‘We leave here and we return here.’

  A cavern, a space deep in the earth, the smell of damp and the chill of the dark. A blue light guided the three of them forwards until they encountered Hal holding the Wayfinder aloft.

  ‘I am the Caretaker,’ Hal said. ‘I keep a light burning in the darkest night. I serve all who come to me, whether their hearts are filled with hope or tainted by despair.’

  Church recognised the words, and now understood that it was a ritual greeting.

  Beyond Hal lay a cave where a cauldron bubbled over a small fire. Poised over it was a man with wild grey hair clutching a long staff and an old woman in a black dress who could have been his twin, her face smeared with dirt or grease so that her eyes stared with a terrible intensity.

  ‘Look into the cauldron,’ the woman said.

  Uneasily, Church ventured beside her and peered into the depths. He saw himself lying on
a bed, eyes closed, with people watching him. There was an air of uncertainty to the image.

  ‘Is that the truth, then?’ he asked. ‘Am I really dying?’

  ‘The real question is, does it matter?’ the wild-haired man said.

  ‘Nothing is true, except what you make it,’ the old woman cackled.

  Church wanted to see more, to try to understand, but Tom gently pulled him away. ‘Where are we going?’ Church asked.

  ‘You have learned the ability to alter much,’ the wild-haired man shouted after them.

  As Hal led them along a tunnel, there was a flash beside them, a fleeting grin, mischievous eyes. ‘Fools and lovers are the greatest heroes,’ the Puck said. ‘This Merry Wanderer of the Night will wander alone no longer.’ He gave a flourishing bow and disappeared.

  A feeling of dread fell across them as they approached another cave. Cernunnos waited outside it, his eyes glowing within the vegetation of his face. He indicated that Church should enter. ‘You have something that belongs to the Daughters of the Night,’ he said.

  Inside the cave, three hooded women stood, their faces hidden. They were the source of the dread that made Church’s flesh crawl.

  ‘One spins threads. One measures them,’ Cernunnos said. ‘And the other . . . ?’