A Room Full Of Bones

CHAPTER 12

The Necromancer is cantering along the all-weather track. He is going uphill, neck arched against the bit, powerful quarters pushing him onwards in a series of huge, bounding leaps. When he takes the turn at the top of the hill, his great round hooves strike sparks from the churned earth. He rises in the air, eyes red, mane and tail ablaze. He flies over the house. The Milky Way is his race track, the stars his hurdles. The asteroid belt writhes and twists beneath his feet. It is a snake that falls, hissing, to earth. It is a snake that is bigger than the sky, bigger than the earth. It is a snake that is small enough to whisper in his ear: ‘You are going to die.’

Danforth Smith wakes with a sudden lurch of the heart. He can hear his breathing reverberating around the empty room. His duvet is drenched with sweat. He reaches out for his water but touches a dead hand. He is lying beside the bishop’s corpse, the ghastly skeletal face turned to his. He tries to scream but his voice has been stolen. With horror, he watches as a snake emerges from the skeleton’s rib cage. The creature, green as death, weaves itself in and out of the protruding bones. Smith knows that it has come for him, but with equal certainty he knows that he will not be able to move, not even to stretch out a hand as the dryly slithering body presses itself against his.

Will it come for him, the black coach with its six horses, the headless coachman? He hears Niamh’s voice, her sweet Irish voice, clear as a bell. ‘When it stops at your door, there’s no escape. Your time has come.’ The sky is alight with gold and silver stars, the black horse gallops across the heavens. Romilly appears briefly, hand-in-hand with a shadowy figure that he doesn’t recognise. Then Randolph, laughing and laughing. Then Tamsin, but her face is turned away. Then Caroline. She’s trying to tell him something but he can’t hear. Now Lester the cat appears, swollen to the size of a lion. Lester opens his mouth and a man’s voice says, ‘The great snake will have its revenge’.

The snake has reached his face. He can see its yellow eyes. In the background, Randolph laughs harder than ever. He wants to say that he’s sorry but he knows it’s too late. The great snake will have its revenge. He prays that it won’t hurt, that he’ll be able to see his horses galloping one last time.

The yellow eyes are level with his. The black horse waits for him outside.