Matt paused in the doorway. Caitlin didn't know if he was going to make some last arrogant comment to celebrate his escape, or simply show his contempt for her, but it never came. There was an odd moment when his face froze in puzzlement, and then a crimson shower gushed from his neck. The knife dropped from his fingers and he pitched backwards, emitting a queasy gurgling noise, his body lost behind the Lament-Brood. And there was Mahalia. The tremble in the hand that held the knife that had slit Matt's throat was visible across the chamber, and her face held the devastation of someone who had been forced to sacrifice their last chance for redemption. But she erased it in a second and grabbed Jack. 'Come on,' she yelled to Caitlin. 'We can still get out of here.'
Caitlin tried to find some remorse in her heart for Matt's death, but there was none. She pulled Liam to her side and made to hurry towards Mahalia and Jack, but she was distracted by the sucking and slurping sounds as the House of Pain birthed another representative from the floor in front of her. It emerged quickly, a spindly frame on skeletal legs. When it was finally complete, it was nearly ten feet tall with a head like a black egg, bending over Caitlin and Liam to speak.
'Cannnnooottttttt… leawwwwe. Boyyyyyy… stayyyyyy. Beyondddd… liessssssssss… deathhhhhhhhhh.'
And there it was, finally, what she had been expecting for so long: the twist in the devil's contract. Liam hadn't been returned to life — he was simply caught in limbo. If she took him out of the House of Pain, his death would once again be a reality.
'Youuuuuuuuuuu… staaaaayyyyyyyyy. Beeeeeeeee… Queeeeeennnnnnnnn…'
Caitlin was numb. Inside her, Amy, Briony and Brigid howled into the storm. There was no way out. 'Yes,' she said. 'I'll stay.'
She held Liam close and walked back towards the warp field. While her back had been turned, the House of Pain had created a seat of shiny black stone, the perfect throne for the Queen of Sinister. Caitlin swallowed hard so her voice would be steady and then called to Mahalia, 'Go on. I'll be OK.' Mahalia stared in disbelief, then grabbed Jack's arm and hauled him through the doorway. Caitlin felt pleased the girl had got away, and with Jack, the one who still meant there was a chance for her. That small success provided the thinnest glimmer of light in the dark existence that stretched before Caitlin.
Desolately, she walked up to the seat and sat down. It was icily cold, but soon that wouldn't matter. She looked out across the army — her army — and knew now why they waited: for their queen.
Her fate was clear. An iciness was creeping into her limbs, the legacy of the House of Pain, transforming her into something that could live in that place, revelling in the dark emotions it generated. She would sit on that cold, black throne for evermore, commanding her army of the dead, with her son standing silently at her side until the stars winked out one by one and all that was left was the Void. Mahalia and Jack raced past the last of the Lament-Brood, through the next room and into the network of tunnels that cut through the House of Pain.
'We could go back for Caitlin,' Jack said. 'We can't leave her here.'
'She chose to stay — she's a grown woman.' Mahalia tried to sound hard so that Jack wouldn't find a chink that would prise her back, but inside she was devastated. Not so long ago she had tried to kill her, yet now she mourned Caitlin. What was wrong with her?
Jack appeared to sense what was going through her head, for he grabbed her hand as they ran and gave it a squeeze. 'I'm glad you're here,' he said quietly. His honest expression of emotion brought a lump to her throat.
'You want a dirty job doing, I'm your girl.'
They broke out into the main corridor that led to the entrance. Through the massive doorway, late afternoon sun glowed like a beacon.
'What are we going to do now?' Jack said. 'One more thing before we leave, then…' Mahalia looked across the plain to the panorama of the Land of Always Summer stretching out across the horizon. '… we've got a whole world to play with.'
She came to an abrupt halt not far from the entrance and began to search the wall. Finally she found what she was looking for, and forced her hands into one of the nearly hidden slits that gave access to the capillary tunnel system. 'Come on, give me a hand,' she called.
Without understanding what he was doing, Jack thrust his hands into the slit alongside her and felt something alive inside. Before he could recoil or question, Mahalia was hauling whatever it was out into the corridor and he was helping her.
There was a sucking sound and Crowther emerged, as pale as death and covered in blood, the spear still embedded in him but now broken off on both sides. Yet he was still alive — but only just. His eyes flickered and the faintest wheeze of breath escaped his lips.
'He was planning to do something heroic, but it was so out of character I couldn't let him,' Mahalia said. 'So I dragged him away and stashed him in there.'
'Why?' Jack could see that the professor was only a whisker away from death.
'Because I had an idea.' Mahalia faced Jack, her arms on his shoulders to focus his attention on her face. 'Call me stupid, but I found this thing called hope. It was something I'd not bothered with before, but when you're down to your last, you take anything you've got, right?'
He saw that same hope in her frightened eyes and felt more in love with her than he had thought possible. 'What's your idea?' 'That power inside you… the Wish-Hex. Everybody talks about it like it's some doomsday weapon, but I've seen you use it and I thought, maybe it's not just useful for destroying things. It's a kind of energy, like that Blue Fire everyone was always wittering on about. Maybe it's one and the same thing. And… and…' She leaned forward to kiss him quickly. 'I want you to try to use it to save the professor.'
Jack looked down at Crowther in dismay. 'I don't think I can.'
'Just try, Jack. For me.'
Hesitantly, he knelt down beside the prone form and cradled the professor's head in his hands. His brow knitted in concentration, and the light leaked out of his stomach and flowed into his arms and then his hands.
Mahalia watched Jack for fifteen minutes as he battled with the stream of energy, directing it, forcing it to his will. Sweat dripped from his forehead and soaked his underarms and back. For all that time, it appeared to be doing little good, for the professor continued to hover on the brink of dying; but then, gradually, colour drifted back into his cheeks and his eyes began to flicker.
Mahalia leaned forward and yanked the remaining stub of the spear from his chest. It came out with a sucking sound, but instead of a gout of blood there was only white light. As the light cleared, Mahalia could see the hole in the professor begin to close.
Five minutes later it was all over. Jack flopped back, exhausted but beaming with the wonder of what he had done. The professor moaned and then slowly opened his eyes. He looked up into Mahalia's face.
'Oh,' he said. 'This must be hell.'
'Looks like you've got some use after all, boy,' Mahalia said to Jack. Her heart swelled at the depth of feeling etched on his face; he knew now that he wasn't just a weapon, that his lifetime of suffering might have had some positive outcome after all.
But as she and Jack struggled to help Crowther to his feet, a shadow fell across them. Mahalia looked up suddenly. 'Who the hell are you?' she said in astonishment.
*
In the hot steam of the sacred spring, Mary clasped her hands and pleaded. 'I'll do whatever it takes. Please, if there's anything you can do to save her…'
'You will do anything?' The Goddess was serious and contemplative. 'What does this sister mean to you?'
'What does she mean?' The question was curious and unsettling; there was so much to sum up. How to decide what one person meant when their impact on your life was complex and inscrutable. 'She means… the future.' Once Mary had latched on to that word, her thoughts quickly fell into place. 'I've had my time — I know I've got a lot of years left, but I made such a mess of things so long ago, it's impossible to go back now. I never thought about having children. Perhaps if I had,
there might have been a chance for me. If I'd made them into good people, then I'd have done something worthwhile. But I've not done anything that really matters. If I was wiped off the face of the earth right now, I'd leave nothing behind that anyone would remember. But Caitlin… she's my daughter in all but flesh. She's my hope for the future. If I save her, and she does good, then at least I've added something to life.' The words were painful to express, but Mary recognised their abiding truth as they left her lips.
'I can help her, but what is required is beyond even my capabilities. There are rules of Existence that we all must follow.' The Goddess raised one hand and it appeared that it was night in the spring and the moonlight was streaming all around, the world painted silver and black. 'A sacrifice will be the key to unlock the door. Are you prepared to make that sacrifice?'
'Yes.' Mary's throat was dry. She thought she knew what lay ahead.
'It is the greatest sacrifice… your life. A life for a life.' Although Mary had anticipated the Goddess's words, the enormity of what was being asked, once it had been put into words, stunned her. She was terrified, yet she knew she had no doubts. There was no alternative: Caitlin was good and decent and deserved her chance at happiness. To save her… that was an achievement worth dying for.
'I understand,' she said. 'A life for a life. I accept.'
'You are brave, little sister.' The Goddess raised her arms in a gesture that showed her appreciation of what Mary had overcome to make her decision. She smiled. 'What lies ahead is the greatest mystery of all. But know this: death is not the end. Do not be scared, for Existence always cares for its own. Though you leave behind everything you understand, your sacrifice is recognised. Take with you the knowledge that you have committed an act of great importance and great goodness.'
The moonlight became brighter, and briefly Mary thought she was in a verdant grove on a hilltop somewhere in the deepest country. 'Know also, sister, that you have touched my heart. To travel here along the hard road, to overcome the three tests, to give up your life for another… you are all I could have hoped for in your kind. You, little sister — you alone — have turned me around.'
'You're going back?'
'A new age awaits, and I shall be there to guide your people through the light of the moon. I will be there, in the forests and by the rivers, on the mountaintops and by the cool lakes. There is a struggle ahead, but if there are more sisters like you, then we have hope.'
'I'm so pleased.' Mary's words didn't begin to capture the magnitude of what she felt, but before she could say anything else, she sensed movement behind her. Standing in the steam was the Jigsaw Man, her nemesis.
'He is death, and when he touches you, you shall die,' the Goddess said. 'But there shall be no pain. You shall slide into the cool night… and then the moon shall rise.'
Mary took a deep breath and steeled herself, yet she was surprised to find she was no longer scared. Instead, she was excited at what was to come. She knelt down, for it seemed right, and then said, 'And Caitlin will be all right?'
'A life for a life, little sister,' the Goddess said. The steam swirled in a gale that blew from nowhere. Blue lightning crackled all around, and as the thunder rolled out, a knight in black armour emerged from the vicinity of the stream. He wore a helmet crafted like a boar's head.
'Who is he?' Mary asked.
The Goddess merely smiled enigmatically.
The steam shifted and behind it Mary could see the storm-lashed lane leading to Caitlin's house and Caitlin hiding behind a hedge, waiting. 'When is this?' Mary asked, though she thought she knew.
'The beginning,' the Goddess said. 'And now, another beginning.'
Mary felt a cool touch on the back of her neck and her eyes fell shut, though her smile remained. The warp field behind Caitlin came alive with crackling blue lightning, obscuring the vista across deep space. The bolts of coruscating energy sizzled like molten iron across the now-deserted chamber, the Lament-Brood long gone to who knew where. Liam danced away in shock, but Caitlin, already numb from the House of Pain's gradual transformation, only turned to stare.
From the depths of a wall of Blue Fire stepped the black knight, the fierce light transforming the boar's-head helmet into a wild beast with glittering eyes. He strode forcefully towards the throne.
'Caitlin.' His voice echoed behind the grim helmet. 'The time has come.' Caitlin blinked once, twice, taking in what she was seeing with the languorous abandon of someone freezing to death. Yet the knight's appearance provided a brief spark that warmed her spirit.
'You can't give in, Caitlin.' His voice was clearer now than it ever had been, as if with each appearance he gained a little bit more of the person he had been.
'You've been with me right from the beginning,' Caitlin said. 'Why do you keep coming to me?' Curiosity brought more warmth. She shook her head, trying to remove the cotton-wool swathing her mind.
'You will have to wait a while for that answer. Just accept that someone has your best interests at heart. Now come with me.' He held out a gauntleted hand.
Caitlin hesitated, then took it. Blue sparks crackled into the tips of her fingers, reminding her of some of the exhilaration she had felt as she grew into her role as a Sister of Dragons. Suddenly she missed it acutely, felt almost bereft, and another part of the iciness burned away. 'Why can't you leave me alone?' she said dismally. 'I've had enough of all this. I'm so tired. I just want…'
'What? To die? To give up everything… all life? That's not you, Caitlin. I heard you were a doctor once, caring for the sick and the dying. Caring for them more than yourself.'
Memories of her past life surfaced, so vague and distant they seemed to belong to another person. 'Yes. That's right. So what?'
'Then you still have a job to do. I've been sent here to save you, Caitlin — or rather, to show you the path so you can save yourself… and everyone else. Come.'
He marched across the chamber, then waited for her to follow. As Caitlin watched him, she remembered what Crowther had said about the boar-king in the Forest of the Night and she suddenly understood the symbolism of the knight's strange helmet. A boar, one of the Celts' totem animals — a messenger between humanity and the gods.
'Who's that, Mummy?' Liam's voice was a pale shadow; the House of Pain was working its dark magic in him, too.
'Someone sent to haunt me, honey. Don't worry about it.' She took Liam's hand and marvelled at how cold his fingers were.
The knight led the way through the deserted corridors. Caitlin expected the House of Pain to unleash one of its twisted manifestations to bar their way, but it had either decided she was no longer worthy of its attention, or the knight in some way shrouded their passing from the House of Pain's perceptions.
Eventually they came to a room closed off by a curtain formed from that sickening meat. Caitlin could hear a noise like a thousand rats on the other side.
'Steel yourself,' the knight said. He threw open the curtain.
It was the room with the plague egg that Caitlin had seen before. The floor was swarming with thousands of the plague demons, while others were being birthed by the minute. As the knight strode forward, the demons attacked his ankles and then swarmed over him, but his armour kept them at bay. He drew his sword, and in the darkened room it glowed with a thin blue light. The demons surged away, shrieking in fear, scrambling over each other to disappear into the far corners of the room. The knight walked up to the egg and waited. Another demon emerged into the world and then hurtled away the instant it saw the sword.
'Here,' he said, offering the weapon to Caitlin when she arrived at his side. 'Destroy the egg.'
'You do it — you're the good knight,' she replied. 'Or is this just another trick to damn me?'
'Aren't you damned already?'
His logic was impeccable. She took the sword, wavering under its weight. Not so long ago she would have wielded it as though it were nothing. Now it took all her effort just to lift it.
'This will sto
p any more from coming out,' she said, 'but it's not going to stop the ones already infecting people in my world.'
'The egg births them and nurtures them,' the knight said. 'Without it, none of them can survive.'
The last of the House of Pain's ice fell away and Caitlin felt a rush of adrenalin. Here was her chance finally to do something good. She heaved the sword up.
Despite their terror, in that instant the plague demons recognised what was about to happen. They surged forward as one, flinging themselves from every corner, screeching and squealing, their glittering eyes filled with murderous intent.
The knight became a blur of destruction, battering away the first wave. Still dogged by their basic fear of what the sword represented, the imps hadn't yet unleashed the true depths of their fury, but it would come.
'Do it now!' the knight yelled as Caitlin wavered in the face of the storm of activity around her.
She brought the sword down with all her strength.
It cut through the egg as if slicing through a giant mushroom. Around the room the shrieking of the plague demons became so intense that Caitlin dropped the sword and clutched at her ears; Liam ran from the room crying. As the creatures hurtled around the room in their death throes, the knight picked up his sword and forced Caitlin out of the chamber.
They didn't stop running until the egg room was far behind them, and they could no longer hear the awful cries of the dying plague demons. 'Is that it?' Caitlin asked breathlessly as they waited in an empty room that pulsed with the distant heartbeat she had heard when they first entered the House of Pain. 'Is it all over?'
The knight stood erect, resting his hands on his sword. 'The plague is over.'
'Thank God.' Caitlin wiped away a fugitive tear. 'At least I'm not a complete failure.' She pulled Liam to her and stroked his head, feeling the weariness sweep over her again.
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