The Devil in Green (80 page)

There was a cold, almost alien note to the giant's voice that was
distinctly unnerving, yet behind it Mallory sensed honesty. He cautiously
sheathed his sword.

'Where did you come from?' Miller asked, calmer than at any time since
they had ventured into the tunnels. The peaceful atmosphere of the room
had increased several notches since the Caretaker had entered.

The Caretaker appeared not to understand the question. 'This is my
place,' he said with a shrug. He motioned towards the fire. 'Sit. Shake the
cold from your limbs.' He brought over two stools, then lowered himself
into the wooden chair.

Still reeling after all the running and fighting, Mallory and Miller
tentatively took their seats, but were thankful for the fire. As they warmed
their hands, they kept a cautious eye on the giant. The Caretaker's
unwavering gaze made Mallory uncomfortable, yet something about the
easy mood the giant radiated made Mallory feel he couldn't have fought
even if he had wanted to. Mallory's tension seeped away until he felt he
could have slept if he closed his eyes.

'I had not expected to see a Brother of Dragons in this place,' the
Caretaker said eventually.

'Somebody else called me that,' Mallory said. 'It must be the sword.' He
pulled it a little way out of the sheath so the giant could see the dragons
entwining on the hilt. 'It's borrowed.'

The Caretaker smiled as if this was the most ridiculous thing he had
heard. 'The sword would not have come to you if you were not a Brother
of Dragons,' he said warmly. 'I see it in your heart. The sword only
answers that.'

Miller looked at Mallory with widening eyes. 'He's talking as if you're
special.'

'I'm not special.' Mallory looked away from him into the fire. Though
the logs blazed, they didn't appear to be consumed.

The Caretaker shrugged as if it were of no import and settled back into
the chair, staring blankly at the shadows above the mantelpiece. In the
soporific atmosphere, they sat in silence while Mallory and Miller tried to
put the experience into some kind of context.

It was Miller who found the courage to question the giant first. 'What is
this place?' he asked.

The Caretaker appeared to respond to the deference in his voice. 'You
are a Fragile Creature,' he began. 'Your world is one of constraints, where
things are fixed, immutable. This place is not of your world.'

'So we're someplace else? We've been
transported
? Like in
Star Trek?'

'That's right, Miller. Now ask him if he thought
Voyager
let down the
franchise,' Mallory said tardy. He was still ruminating over what the
Caretaker had said about him being a
Brother of Dragons
: could someone
with his past really be some kind of mystical champion without him
realising it? When he considered it like that, it was more than laughable,
but both Rhiannon and the Caretaker appeared convinced. Just thinking of
it made him feel queasy, as if he had no control over his life.

The Caretaker placed his fingertips together and stared into the space
amongst them. 'This place lies between your world and the Far Lands. It
lies amid all possible worlds. It lies within all worlds. It encompasses all
worlds.'

'Well, that explains everything,' Mallory sighed.

'Oh, Mallory,' Miller complained. He turned back to the Caretaker.
'But it came out of nowhere,' he said. 'One day it was just here, attached to
the cathedral we knew.'

'Aye. It would seem that way.'

Gradually, the Caretaker's words began to strike a chord with Mallory.
The giant appeared to be suggesting that there was a benign aspect to the
new buildings, as if the manifestation wasn't connected to the oppressive
presence beyond the walls.
'Why
did it appear?' he asked pointedly.

The Caretaker eyed him. 'You have decided to rejoin the conversation,
Brother of Dragons?' Mallory looked away. 'It was, in a way, summoned,
or dragged, or manifested. Your home . . . your
Church ...
has always
been a place of power. The Blue Fire has flowed through it since the
beginning, fuelled by the wishes of worshippers, and fuelling them in
return. Yet now it is like a wellspring of the lifeblood of Existence. Its light
shines across all time and all place, too powerful by far, warping the very
fabric, altering the Fixed Lands and the Far Lands, calling the dead back
from the Grim Lands. Too powerful for you Fragile Creatures. It will
make you sick.'

Mallory considered this new information. What could have made the
earth energy stronger, and how was it linked to everything else that was
happening? At least it explained the ghosts from the ossuary that had
been glimpsed around the cathedral. Yet he felt uncomfortable that the
spirit-energy was powerful enough to call them back from what the
Caretaker called the Grim Lands.

'But what caused the power to get stronger?' Miller echoed Mallory's
thoughts. 'And why does it look like our cathedral? Only bigger. And
scarier.'

The Caretaker didn't answer, but a notion came to Mallory as he
pondered the question. 'That's just the way we see it, right?'

'We all build cathedrals for our aspirations, Brother of Dragons,' the
Caretaker said enigmatically.

'And you're with it, wherever it's found,' Mallory said. 'Some kind of
universal sacred place.'

'I am the Caretaker.'

'Then who's in charge?'

'I don't want to hear,' Miller said to Mallory. He looked queasy. 'This is
doing my head in. I can't understand what it all means!'

'What it means,' Mallory said slowly, 'is that something happened at the
cathedral that brought this place to us, and now it's affecting all of us.'

'Then it has nothing to do with the Devil?' Miller looked at the
Caretaker. 'You don't work for the Devil?'

'He doesn't work for the Devil,' Mallory said.

'And he doesn't work for the killer?' Miller covered his face with his
hands. At this, Mallory looked to the Caretaker; in his eyes there were
stars, whole galaxies.

'You must look to your own kind,' the giant replied.

Miller raised his head to fix his attention on Mallory. 'One of us?' His
voice was almost comical with disbelief. 'Not a demon? How could
someone from the cathedral commit those . . . horrors?'

'You're a man who obviously knows everything,' Mallory said to the
Caretaker. 'Care to tell us who we're looking for?'

'Since the Battle of London, my kind have sought to distance ourselves
from you Fragile Creatures. Your affairs must remain your own.' The
Caretaker stared into the fire in deep thought for a while before adding,
'Look to your hearts, Fragile Creatures.'

'So we're no closer,' Miller said dismally.

'Look to your hearts,' the Caretaker repeated. The imperative in his
words prevented his comment from being seen as a throwaway line. A
wheel began to turn in Mallory's mind, pulling notions out of the dark.