He managed one word. “Grace?”
“Oh, Malcolm,” Grace said, and burst into tears. She stepped over the threshold and hugged him, only managing a tremulous smile when Malcolm lifted his own arms and hugged her fiercely back.
“How?” said Malcolm. “How?”
“The Idyll saved me,” Grace said as, finally, she stepped back, wiping the tears from her eyes. “Catling had me. The hex was so damned strong. My mother’s devising was never going to hold me. But the Idyll…” She took a deep shuddery breath. “The Idyll had been breached once before by Catling—the day she sent her imps to place the hex on me. The Idyll never forgot it, nor ever ceased to resent it. When Catling reached in again, this time to use the hex to drag me into the dark heart of the Shadow Game with her, the Idyll…” and she gave a small laugh, as if she could hardly believe this herself, “…the Idyll lost its temper. That’s the only way I can describe it. The Idyll lost its temper, repelled Catling and…and undid the hex.”
“What?”
“The Idyll knew how to unwind the hex, because it had seen how it was applied in the first instance. No one else. The Idyll understood the hex.” Grace paused. “And having repelled Catling, and having undone the hex, it then blew apart St Dunstan’s-in-the-East’s spire, destroying any way in or out, making certain Catling could not reach back in once more—but neither could I reach out to anyone to let them know where I was. It was my father who created the device that saved me, not my mother. Malcolm, is the Troy Game trapped?”
“Yes, and all this time we were sure you were trapped with it.” Malcolm stared at Grace, still barely able to believe she was standing before him. “But you have been trapped in the Idyll?”
She nodded. “And it was only today that the spire was re-opened. Only today that I could leave. Malcolm…how is Jack? Is he here?”
“Gods, Grace. It has been terrible. He thought, we all thought, you were in the Shadow Game’s dark heart. We didn’t…” His voice broke and he hugged Grace tightly to him once more. “The past thirty years have been terrible,” he whispered.
“It has been thirty years?” Grace said. “My gods, how has Jack managed?”
Jack sat in the wing-backed chair by the bedroom fire, staring unseeing at the flames.
This was the only way he could bear to live—alone save for the ghostly presence of Malcolm, isolated, unthinking.
If he thought, then his existence became a hell, because shadowing every thought was the knowledge that Grace lived, tormented, in the dark heart of the Shadow Game. That while he lived and breathed and ran the forests, while he drew in breath and drank whisky and screamed at the stars, Grace lived shuttered away with Catling.
Always before him was that haunting vision he’d experienced on the night Grace and he had opened the Shadow Game—Grace, lying bloodied and bruised on the floor of St Thomas’ crypt, a hand held out to him, her eyes pleading.
There came a soft knock at the door.
“Go away,” muttered Jack.
A lengthy stillness, then the soft knock again.
“Go away, curse you!” Jack yelled, and threw the empty whisky glass against the door.
It shattered, and Jack thought he heard a breath on the other side of the door.
Malcolm, probably, wanting to offer him some damned druidic counselling.
“Go away,” Jack whispered.
There came this time, not a knock, but the soft laying of a hand against the door, and then a forehead, and finally a cheek, wet with tears, pressed against the wood.
Jack couldn’t hear it, only sense it.
“Go away,” he whispered one last, futile time, then he rose, walked over to the door, and opened it.
GLOSSARY
ACK-ACK: anti-aircraft fire from London’s defences.
AENEAS: a hero of the Trojan war against the Greeks and beloved of the gods, Aeneas was the son of a goddess, Aphrodite, aand a mortal man, Anchises. He is the great-grandfather of Brutus (now Jack).
ALBA: ancient, and now vanished, city on the banks of the River Tiber in Italy.
AMBERSBURY BANKS: an ancient hill fort situated in the northern region of Epping Forest.
ANCIENT CAROL: that which is sung by the CAROLLER within the FAERIE to welcome in both dawn and dusk.
ARIADNE: ancient MISTRESS OF THE LABYRINTH in Knossos in Crete at the GREAT FOUNDING LABYRINTH. She was the half-sister of ASTERION, the Minotaur, and also his lover. She betrayed him to Theseus.
ASTERION: the ancient Minotaur who inhabited the GREAT FOUNDING LABYRINTH in Knossos on Crete. Murdered by Theseus, and recalled from death by ARIADNE, in this current life he is known as WEYLAND ORR.
BANKS, NOAH: once CORNELIA, spoiled princess of MESOPOTAMA, Noah is now EAVING, goddess of the waters, Darkwitch, and Mistress of the Labyrinth. She lives with WEYLAND ORR (Asterion) and their daughter, GRACE, at the SAVOY in London.
BOUDICCA: queen of the Iceni, a British tribe, in the first century AD, wife of PRASUTAGUS.
CAMULODUNUM COLONIA: the Roman name for Colchester.
CAROLLER, THE: the songstress who carols in the dawn and the dusk in the REALM OF THE FAERIE. See WENTWORTH, STELLA.
CATASTROPHE, THE: after Theseus left ARIADNE, she responded by destroying much of the ancient Aegean world in revenge. This is known as the Catastrophe.
CATHEDRAL WATCH, the: volunteers from among the staff and clergy of St Paul’s formed a Watch during the war in order to act as firefighters in case bombs hit the cathedral.
CHAMBERLAIN, NEVILLE: Prime Minister of Great Britain from the late 1930s until May 1940.
CHURCHILL, WINSTON: Prime Minister of Great Britain from May 1940.
CLEMENTS, VERA: a nurse’s aide at Guy’s Hospital. COEL: a man of the Bronze Age and a friend and lover of CORNELIA. He now lives as HAROLD COLE.
COPT HALL: an ancient and now ruined house on the north-west outskirts of Epping Forest. Sometimes spelt as Copped Hall.
CORNELIA: wife to BRUTUS when the TROY GAME was first constructed. Now she lives as NOAH BANKS.
CATLING: the TROY GAME incarnate. The Troy Game took flesh as Catling in Darkwitch Rising.
COLE, HAROLD, Brigadier (retired): the LORD OF THE FAERIE, who once lived as COEL, as Harold of Wessex, and as Charles II.
DANCE OF THE FLOWERS: one of two dances involved in creating the TROY GAME, the Dance of the Flowers needs to be performed to close the Game and bring it to its full strength.
DANCE OF THE TORCHES: the magical dance that was used by Brutus and Genvissa to establish the TROY GAME.
DANCING FLOOR, THE: literally the labyrinth as it is carved into rock or stone. The MISTRESS OF THE LABYRINTH and the KINGMAN use the dancing floor to raise the Game from the labyrinth. Dancing floors—labyrinths—could be found in many medieval European cathedrals.
DARKWITCH: a woman who uses the dark power (the Darkcraft) found in the heart of the labyrinth.
DE COLECHURCH, PETER: Chaplain of St Mary Colechurch in Cheapside; Bridge Master of London Bridge.
ELEANOR CROSSES: when Eleanor, the first queen of Edward I, died in Nottinghamshire, her husband was so distraught he built magnificent crosses at each place that her corpse rested on its journey back to London. Two crosses were erected in London: at Cheapside (this has now gone) and at Charing Cross (which still remains).
EAVING: the goddess of the waters who takes the mortal form of NOAH BANKS. In the Anglo-Saxon language, Eaving meant “shelter”, or “the unexpected haven from the storm”.
EAVING’S SISTERS: in God’s Concubine and Darkwitch Rising EAVING was reborn in Caela (now NOAH BANKS). She drew fiercely loyal women about her who became known as Eaving’s Sisters and who live in this life as MATILDA, ECUB and ERITH, taking back the names of their first lives.
EPPING FOREST: the surviving remnant of the great forests which once spread over south-east England. It is situated just to the north of London.
FAERIE HILL MANOR: the home of Sir HAROLD COLE situated in EPPING FOREST.
FAERIE, LORD OF THE: an ancient being who watches over the FAERIE. He is often confused with the Green Man, an ancient mythical figure in English village culture closely associated with the forests, and with the May-tide celebrations. Figures of the Green Man, or the Lord of the Faerie, can be found carved into the decorations of myriad English (as European) cathedrals and churches.
FAERIE, REALM OF THE: the Faerie world which exists side by side with the mortal world. Governed by the LORD OF THE FAERIE who is HAROLD COLE (Harry) in this life.
GEORGE VI: King of England. George lived as John Thornton in his previous life, when he was NOAH BANKS’ lover.
GOG: one of the legendary giant protectors of London, closely associated with the Guildhall (you can still see him there); his brother is MAGOG. Once a SIDLESAGHE.
GREAT FIRE OF LONDON: in 1666 central London was destroyed by a massive conflagration that was started by NOAH BANKS in an effort to halt the progress of the TROY GAME.