Pilgrimage (21 page)

She was still in darkness but a dim light from a window was enough to help her find her way to a light switch. She was in the corridor of Pentdragon's house. She grabbed the bags and ran out of the house, out into the open, empty room that hid the cottage. She could no longer hear the music of chatter from downstairs. Everything was quiet. Caia bounced up and down, the floor flexing beneath her as though barely holding her weight. The row of electric lanterns still marked the way from the cottage to the stairs. She sat down beside one, strapped all the bags to her body and took off one of her necklaces.

Caia stared into the pattern carved into the wooden amulet. In her mind she traced the knotted geometry from one end to the other and back in a never-ending loop. Then, starting from the left, she began to unwind the pattern piece by piece. As the twisting, spiralling pattern transformed into a perfect circle, she became oblivious to the world. She was unaware of everything except the changing pattern that existed in her mind. With each knot untied, she remade herself, transforming from woman to beast. First her feet, then her legs, torso and hands before her shoulders and finally her head. In that half-way state between woman, animal and monster she knew herself and what she was, in truth. She was Caia. The shape of a human, like all shapes, was one she used and discarded as she needed. Everything was fluid. While her body changed, she desperately clung to that truth as the only truth that mattered. She could not lose herself as long as she knew who she was.

*****

Roland gasped and breathed deeply. Something had interrupted Lloyd. He was looking up, searching for the origin of a pounding that shook the room. Griffith seized on the opportunity and tore Roland away. They both tumbled backwards, hitting the ground in a pile. Roland was beating his chest to kick-start his heart back into gear. Griffith tried in vain to push the heavy drunkard off him. The pounding stopped and the roof collapsed. The room was instantly filled with gasps and screams while frightened men and woman ran for the door. They bottlenecked in the entrance hall and pushed and pulled through each other like a human crab bucket. The massive gorilla had crushed a table of food platters on landing. The animal roared and stamped on the wreckage, driving the room further into panic.

Roland picked himself up. He was dizzy and he had only a tenuous grip on consciousness but that was all he needed. He smiled. The adrenaline hit. He lunged forward, his hands outstretched. Lloyd spotted him and ducked out of his grasp. Roland snapped his leg forward, and his foot caught Lloyd's throat. Lloyd dropped, coughing and gasping. Roland lost his balance and fell, tumbling over Lloyd before rolling to a stop on his back. He looked from side to side. Lloyd was already up and charging at him.

Pentdragon looked at his court with disgust, then turned to face the gorilla. He focused on the rubble under the beast; the debris began to rise off the ground. The Gorilla jumped on the spot and pushed it all back down. It roared and, in one big hand, scooped up a piece of the roof and flung it across the room. The air currents around Pentdragon shifted and turned away from him in a sharp wind. The Gorilla wasn't done. She threw another piece then picked up half the table and launched it. Pentdragon had no more difficulty with the second attack than he did with the first but the table piece struck Lloyd and carried him across the room, jamming him against the wall. The animal stepped back and kicked some more rubble towards Pentdragon. Then it jumped aside, picked up a table of wine bottles and threw them wildly across the room. Without flinching, Pentdragon turned the table and broken glass away, his spell embedding the debris into the corner wall. The gorilla continued, stomping and slamming her fists against the wall. The room shook under the pressure of her fury. Pentdragon seemed amused by her antics.

By now the ballroom was clearing and the crowd poured out into the night, running as far from the crazed gorilla as they could. In the chaos, Pentdragon's illusions faded and the mansion and its ballroom appeared as it was – a box made of scrap wood and iron. It was no more than another monument to Pentdragon's false empire and the Gorilla was taking great pleasure in tearing it down around him.

Roland got to his feet. He could see Lloyd doing the same, but the scrawny sorcerer was worse for wear. A jagged chunk of wood had sliced open his arm. He bled a thick, maroon sludge from his veins. Roland's necklace had fallen off and he was wearing his normal clothes again. His face ached, his chest felt heavy. But Roland counted himself lucky that the biggest problem he had was that the world wouldn't stop rocking and he might throw up at any moment. If that wasn't how he was used to fighting, he might have regretted drinking so much. Lloyd made a run for the exit. Roland pursued him a few steps and then stopped. He turned to see Pentdragon closing in on the wild gorilla. Only then did it occur to him that this savage beast must be another of Caia's transformation. Caia had thrown everything she had and none of it had even touched Pentdragon. She continued to roar and stomp but Pentdragon only smiled coolly at her. Roland forgot about Lloyd and rushed for Pentdragon. Someone grabbed his arm, pulling him back. Griffith. Of course it was Griffith.

“Don't. We have to get out of here, now!” Griffith pleaded.

“Fuck that.” Roland pushed him away. “I'm going to sort this out once and for all.”

“Roland, she has this under control. Will you just listen to me?”

“She's doing bugger all. And since you couldn't protect yourself from a dead moth, I'll have to take care of this.”

“Damn it. Fine! Stay here, but I'm not going to watch you get yourself killed.” Griffith turned and ran for the door. Roland wasn't sorry to see him go. Now nobody would stop him from having fun.

“Wait there.” Pentdragon didn't turn to look at Roland but when he spoke, Roland's feet became locked in place. He struggled against whatever magic held him but from the waist down, he was paralysed. “I'll deal with you next.” Pentdragon continued approaching the gorilla, chin held high.

Caia rose up, stomped on the ground and snarled. Pentdragon kept walking. She stopped and stood motionless for a moment. The sudden change gave Pentdragon pause. Caia grunted and flung her whole body backwards, against the wall. The room shook. Loose nails and broken wood fell from the roof. Pentdragon's eyes went wide. Caia smiled as much as her Gorilla mouth would let her. She leapt aside; now she was standing in the corner. She swung her arm out across her body and into the wall. This time a piece of the wall fell out. The whole roof tipped and rocked, groaning under its own weight.

“I'm going to kill you for this. All of you.” Pentdragon huffed and turned towards the door, running from the impending collapse. Caia Charged forward, more falling woodwork fell and bounced off her back. She scooped up Roland under one arm and dived shoulder first through a wall. That final, splintering blow brought the whole building down on itself in a cloud of dust.

The crowd, Pentdragon and his cottage were nowhere to be seen.

Chapter 13

A couple of cars had been abandoned outside Pentdragon's fake mansion. The rest were gone and a few panicked men and women could still be seen fleeing up the road on foot. Once Caia had transformed back into a human shape and given Roland and Griffith their bags, she looked over one of the cars and said with a nod:

“I can do it.”

“Do what?” Griffith asked.

“Hot wire the car.”

“Hot wire the ... That's ... you ...” Griffith stuttered. Then with a sigh, he threw his hands in the air. “Fine! Go ahead. I don't even care. I tried to be friendly and I've tried to keep us doing things right but I'm clearly wasting my time. I don't care any more. I just want to get to Salem.”

“Oh shut the fuck up,” Roland scoffed. “You know you sound like an idiot? Nobody wants to hear your preaching.”

“Roland, you're drunk. Be quiet,” Caia scolded from inside the car. Griffith ignored Roland's rant and placed his hands on the man's back. He closed his eyes and focused.

“What are you doing now?” Roland asked, trying to turn his head a hundred and eighty degrees.

“Saving your life. Let me focus.” Griffith's answer was quick; he'd already begun to cast his spell.

“Get off me!” Roland pulled away. “Keep your voodoo to yourself. It's useless anyway.”

“Roland, please. Lloyd used his—”

“No! I don't want to hear it. I don't want any part in this shit any more. I think we've established that staying with you, Griffith, is the worst thing I could do to keep safe from anybody. Now I think I'd like to try making it on my own.”

“You don't mean that, Roland. You're only saying that because you've been drinking.”

“You're right. I am drunk and you know what? I'm going to keep drinking. But that doesn't make it any less true.” He pulled the bottle of scotch from his bag and took a swig. “And kid, if you are going to keep preaching your good word, then I need something to dull the pain.”

“If you ever listened to me I wouldn't need to—” Griffith began.

“I'm not here to be your charity project!”

“Then why are you here? Why did you come?”

“To let you know when you're being an idiot – which is all the time, by the way. But since you never take my advice, I don't know why I bother.”

“No, that's why I asked you to come with me. Why did you agree to come? What do you want?”

“You were paying.”

“I know that's not true. There were better jobs you could find, ones that didn't take you away from Armidale. You didn't even ask how much I was paying. So if the money didn't matter why
did you
come?”

“Shut up, kid.”

“You only agreed after I told you that magic could control people's minds.”

“Shut up.”

“No wait. It wasn't control minds, it was change them. You asked me if magic could erase memories.”

“Griffith, you shut your mouth.”

“That's it, isn't it? You wanted someone to—”

“Go fuck yourself, Griffith. How's that for a reason?” Roland took another long drink. It burned all the way down his throat. It was good. “Maybe I don't have a reason. Maybe I'm not going any further. Hell, I'm going home.”

“Please, Roland. Calm down and—”

“I said I'm going home!” Roland started walking away. He'd only gone a few steps before he nearly staggered into a car. He kicked the tires and slammed his fist on the bonnet. The car's alarm went off, blaring and whooping into the night.

“And where's that?” Griffith asked. There was a long pause.

“I'm going. I've got a top-rate room at the Highland and I plan on using it.” Roland started up the road again.

“We have to move forward, Roland. There's no time—”

“Good. You fuck off and move forward.” Roland turned around and started back at Griffith.

“This isn't you, Roland. You're not like this.”

“This is exactly what I'm like! When you get down to it, this is what everyone's like. Nobody gives a shit and the sooner you accept that, the happier you'll be.”

“Happy like you?” Another pause, this time interrupted when Caia started the engine.

“Fuck it, I'm going to bed. You do what you want.”

“Look, Roland, now that we have a car we can get to Salem in less than a day.”

“Giving up, are you? Big surprise. What happened to the plan?” Roland took another long drink, coughing up as much as he managed to swallow. “What happened to helping everybody you can? Taking the long way and proving your worth? Huh? Is the real world too hard for you? Poor little Griffith. Go on, give up.”

“Things are different.”

“Yeah I bet.” Roland turned around to leave. He turned too far and twisted his legs, throwing him off balance and nearly plummeting to the ground. He managed to step out of it at the last moment and stay upright. Roland looked around to find the direction he wanted to go. He faced up the road again and kept walking.

“Roland!” Griffith called after him.

Roland didn't turn around. “When you fuck up again, you'll know where to find me!”

“Good-bye, Roland.” Griffith sighed.

“Just tell me one thing.” Roland turned and took a few steps back towards Griffith. “Who was that guy in there, tonight? I've seen him before, haven't I?”

Griffith hesitated. “I don't know.”

“Liar!” Roland spat back at him. “You look down on me but I have to wonder what you did to piss him off so much. Maybe you aren't the angel you want us to think you are.”

“I don't have to prove myself to you, Roland.”

“But everybody has to prove themselves to you?”

“I never wanted anything but friendship from anybody.”

“And how's that working out for you?”

“Are you coming?”

“No.”

“Good-bye, Roland. Somewhere inside you is a good person. I'm just sorry he doesn't get out more.”

“Whatever.” Roland turned, took another drink and staggered onwards.

Griffith got in the car. Caia didn't say a word. She put the car into gear and started driving. Roland stepped out of their way as the car passed them. He watched them go, unable to contain his disgust at both of them, their whole stupid sorcerer world and their half-baked mission. Before they were too far gone, Roland gave them the finger and sipped his scotch. He stood like that until he was certain they couldn't see him any more. Then he kept on walking.