Last Stand in Lychford by Paul Cornell

Author:Paul Cornell [Cornell, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781250752123
Google: olXEDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2020-11-24T00:00:00+00:00

4

LIZZIE, IN HER URGENT series of phone calls, had told everyone to come to the marketplace, which was just down from the church, and so still pretty central. She’d told those she called to spread the word. Luke and Zoya had joined in by alerting all their contacts too. She was startled, however, when they turned the corner out of the lane, to see how many had got here. The area just south of the church was filling up with desperate-looking people, a lot of them with young families. And yet, given how big Lychford really was, with all the new builds and everything . . . oh God, had they really lost that many? There weren’t many of those she’d met through her adventures with Autumn either. A couple from the Festival committee, a reasonable number from the W.I. Not so many from the pubs.

The crowd were by no means happy. There were loud voices and arguments, and when she’d appeared, she was sure she’d heard some ironic applause and even some boos. They’d gotten to that now? What, did they think this was her fault?

“A lot of noisy people,” said Zoya, picking Jas up.

Lizzie saw Sue, her elderly church warden, making her way through the masses toward her. “Loads of people are getting through the wall,” said Sue when she got to Lizzie. “My grandson Max saw one of his mates fall through it, and he was okay, and so he went through too. They’re all texting their friends before they go through, saying who’s gone before they did, because they know they won’t be able to after. And once they’re through, they can’t get back in, it’s just like a real wall from the other side. Except still invisible, you know what I mean. If you go up to the wall carefully, they’re saying you get a sort of feeling about whether it’s dangerous or not, but they’ve . . .” Lizzie realised the woman was trying not to cry. “A few of them have thought they’d be fine and . . .”

“So most people get through?” said Luke.

“Don’t you start thinking like that,” blurted out Sue. “Even if most do, there’s a lot who don’t, a lot!”

“It’s okay,” said Lizzie. “We’re not going to try. It just explains why we’re not packed in here.”

“And,” said Sue, “it’s because the wall has stopped moving.”

“What? Why would it do that?”

“You’re the expert,” said Sue. And Lizzie felt the slight criticism in her tone. “Are you going to hold some sort of service?”

“I . . . I don’t think that’s appropriate,” said Lizzie, looking out at the crowd. Lots of her flock were indeed here, but this lot also included not just a large number of people she never saw in church, but also people of other faiths, like Sunil Mehra and that young woman with the market stall who’d once told Lizzie she was a chaos magician and seemed to want to start a fight every time she saw her.

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