The Bride Wore Black Leather

ever came in here.”
    “I told you Green Henge was an interest of mine. I’ve done research. The Circle of Standing Stones is a meeting place. It draws important and significant people to it, when the time is right. The Sun King will be there, John. Trust me.”
    “I do,” I said. “You know I do, damn you.” I looked slowly about me. “Hold everything. Did you say you heard something?”
    “Yes,” said Julien. “And I’m pretty sure I heard it again.”
    “We’re not alone in here,” I said. “Something else is in the maze with us.”
    “The Sisters?” said Julien, looking around vaguely.
    “No,” I said, looking quickly this way and that but seeing only more hedgerows and shadows. “Whatever’s in here with us, it’s not human.”
    Both our heads snapped round sharply, as a slow rustle of movement ran through the hedge wall on one side of us, then the other. Julien and I moved immediately to stand back-to-back. My hands had already clenched instinctively into fists. We stood, waiting, listening, ready for an attack from any side . . . but it never came. Nothing emerged from any of the hedgerows. The full moon surrounded us with its shimmering blue-white light, and none of the shadows moved. The maze was deathly silent.
    “It’s still out there,” murmured Julien. “I can feel it . . . It’s close. Watching us.”
    “Yes,” I said, quietly. “I think . . . it’s hunting us. But my gift can’t find it, and my Sight can’t detect it.”
    “Can you still find the way to the centre?”
    “Yes. The way’s so clear it’s like a straight path to me.”
    “Then we should press on,” said Julien. “Get to the centre and Green Henge.”
    “You think we’ll be safe there?”
    “Probably not. But that’s where the answers are. That’s where we’ll find the Sun King.”
    “Still not telling me everything, Julien . . .”
    I headed forward into the maze again, taking lefts and rights without even thinking about it. Julien strode along beside me, frowning with deep concentration. Thinking about whatever it was that he wasn’t ready to tell me yet. I made myself stick to a steady pace. Whatever was after us might attack if it thought we were fleeing. I could hear movement in the adjoining rows, soft, padding footsteps, drawing nearer, then falling away as I constantly changed direction. And there was a feeling on the air, on the clear, quiet air; of something powerful and very patient, following a ritual as old as Time itself. The maze wasn’t simply a maze. It was a testing ground, a proving ground . . .
Only the pure of intent will reach Green Henge . . .
I stopped when I saw the first body. It was human once, but that was a long time ago. It hung suspended, half-in and half-out of the hedge wall. So withered and desiccated, every drop of moisture sucked out of it, that I couldn’t even tell whether I was looking at a man or a woman. No clothing, no possessions, nothing to identify the body. One mummified hand thrust out of the dark greenery as though begging for help that never came. The face was a dry mask: no eyes, lips drawn all the way back from the dusty teeth. Thorns from the hedge were thrust deep into the body from all sides, holding it in place.
    “There’s nothing we can do,” Julien said quietly.
    “They left him here,” I said slowly. “The Sisters. The Very Righteous Sisters . . . They had to know he was here, but they left his body in the hedge. As punishment, or an example, or a warning . . . Because if he wasn’t worthy, he wasn’t worth bothering about. It isn’t right!”
    “She,” said Julien.
    “What?”
    “This was a woman,” said Julien. “Look at the hip-bones. We have to go on, John. We can’t do anything for her.”
    “I know. We have work to do. Doesn’t mean I have to like it, though.”
    Julien surprised me by clapping me on the shoulder approvingly. “You have a good heart, John. I don’t care what anyone says.”
    I made myself smile. “It’s usually you saying it, in one of your editorials.”
    “You sell papers, John, I’ve never denied it.”
    “Then how come I never see any royalties?”
    I didn’t actually feel better but managed to fake it for Julien. We moved on. Heading for Green Henge. Where somebody had better be waiting with some bloody good answers.
    We passed more bodies along the way. Always dried-out pitiful things, mummified, hanging half-in and half-out of the hedge walls. It