Jack of Ravens(160)

‘Better late than never,’ he muttered.

Gabe hugged Church warmly and Marcy kissed him on the cheek before fetching coffees. Tom introduced the other woman as Grace. He fixed Church with a stare: ‘A Sister of Dragons.’

Grace opened her eyes wide. ‘This is the one? The first?’

Church felt uncomfortable with Grace’s uncontained awe, but Tom said pointedly, ‘She recognises the important role you are supposed to be playing in events.’

‘I’m here now,’ Church snapped guiltily.

‘If it’s not too late. Things are already in motion.’ Tom contained himself and changed the subject. ‘Grace is a member of a coven up on Divisadero. Two weeks ago her use of the Craft started achieving astonishing results.’

Grace looked scared. ‘I had to leave the coven. I mean, there are more witches in San Francisco than musicians, but suddenly everyone started getting spooked out by me.’

‘She’s the first,’ Tom said. ‘We’ll find the others soon. This is the time, this is the place.’

In the performance area at the side of the floor, a poet was chanting, ‘The doors of perception are opening,’ over and over again.

‘But first,’ Tom said, ‘we have to make you whole.’



15



In the twilight, the mist rolled up the streets from the bay. For once the Haight was unnaturally still. Inside, the atmosphere was tense. The ambience had been designed for introspection with candles, incense and soft, ethnic music in the background. Gabe and Marcy had agreed to retreat to Niamh’s room; they appeared to have been arguing. Grace had pushed the furniture back in the lounge so she could mark out in salt her sacred space. Tom, Niamh and Church sat at three of the cardinal points and in the centre of the circle was the lamp.

‘So, like, do we get a genie if we rub it?’ Grace said.

‘Something like that.’ Church had yearned for the missing Pendragon Spirit to be a part of him for so long, but now it was about to happen he was apprehensive. Once he was whole again he would be out of excuses. ‘You know that once it’s inside me again I’ll light up like a flare in the Enemy’s perception.’

‘You can still turn away from this,’ Niamh said.

Tom had been watching Church all afternoon as if he expected that very thing. ‘Sooner or later you’re going to have to take a stand. Might as well be sooner.’

‘That’s easy for you to say.’

Grace completed her ablutions and began the ritual. For ten minutes she chanted and whispered, and just when Church thought nothing was going to happen, the atmosphere in the room altered perceptibly: the shadows lengthened and the temperature dropped several degrees. Their breath clouded as webs of frost formed on the inside of the window.

Grace sat silently for a moment, and then blue sparks began to crackle around the lamp, building in intensity. They became tiny jagged lines of lightning until suddenly a column of Blue Fire roared up from the lamp’s spout. In the flames, Church saw a familiar face.

‘You made it, Church,’ Hal said. ‘I could have told you everything you needed to know to get to this place, but you did it yourself. And on the way you learned a lot about who you are that will help you in the trials ahead.’

‘Haven’t you been bored sleeping in that lamp all this time?’

The flames shimmered as Hal laughed silently. ‘You’re still seeing things from your perspective. To me, all time is happening at the same moment, remember? While I’m talking to you now, I’m also talking to you in Rome and in the space you entered through the circle at Boskawen-Un.’

‘That must be confusing.’

‘To a human. I’m not one of those any more, which is kind of a relief.’

‘If all times are happening now from your perspective, you know exactly what’s going to happen to us in the future. So what’s the point?’

‘It’s not like that. Reality isn’t fixed. It’s just a house that’s been built for us to live in. Knock out a few walls here and there and the whole configuration changes, past, present and future. Don’t go thinking of it as cause and effect – that’s all pre-quantum stuff.’

Church looked around the circle. Tom, Niamh and Grace were entranced by the column of fire, their expressions beatific.

‘The Army of the Ten Billion Spiders have already changed what did happen considerably,’ Hal continued. ‘You can change it, too. People who will die in the current version of events don’t have to. In the time when I made my sacrifice, nearly all the Tuatha Dé Danann had been eradicated. That doesn’t have to happen. Remember, people who sacrifice themselves don’t have to die.’ The comment was pointed, though Church didn’t know at whom it was aimed. ‘The thing is, Church, it’s all down to you. If you don’t stumble, if you stay true to yourself, you have the power to change everything. And I mean everything.’