Page 68 of The Death Wish

‘She made her choice, as you made yours,’ Silas shouted back. ‘We all make errors in judgement, Pitch.’

Too bad if Michael searched for them outside, his hunt would be over now; he just had to listen for the shouting.

‘Not so constantly as I, nor so dangerously.’

‘Bullshit.’ Silas was high on anger now; but it was not aimed towards Pitch. ‘What of me? That imbecilic oaf you so often deride, and with just cause. If I’d not bumbled about, if I’d set myself with more resolve sooner, sought out answers, instead ofplaying dumb. If I’d learned my truth, instead of remaining the simpleton, the coward, I appeared, then how many more souls might I have saved? So many have suffered because I was afraid. Of a fucking bathtub, no less.’

‘Silas you –’

‘Not now, Pitch. By god, you shall let me have this rant. You should have let me blasted-well drown in that moat, at Goodrich Castle.’ Silas winced, stomach turning at how fearful he’d been, clinging to Pitch’s back. ‘It might have knocked some sense into me, way back then. I’d have been strong enough to protect you from Gidleagh Park. Christ, Pitch I shall never forgive myself for that place, for being so easily manipulated, for letting you down. And Sherwood Forest…’ Silas struggled to catch his breath, caught off-guard by the ferocity of his pent up confessions. He’d underestimated how badly the guilt ate at him. ‘No…there is no forgiveness for an error of judgement that saw me play with fucking asrai, rather than be there when you needed me. I profess to love you, and yet you endured hell because of me.’

‘Stop,’ Pitch bellowed.

The echo filled the chamber, reverberating down into the unknown path beyond where Charlie stood. He could not decipher the look on the lad’s face. Perhaps he was wondering what sort of a man he was tied to, whether he was as good as those stupid gnomes declared.

Silas turned away, his breath coming in shudders. He thought he might be sick. In the silence that fell, he heard the trickling flow of water in the distance.

‘So here we are,’ Pitch said, quieter now. He cleared his throat. ‘The sorriest pair of saviours a world could hope to have.’

Silas huffed, and rubbed at his face. ‘The sorriest indeed.’ He did not regret his outburst, much had needed to be said, but he did resent how drained it made him.

‘You seem so determined to win this battle of regret,’ Pitch said, some strength returning to his voice. ‘If I concede, might I ask one thing of you?’

Despair made way for cautious amusement. ‘What would that be?’

‘I ask that you remember what I say now, when next you are overcome. I did not endure hell because of you. Isurvivedit, because of you. Because I knew what you evidently fail to recognise in yourself. That you are no coward, Silas.’ His slight, wry smile was a welcome sight. ‘Though perhaps deserving of the title of oaf, at least so far as your declarations of affection for me are concerned.’

Silas inclined his head, some of the pain abating. ‘Perhaps you are right. We shall see.’

Their eyes locked, fixed upon one another in such a way that nothing else seemed to exist in the world. Not even an all-powerful angel, bent on striking down their errant quest.

Charlie shuffled his feet, and coughed. ‘Gentlemen, I’m sorry, but we must go on. Will you follow me?’

‘Of course,’ Silas said.

‘As though there is a choice.’ Pitch returned, but there was only the merest hint of bitterness in the reply. ‘Lead on.’

Scarlet leaped off the lad’s shoulder, dancing circles in the air around Charlie’s head; before racing off into the stretching darkness behind him. Their rainbow hues grew smaller and smaller, fainter and fainter.

Without a word, Pitch looped his arm through Silas’s, and they made their way together.

The tunnel was not great in length, the trip short and easy. The passageway opened up into a much larger chamber, one whose roof was entirely made of clear quartz. The light fromCharlie’s single torch seemed to fill each of the jutting prisms, casting a golden sheen over everything.

Pitch inhaled. Silas looked to him, only to be scowled at before he could enquire if everything was fine.

‘Let’s go.’ Pitch walked on ahead of him.

Silas had been right to think he’d heard water earlier. The chamber held a great body of it; bigger than a pond but shy of a lake, and clear enough to see that the quartz that covered the roof lay there beneath the surface too, glowing golden as the rest.

Edward waited for them. He sat by the edge of the deep water, upon a rock that looked very much like hardened lava; with its bulges and layers. Lucifer lay slumped at the base of that same rock, and Edward’s hand upon his shoulder was likely all that prevented the unconscious king from ending up flat on the ground.

‘Silas, Tobias. Thank the gods, you’ve made it.’ He gaze flitted to Silas. ‘And I’m so sorry.’

Silas nodded, thanking him for the condolences, but he could not linger in that place of grief, now. ‘You know then that the Seraph Michael pursues us.’

‘I do.’

There was no time to be wasted in asking how. ‘Can he enter this place?’