Free Chaos Quest by Gill Arbuthnott Page B

– I didn’t mean …”
    But he wasn’t listening. He turned and half ran into the house.
    Alerted by the noise, Alastair left the smoking barbecue and came over.
    Christine gave a sigh, a rueful expression on her face. “Well, I messed that up completely.”
    “It’s not your fault. He just leapt to conclusions. Maybe I should have told him; I just thought it might work better coming from you.”
    “I didn’t even get that far and now he hates me again. Are we ever going to sort things out?”
    “It’ll come right.” He gave her a kiss. “You’ll see.”
    ***
    One by one, the Great Ones stepped through into the Underworld, donning their physical bodies as they did so.
    The Queen of Darkness was clad in a gown the colour of old blood and a crown of jet and garnets. She had been hunting and carried a small, deeply curved black bow.
    The Lightning King was in his usual robes of tattered black, a few forgotten tendrils of lightning slithering across it like tiny snakes.
    Tethys the Water Witch wore a dress of shifting iridescent rainbow, like oil on water. A pool of water grew about her feet as she stood waiting with the others.
    “Where are the wolves?” asked the King.
    The two wolves which often accompanied Tethys were absent.
    “With the Hunt,” she replied.
    A few minutes passed before the Hunter appeared among them. Unconsciously, they all drew back a little from him.
    It was difficult to say what he wore: rags and tatters of cloth and skin that clothed him without being garments. His bare torso and arms were flecked with blood, as were his owl-eyed face and the horns, much like those of a roe deer, that grew among his chestnut hair.
    “Is the hunt over?” asked the Queen.
    “Yes.” He smiled a terrible smile. “A good hunt. The wolves will feed well.” He slid a black knife back into its sheath at his side.
    “We must decide what to do now,” said the Queen. “We were close for a moment when she killed the man Thomas. I thought the power might overwhelm her then. But it did not. Now she knows she possesses it and begins to understand what it can do. She will be on herguard and our task will be harder. Everything is at stake. Now that the Stardreamer has been called, there can be no going back.”
    “She must be brought to the Heart of the Earth if we are to use her power to destroy it,” said the King.
    “My son will bring her,” said the Hunter.
    “Or if he fails,” mused the Queen, “perhaps we can use the children. It may prove to be very useful that she fell into their hands. Making them the instruments for the destruction of their world would be a fitting way to repay them for thwarting our plans before.”
    “We must break into their world if we are to reach the Wildwood and the Heart of the Earth,” said a voice thin and chilly as a blade. When the Hunter spoke, everyone listened.
    “We must be invited for that to happen,” said the Queen cautiously. “Those two know us for what we are. We cannot disguise ourselves from them.”
    “We can influence others around them though: draw them to one of the places where the barriers have grown thin, trick them into saying the words … We grow stronger every day the Stardreamer is here,” mused the King.
    “Most people are much easier to influence than those children,” said Tethys, smiling a scarlet smile. “We must watch for a little, decide who and where, then persuade them to the right place …”
    ***
    They pretended to go to Badminton Club but went to the house instead. It was now four days since Erda haddisappeared and Morgan had gone after her and there had been no sign of either. They didn’t hold out much hope that anyone would be there now and the house felt very empty when they opened the front door.
    There was a postcard from Gordon though.
Great weather and good golf courses but I’m playing rubbish! Getting brown (that’s a first!) Hope the plants are behaving
! He hadn’t put any names on, just the house