Apart from Mabon’s now neat and perfectly done up hair, we are looking even more scruffy than we were last time we had to pass through civilization. We really look homeless now, so I’m fairly confident no one is going to see us.
Mabon allows me to lead him and we step into London. I don’t know every corner of my home city, that’s impossible, it’s far too vast, but I know what general direction we need to go in. It is probably best to avoid the tube, but we might be able to hop on a bus to eat up some miles.
There are cameras everywhere in London. Millions of people. Is that a thousand eyes or a crowd to get lost in? I really have no idea. But this is the home stretch now. If all goes well, I’ll have Mabon back at the palace by nightfall.
And I’m not going to think about what happens after that. I simply can’t. Thinking about it will destroy me.
I have to focus on the here and now. One step at a time. With that thought in mind, that derelict industrial park looks like a good place to cut through. No people. No cameras. The urban equivalent of the wild.
I lead Mabon into it and we walk along in easy silence. The clouds are clearing and I think the sun is going to make an appearance. The air is beginning to smell like London, and therefore home.
As we cross an abandoned car park littered with tall stringy weeds, I start to feel hopeful. The journey has been long and eventful, but the end is in sight.
It’s impossible to be in a bad mood because I’m still buzzing from last night. The image of Mabon riding me against the backdrop of the lightening forked sky is branded into my soul. I’ll never forget the sight of him unbinding his hair. And the way he looks with all his hair loose. I thought he was stunning before, but there really is no comparison.
It has changed me forever.
Nevermind the implications of what it means.
Last night was profound in ways I don’t think I’ll ever be able to process.
Suddenly, a loose stone skitters out from under my shoe. It slides across the broken concrete of the forgotten carpark. The sound echoing loudly in the eerie quiet.
Then all hell breaks loose. Between one breath and the next, everything changes.
Tyres screech. Boots thud. Black vans surround us. Balaclava clad men jump out of the back doors. Adding to the people who ran up to us. Guns point at us. Everything is happening so fast.
Mabon screams. I whirl to face him. He is on the floor, covered by a large net that is burning him. The stench of scorching flesh is horrendous.
My hands grab at the net, it is weighted, but nothing I can’t handle. I heave. I need to get it off of him. There is no time to think. No time to do anything but act. Not enough time to save him.
Then there is a loud bang and everything goes dark.
No sight. No sound. No sensation.
Nothing but pure nothingness. I can’t even feel my body. I’m not sure I have one anymore.
I exist in the void for both eternity and also no time at all. Slowly, the sound of running water surrounds me. A semblance of reality forms. It’s dark, very dark, but I can just about make out a large onyx river. I’m standing on its dusty shore. And there is a cloaked and hooded figure standing in front of me. The lower half of their body morphing into the curling prow of a small wooden boat.
“Am I dead?” I ask.
My voice doesn’t echo. At all. It is like being in a soundproof room. Or a place where sound doesn’t exist.
“Yes,” says the being before me.
Grief washes over me. Heavy. Suffocating. All-consuming. It’s not for myself. It’s for Mabon. I’ve left him. Exactly when he needed me the most and now I cannot help him.
“They shot me?”
“In the head.”
Well, that is gross and deeply unsettling. At least it was quick, I suppose. I didn’t feel a thing.
The creature stares at me. A faceless shadow in a cowl. Utterly motionless. The moment stretches and stretches.
“Aren’t you supposed to take me across?” I mean, this has to be the ferryman, right? He takes souls across the river. That’s what happens? I wish I had paid more attention to the stories about the afterlife.
“I am bound not to ferry one who carries Queen Mab’s token.”
