love life,’ said Fern, ‘is entirely your own affair. Or several affairs, as the case may be.’
‘You see?’ said Will. ‘Love life: criticism.’
Fern sucked her lip in an attempt to suppress a smile. ‘I hate to disappoint.’
Will gave a grin which stiffened gradually into something more artificial. ‘How is Gaynor?’
‘You’ve been a long time asking,’ Fern said lightly. Her eyes were on the road; Will found that her profile was no longer something he could read. ‘She got over the flautist very quickly, which may indicate that there was not much to get over. A recent news bulletin told me she was still resisting the advances of Hugh, slightly estranged husband of Vanessa. However, sources close to Miss Mobberley inform me that she may not be able to hold out. When men cry on her shoulder, she has a tendency to go soggy inside.’
‘Has she tried waterproof clothing?’ said Will, a little too sharply. ‘Anyway, I didn’t want a resumé of her sexual activities. I just wanted to know how—she—is.’
‘Last weekend,’ said Fern scrupulously, ‘she was perfectly well.’
There was complete silence for almost a mile. Since Fern had decided recently she did not want music on while she drove, believing it was a serious distraction, the quiet was as noticeable as a power-cut in a shopping mall.
Eventually, Will said, changing the subject without apology: ‘I may be going to India later this year.’ Fern made an interrogative noise. ‘Looks like Roger and I might have got our first real commission. Someone at BBC 2 likes the Himalayan idea. You know: tales of the hidden kingdoms. Power politics in Buddhism, the true origins of Shangri-La, that kind of stuff. I told you about it in the Caprice.’
‘If it comes off,’ said Fern, ‘you can take me to the Caprice.’
‘I did take you to the Caprice!’
‘Next time,’ his sister said darkly, ‘you pay for it as well.’
It was late by the time they reached London and Will accepted an invitation to share a takeaway in Fern’s flat. They bought an assortment of Thai nibbles and a bottle of Chardonnay and took them back to Pimlico. Once inside, Fern switched on lamps, drew the curtains, lit a scented candle. ‘There’s something about funerals,’ she said. ‘The smell always stays with you. That damp, rusty sort of smell you get when people take out the black coat they haven’t worn for years and then stand around for too long in the rain.’
‘It didn’t rain,’ Will pointed out, uncorking the wine.
‘The air was wet,’ Fern insisted.
It was after they had sat down and were opening up the cartons that she went suddenly still and quiet. ‘What is it?’ Will asked, watching her face change.
Fern said nothing for a few seconds. When she spoke again, it was a half-tone louder. ‘Show yourself. This is my brother: his presence need not trouble you. He is accustomed to the ways of your folk.’ And, after a pause: ‘I don’t wish to Command you. That would be discourteous, and I should deeply regret any further discourtesy. You know I want friendly relations with the Queen.’
The Queen? Will mouthed, his eyebrows shooting upwards.
Fern ignored him. Her gaze had focused on a place at the foot of the curtains, where the drapes were bunched together in many folds beside the looping leaves of a pot-plant. Presently, Will saw some of the shadows detach themselves and move forward, taking shape in the light. A diminutive, ungainly shape, hunch-shouldered and bow-legged, with long simian arms. Fern noticed his patchwork clothing looked newer than last time and he had acquired a species of malformed hat, squashed low over his brow, with the words ‘By Appoyntmnt’ embroidered on it in crooked stitches. His tufted ears were thrust through slits in the brim; his sloe eyes gazed slyly from underneath.
‘Skuldunder,’ Fern acknowledged.
‘Who invited you in?’ Will demanded.
‘It isn’t necessary,’ Fern sighed. ‘He’s a burglar. We’ve met before. He usually burgles on behalf of Mabb, Queen of the goblins. So are you here on private business, or does this visit have an official sanction?’
‘The Queen sent me,’ the goblin prated, briefly inflating his hollow chest. ‘She says, she is graciously pleased to accept your gifts, and…and your friendship. It is a great honour.’
‘For whom?’ Will murmured, fascinated. Fern stood unobtrusively on his foot.
‘A great honour,’ the goblin repeated. ‘She knows you are a powerful witch, but she believes you mean no harm to her and her people. And me,’ he added, throwing her an apprehensive glance and clutching his hat-brim for support.
‘Of course not,’ said Fern. ‘I would prefer not to harm anyone.’ Will, noting the language of diplomacy, thought the statement held an element of warning, but Skuldunder appeared tentatively relieved. ‘Have a glass of wine,’ she continued. ‘Is there something I can do for the queen?’
‘It is she who has sent me to help you,’ the goblin declared. ‘She says she will overlook the matter of the bodkin—’
‘Bodkin?’ Fern frowned. ‘Oh—the spear.’
The goblin took a wary mouthful of Chardonnay. ‘There is Trouble,’ he announced, giving the word an audible capital T. ‘We have heard of another witch, perhaps more powerful than yourself. We think she is new to this country. She is performing great magics, sorcery of a kind beyond our ken. The queen felt you should know of this.’
‘The queen is wise,’ Fern said, adding, in an aside to Will: ‘It may be nothing. Some street-witch playing games with fireworks, or an old woman who looked at Mabb sideways, and gave her a spot on her nose. All the same…’ She turned back to the goblin. ‘Does she have a name, this witch?’
‘We do not know it,’ said Skuldunder.
‘An address?’
‘She has taken over a mansion north of this city. Already she has done great evil there. It was the property of a human family who died out years ago, and few mortals came to trouble it, leaving it to the ghosts and lesser creatures of the otherworld. But she made a terrible spell to purge it, and now they are all gone, and the only beings who dwell there are those who have come in her train.’
‘An exorcism,’ said Fern.
‘Ethnic cleansing,’ said Will.
‘Exorcism is not necessarily terrible,’ Fern elaborated. ‘It shows lost spirits how to pass the Gate: that is all.’
But Skuldunder was shaking his head and kneading his hat-brim with nervous fingers. ‘No—no—it wasn’t like that. We think she—she opened the abyss. They were all sucked through—all of them. Into nothingness …’ He was trembling visibly. ‘Only the house-goblin escaped. He is very old, and not as brave and cunning as those of us who live wild, but he did well. He fled from the house and hid in a place where the old magic lingers. Her minions could not find him there. We don’t know how long he was in hiding; he could not tell us. Some of the queen’s folk came across him, when they were hunting toads.
