Jack of Ravens(187)

Ruth looked out into the night. ‘Don’t stop here,’ she said uneasily.

From there it was downhill all the way. They left the main road and passed through some gates onto a private road. Ahead a soft golden glow rose up from somewhere below their line of sight.

And there Church did bring the van to a halt. While the engine idled, he looked at the faint glow. ‘This is either a coincidence or the weirdest synchronicity,’ he said. ‘This particular part of my journey is ending where my journey as a Brother of Dragons began this second time round. Metaphorically speaking.’

‘It is the ouroboros,’ Shavi said, ‘the serpent eating its own tail. A full circle. Every ending is a new beginning, and so the cycle continues.’

‘I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about,’ Laura said, ‘and to be honest, no interest. But you’ve clearly done a lot of drugs in the past.’

Ruth had been staring out of the side window, not at the glow, but at the vast sea of darkness that surrounded it. ‘Something’s not right,’ she said.

‘What do you mean?’ Church asked.

‘The shadows are moving. See? All over.’ She indicated a wide arc.

Ruth was right: the darkness looked like a black sheet with something squirming underneath.

They were all mesmerised by it until Church realised what they were seeing. ‘Spiders.’

They covered every inch of the fields and hillsides surrounding them, billions of them drawing in on the golden light ahead.

Laura pointed through the windscreen. In the cone of illumination from the headlights, the spiders streamed towards them.

‘We’ll never get past them,’ she said.

‘If we don’t get down there to the light, it’s all over,’ Church said. ‘We’ve got nowhere else to go.’

He revved the engine and popped the clutch. The van jumped forward with a squeal of tyres and Laura and Shavi were thrown across the back seat. Laura let out a stream of foul-mouthed abuse. Ruth gripped the dashboard until her knuckles turned white.

The van ploughed into the wave of spiders at speed. Some of them burst like overripe fruit, others crunched like gravel. It was difficult for the tyres to gain traction on the pulped remains, and the van skewed before going into a slide. Church wrestled with the wheel and kept the vehicle moving forward.

As the tyres spun wildly, Church realised it was already too late. The spiders were sweeping onto the vehicle from every direction.

‘Keep away from the sides,’ Church yelled over the racing engine. ‘They’re going to be coming through any second.’ Ahead, the sea of spiders appeared to stretch for ever.

Holes began to appear in the metal walls of the van. It wasn’t as if the spiders had eaten through, but rather that they had cut through the fundamental force that tethered the molecules together in this reality. Laura positioned herself on the floor of the van and kicked out at any emerging spiders. They flew off into the slipstream before they could get a grip on her boots. Shavi snatched up a wheel brace and did the same.

Church kept the pedal to the floor. The road led downhill at a slight incline and the van skated from side to side. As they glimpsed a large, empty car park, a metallic scraping rose up.

‘They’ve stripped away the tyres,’ Church said.

‘Are we going to make it?’ Ruth tried to hide the concern in her voice.

Church didn’t answer.

The sides of the van were suddenly ragged. Too many holes were forming for Laura and Shavi to stop the flow.

‘They’ll be in any second,’ Laura shouted. ‘How much further?’

‘Not far,’ Church lied.

The spiders had gained purchase on the front of the van and were spreading across the windscreen. Church used the wipers to little effect.

‘You’re the one who works the Craft, aren’t you?’ Church said to Ruth. ‘Can’t you do something?’

‘I don’t know how … I … I can’t remember—’

‘This junkheap is falling apart,’ Laura yelled. ‘I’m going to be sliding on my arse in a second.’

Ruth bowed her head and closed her eyes. During the journey back through the Far Lands, Church had told her how one in every Five always had mastery of the Craft. It explained the owl, her familiar, but she had no idea how to access the abilities she must have developed in her past life. She concentrated intently.

The rear doors fell off with a clatter. Streams of golden sparks trailed behind them from the wheel rims. The windscreen was now fully covered by the wriggling black bodies. Soon the glass would disappear and hundreds of the writhing creatures would surge in.