There was no escaping this fiend simply by closing one’s eyes and imagining it gone. Its presence was far stronger than the mere thoughts and imaginings of a young boy. It had crushed powerful men in its time and reduced them to whimpering madness. It had driven women on to the spikes of bayonets, as they strove to escape it. None could withstand naked fear when it rushed in as an evil wind.
Alex opened his eyes and took one last look in the backpack.
What? These? Why yes, of course.
The matches.
As the darkness continued to thicken he took out the box of long-stemmed matches and struck one, lighting it.
Katerfelto recoiled with a moan.
‘Here, hold this, Clo,’ said Alex, handing her the burning match. ‘I’ll do another one.’
He struck a second match.
The dark tail of the monster god retracted sharply.
Fire. It hated fire.
Light. It hated light.
‘We’ve got it on the run,’ yelled Alex excitedly. ‘See, it’s going.’
Katerfelto was withdrawing like a swift tide going out, pulling in its edges, retreating before the fire and light. It was making strange sounds as it left. It was a creature in pain. It seemed to separate now into small rivulets of darkness, which drained into holes in the piles of weapons. Down the barrels of rifles, through the tracks of tanks, under the tubes of mortars, it seeped into the side of the mountain. As it went, so did the terror, and the children felt the fright drain from their hearts and minds. This creature was fashioned of nothing; nothing at all, except fear.
‘I hope it doesn’t come back,’ said Chloe, blowing out the flame before it burned her fingers. ‘Have you got any more matches?’
‘A whole box full,’ confirmed Alex, putting them in his chinos pocket. ‘But we’d better be careful with them. After all, fire in an attic and all that …’
‘Yes, of course. The place is made of tinder.’
‘Exactly. But so long as we’re careful.’
Somewhere in the attic one of the Removal Firm stiffened and a sudden chill went through him. What was that? Had he smelled burning sulphur again? What dreadful irresponsibility! He took his hands from his khaki dustcoat pockets and formed a cup around his nose with them. Then he breathed in deeply, sniffing the air. Sulphur, definitely. Someone, somewhere had struck another match. This was the second or third time in as many days. Yes, there it was again, another match. Fire, the forbidden wonder of nature. Forbidden to all in the attic. Those who used fire were summarily ejected from the attic, sent out into Chaos, that nowhere place down below the boards. The creation of fire was the deepest, darkest sin, the worst of crimes, in the attic. The Removal Firm might fuss over woodworm, death-watch beetles, dry rot, nibbling mice, canker and other dangers to the attic, but fire was dealt with very harshly. He and his colleagues would continue to seek out the criminals and when they found them, they would remove them.
CHAPTER 8
Scissor-birds that Blood Your Head
They descended from the mountain to the plains below.
There were broad open spaces, bare wooden boards which stretched lengthways in the direction in which they were heading. They camped for a short while at a spot under one of those mighty timbers that supported the roof. It had some rusty nails protruding from it and Alex hung his backpack and other equipment on it. As he did so he became interested in the pillar itself, which soared upwards, thick as a mature oak, to split and spread itself high above, in order to support the roof.
He slapped the pillar with his hand, feeling strength in its solidity.
‘You know, sis,’ he said, looking round at other such pillars which stood four-square every hundred metres in each direction, ‘without these fellows, the roof would collapse on us.’
Chloe lay back, her head on a rolled-up coat, and stared into the dimness above.
‘I’ve been studying stresses and pressures on the arches of bridges and I’m sure these do a similar job. You don’t seem to realise how important they are. If I was to chop this one down there would be too much pressure on the next one, and the one behind, and those to the sides. They’d give way too and that would mean more and more pillars cracking and splitting and collapsing – you know, the domino effect – and finally the whole roof would fall down on the heads of everyone in here. It would be an end