The Night's Dawn Trilogy (165 page)

“Sorry, girls,” she said lamely.

Louise gave her a flicker of a smile. She looked at the green man. “Touch me,
peasant
, and my fiancÉ will make you eat your own balls.”

Genevieve twisted around in astonishment to study her sister. Then grinned weakly. Louise winked at her. Paper defiance, but
it felt wonderful.

The green man chortled. “Dearie me, and I thought you were a fine young lady.”

“Appearances can be deceptive,” she told him icily.

“I will enjoy teaching you some respect. I will personally see to it that your possession takes a good many days.”

Louise glanced briefly in the direction of the four men from the farmhouse who were now standing beside the placid cob. “Are
you quite sure you have mustered sufficient forces? I don’t want you to be too frightened of me.”

The green man’s laboured smile vanished altogether, as did his debonair manner. “Know what, bitch? I’m going to make you watch
while I fuck your little sister in half.”

Louise flinched, whitening.

“I believe this has gone far enough.” It was one of the men who’d arrived from the farm. He walked towards the green man.

Louise noticed how his legs bowed outward, making his shoulders rock slightly from side to side as he walked. But he was handsome,
she acknowledged, with his dark skin and wavy jet-black hair tied back in a tiny ponytail. Rugged; backed up by a muscular
build. He couldn’t have been more than about twenty, or twenty-one—the same age as Joshua. His dark blue jacket was dreadfully
old-fashioned, it had long tails which came to a point just behind his knees. He wore it over a yellow waistcoat, and a white
silk shirt that had a tiny turned-down collar complemented with a black ruff tie. Strange apparel, but elegant, too.

“What’s your problem, boy?” the green man asked scornfully.

“Is that not apparent, sir? I find it difficult to see how even a gentleman of your tenor can bring it upon himself to threaten
three frightened ladies.”

The green man’s mouth split into a wide smile. “Oh, you do, do you?” White fire speared out of his fingers. It struck the
newcomer’s blue jacket and flared wide into clawing braids. He stood calmly as the coils of incandescence scrabbled ineffectively
across him, as if he wore an overcoat of impervious glass.

Unperturbed by his failure, the green man swung a fist. It didn’t connect. His opponent ducked back with surprising speed.
A fist slammed into the side of the green man’s torso. Three ribs shattered from the enhanced blow. He had to exert some of
his own energistic strength to stave off the pain and repair the physical damage. “Fuck,” he spat, shocked by this inexplicable
recalcitrance on the part of someone who was supposed to be a comrade. “What the hell are you doing?”

“I would have thought that obvious, sir,” the other said from behind raised fists. “I am defending the honour of these ladies.”

“I don’t believe this,” the green man exclaimed. “Look, let’s just get them possessed, and forget it. Okay? Sorry I mouthed
off. But that girl has the devil’s own tongue.”

“No, sir, I will not forget your threat to the child. Our Lord may have deemed me unworthy to join Him in Heaven. But, still,
I count myself as more than a beast who would commit rapine upon such a delicate flower.”

“Delicate… You have got to be fucking joking.”

“Never, sir.”

The green man threw his hands in the air. He turned to the other three who had accompanied his opponent from the farm. “Come
on, together we can boil his crazy brain and send him back to the beyond. Or maybe you can ignore them pleading to be let
back into the world,” he added significantly.

The three men exchanged an uneasy glance.

“You may indeed best me,” the man in the blue jacket said. “But if I have to return to that accursed nowhere, I will take
at least one of you with me, possibly more. So come then, who will it be?”

“I don’t need any of this,” one of the three muttered. He pushed his way past the other two and started to walk down the road
towards the town.

The man in the blue jacket gave the remaining two an inquiring look. Both of them shook their heads and set off down the road.

“What is it with you?” the green man shouted furiously.

“I believe that is a rhetorical question.”

“Okay, so who the hell are you?”

For a moment his handsome face faltered in its resolution. Pain burned in his eyes. “They called me Titreano, once,” he whispered.

“Okay, Titreano. It’s your party. For now. But when Quinn Dexter catches up with you, it’s going to be the morning after like
you’ve never fucking believed.”

He turned on a heel and stalked off along the road.

Carmitha finally remembered to breathe again. “Ohmy-God!” Her knees gave out, and she sat down fast. “I thought I was dead.”

Titreano smiled graciously. “You would not have been killed. What they bring is something far worse.”

“Like
what
?”

“Possession.”

She gave him a long, mistrustful stare. “And you’re one of them.”

“To my shame, my lady, I am.”

Carmitha didn’t know what the hell to believe.

“Please, sir?” Genevieve asked. “What should we do now? Where can Louise and I go?”

Louise patted Gen’s hands in caution. This Titreano was one of the devils after all, no matter how friendly he appeared to
be. “I do not know this place,” Titreano said. “But I would advise against yonder town.”

“We know that,” Genevieve said spryly.

Titreano smiled up at her. “Indeed you do. And what is your name, little one?”

“Genevieve. And this is my sister, Louise. We’re Kavanaghs, you know.”

Carmitha groaned and rolled her eyes. “Christ, that’s all I need right now,” she mumbled.

Louise gave her a puzzled frown.

“I regret I have not heard of your family,” Titreano said in what sounded like sincere regret. “But from your pride, I venture
it is a great one.”

“We own a lot of Kesteven between us,” Genevieve said. She was beginning to like this man. He’d stood up to the horrors, and
he was polite. Not many grown-ups were polite to her, they never seemed to have the time to talk at all. He was very well
spoken, too.

“Kesteven?” Titreano said. “Now that is a name I do know. I believe that it is an area of Lincolnshire. Am I correct?”

“Back on Earth, yes,” Louise said.

“Back on Earth,” Titreano repeated incredulously. He glanced over at Duke, then switched to Duchess. “Exactly what is this
world?”

“Norfolk. It’s an English-ethnic planet.”

“The majority,” Carmitha said.

Louise frowned again. What ever was wrong with the Romany woman?

Titreano closed his eyes, as if he felt some deep pain. “I sailed upon oceans, and I thought no challenge could be greater,”
he said faintly. “And now men sail the void between stars. Oh, how I remember them. The constellations burning so bright at
night. How could I ever have known? God’s creation has a majesty which lays men bare at His feet.”

“You were a sailor?” Louise asked uncertainly.

“Yes, my lady Louise. I had the honour to serve my King thus.”

“King? There’s no royal family in the Earth’s English state any more.” Titreano slowly opened his eyes, revealing only sadness.
“No King?”

“No. But our Mountbatten family are descended from British royalty. The Prince guards our constitution.”

“So nobility has not yet been overthrown by darkness. Ah well, I should be content.”

“How come you didn’t know about old England?” Genevieve asked. “I mean, you knew about Kesteven being a part of it.”

“What year is this, little one?”

Genevieve considered protesting about being called “little one,” but he didn’t seem to mean it in a nasty way. “Year 102 since
settlement. But those are Norfolk years; they’re four Earth years long. So back on Earth it’s 2611.”

“Twenty-six hundred and eleven years since Our Lord was born,” Titreano said in awe. “Dear Heaven. So long? Though the torment
I endured felt as if it were eternal.”

“What torment?” Genevieve asked with innocent curiosity.

“The torment all us damned souls face after they die, little one.”

Genevieve’s jaw dropped, her mouth forming a wide O.

“You’ve been dead?” Louise asked, not believing a word of it.

“Yes, Lady Louise. I was dead, for over eight hundred years.”

“That’s what you meant by possession?” Carmitha said.

“Yes, my lady,” he said gravely.

Carmitha pinched the top of her nose, wrinkling her brow. “And how, exactly, did you come back?”

“I do not know, except a way was opened into this body’s heart.”

“You mean that’s not your body?”

“No. This is a mortal man by the name of Eamon Goodwin, though I now wear my own form above his. I hear him crying inside
me.” He fixed Carmitha with a steady eye. “That is why the others pursue you. There are millions of souls lost in the torment
of beyond. All seek living bodies so they may breathe again.”

“Us?” Genevieve squeaked.

“Yes, little one. You. I’m sorry.” “Look, this is all very interesting,” Carmitha said. “Complete drivel, but interesting.
However, just in case you haven’t caught hold, right now we are drowning in deep shit. I don’t know what you freaks really
are, possessed zombies or something nice and simple like xenocs with psychic powers. But when that green bastard reaches Colsterworth
he’s going to be coming back with a lot of friends. I’ve got to unhitch my horse, and we three”—her gesture took in the sisters—“have
got to be long gone.” She arched an eyebrow. “Right, Miss Kavanagh?”

“Yes.” Louise nodded.

Titreano glanced at the passive cob, then the stallion. “If you are serious in your intent, you should travel together in
your caravan. None of you has a saddle, and this mighty beast has the look of Hercules about him. I’ll wager he can maintain
a steady pace for many hours.”

“Brilliant,” Carmitha snorted. She hopped down onto the hard-packed dirt of the road and slapped the side of her ruined caravan.
“We’ll just wait here for a wheelwright to come along, shall we?”

Titreano smiled. He walked over to the ditch where the wheel had fallen in.

Carmitha’s next acidic phrase died unspoken as he righted the wheel and pushed it (one-handed!) up out of the ditch, treating
it as though it were a child’s hoop. The wheel was five feet in diameter, and made of good, heavy tythorn wood. Three strong
men would struggle to lift it between them.

“My God.” She wasn’t sure if she should be thankful or horrified at such a demonstration. If all of them were like him, then
hope had deserted Norfolk long ago.

Titreano reached the caravan and bent down.

“You’re not going to… ”

He lifted it by the front corner—two, three feet off the road. Carmitha watched as the broken axle slowly straightened itself.
The splintered fracture in the middle blurred, then for a brief moment the wood appeared to run like a liquid. It solidified.
And the axle was whole again.

Titreano jemmied the wheel back onto the bearing.

“What are you?” Carmitha whispered weakly.

“I have already explained, my lady,” Titreano said. “What I can never do is bring you to believe what I am. That must come
of its own accord, as God wills.”

He went over to the stallion and held his arms up. “Come on, little one, down you come.”

Genevieve hesitated.

“Go on,” Louise said quietly. Plainly, if Titreano had wanted to harm them, he would have done it by now. The more she saw
of these strange people, the more her heart blackened. What could possibly fight such power?

Genevieve smiled scampishly and swung a leg over the stallion. She slithered down his flank into Titreano’s grip.

“Thank you,” she said as he put her down. “And thank you for helping us, too.”

“How could I not? I may be damned, but I am not devoid of honour.”

Louise got most of the way down the stallion before she accepted his steadying hand. She managed a fast, embarrassed grin
of thanks.

“I’m sore all over,” Genevieve complained, hands rubbing her bottom.

“Where to?” Louise asked Carmitha.

“I’m not sure,” the Romany replied. “There should be a lot of my folk in the caves above Holbeach. We always gather there
if there’s any kind of trouble abroad. You can hold those caves for a long time; they’re high in the cliffs, not easy to reach.”

“It would be a short siege this time, I fear,” Titreano said.

“You got a better idea?” she snapped back.

“You cannot stay on this island, not if you wish to escape possession. Does this world have ships?”

“Some,” Louise said.

“Then you should try to buy passage.”

“To go where?” Carmitha asked. “If your kind really are after bodies, exactly where would be safe?”

“That would depend on how swiftly your leaders rally. There will be war, many dreadful battles. There can be nothing less.
Both our kinds are fighting for their very existence.”

“Then we must go to Norwich, the capital,” Louise said decisively. “We must warn the government.” “Norwich is five thousand
miles away,” Carmitha said. “A ship would take weeks.”

“We can’t hide here and do nothing.”

“I’m not risking myself on some foolhardy errand, girl. Fat lot of good you precious landowners will be, anyway. What has
Norfolk got which can fight off the likes of him?” She waved a hand towards Titreano.

“The Confederation Navy squadron is still here,” Louise said, her voice raised now. “They have fabulous weapons.”

“Of mass destruction. How’s that going to help people who have been possessed? We need to break the possession, not slaughter
the afflicted.”

They glared at each other.

“There’s an aeroambulance based at Bytham,” Genevieve said brightly. “That could reach Norwich in five hours.”

Louise and Carmitha stared at her. Then Louise broke into a grin and kissed her sister. “Now who’s the clever one?”

Genevieve smiled around pertly. Titreano made a face at her, and she giggled.